Straw Day

First, I didn't get around to posting about it on Wednesday but I finished weeding the north end of the garden that evening. The bunching onions went a lot faster with the new, mini Rogue Hoe pictured a few posts back and I cleaned up the beds I'd done previously as well as the edges. It all looked pretty great if I do say so myself and the lack of bugs continues to be a nice surprise.

I did a quick job of weeding the Amaranth bed this morning, mostly to knock the weeds back a bit. The seedlings are still too small to put up with much soil disturbance beyond that. The good news is that they all seem to be coming up!

I started doing the same with the quinoa bed but the poor plants were tipping over if I got anywhere close to them. The germination there seems a little spotty, especially the southern half of the bed. There's definitely some lambs quarters in that bed too which will be interesting. I can't tell them apart so I'm leaving both for now.

I did a little poking around where I planted poppies and even found a few little sprouts! They're also spotty and don't seem to have come up anywhere that compost landed on them. Whoops! A lesson for next time! I think poppies in general are probably easier as transplants.

I did all of this weeding to kill time until the straw truck came! BACG organizes a big straw and hay buy that any gardeners can get in on and it costs less than buying it at the local stores. It's nice stuff too, fresh from the grain fields in Quebec. I ordered 6 bales which is definitely overkill but I hadn't planned on having all of the leaves and straw in my tomato section when I ordered last fall. Once the straw came I mulched the entire north end of the garden as well as the tomatoes in the southwest corner. The southeast quarter is where all the seedlings are and they're still too small to tolerate the straw, so that's on hold. Check it out:

The north end - Peas/radishes, favas and pole beans in front, onions and garlic in the rear.

The tomato bed with a fresh coat of straw.