More gardening, rain overnight...50º

I've spent the last two days in the vegetable garden...I should have it all planted by now, but I keep getting distracted, (my friend calls it, "Oh look, there's a bunny.")..What I know about gardening, came from watching my mom and actually helping her garden the last 15 years of her life...Mom was a rototilling, bare dirt, straight rows, weeding with a wheel hoe (hand pushed tiller), irrigating one or two rows at a time, kind of gardener...She grew beautiful, productive gardens and loved to share the fruits of her labor...She died at 96 years of age...Her birthdate is two days away May 28, 1909.

I practice a different kind of gardening, learning from years of trial and error, from books and the internet...Our garden has evolved from a 20 x 40 rototilled garden, to 4 main raised beds, down the middle and asparagus and raspberries on either side.,,I don't rototill...I continually layer the raised beds with straw, alfalfa pellets, well aged manure, peat moss, chopped maple leaves and compost...The edges and paths are covered in a heavy layer of straw to keep the weeds at bay...Not much dirt is visible, but if you reach down into a raised bed, you can come up with a handful of lovely soil...Today I will finish the layers on a bed and tomorrow we will plant potatoes on top of it (in straw) and this fall our yearly garlic crop will be planted in the underneath layers, that have been quietly composting into 6 inches of lovely soil...We grow a beautiful, productive garden and love to share the fruits of our labor...Continued tomorrow...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Alfalfa pellets and peat moss layers

A thin layer of straw.