Backyard Homesteading Adventures (Garden Update, Mid-April 2017)

With things warming up and sporadic rain storms, things have been coming along quite well thus far. The berry brambles are all a flower and popping with green berries.

Progress of the straw bales has involved loading them with organic fertilizer, covering the tops with compost, and yesterday I seeded and planted, and sprinkled crunched up egg shells as a deterrent to snails and slugs (which went apeshit eating my seedlings, hence me seeding everything with exception of a lone tomato)

Aside from the tomato, I planted (all from seed) okra, bush beans, crookneck squash, peppers and cucumbers.

The area that contained the compost pile has been reassigned: now that it's deep and loamy from worms and composting, radishes and carrots were sown there; radishes mature way faster than carrots, so it's a bonus use of suitable ground. Maybe when the carrots are done, I'll plant some beets or turnips.

Every year, we're moving the compost pile so that the ground underneath attracts beneficial attention from worms to help till the earth for us and improve soil in that area. The area we're focusing on this year is hard clay mixed with pebbles. It needs all the help it can get.

To top it off, the Owari Satsuma mandarin is thriving with new growth and sooooo many flower buds that one can smell them without them even blossoming! Sad news is that any set fruit will be thinned down considerably, to give the tree an opportunity to have a season where most energy is dedicated to establishing its root system rather than fruit production. Next year we'll remove the tomato cage since it'll be larger and less likely to incur serious damage from an over-eager black lab's tail.