It is the end of my first week of My Project Challenge, and the weather is delightful.  My soil is ready for gardening as the earth crumbles easily after I added the winter’s compost contents to the beds, and mixed them in.  My early spring crops this year include leeks, lettuces, and spinach.  I like to plant several varieties, each with a different maturation date for a prolonged and varied harvest.

I surround all my seedling stem bases with a barrier paper.  This protects crops from those pesky root maggots and the Cabbage moth, which wiped out a whole garden of vegetables for me in my early gardening years.

I strive to be organic, although I am at odds with my neighbors in this urban area, and may be less organic than I supposed, when thinking that they could be pouring weed killers, pesticides, and anything else on their yards, with rain run off coming into mine.  That is why my husband built me Raised Vegetable Beds.  I am hoping to avoid run off chemicals by using a higher bed for my vegetables.

The side of our home is a bit of an eyesore, but our neighbors to that side also store lawn equipment and tools on that side of their house, so it seems the best place to put things for now.  This area is covered in front by shrubs, and is not visible except if one goes all around to the far side of our home in the back.  I plan to cover the grass and make this a gravel path.  The pipe was a project of last spring, which took many days and has truly helped with rain run off entering our Basement during Flash Flooding.  We have yet to cover the entire pipe.

I use newspaper to mulch the bottom of my beds, and then more on top to discourage weeds after my plants are well established.  I wet black and white newspaper, then follow with a light dusting of mulch to help my vegetable’s roots stay moist.