I made my bed, wish I could sleep in it

The beds are prepped, except for some more dirt and manure that I have to spread out over the main bed, but that's the easy part. I spent 4 hours on saturday tilling the bed by hand. Yes, I know I said I would use no-till, but the crabgrass was taking over the entire patch. And these roots were big, one was at least 2 meters long. I'm not joking. I am so sore it takes me 1/2 an hour just to get out of bed, and I find myself fighting to stay awake the next day. I didn't take pictures, I'll do it once everything gets planted in a few weeks.

The patio grow house is set up and ready with the new seedlings already planted. Its so cold this spring as compared to last that I am really worried that they won't make it, or at the very least wont germinate for a while. By this time last year it had already hit 80, today it was snowing. The 'onion snow' apparently, as it happens after the onions have been planted. I still do not have my seed potatoes, I will go to whole foods tonight and get some.

More to come.

Version 6.0?

Have I really been doing this for 6 seasons? Ok I impress myself here. Slowly but steadily things have been increasing. I know I didn't do the postmortem on last years garden. I will, now that I have to get started with the new crop. Suffice it to say, the last one was a mixed blessing. Things did very poorly since that drought last July was so bad. But I did get some things that I never got before. Namely: PUMPKINS!!!!!! Yes I have pictures. We even carved a few for Halloween and one of them still exists even now on Feb 25th. I also got copious Bell Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes, Sunflowers and Cucumbers. Essentially everything else died. I planted spinach and lettuce in November and have been eating spinach ever since. (Even just now for lunch). The lettuce didn't make it. It never does, giving up on that.

This year I am not experimenting with new plants, or things we rarely eat. What I am looking for is increasing the crop size, or yield, of any particular species. This year: potatoes. They did amazing that 2nd season, but have been lacking ever since. I will try to do rows this year.

I must till the main bed. Its too full of crabgrass and such, and I need to mix in a ton of dirt and manure. I just have to find out where to rent the tiller. (Yes I know, "But Giant, you said you were practicing no-till agriculture?") but its really overgrown and even covering the ground with grass clippings and mulch could not stop the crabgrass and I simply don't have the energy or time to either pull it all out by hand, or let the plot fallow and cover in black plastic to kill everything. I really should be tilling in some bio-char, but I didn't make any this winter. I still need to make a kiln.

Anyway here is the 2013 Master Plan.

This weekend I will pull the grow house out and get the needed supplies. I also already have a bunch of seeds saved from Bertha (last year's earliest pumpkin) and the biggest Bell pepper I grew. Planting is April 14th, and I need to get started.