Garden 2011

It's time to start documenting Henry's 2011 Garden!

He pulled out his tiller earlier this week, and began the process of turning up the plot where last year's garden grew. He's expanded it a bit this year -- the garden "proper" is about 18' x 22' and there is a new addition this year of a little space for an herb garden as well.  

Work in progress

The herb garden is the marked off area.

Henry is very serious about his dirt. 

The dirt at the top, with no compost worked in.
The dirt at the bottom, with fully incorporated compost.
Pretty, huh?

He was so proud to show me the big payoff for keeping that blasted old coffee can on the kitchen counter, where we discard vegetable and fruit matter (and coffee grounds, and egg shells, and tea bags). It all goes out to his compost pile, and "cooks" there until he has need for it. If you do this right -- and he does -- there are no flies and no odor. Neatest part is that it really means that there is virtually no guilt if I forget I had something in the veggie bin, because it will not go to waste.

Henry goes through the whole plot on his hands and knees to pull out stones and rocks .
This is what you call a labor of love. 

Planting has not commenced yet. Today has brought a whole lot of rain, and he says he'll probably need to let the garden plot dry out at least a bit before he puts anything in there.

I got a peek at the seed packets, and here's what's planned: carrots, several varieties of tomatoes, squash, watermelon, okra (from pods from last year's garden!), various and sundry kinds of beans, and cucumbers. The herb garden will feature parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, and, if I can find some -- a few varieties of mint. We'll also have lots of marigolds and sunflowers.

He is also working on adding some boards to attract wild bees to the garden. We had some nice bee activity last year, but more would be a good thing. We'll see how that pans out. 

Click on pictures to enlarge~