country n gardening

COUNTRY N GARDEN 
this last week i planted our winter onions

first you have to have good soil
the prerequisite for a good garden

last year i wrote a blog about the hugelkultur method
i used to prepare my beds
using cardboard newspapers leaves tree trunks and branches
all down in the bottom of my 4ft x 16ft raised beds
all of which i dug the soil out to about 2ft
filling it with the above stuff
all this stuff holds water deep in the soil for those dry times
which come each summer
then i layered the rest with newspapers leaves compost
soil newspapers leaves compost soil until the bed was filled

now after a year that soil has percolated and enriched itself
to where it is today
i then added a layer of compost added organic fertilizer
added molasses and humates
then just let it sit now for about 3 months
those onions are gonna love this soil

i start with onion plants since they do better here than the sets
i use 1015 onions a white sweet onion since
i have found it does better for us
keeps good
doesnt burn my eyes
tastes sweet

so i plant the onions about 2 inches deep
poking my index finger in the soil using a bare finger
i like to get that rich dirt under my nails and on my fingers

i plant them one hook em horn sign apart
since on my hand that is about 6 inches apart

i water them in with a solution of either johns formula
of fish emulsion seaweed or just seaweed solution

after getting all 200+ plants planted
i lightly cover them with a thin layer of the leaves you
gave me
thanks again

these plants will survive ok without much protection until
the weather warms
watching the weather close for some low 20s
if that happens i cover it up with row cover

some time in may based on when they get ready
the stalks start to fall over
we will pick them
and
eventually store them in onion chimes

well worth all the effort

next to plant are seed potatoes
sometime in early february when the soil is dried out some

i recently transplanted my tomato transplants from their
originally small pots that i seeded them in
to
4 inch pots
hoping they will take off and be ready for early transplanting
next month

we are harvesting out lettuces from our keyhole garden
i seeded them by broadcasting a mixture of lettuce seeds
now that they are ready
we just go out and use our scissors
and
cut what we need that day for our meals
leaving a small stub of lettuce left
which will soon grow back into more lettuce leaves

we do the same for beets and spinach

so we will have salad greens until the weather warms
in may or june

today i will harvest swiss chard kale broccoli cabbage beet greens
spinach for a pot of greens for our supper tonight

so thats whats happening in the country n garden

the organicgreen doctor