Raised beds are saving the garden

I may be slightly insane.  Even though the weather has been terrible:  cold, dreary, rainy, and the garden has been muddy, I have been out working in the garden and preparing for spring.

And I love it.

Of course I would prefer to work on a sunny, 65 degree day, but as I told my husband, if I waited around for the perfect weather I would never get anything done.

I would rather be out in the cold and rain completing the heavy work than working when it’s 100 degrees outside and I must avoid chiggers, snakes, heatstroke, and sunburn.   I can always put on a coat and a hat.

I am able to continue gardening no matter how wet the soil because I do not till the soil and because I have raised beds.  I have no idea when the soil will dry enough to allow a tractor to plow it, but the soil in my raised beds is workable almost all of the time.

I stand in the pathways to work so I  do not compact the soil in the beds.  Water pools in the pathways, so sometimes I have to wade through puddles and avoid slipping in the mud. 

The rain left me with a moist seedbed above the muddy paths.  I sowed seeds of kale, Swiss chard, and radishes in this bed yesterday, and I covered it with plastic.  The rain that fell during the night did not wash away my seeds, thanks to the plastic, and it will give the seedlings a bit of protection from the cold. 

Last night, when I went to bed, the garden beds were neatly covered with plastic.  Beds covered with the white/clear plastic have seedlings inside, and the black tarp kills cover crops and weeds in preparation for spring planting.

This kale and mizuna have appreciated the protection of the plastic this winter.  Drip irrigation, in the form of drip tape, irrigates the crops under the plastic.

Today was sunny and warm, but the changing weather rearranged my plastic covers.  I am now off to order more sandbags so I can adequately hold down the edges of the plastic.  At least I don’t have to worry about torrential rain or cold temperatures this week.

Consider making beds in your garden instead of plowing or tilling it.  Some people construct beds out of wood or other materials and fill them with soil.  If you have a large garden, however, wooden beds will quickly become prohibitively expensive.  Instead, construct the beds by raking the soil into beds

I enjoyed seeing this ladybug visiting my garden.