And we're started!

Linda and I got together today to get some more potato seed (for variety) and to do some planning.

We have charted our use of the garden beds, and then added plans for a couple of new beds.

Specifically, we'll be putting tomatoes and squash into their own beds behind the garage, were they will have more trouble overwhelming the carrots, beets, and eggplants in the main beds. Once they're well started, they won't be all that interesting to the critters, so they'll be safe.

Linda had to leave before we were quite done, so after she left, Jack and I went out and started clearing out last year's remains and turning the soil. We were delighted to see that the garlic has sprouted! We also found enough volunteer baby mustard to make a contribution to dinner. It was marvelous!

We still have a fair amount of weeding and turning to do tomorrow, but we should be able to finish and then move on to laying down the supplements. The plan there is to put down rock dust, bone and blood meals, and kelp. The we'll put down some alfalfa and some composted manure. Then I'll cover it all over with wet newspaper and then composted yard waste from the city to discourage the volunteers. Then I'll start digging the new beds. There are still six weeks before it will be safe to put the wee plants into the outdoor soil, though the baby squashes are well on their way to taking over the parlour. *laugh*

Of course, some things are happy to face the brisk weather of early spring, so the potatoes will go in sometime after 7:30 tomorrow evening and the lettuces will go in on Monday and Tuesday. (And we'll also get the last seed started since Linda will have a cold frame ready to receive the more ambitious of the seedlings, making room for more babies here.

More observations: the rabbits have made a very generous contribution to the manure for the garden beds over the late autumn and early spring, and we're going to have to do some serious work on bunny-proofing again before we plant anything too delicious in there. The door is not closing well after the winter and there is more than enough room to let a rather large bunny in there right now.