planting more

Last year, in late winter, I laid out newspaper in a circle and piled soil, compost, manure and leaves on it. The pile quickly flattened to about 4 inches high, but even so, later we grew quite a bit on it: morning glories, pole beans, bottleneck gourds, cherry tomatoes. Not super yields, but a lot better than I'd expected, since this soil was pretty much dust.

This year, feelizing lazy, I decided to do an experiment. On one half of the circle, I loosened the soil and took out most of the weeds, and dumped on a thick layer of compost. On the other half, I scooped out a lot of the soil, added compost to it, mixing it in by hand, and covering it all with an inch or two of compost. I was feeling overwhelmed by all the digging, so I worked on a foot or two of space at a time and it felt more manageable. Hypothetically, the soil here will be much looser and richer than the other half, so the plants should do better.


All filled in and planted. This year we have: Boston Pickling cuke, thai loofah, heirloom zucchini and crookneck squash, bottleneck gourd, tomatoes, morning glories, sweet peas, nasturtiums and arugla. I might stick some scarlet runner beans in if I can find where I put the seeds. I misplaced a bunch of things I want to plant now -- grrr.

Hard to see a difference yet -- I put in some herbs to soften the borders. Mostly oregano and chives from the herb bed near the deck, but also some corsican, spear- and peppermints, several types of thyme, sage, rosemary, with basil and parsley interplanted with the tomatoes and peppers.
The lettuce is pretty much shot. We'll harvest one more time and turn it under. And plant those seeds I lost -- carrots, red russian kale, collards, head lettuce, spinach, etc.