I spent a good deal of time both yesterday and today pulling weeds from my garden.  Today they came out really easy, due to a lovely spring storm that blew through last night.  I set myself a goal, and told myself that if I could clear from post to post, I could permit myself to plant.  So I did it.  I pulled and raked and pulled some more, and surprised myself by clearing nine feet of garden bed.  With all that space just sitting there, how could I not go ahead and plant something?

The thing about this particular space is that although it is about four feet deep, only the first 19 inches are plant-able, due to sun requirements.  This particular piece of yard will get between 6-7 hours of good strong sun, so it’s great for lettuces, greens, and other things that would bolt come summer time and hot, scorching temperatures.  Given that it is only the first of May, and we could potentially still see frost for a few weeks, I planted frost-tolerant vegetables first.  As I get more garden cleared, we’ll plant other delicious things, all leading up to Memorial Day, when I can plant the tomatoes and peppers in their permanent beds.

So today I started with snap peas.  I’m using a tomato cage as a trellis, and when the pea tendrils get close to the top, I will invert a second tomato cage and zip tie it to the top of the first one.  Voila, instant six-foot pea cage.  I also planted some cherry radishes in with the sugar snap peas, since I had plenty of room in the space yet.

Next I planted Broccoli Raab.  I’ve never eaten broccoli raab even, but it’s reputed to be wickedly easy to grow, and can germinate in the low forties- a perfect spring vegetable.   I followed that patch with one each of red and green romaine lettuce- our favorite around here.  Next came a foot of beets and a foot of my favorite Swiss Chard.  Next went a patch of scallions, but it occurs to me that my scallion seed was a few years old- I may need to go buy some new seed and start over, as onion seed doesn’t save too well.  After the onions came a patch of French Breakfast radishes, and finally a patch of spinach.

I almost feel a sense of bliss, knowing that there are seeds growing in my backyard.  I definitely didn’t think I’d be getting anything in there yet.

I also got my compost bin cleaned out.  There was already one here, except that someone filled it with sticks and wood.  I pulled out the sticks and dumped my first bucket of compost.  I’m really excited about being able to compost- I go through a lot of kitchen garbage, and it’s always bothered me to throw it out.   Now I can use it to create new nutrients for my garden- free fertilizer- now that’s a great thing!

I did scare away a big fat bunny yesterday.  As I thought about that bunny, I thought it would be really easy to line the fences of the property with chicken wire, and keep the bunnies out.   But then I also thought that maybe I should try keeping them away naturally first, so while Zander and I were out we stopped and picked up some onion sets, and as I plant, I’ll be lining the back of the garden with red and yellow onions.  I also have intentions for marigolds.  We’ll see if we can keep the rabbits out of the garden this year.  And if not- I know where to get chicken wire.

Happy Gardening! I expect I’ll have a whole series of planting days, as I get bit after bit of my garden cleaned up and ready for planing.  And just last night, as I laid in bed, it occurred to me that I have a perfect spot for some Scarlet Runner Beans- I can’t wait to give those a go!