The Gift of Garden

Signs of Spring

We've reached the leap of the year, with our toes almost crossing the line into March. Texas spring is kind - much kinder than up north. In Montana it's hard to call the days spring until May graces everyone. But down here, despite the blizzards in the North we were greeted with the first hot night last night, requiring fans and lighter sheets. The days have been warm with scattered showers, and the flowers have begun to respond to the warm, wet days. A few strawberry plants live next to my trailer and they've flowered, gone green and now are ripening into sweet red berries. It is a great time of year to be outside, preparing for what we hope will be a productive growing season.

For the past month we have been working on building the garden beds for Tasajillo Ranch. The beds are to be set where the garden was last year, in a field just down from the chicken coop. They are being built primarily as a means to keep out the gophers! It's a lot of time, effort and money to keep the rascals out, but for as long as there is a war between gophers and vegetable plants, the gophers will always win. They find their way to the roots and begin nibbling from there, eventually sucking the whole plant down with them. So, in order to receive any benefit from the efforts of gardening these beasts of garden beds must be built to fed off unwanted underground terrors! To build the frames we have been using 12"x8' treated lumber. The corners have been capped with mesh wire to secure them  from future shifting. One whole side has been covered by chicken wire and then 2"x4" steel mesh.
To prepare the beds we skim off of the ground cover, dig a few inches down to create level ground and then lay the frame on top (mesh side down). From he we fill the beds with a mix of our dirt (which is heavy in sand and clay), compost, peat moss, and a fertilizer that is a mix of sea bird guano, coffee grounds, and an organic soil enricher.

We have completed fifteen beds and nearing the end of building them. There is still a lot of soil needed to be moved in order to fill them. We are racing against the clock, with the hopes to direct sow the majority of our crop come March 3rd. I have already filled 5 beds with early season plants including lettuces, kale, collards, bok choy, turnips, onions and sweet peas. I will dutifully detail my planting activities here soon.

To all of you up North - stay warm and have hope, spring is just around the corner for you. For those of you down south - let the gardens begin!!


To see photos of the process take a look here!:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36042652@N04/sets/72157629400943451/