Let's Get it Started...

The day after Mother's Day, the alleged day when gardeners are all clear to plant their seeds without fear of frost. That fear is lessened even more with the local meteorologists predicting temperatures in the 90s this week. Not even halfway through May and we're already in the 90s... already coming out of what has been called "the wettest Spring" in our area's history.


We had a blackout at our office in Hyde Park, so I got out at 1 p.m. I went home, changed into my yard work clothes, jumped into the truck and headed up to Lowe's.


I bought eight bags of flower and vegetable soil, and eight 2x4x8 pieces of wood. I also picked up some seeds, but we'll get to that in a second.

Click any picture to expand.

Once I got back home, I laid the boards out on the driveway and cut four of them in half with a circular saw.

Then I went through the garden space with a weed whacker.

Then I nailed the boards together so that I have two 4x8' patches. I laid down two layers of newspaper to prevent weed growth. I decided to do this last year and wrote about it in Tiller-free Gardening.  I was inspired by an article I read in the NY Times called Fending Off the Weeds With Newsprint which was about a book called "Weedless Gardening,” by Lee Reich, a soil scientist in New Paltz, N.Y.,

Once I wet the newspapers, I poured in the bags of gardening soil.

I did a PH reading, it was at 6.5. A good range for pumpkins,  green beans, and cucumbers.  The fertilizer reading was a little low, but that will change as I add more nutrients later.

I didn't spend much time picking out the seeds I want to plant tonight, so I went with:

• Burpee pumpkin, First Prize Hybrid, CALABAZA. These are giant exhibition pumpkins, round with glossy, smooth, bright-redish color. It harvests in about 120 days and the seedlings emerge in 7-14 days,
• Ferry-Morse Garden beans, Nash (Bush). Dark green color, Harvests in 54 days from direct-sowing. Superb for warmer climates where other Bush Beans suffer, 'Nash' is a very heavy-yielding, delicious variety with uniform straight pods on a space-saving bush that is resistant to Common Bean Mosaic Virus (CBM) and widely adapted.
• Burpee Cucumber, Straight Nine Hybrid, PEPINO. Early maturing, dark green fruits reach up to 9" while still retaining a crisp texture and small cavity. Ideal for slicing. Harvest in about 55 days.

I might have rushed a bit today and made some shortcuts, but I'm half-excited and half-lazy. I'll add some more patches in the coming weeks, but will only be planting vegetables that have already been started from somewhere like the Burger Farms in Newtown, Ohio. Today will be the only day I'm going to plant any seeds. 

All right, Spring is finally here and gardening season has begun!