Planted

 

Two weeks ago, spring officially arrived behind our house in the form of seeds being planted directly in the ground. It was in the upper 60's that day and by late afternoon, the ground had dried enough to till from the rain we got preceeding the blizzard that followed. With the 10-day weather forecast looking favorable to no more snow or extreme cold events, we rolled the dice and planted some peas, carrots and lettuce. 

As you can see from the photo above, I successfully, without concussing myself, pounded in the metal fence posts in the corners and two in the middle to help support the electrified netting so that it doesn't sag so much like it did last year. I put PVC sleeves over the top to insulate the metal posts from the electricity so that things don't short out. Hopefully this will continue to keep the deer and raccoons at bay though I have yet to hook up the solar fence charger yet and probably won't until later on. 

I was really pleased with the soil conditions. It was definitely a lot more loose and loamy feeling with all the decayed straw from last year's mulching worked into the soil. It tilled up very beautifully and was a joy to plant in compared to last year which was much more clay like and cloddy. I still have a lot of straw left for this year's mulching so I hope soil improvement continues. 

With the garden started, I spent the rest of the evening daylight, extended with Daylight Savings time, to rake up all the twigs and branches in the yard in preparation of the first mowing which is still a ways off at this point. But if the next 10 days come along as predicted, it won't be very far off in the future. 

Below is a picture looking in the opposite direction to give one a sense of the terrain of my property which extends all the way to the road off in the distance. It shows how our garden is essentially on the only flat area of our property behind our house.