Inch by Inch - Row by Row

Here is our plot at the Picardo P-Patch. Lovely huh? This photo makes it seem a lot worse than it really is! A lot of gardeners use hay in the their plots to keep the weeds down. The person who had our plot last year must have ordered some hay because there was a big bail sitting in the middle of the plot all soaked and soggy. After some deliberation we (two friends, Sara & Jennifer, came and helped me prepare our plot for seeds and starts) decided to scatter the hay over the entire garden allowing it to dry out a bit. I've since gone back to the garden and contained it a bit more. I don't want to scatter it every where until our little vegetables greens start popping up. 

Along the far 'wall' of the garden plot raspberries were already established and growing. Sara helped me cut out the dead branches and tame the healthier ones, for a more promising crop later this July. Our plot also came with leeks, scallions, and potatoes! As we were turning over the dirt preparing it for the new seeds, it was fun seeing what we could discover beneath the soil.

During Natalie's Spring Break I asked if she'd like to visit the garden. She and William both were excited to go, and were big helpers while we were there. We spent about 4 hours planting seeds, pulling weeds and finding caterpillars, earth worms, millipedes, beetles...

While we were clearing out the garden making room for the new vegetables I told Natalie that I thought my garden could use a fairy house. Natalie is an expert at building fairy houses. If you are not familiar with fairy houses, check this out: Fairy Houses. Natalie is so creative utilizing whatever natural flowers, branches, bark, etc. she can find. Above is a picture of the house she made for our garden complete with a walk way and my favorite part a leaf 'rug' so the fairies can clean their feet before entering! :-)

I had to include a pic of Will too! A big thanks to Natalie and William, and Sara and Jennifer for helping me get the garden off to a good start! Hopefully I'll be able to repay you with some tasty produce in a few weeks!