Planting the Beds

This is the layout of our beds. "Jonah" is the bottom bed and was planted April 18th. "Abigail" was planted April 30th. Everything was planted from seedlings, most of which we germinated in our laundry room.

Note from Angela:

90% of the work from putting in the beds was done by Justin and 90% of the work from germinating was done by me. Lemme tell ya, many a lazy hour has been spent spritzing dirt, looking for anything green to come up. Also, Justin didn't tell you much about what's in the garden now. In the Jonah bed:

• Fence Row cherry tomatoes
• Azteca tomatoes
• Brandywine heirloom tomatoes
• Black beans
• Pinto beans
• Lemon cucumbers
• Silver Queen corn

In the new Abigail bed, there are:

• Sugar Baby watermelons
• Butternut squash
• sweet red peppers

The next bed that goes in, not sure if it will be "Ethan" or "Mandy", but it will have clemson spineless okra, cantaloupe and peanuts. The next bed will have southern peas as cover crops, meaning we'll let them grow then we'll cut them down and "turn them under" so that as they decompose, they'll add nitrogen to the soil. That bed will have purple hull peas, zipper peas and white acre peas. Whatever pods they produce, we'll definitely harvest, but the real intent with it is to begin augmenting the soil. We plan to rotate the beds with various cover crops each year to keep this process going. It might sound like we know what we're doing, but really we don't. We're learning and the curve is steep.

Also, I've seen some flea beetles in the garden and some pesky ants hanging around. I know the ants are getting ready for the inevitable aphid rodeo that they think will soon be riding into town, but they're wrong. Dead wrong (cue the OK corral whistle and obligatory tumbleweed...). We'll be spraying with neem oil and a homemade insecticidal soap/garlic spray. And if the raccoons get any bright ideas, I've got some cayenne with their names on it.