March 27: I sowed Lincoln peas, rainbow chard and Bloomsdale spinach (all seeds from Urban Harvest) in the front bed. I made holes in the underlying carboard, made cups in the straw around the holes, filled the cups with starter soil and planted the seeds.
I added the primroses a few days later in memory of Mom. Although barely hardy in Ontario, they used to thrive and spread into big clumps in the sunny, south-facing bed under our family room window back home.
April 4: Friends Doug and Janette gave me some used chicken bedding, three big buckets of it. It is nice and rich. It also came with same red wrigglers. I added a few of them along with a hefty handful of chicken poop to the Worm Chalet, because the population there seemed to have dropped.
I decided to experiment with planting seed potatoes in cardboard boxes set on top of the beds. That will allow compost to be added as they grow. This will also make it easy provide frost protection for any sprouts that emerge. When they are ready for harvest, hopefully I can just tear the boxes apart. If we get a lot of wet weather the cardboard might need to be reinforced somehow. Four to six spuds of one variety went in each box: Warba, Norland and Bintje.
Today: I made a pocket of compost around the sun-facing edges of the boxes and planted seeds for more early crops: German giant radish from Urban Harvest, and local lettuce and arugula. Along the front edge of the front bed I cut a trench, filled it with compost and planted evergreen bunching onion (Urban Harvest).
We have a groundhog living under the shed and a pair of rabbits frequenting our yard. I have no choice but to put a small fence around the garden. This is an urgent priority. If any luscious little pea sprouts emerge, they will not stand a chance.
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