My Urban Garden

The old wisdom when we moved here to Boise 23 years ago was not to plant your garden until the snow had melted off Bogus Basin. But this year the trees are already turning green and, though I can still see snow up on Bogus, we haven't  had a hard frost down here in the North End for weeks. It's very unusual this early, but I think spring is here to stay. 


The first flowers to bloom in my garden were the bright red and yellow tulips.

They fade away just as pink blooms begin to fill the yard. It was a happy coincidence that nature color coordinated my yard like that.

We planted some new Honeysuckle Trumpet Vines next to last year's Clematis. I wonder how far they'll all climb up towards the trellis this year.

 We also planted some new Hostas along the fence on the side yard. 

My Sage bush is the only herb from last year that survived transplanting. The rest I had to plant new.  I have Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme, and Chives so far, and this weekend I'll add Basil and Flat Leaf Parsley. 

My little vegetable garden is coming along slowly. My spinach is starting to look like spinach, and the tops of the red radishes are just starting to peak out of the soil beneath the green leaves. Tiny Romaine lettuce leaves are just barely breaking through the dirt, and the green onions are still spindly little reeds and growing slow as molasses. I've also planted some beets, carrots, and red leaf lettuces that haven't come-up yet.  

 My easy decoupage Popsicle stick plant markers have worked out great so far. The mod podge sealer is holding up well to the water, sun, and soil. 

I didn't realize the new gate had shut behind me one day while I was working in the garden on the side of the house, leaving Tucker on the other side.  When I heard some scratching and went to investigate, I found him digging in the dirt next to the gate, something he's never done before. I guess he was trying to dig under it to join me, and he looked so forlorn sitting there, I just couldn't scold him. 

Funny dog. 

Thanks for stopping by my garden today. I'd love to hear what's happening this spring in your garden.  

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Preparing My Vegetable Garden

Linking to  The Fishtail Cottage Garden Party

My Vegetable Garden

My cottage sits on a postage stamp-sized city lot surrounded by stately shade trees. In spite of the tiny yards and shade, my North End neighborhood is very enthusiastic about urban gardening, and you’ll find many small vegetable gardens squeezed here and there.

My kitchen garden sits in a narrow south-facing side yard, the only sunny part of my yard. When I first moved here, almost twenty-five years ago, I had a wonderful garden that yielded baskets full of vegetables, but over the years the surrounding trees grew larger and as the hours of sun shining on the garden diminished, the yield declined. I eventually lost enthusiasm for growing vegetables, and the last few years only planted a few flowers there.

Recently, however, I’ve been reading about organic gardening, and my interest in my little garden plot has been rekindled. I’ve learned that while the lack of sunshine was responsible for some of the decline in my vegetable yield, I was also neglecting my soil and even harming it.

I had never added compost to my garden to feed the organisms that soil needs to nourish plants. In fact, I added a lot of chemicals that only boosted plant growth short term, while depleting the soil even more over the long run. I realized that over the years, I’d literally “killed” my garden soil. Even the earth worms had moved out because there was no food for them there.

I was so excited (yeah, I get excited by stuff like this) to learn what had gone wrong and that I could rebuild my garden soil just by feeding it! So last fall my husband and I built new garden beds, filled them with a pickup full of organic compost, and mixed it in well with the soil already there.

  

This is the soil with the truck load of compost mixed-in. I wish I had a before photo of the soil before we added the compost. It was gray and dry and cement-like. Yuuuk.

We wanted to spread some chicken poop on top (apparently, gardens LOVE chicken poop!) and let it rest all winter, but we were too late and the garden centers were out of it. So the garden slept as it was all winter long, waiting.

 

Yesterday, we went to a new organic garden center right here in our neighborhood (yay!) We bought some organic compost in a bag that has, not only chicken poop, but all kinds of good natural stuff that healthy soil needs to help support plant growth (like worm castings, bat guano, gypsum, kelp meal, oyster shell, lime and other good stuff.)

We opened the bag and spread the compost evenly out on the beds 2-3 inches deep.

 Then we mixed it in with the soil. 

 

Here’s what it looks like now. I wish you could feel it. It’s soft and airy and moist and it smells a little like the forest, so good! I just really get a charge out of thinking of this soil as a living thing, full of natural organisms munching on all that good organic mulch.

 While we were at it, we covered the paths between the garden beds with clean (weed free) straw to keep the weeds down and our shoes from getting muddy. 

Next week is when it’s fairly safe in our neck of the woods to plant spring vegetable seeds. I can’t wait to play in the dirt!

I'm linking up today over at Elizabeth & Co.'s new 

Garden Party! Come and enjoy the fun!

Elizabeth & Co.