Weekend doings

Over the weekend a lot of garden work got done. Last year, Debbie, Jim, and Shannon convinced me to abandon my 25 + year objection to raised beds, so this weekend was the weekend to build most of them and fill them with 10 inches of compost.

We get the compost free from the city of Warsaw. They have an excellent composting program; they take the leaves and brush that they collect and compost it, giving it back to the community for 6 weeks every Spring and Fall. This weekend was the first of the Spring weekends, so Jim drove down from Goshen early Saturday to grab the first load. They are only open from 8-12 on Saturday morning, so it is a fight against the clock to get what you can.

We managed to get 4 loads, which is one more than I had managed last year. We spent the rest of the day building 5 new beds, transplanting raspberries, and filling some of the beds. A very time consuming task. By the end of the day, we were both a bit tired, but happy with the results.

Sunday, I finished transplanting most of the raspberries—they were in the garden last year and we are making 2 separate beds for them this year, and filled the remaining beds with compost. Because I ended up with too many raspberry plants for the 2 beds, I made a smaller bed on the west side of the garden; I'll transplant the rest of the plants tonight.

I also found time to transplant the tomato seedlings into a cold frame. I'll let them grow there until it is warm enough for them to survive in the open. I also planted 3 rows of carrots in the frame to fill it out. And, I planted some more peas.

Overall, a very profitable weekend...