In The Garden :: May

While March and April were spent cleaning up the garden, May was the month for planting.  The first thing to do before sticking those seeds in the ground was to turn some fertilizer into the beds.  We usually put two bags of manure into the small 6 x 4 beds and four into the longer 16 x 4 beds.  So after some back breaking work it was finally time to put all the planning into action.  We like to do the square foot planting method, where you plant the maximum number of plants you can per foot, so obviously dividing the beds into 1-foot square sections is required.

Then plant the seeds...

And cover them up.

Some plants like pumpkins and squash should only have one plant per foot, while others like beans, peas and carrots can have more plants per foot.

After the birds came and feasted on the pumpkin seeds we planted last year, we cover them up with garden fabric for a couple of weeks until they sprout and have their first true leaves.  Since the watermelon and cantaloupes like warmer weather than we usually have in the spring, I cover those with plastic instead so the soil stays warm like they want.

The surprise really comes when you open those up and see all the weeds that have grown along with those plants.  Or the lack of any seeds sprouting at all...

So today we went out and cleaned up the beds and replanted where there were bear spots and admired the vegetables already doing well.  Like the potatoes...

And the peas, carrots and radishes...

We took in the wildlife...

And I cleaned up the potting bench a bit more.  It's really coming together!

In between all these beautiful photos, however, was the aggravation of going through three drip hoses on that middle bed there.  First the old hose had a split, so it wasn't watering evenly.  Then the new one split two days after putting it on and washed away a huge part of the end of the bed.  It had a warranty, so Mom took it back and got another and that one split as well!  We had been allowing less pressure through on the second new hose because we thought that maybe it was high water pressure causing it to split, but when the second one did it too we took that and any more of those hoses we'd gotten back.  It had washed the bed out for a second time and I wasn't going to go through putting it back together one more time.  So we went and got the old reliable (if only good for one year) hoses from Home Depot.  I'd rather have something reliable for a year than a split in a few days.  Ahhh, the joys of gardening.  :)