The Garden is Started!

I planted sweet red onions in this planter about a week ago. I had to cover it with a sheet because of a cold snap, but they seem to be doing fine.

This picture is taken from the other side of the garden. You see the onions, plus most of the other raised bed boxes, plus the area behind the shop where the cement mixer is covered by a tarp to protect it from sun and rain, plus the covered trash cans containing the ingredients of Mel’s Mix.

A little different view.

I bought 18 head lettuce plants yesterday and planted them in the garden. It’s really hard to see the wire marking the squares, but if you look carefully, you can see I planted one lettuce plant per square. Mel Bartholomew of Square Foot Gardening says you can plant 4 plants in one square, but my experience is that our garden does better much more spread out.  I planted the plants in every other square. This is the way we ‘rotate’ our crops in Square Foot Gardening. I keep track of where I planted everything last year, and plant them in different squares this year. I also plant something different in every other square – I’m hoping to find spinach plants, so that any problems (bugs, disease, etc) don’t spread as badly from plant to plant.

If we have a cold snap, I can cover these three planters in a row with king-sized sheets, hopefully helping them survive to the next morning.

I have a call in to our wonderful co-op about spinach plants. There is a chance that the plant guy will bring some before the weekend, so I’ll call on Monday of next week. In the interim, I’m starting over planting spinach seeds in the greenhouse. Fingers crossed!