The Garden...So Far

So down here in Niagara, April showers turned into May Showers and I've barely been able to get into my garden over the past month. On the few days when it didn't rain, we got out there, taking out the sod and putting up rabbit board along the bottom of the fence but its been slow going. Apparently all of this rain has been good for growth and flowers and all that, and all of the bulbs and perennials on this little plot of land have been coming up beautifully. If only I'd been able to get in there and plant my veggies a little earlier, alas, like the rest of the country I am waiting for the May 2-4 to plant all my veg (though in reality, because we will be in Orillia and London over the weekend it will likely be done on Monday or Tuesday of next week).

We went to a local nursery today to get our plants, because I know there will be a mad dash for them this weekend and I don't want to be stuck with slim pickin's after the long weekend rush. I had planned on starting most of my plants from seed but that was an experiment in FAILURE. After my first failed attempt, I thought that I had just left them under the clear plastic lid on the seed starting kit, but my second attempt hasn't been much better. I just don't think they've gotten enough light - its not that bright in here on the best of days and all the gloomy rainy days over the past little while haven't helped. I have not given up though, next year we will definitely try again but with a grow lamp.

Failed seed attempt #2. These are the basil and tomatoes, most of them are at least still alive, but they are still quite small. This is not even the worst batch, all the cruciferous veg I tried to start got really tall really quick, then they got all droopy and died. Boo.

With all of our plants bought and sitting on my kitchen table. I figured that I had best do what hardscaping I needed to do in the garden before the long weekend, because I won't have much time afterwards before the plants all need to go in. Thankfully, it was a nice day today - we didn't even get any of the scattered showers they were calling for and it was even sunny in the late afternoon - hurray!! So I got to work organizing stones and turning over soil. Yes that's right you heard me - organizing stones.

Here is the garden pre-hardscaping and with bags of composted manure all ready to go. It's a good picture that shows the rabbit board we've put around the garden (all sawn by my own hands I might add) and the potato planter outside the garden - apparently potatoes don't like amended soil so, I've put it outside the garden and filled up a couple of buckets of soil for when I start hilling the potatoes.

I was determined to keep this garden on as low of a budget as I could by seed starting (fail) and by using free materials when I could. Luckily, I was able to get old barn boards from a barn that was being torn down and have used that for rabbit board. And as you'll know from all our house pictures we've got a big stone ruin in the back yard that has provided us with piles of stone (don't worry heritage friends, they had all already fallen out of the wall and were in various piles about the yard - or buried in the garden), so I was able to build a little pathway and a bit of a dry stone retaining wall to keep the slope where the melons and squash will grow from tumbling down into the rest of the garden.

 A nice sunny after picture in the afternoon. My pretty little path and all freshly turned over soil. Unfortunately I've run out of stones, so my other paths will have to be leftover barnboards. Not as pretty but it'll have to do.

Another view that better shows you the wee stone wall - it's only about a foot high. 

Now all I need to do is get the plants in and then we can begin to weed in earnest. Tim has no idea what he is in for!