Garden Tasks: Week of March 10th

8 Weeks before last spring frost.

No more waiting on seeds that don't come. I've gone ahead and purchased some of the must start seeds locally. I'm definitely going to re-think the mail order thing next year and will probably only uses them for hard to find items. Everything else I can really get here, its just not as fun as sitting around with the seed magazine in the dead of winter and getting all of the orders in place. Still, it doesn't do much good if the seeds don't show up in time to plant!

Other tasks complete this week:

• Austen helped clean up all of the leaves that were used to cover the old beds.
• We hung up a few of the garden wall plaques that came from Jason's house. 
• I completely redesigned the bed layout giving more space and a more aesthetic appearance. (See the other post below).
• I'm getting ready to set up another seed starting tray for all of the peppers and other week 8 starts.
• I ordered the transplant pots and carriers and brought the wire shelf unit back over to the basement in preparation for moving to the potted stage.

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Garden Tasks: Week of March 3

9 Weeks before last spring frost.

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Time changes everything...

Well, the longer I sit around and wait on the weather the more time I have to think and re-think the actual plans for the garden. I liked the space that the original plan gave, but I really wasn't crazy about the aesthetics of 9 big boxes of dirt in the yard. 

I tinkered around with the layout after having the brilliant epiphany that there's not really any need to keep the existing bed int he back of the garden. I can actually incorporate that space  into the plan for the new raised bed garden. (Of course when cleaning up the yard today I discovered that all of the crocuses are already pushing through back there, but I think I'll just try and re-locate them.)

The new look actually gives an additional 22 square feet of space and has a much more aesthetically pleasing look (I think!). The space between the two beds at the top which is now labeled "existing bed" will actually be the site of a small fountain, and the space between the two beds at the left will probably be devoted to a bench. In the center octagon the birdbath is gone and will be replaced by a yet to be located focal feature. Some form that will be a trellis for some nice climbing vines.

This new arrangement also makes it much easier to run the drip irrigation, so that should be a bonus! Now all I have to do is re-plot all of the planting locations for everything.  Hopefully I can manage that tomorrow around homework and other projects!

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