Grandpa Gotta Eat—Garden Preparation

Sigh. Time To Clean Up The Garden

In March and April is generally when my wife's thoughts turn to the outdoors and getting the garden area ready for planting. It's nearly always the first part of May before we get to it, though, because the weather doesn't cooperate very much. While rain or water is a key component to growing things, it's not very conducive to the prep work, especially when a rototiller is involved. So, we wait until we have a decent string of nicer days before we get started.

In total, we have three beds where most of the planting takes place every year. As you can see, we also have some plants around the garden area that don't need as much attention. Among them are raspberries, a blueberry bush, a dwarf pie cherry tree, three types of grapes (all strung together) and an apple tree—better for pies and applesauce than for eating.

One of the beds is always in strawberries, and since they are the everbearing kind, other than some weeding and adding some dirt, there isn't much more we do to spruce it up.

The Way Things Looked Before

The last of the following year's crop stopped bearing somewhere in mid-October. It's not always like that, but if we're fortunate, we'll have a warmer, drier fall called an Indian summer extend the growing season. There's usually not a whole lot going on regardless, but it at least allows us to put off some of the cleanup. So what you see here is what is more or less left over from last fall's cleanup, plus whatever weeds may have grown up since and wintered over.

It's actually not looking so bad. It's been a lot worse.

As you can see here, I didn't get the before picture taken until after I was part way into working the first bed. So, you also get to see my rototiller, which I really like (it's been a reliable starter every year despite it's lack of use) and it has decent sized rotating tines. The only thing I don't like much on it is the tendency for the gear shift to get stuck before it's in place. I end up wrangling the gear lever way too much. Otherwise, everything else works like a charm.

This year, we had quite a bit of dirt erosion, so we brought in some local organic garden soil in three cubic foot bags that we picked up at Home Depot. Some of the cheapest dirt I've ever seen at a reduced price of $7 USD per bag. We thought about bringing in some dirt from a nursery, but I didn't think we'd even need a yard and their minimum delivery is two. Plus, we've had some issues with some undesirable plants springing up from it (I guess they don't do the best of jobs of filtering that stuff out from wherever they get the soil).

All told, we bought six bags of the organic soil and another three bags that included some fertilizer. We probably could have used another two bags of each. As it is, we had just enough room in the back of my wife's small SUV to haul it all home.

This first sweep with the tiller I'm doing is to break up the existing dirt. It wasn't that bad, but still, it's nice to get the soil worked and it also helps to chew up whatever plant matter (weeds) might be hanging around.

Nice Clean Beds To Tuck Plants Into

After that, we went ahead and put in the bags. My youngest son helped move the bags into position and spread the soil contents around as evenly as possible. There was some areas where we just had to fill in with all new soil. I'm hoping that will be okay, since most of or tomato plants will go there.

Once the dirt was in place, we raked it to make it easier to navigate another pass with the tiller, and then I got back into the beds. The additional soil sank right in. It felt like some of the best dirt we've bought. We'll see how it turns out.

After the second round of tilling, with the mixing of the new soils with the existing, I went ahead and raked it again, so my wife could start planting.

In the background of the above picture, you cans see she already replanted the potatoes. That's what went under the mounds in the bed farthest away.

Now It's Starting To Look Like Something

From this point, my work is basically done as far as the garden preparation goes. My wife has little patience with me when it comes to getting the plants out of their containers and into the dirt in a timely fashion. And since I'm not a gardener, I really don't mind leaving it to her.

As you can see, we've got the tomato plants lined up along the east side of what is now the closest bed. There are four different varieties of tomatoes—cherry, Roma, Celebrity and beef. We really need a good crop from all of the tomatoes this year. The only consistent bearer we've had are the cherry tomatoes. The others have been somewhat hit and miss. If all goes well, we will have more tomatoes than we know what to do with and will be once again giving them away.

The second bed has half of it filled with pepper plants. In the past my wife has put in maybe three plants, a combination of jalapeño and serrano. This time, though, I encouraged her to get a few more plants, which also include three different colors of bell peppers—green, orange and yellow. Anyone who reads my Grandpa Gotta Cook regular posts will know that bell pepper plays an important role in a lot of what I do.

The bed the farthest to the right is where the strawberries grow. My wife did add in some new plants, and both old and new have been sprouting vibrant green leaves. I'm looking forward to a year with a good crop of strawberries. Just need to keep the birds from getting to them.

_{All images by Glen Anthony Albrethsen. All photos were taken with an iPhone 6s.}