I couldn't help it!

I'm convinced that every gardener has a little voice in their heads that tells them to plant the 'maters out too early. Because everyone wants not only the biggest tomato on the block, but also the earliest. It's a bragging right well deserved after tilling, weeding, fertilizing, pruning, staking, tying, and deworming well before everyone else just to get that 5lb mater in June. Does it ever really happen north of Zone 8? It seems that no matter how early I put out my maters and how much I protect them on chilly nights, and feed them organic goodness, no matter how many green horn worms I cut in half or smoosh with a rock (yuck), I NEVER get mater's before July. And that was when I was in Zone 7 down in VA.

Now I'm zone 6 and the weather has been gorgeous for a couple of weeks. On Sunday the little voice in my head became a teenager's boombox and I had to obey. I just had to plant something. I started out simple and just did the onions. But that didn't satisfy the need to play in the dirt, so I planted a few calendulas and a couple of dills. A yarrow, a bronze fennel, my root-bound oregano, two more flat leafed parsleys, and a catnip. And yet I wanted more. I tried to busy myself by thinning the beets, carrots, fennel, kohlrabi and peas but it still wasn't enough. I tried to convince myself that even if I do put a mater out now I can't possibly protect it enough if we get a cold snap. Plastic, straw, upside down bucket... it just wouldn't be enough. In the end, I just didn't care. I was willing to take the chance, but managed to convince myself that only one of the 22 tomato plants had to suffer for my impatience and lack of willpower.

Here's my brave little Brandywine out in the big wide world all by itself. The pic below that is of all of the garden beds that are currently built. The two on the left still need to be filled in and that's happening this week. There's a equestrian school about 30 min away that sells composted manure for $20 bucks a pickup load and loads it up for you. Score!

The beds are made out of "trees". We have a huge pile of left over trees that the previous owner put thru the sawmill to get planking out of. The leftovers are anywhere from 2" - 4" thick, and usually about 12' long or longer. And since one side is flat, they make perfect and free bed building material. To "stitch" them together, Glenn took some old 4x4 posts that the previous owner had also left, cut them to about 2 1/2' long, then cut one end into a point using a circular saw. Not pretty, but very functional! Then he used a sledge to pound them into the ground where two boards met, then nailed the boards to the 4x4s.

To fill the first two beds, we got some very old hay from our neighbor and put down about 6" in the bottom. Pored in kitchen compost and spread it about, then a mix of compost and top soil to finish it off. The problem with this method is that we're doing it now instead of this past fall. So the first bed that I did several weeks ago has already sunken quite a bit below the top of the bed because the hay is rotting and settling. We had enough soil and compost for the second bed to fill it above the top of the boards, so hopefully it will still be pretty deep by the end of the season. And of course I'll be adding compost as mulch during the season. We bought a push mower with grass catcher over the weekend and now everything in the garden has a nice mulch of cut grass.

What's left to go in the garden? A whole flat of chamomile (I love that stuff!), a flat of peppers both sweet and hot, way too many calendulas, more breathmints (onions), dill, bronze fennel, catmint, borage, monarda, a flat of basil, more flat-leafed parsley, more yarrow, and a few alyssums.

Is everything going to fit in the garden beds we have now? Well, no, probably not. But I really don't have the heart to tell Glenn he needs to build and fill more beds until he's finished filling the empty ones we have now. :) And yes, I help! The first bed I did by myself and my back thanked me in the morning.