Bed B 1.5 weeks after planting

Cukes and sunflowers from seed are going crazy. Tomatillos from seedlings seem the same. Onions from seedings seem 50/50 happy and unhappy, so I'm not sure I did them right.

Bed C 1.5 weeks after planting

Butternut squash and beets are growing fast! Only took a week for the seeds to sprout in the 80 degree heat. Still waiting on the peppers to sprout.

Mulched the tomatillos

With raked up leaves.

So many babies today!

We've had a run of 80 degree days, and our first day near 90 this past Thursday. I've been watering diligently. This morning there were suddenly so many babies in the garden! Rows of corn and green beans, circles of cucumbers, companion sunflowers, and even a teeeeny beebee basil bit.

I also discovered that one of our random vines is Honeysuckle, and taught the kids how to eat it. Mothering success!

Planting of garden A

This was done on May 3rd, after receiving some beautiful free seedlings from a wonderful lady at my fellowship at an Earth Day event. The kids had been there as the sole representatives of their Navigators USA Chapter, spreading their knowledge about compost.

It was a warm, sunny weekend and the plants seemed happy to get into the ground. First, L helped me make a list of what we had and a few things we still planned to get, and make a general plan. We used a little bit of basic knowledge about companion plants (like cucumbers and sunflowers, corn and beans), and about keeping tall things from shading low things, except maybe the lettuces that might like it a little bit shady at times, but otherwise didn't stress it a ton. I've read more since then about the soil qualities and nutrients that the plants I have enjoy, and worry that maybe I should have grouped them like that, but I've also read that there are a million gardening charts and you can make yourself crazy with them. Better to just get the stuff in the ground, I'm thinking.

From the previous post on filling the bed, it was mostly full. I just used bagged garden soil massaged into the native soil around where the plants were going. 

The rear portion is lettuces, then a collection of three tomato plants lined with Thai basil, an empty spot where some peppers will go when they've sprouted, and those sticks are two lines of corn and beans. There are also some marigolds in there along the edges. It's a bit tight, yes. But this is how it is in the city. The plants will just have to learn to be cuddly.

Lastly, on May 4th I gave everything a good soak and mulched with grass clippings.

Filling and planting of Garden "B"

Garden Bed B is in the center of the three, more or less in the middle of the yard. It gets a bunch of morning sun, a bit of shade in mid afternoon, and then late afternoon sun until dusk. It started like this on May 4th -

Then I put the guinea pig cage stuff in the bottom.

 Covered that with some grass clippings my friends L and G were lovely enough to scavenge for me from a relative's neighbor's curb (feeding a garden > rotting in a plastic bag).

Then the remains of a bag of topsoil.

And a big layer of scavenged native soil from the concrete. See the rest of the walkway and the patio showing up in the background?

Another bag of topsoil and a bag of garden soil massaged into the mix. 

And then it got planted! In the front third I planted cucumber and sunflower seeds. In the middle third (divided by some zinnias) are tomatillos, and in the rear third (divided by more zinnias) are onions. I believe the onions are red cabernet onions, though there may be a mix in there, according to the wonderful woman from my fellowship, who gave me all these seedlings for free. Of course I, not knowing anything about anything, got 22 tomatillo plants, since there were tons and no one was taking them, only to find out later that they get as big and bushy as tomatoes. My mom, who has a green thumb and I actually trust to transplant, is going to try to take some when she comes to visit next weekend. Oh! And there are also some green onions in there which are growing quite happily from little butts of green onions that I saved from what I got at the grocery store and used in a recipe, and then randomly stuck in the ground.

Sproutlets!

Who doesn't love babies?
The kids and I are so tickled over these little baby sprouts we just spotted in our egg carton seed starters (cardboard egg cartons filled with dirt). Beets, cucumbers, and a sunflower!
The kids also have some little tomatoes in these "grow your own" pots they got from our aunt and uncle last year. How fun! It's been about two and a half weeks since they planted all the seeds and started diligently watering and watching.