broke new ground for garden

[johnrude]

saturday my oldest nephew broke ground for me on a new garden. it is a little smaller than what i would like,but i should be able to handle it myself this season. 16' x 16'. we hauled 8 big plastic garbage cans of old leaves and tilled them in.the old Troy-Bilt still gets the job done. this weekend we are tilling in about 20 buckets of sand.and then fence posts and fencing. the garden will have at least 10 hours of sun a day. i cannot wait to plant.

[Intimidator]

Very Nice! Congrats!
Keep amending the soil with compost, natural fertilizer, and even mulch and you'll soon be enjoying the delicious "fruits" of your labor!
I really like the Espoma brand of Natural Fertilizers, I've never seen so many worms and such rich black soil, that stuff just makes your garden "healthy". I normally buy it at the end of the year (for the following year) when Garden Centers have it on sale just before Winter.

[icebucketjohn]

Your plan is sound and the pics look good. Yep, keep adding soil amendments including kitchen scraps. And don't forget the lime.

[johnrude]

i added 18 buckets of sand in the garden today. and i couldn't believe the scale house ticket where i bought the sand said one thousand pounds ! also have a bag of lime too !

[viper1]

Sounds good I also like adding a lot of peat moss.Helps loosen soil too. Fresh garden in a new spot won't need so much fertilizer or minerals. But some won't hurt. I dont use any kitchen scraps directly in the garden. Causes too many varmints to dig and attracts insects not mentioning the smell. I compost them then add. Same thing with live weeds and grass. It gets to hot and can burn plants just like to much fertilizer will. Compost in a pile adding lime on top of it each time you stir. Oh yes good compost takes work. I stir by shoveling from one spot to another mixing as i go. When it breaks down real well then add. During season is when I fertilize most. But usually just a small side dressing to plants and trees. Really more important is water. If you leave nature do it you'll never have a great garden. I mean you can have a good one or a bad one depending on the weather. But when I plant I try to maintain water daily or weekly depending on what it needs. I have a well out back that I hooked a pump up. Then I bought some lawn sprinklers that spray 100 ft radius. I taped these to some long tomato stakes so they are well above the plants. THe sprinklers are like 3 for 12.00. I spread these clear through the length of the gardens and connected one to the other then to the pump. Now you can go out early in the morning before the sun comes up or late in the evening after the sun is down. Turn on till you get enough and turn off when done. makes it easy. THey also have timers you can screw your hose to and be automatic then. I have fun with my gardens and try to get as much work done as possible with out much walking r bending.

[johnrude]

finished tilling the garden today. i put 18 buckets of sand and spread 20 lbs. of lime and 5 large cans of leaves. my nephew mathew did all the work today. the picture on the right is the finished look. these pics are from todays work.