Dirt

It's that time of year again - we're getting the garden ready and this time it will be 2x the size of last year's garden.  Krys has done most of the work... I tilled but she has mulched, planted and prepared the drip hose network (multi-valve drip line system comes next year).

The prep from 2008 appears to have paid off.  We combined two concepts:  sunflowers and organic weed suffocation.  The sunflowers helped provide soil structure while layers of newspaper and straw over the tiled soil helped to wipe out the pesky weeds.  When I tilled that section this year the soil looked perfect.  By mulching with more newspaper & straw this summer we will not be tilling that section again for several years - just planting cover crop in the fall then removing that in the spring for next year's garden.  As a bonus, the Lesley family who live here for 60 years before us had a large garden in this location for some time.  Not your average Avondale clay anymore.

This morning Mimi helped us sow the rem

aining seeds (okra, corn, beans, sunflowers, and 4 types of winter squash).  She likes to wal

k on top of the rows in her green yard boots.  Hopefully we will all be enjoying some succotash in a couple of months... maybe even a version of Hot+Hot's tomato salad.