What did you do in the garden today?

[ChocolateMouse]

Yea, I know peat moss would help but amending a bed this big with peat moss seems unwise. That's a lot of peat moss and it's not super sustainable.

 

[igorsMistress]

Just spent a couple hours chopping through the dirt in the newest garden bed with a hoe.

My partner (lets call him D) insisted on adding this extra bed this year. It's 15x3 and it's across the lawn from my other 400 or so sqft of garden bed. He was very passionate that HE was gonna make this garden bed happen and I didn't need to worry about it and it was gonna get done. He wanted us to grow looooots of extra veggies this year with his help. Especially the ones we eat lots and lots of like carrots.

D made these promises in the fall last year. May 1st and it's still not done. This is, obviously, a problem (and he has good reasons for it not having gotten done, I mean, I haven't gotten it done either). But the bigger problem is that the soil has had ZERO time to condition itself into something more plantable.
As it stands it's chunky, clay heavy lawn soil that has been double dug. It's always either crumbly and dry, mucky thick, or rock solid and cracking apart. I have added wheelbarrows full of rich compost and some bags of sand but it's still coming out crumbly and cracked and terrible.
I know that it takes real time for garden beds to really build up healthy soil and take off. The one I dug last fall doesn't look as nice as the one I dug last spring which doesn't look as nice as the one I dug the year prior. That's just life.
But we planned around this garden bed being at last as good as the one I dug last fall and it's nowhere near. The soil in that part of my lawn is apparently terrible and worse than the soil elsewhere and it's had no time to get better.

Does anyone have any thoughts on a sort of quick fix to just help it along so it's more plantable? I have added a LOT of compost to it already (and I am running out!), and sand... But I wonder if there's something else I could mix in that would at least ensure my plants can grow in it for the year. Or suggestions on the ideal plant to plant in it to help the soil, maybe a cover crop or something. (No potatoes. We have wire-worm problems.)

Gypsum helps break up hard soil but it works over time like most things. I put it in a hole and plant aloe, then. Mulch heavily with compost for a year or two depending on the soil conditions.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I will be doing the gypsum and mulching deep for sure. Aloe? I think it would drown! Hahahaha! You're in AZ so that makes sense for you. Up here, I live in swamp country. We used raised beds just to try to keep our plants a little dryer. Even the grass drowns.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Climates make a huge difference in growing My pumpkin has only just started to sprout
my tomato cannot even go in the ground yet soil is not warm enough.. Our garden is in 14 sets of two stack tires soil is potting soil with aged chicken waste and miracle grow
google a guy named Cisco here with King 5 tv

 

[jerryse]

Cloudy and cooler today . Planted beans and radish . Did a little grafting . Need to get the fence around the beans or rabbits will get them .

 

[ChocolateMouse]

And today it rained so I rested.
Haha, not. XD

I did spend the day inside, though. It's almost warm enough to move most of the plants out. The kale and leeks are already well hardening off and will be going in the ground next dry day with rain the following day. Some of the basil is out just due to sheer lack of space. The lettuces will be following soon. I am doing some succession planting so some of them need to get a little bigger first. I think I will be starting on tomatoes and peppers in about two weeks; that will be a big day.
I re-arranged a whole bunch of the seedlings so they are more balanced under the lamps. Some of the littler ones are closer to the light and the bigger ones are on the edges. I hope they all catch up!

 

[Birdsong 82]

Well worked about 60 hours this week all night shift so very little time in the garden which stinks because this is the week everyone in va has been waiting for. But I’m also very confused because exactly one week ago I had frost on my windshield but today will be a high of 92. I’m not sure what just happened. But I at least had a chance to plant my bottle gourds and replant my luffa that Never came up because I planted it much too early

 

[nekker57]

Cloudy and cooler today . Planted beans and radish . Did a little grafting . Need to get the fence around the beans or rabbits will get them .

Put dog hair around your plants and the rabbits will stay away

 

[Birdsong 82]

Put dog hair around your plants and the rabbits will stay away

That’s a good idea. It actually doesn’t work with deer but it sounds like it would for rabbits. My friend who used to use a 2 foot rabbit fence does it anymore because the rabbits actually would get over it. But he built a little cages around the plants but I guess it depends on how many plants and how big garden you had. his was much smaller. I couldn’t imagine having to do that do each of my plants I wouldn’t be done until growing seasons over

 

[deepbluesea]

Happy Friday all! It's supposed to be hot and sunny here today and tomorrow, and rainy on Sunday, so I'm skiving off early to repot and transplant things.

BTW, the new thing I'm growing this year, naranjilla? It's a South American berry from Baker seeds. The plants are vicious-looking, dang. They have thorns on top and bottom of the leaves and spiky little hairs on the stems. I'll take some pics tonight.

I also need to get my butt moving on my shed to coop renovation. I have two new birds and three more coming in July and I need the space.