Seriously getting ready

Heath bought the wood (red cedar). I bought a truck load of stuff (seriously, to Heath's horror). The next step is to actually BUILD THE GARDEN! Next weekend.

Elizabeth from Frager's garden center was a huge resource. She helped me to decide on the composition of the much aforementioned garden-to-be. We went with 2/3 organic potting mix (which already has lots of good stuff like peat moss), 1/3 organic leaf compost and a few cubic feet of vermiculite. We also picked up a slow release organic fertilized made by Dr. Earth. We got a fine pine mulch to top it all off.


The delivery from Frager's arrived and Heath and I spent a good 45 minutes hauling bags of soil, mulch, compost and pea gravel. There are enormous piles of stuff everywhere.

Then it was on to moving the compost bin. I leveled the ground in the new spot next to the shed and then started digging up the compost. We inherited the bin from the previous owner, Mr. Booze. I understand from our neighbor that the compost at the bottom was several years old. But roots had gotten into it. Tree roots, ivy roots and who know what else. I slowly trudged my way through the bin and did end up with some good stuff at the bottom. Unfortunately, I had to sift through it to remove more packing peanuts, which are NOT compostable! I was surprised to find that much of the kitchen waste I've been putting in there all winter was actually decomposing, even though I don't think we've actually successfully "cooked" it just yet.

I'm tired. There was a lot of digging. After all the clean up last weekend, this weekend we pulled out the railroad ties and moved the compost bin:


Our helper Elizabeth at Frager's suggested that we dig a trench with the objective of clearing all of the good soil away to get down to the clay where our garden will be. Which we did, and then layered pea gravel and mixed it into the clay and soil really well to break up the clay. The purpose: drainage. Darn clay.


We covered about a 5' by 10' area. We still need to add more pea gravel around a 4' by 4' area for the second raised bed.

Yep. We changed our raised bed building plans and found one that we are both happy with. We'll have two beds (4' by 4' and 4' by 8') and they will be 16" tall, which is taller than what we had planned. This is good. Heath found a great deal on red cedar that will be cut to size and ready to pick up on Tuesday. I just hope the Civic can take it!

Next weekend, we will build it. Hopefully it won't rain.

Purple Asparagus... in a few years

Last weekend we took advantage of the ridiculously glorious weather and started to dig.

We dug in the garden to pull out old odds and ends (like shards of pots and packing peanuts!), we dug asparagus trenches and Heath dug out a nice big hole for our new Kwanzan Japanese Flowering Cherry tree. How could we own a house in Washington, D.C. without one blooming in the spring? To learn why, check this out. It was a bit of a challenge to fit in the Honda Civic - the trunk was, well, in the trunk...and branches reached all the way up to the rear view mirror.

Next on the list was garden clean up. The idea was to remove any junk from the existing garden to make room for our veggies. We dug, turned the soil and hit a lot of clay. We have A LOT of clay. Sometimes its only 3 inches down, while in other spots its more like 8 to 12 inches. It's thick - you could throw a pot with it. Now I understand why are there so many brick homes in the region!

Then came the asparagus trenches. I'm a little concerned for the sheer amount of clay surrounding these trenches. While I did mulch all around and mixed in sand and fertilizer and soil, I'm not sure it will be enough for the asparagus plants to make their way up surrounded by dark, red, sticky clay. The asparagus trenches (three of them) are about 2 1/2 feet long, 18 inches wide and about a foot deep. Each trench has two plants. We dug them along the fence near what will be the garden.


The roots we bought are one year old, which means that our first harvest won't be for two more years! We'll be patient though. After both of us read the chapter about asparagus popping up out of the ground for the first main harvest of the season in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, we were sold on the concept. The book is obviously a recommended read and an inspiration for much of our garden.

On to the aasparagus variety...Purple Passion Asparagus. They are meant to be, "Larger, sweeter and tastier spears than the more common green types." Unfortunately, the purple stalks turn green when cooked. We ordered ours from Gurney's. I was very excited when the box arrived, but it was a few weeks early. They've been waiting patiently in my sun porch cupboard for the planting and are now in the ground! Now we wait to taste....in two years....hopefully.