Chicken Wing March 2013

Chicken Wing March 2013

March is exciting... Start turning over beds, pulling weeds, turning under cover crop, transplanting, spreading compost, seeding in the greenhouse, planting potatoes, peas and arugula, and sowing the first seeds outside by the end of the month. The work you do in March shapes the garden for the whole year. It's a good time to dig into the soil because it is still wet and easy to work, but not waterlogged.

Asparagus shoots

Planted Beets, Spinach, Cilantro and Chard

Peas popping up

Rhubarb poking it's head out

Garlic

Arugula babies popping up between garlic

Arugula sprouts

Borage - all over Chicken Wing!

New Slug Barrier at Mason St Garden

Slugs have been a terrible problem for the mason street garden. With low plant diversity and unhealthy soil, pests are not controlled. To make the soil healthier, I added a bunch of compost and all the organic matter I could glean in the fall. My soil looks much richer and healthier already!

In addition to making soil improvements to try and help w pest control, I am also removing the slug habitat. I have violet in my front yard, which provides an ideal home for slugs. I removed some of the violet and put up a wooden wall in order to try and stop the slug problem before it starts this year! It also makes the garden look a lot cleaner. It also gives me a bit more space to garden!

Compost At Chicken Wing

Chicken Wing Garden's soil was lacking in organic matter and nitrogen along w other important elements. In order to begin to amend the soil, I have added compost to all of the beds. Compost is broken down organic matter, which provides everything that plants need. Right after spreading, I could already notice the soil was much easier to work as it was lighter and fluffier. This will hopefully help with soil compaction, a problem in the garden last year.

I will hopefully get more compost for spreading again later in the year.

Tomato Starts 2013

Tomatoes require a lot of care to grow well in the NW. The long cool spring does not fair well with solanums, including tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos and eggplant. On rogue sunny days, I take the starts outside for some real sun. On chilly days, I still cover the starts with plastic. Under the plastic, it's humid and 90 degrees... perfect for summer plants. The plants always seem significantly happier after sunny days!

I always believe that taking plants outside helps them grow stronger because it is more like the real environment they will live, not the safe environment under grow lights indoors. Outside there is wind and rain that will require that plants to be tough and resilient. Giving plants a healthy dose of the real world is good for them! But be careful not to be too harsh... always a balance!