Although it has been quite cold here in Northern Indiana my garden preparations have been underway.
Last year I planted way too many strawberry plants and they were overtaking my fenced in garden area and the areas beyond! Never underestimate the determination of strawberry plants! :) After giving it some thought I realized it really would have made much more sense to have planted the strawberries in my raised garden bed and left the vegetables to the fenced in areas! The raised garden bed would better contain the strawberries and the fenced in area would be much more protected from all the critters that love to nibble at my veggies. So one afternoon/evening this week my young daughters and I spent 3 hours making this transition.
First came adding compost to the raised garden bed soil along with some peat moss. We dug, tilled, and mixed it in the first few inches of soil real well. Hopefully that will make a difference in retaining moisture as we've found the raised bed to get more dried out. Next came digging up some 50 strawberry plants and transplanting them into the bed. My daughters took great delight in helping dig the holes. I'd dig up the plants and they'd rush over and get them and carefully plant them into their new area. After removing over 50 strawberry plants (after planting only 18 to start with - shows how much they spread out!) there were still tons of them left. So, we dug and dug, and pulled and pulled until we got the soil as free of them as we could. The extras went into the compost bin and will break down and feed the garden in another year or two! So, it really is not a waste. We were quite worn out but I am happy to say it's looking pretty good!
I've already got my vegetable planting plans under way. I'm going to attempt sweet corn for the first time (just a tiny row), then my usual tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, greenbeans, spinach, radishes, and peas. Maybe some peppers later in the summer.
I am happy that a new garden season is here!
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