I decided I needed to come up with a name for my community garden plot.  Saying I’m “going to the plot” just sounds dull, and when I’m having a conversation, or typing up a blog post, mentioning my community garden plot is wordy and unimaginative.  So I’m calling my community plot The Sunset Garden.  It is directly to our west, and I didn’t want to call it just The West Garden, so sunset it is, since that’s where the sun goes down at the end of the day.

Spring has left us for a day here in Wisconsin.  Last night after work, Andy lugged 26 pails of compost over to The Sunset Garden and this morning I thought I’d go work that in and prepare for planting tomatoes later this week.  It’s cold out!  I wore layers to go work with the hoe, and when I came back in a few moments ago, my ears were feeling a little numb from the chilly wind.  I had originally planned on also laying my landscape fabric over there, but it is so windy, I cannot imagine that project going very well for me.  It will have to wait.  But what I did do was work in the compost and mark my rows with my feet, and figure out how many plants will be going over there.  Later today I am going to take the time to flag my tomatoes.  Since it’s too cold for them out today, I may as well take advantage of them being inside and do their labels.  It will be one less thing to do on planting day.

Anyway, here’s a picture of The Sunset Garden today.

It seems I already need to re-do my very outside border, but you can sort of see two rows of mulch around the garden.  In between the rows of mulch are where I’ve planted about 500 onion sets, as well as chives and garlic chives.  Hopefully they start growing soon- those are my protection against critters over here.

In the bottom right hand corner where the pink ribbons are, is a patch of strawberries that were already in the garden when I claimed it.  That needs to be weeded, and I’m not sure how many of them will grow, as I moved a lot of them a few weeks ago.  In the corner closest to me you can see my tiny lovage plant, and to the right of that is the peppermint.  You can at least see the label for the peppermint plant.

At the far back corner you can see my compost bin. It’s full, full, full. The one thing I’ve been told about this garden is that weeds are a problem.  You think?  I’m hoping to combat that with the landscape fabric.  There is mulch on site that I am welcome to use, but I discovered when I put the mulch border around my garden that I am quite allergic to it.  It’s a lot of pine- I suspect the curbside Christmas tree collection contributes to our mulch pile over there, and I am definitely allergic to pine trees.  So I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with regards to a mulch.  Straw is a possibility as long as it’s fresh, as I’m also allergic to the mold that can develop in old straw bales.

My current plan is to plant peppers and tomatoes here in the home garden tomorrow, and then the sunset garden on Thursday.  I’m running out of time to get them in the ground.  Sure hope the weather cooperates with me!  We actually have a frost/freeze warning for tonight, so I’ll need to get things covered that are already out.  Sure hope that sun comes out early tomorrow and warms things up!