Garden: 2015 Edition, The Beginning

The community gardens are now open for the year, so I gathered my seeds and trowel and headed on over. 

Actually, I brought my little granny cart because the water is never turned on at the beginning of the season, so I had to bring two containers of water. And my kneeling pad, of course. And I just brought my whole seed container along, because I was too lazy to pick out the packets first--and yet still forgot my black beans. And, for that matter, my birdhouse. 

At any rate, I still got quite a bit done. I pulled all the weeds and raked the top few inches of soil. I tilled three squares for the carrots and parsnips, really loosening the dirt so their roots would grow with less resistance. I re-twined the plot so the squares were laid out again, then pulled out my garden plan. Time to sow:

-2 squares of carrots

-1 square of parsnips/radishes

-2 squares of green beans

-1 square of black beans (2 more when I bring back my saved beans!)

-2 squares of cucumbers: 1 square each of a bush kind and double yield. Since my cukes die every year without fail, I planted four in each square, in hopes that there is safety in numbers, or that the chances are higher for them to survive. Something. 

-2 zucchini and 1 delicata squash. They are all in a row, so I am considering putting them under the plastic hoop to save them from moths/squash bugs. 

-2 squares shelling peas and 2 snow peas, with a little pea teepee. I had hoped to plant lettuce under the teepee once the peas got going, but I didn't leave room. Too greedy with the peas. 

-I also sowed a row of bunching onions that a kind fellow gardener was giving away. Wasn't planning those, but I tossed some seeds in next to the squash. 

Just for funsies, I sowed my saved seed and the packet seeds in different squares, as a mini experiment. I want to see if there is any difference between the two seeds. My hope is that the plants that did well in the garden last year are more likely to come back strongly this year, but we'll see. As a note to next year, I did not save enough seeds last year. I got about a square each, except snow peas--about a third a square. 

And as a fun little note--my chives came back! I didn't expect them to overwinter, but they did so nicely and were growing along with no help from me. I pulled two new little chive volunteers that were out of place, but left the two established plants. 

And so Garden: 2015 Edition begins. 

Ahem. I forgot to bring a trash bag, so please excuse the pulled weeds piled in the corner.