AND SO IT BEGINS

Once April arrived, the “busy season” began in earnest. I’m pleased that we were able to make progress on a few projects this weekend.

Oscar once again tilled the new garden section in front of where I planted the Three Sisters Garden last year. The leaf mulch Emmett and Ivan put on that bed really added to the soil health. Next weekend we need to put the fencing around the area. Then I will plant that patch with corn.

I planted 20 pea seeds in the old (Three Sisters Garden) section on Friday after work. They were older seeds from 2021 so I’m interested to see how well they germinate. I really enjoyed the peas I got from that variety last year. I planted 20 more pea seeds this morning before church. They were a different variety that I ordered in 2022 and I’m interested to see how they compare to last year’s peas. I will continue to plant peas over the next week or two. I’m hoping to have lots of peas. I’m a little bit concerned about how late I am planting them but I’m going to take my chances. It was too cold to plant them according to the area planting calendar (February 1st – March 15th).

We finished preparing the new garden bed by the front porch also. This is the spot that had not-so-lovely azaleas. They were overgrown and no longer produced flowers so last year Oscar dug the roots out of the ground. In February we filled the massive holes left in the ground with sand. This weekend we smoothed the area and covered it with landscape material. This area is 16′ x 8′.

The area is 16′ x 8′. As you can see, we still need to add a couple more bags of pebbles to the border in the front. I think it will be a great area for my sun-loving plants.

Last week I received the calendula, comfrey and Plectranthus Tomentosa plants I had ordered from Grower’s Exchange. I wanted the calendula and comfrey to add to my herb garden. They have several useful medicinal qualities that I many someday delve in to, but I am currently attracted to their bug repelling traits: calendula repels tomato hornworms and comfrey repels mosquitoes. I admit the Vick’s Plant (Plectranthus Tomentosa) was purchased on a whim; however, the whim was supported by its mosquito repellant ability. This weekend’s project was to transplant them all. I put each plant into a 5-gallon fabric pot.

Do you like how I put the Vick’s Plant in the blue pot? Just like Vick’s comes in a blue jar!