Ready to Garden

The weather here has been so nice (read as unseasonably warm - almost 80 degrees at the end of February!) that I have been itching to get into the garden. So far I have managed not to jump the gun too much, but I have gotten some onions, chard, and mixed lettuces planted. They are all even starting to come up. It's about time to put in a second planting as I started the first lettuce and chard about 10 days ago.

We've also done a bit of digging in the garden. I really wish I could go back in time to when they were building my mom's house and convince them not to bury all the trees they cut down - right where we want to garden! I've got a mass of tree trunks and branches at least 2 ft x 2 ft. It's not a solid mass, but I can't tell where one begins and another ends - and its all about 2-3 inches under the soil level! I did manage to dig out a whole bucket full of tree pieces yesterday and today. If we can't come up with some way to dig it out, we either have to try to arrange paths over that area (may be difficult as we may find yet more tree under new areas we are adding to the garden) or decide that that area will be a raised bed and bring in some fresh soil and heap it up there. It's very frustrating as it means that digging up new area is hugely more difficult than it should be.

Meanwhile I'm waiting for the results of the soil sample I dropped off last week, so we know what sorts of amendments the soil needs. And I think it is time to plant potatoes - last year it was way too cold/wet to work the dirt in Feb and we never did plant potatoes. I looked for seed potatoes a couple of weeks ago, but didn't find any. I need to look again.