![\"Garden,](\"https:\/\/kristinjanz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMG_5525.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHere’s a picture, from April 7th.\u00c2\u00a0 Gardening experts among you may notice that I’m using the square-foot gardening method<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Sort of.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t bother with a permanent grid to mark out the squares, I just used tomato twine strung around some small nails that I hammered into the frame of the raised bed.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t have the complete grid yet in this picture, just enough to mark the areas I’ve planted.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, three of the planted squares are not completely delineated by grid.\u00c2\u00a0 Wonder of wonders, the plants still came up and thrived.\u00c2\u00a0 The world did not end.\u00c2\u00a0 (If you’ve ever read Mel Bartholomew’s blog<\/a>–he’s the founder of the square-foot gardening technique–you’ll notice that he’s quite opinionated about the Only True Way to do square-foot gardening.\u00c2\u00a0 And about a lot of other things.\u00c2\u00a0 Others who promote the square-foot gardening approach, like Boston area non-profit The Food Project<\/a>, are less dogmatic about it.)<\/p>\n The chicken wire is there to keep squirrels from digging up the newly-planted bed.\u00c2\u00a0 I was too lazy to make a chicken wire cover for both sides.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, I already had the one chicken wire cover I made last year (it wasn’t wide enough, so I had to snip wires and twist them together to make a cover that would go over one entire half of the bed).<\/p>\n One week later.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve planted more stuff (beets, carrots, Swiss chard, and a second square of radishes).\u00c2\u00a0 You can see I’ve finished the grid, and covered the second half with chicken wire.\u00c2\u00a0 You can also see a dusting of cayenne pepper on the southern side of the bed (top).\u00c2\u00a0 The chicken wire wasn’t quite as effective at keeping squirrels out as I’d hoped.\u00c2\u00a0 They were apparently able to sit on top of the mesh and poke their miserable little paws through the holes.\u00c2\u00a0 They do much more extensive digging without the mesh, though.\u00c2\u00a0 It helps a bit.\u00c2\u00a0 Like most mammals, squirrels hate the capsaicin in cayenne pepper, so it can keep them out of your garden for a while.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, they do get used to it, as I discovered last fall when they were frantically burying hickory nuts among the newly planted lettuces.<\/p>\n You may also notice that the grass is ever so slightly greener in the second photo.<\/p>\n The third photo (below), is from April 21st.\u00c2\u00a0 We had snow and a hard frost between photos 2 and 3.\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah.\u00c2\u00a0 Gotta love New England weather.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve taken the chicken wire off the northern side because, although you can’t really see them in this picture (they’re too small), the spinach seedlings are up, and the dirt isn’t entirely level in the bed, so the spinaches (in an area where the dirt was higher) were poking up through the holes in the wire.\u00c2\u00a0 And I needed to cover up the mustard seedlings in that half (the 4 tiny dots in the row second from the bottom, on the left), since the temperatures were dropping below 30.\u00c2\u00a0 I just used upside-down drinking glasses.\u00c2\u00a0 For the side that still had chicken wire, I put a doubled sheet of black plastic over it, resting on top of the mesh, weighted down with bricks.\u00c2\u00a0 (One of the cold nights was very windy.)<\/p>\n The uncovered spinaches and radishes ended up with a half inch of snow on top of them.\u00c2\u00a0 But they were fine.\u00c2\u00a0 And the seeds that hadn’t come up yet did eventually emerge.\u00c2\u00a0 Except for the chives, but I’m not sure what’s going on with them.\u00c2\u00a0 The seed may have been too old.<\/p>\n More cayenne pepper, around where I’ve planted the fava beans.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I really didn’t want to have to replant them, due to squirrel activity.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not sure I’ll get a crop to begin with; they prefer temperatures below 70 F, and Boston doesn’t have a lot of days in the spring between when the ground is frozen and when temperatures are well above 70.\u00c2\u00a0 Also, I don’t think I really get 6 hours of sunlight in this yard, so\u00c2\u00a0crops take longer to mature.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll see.\u00c2\u00a0 I really like fava beans, so I’m hoping to get some.<\/p>\n The plastic wrap weighted down by small stones is over the chervil.\u00c2\u00a0 Chervil needs light to germinate, so you’re supposed to press the seeds into the soil surface.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s hard to keep them moist enough.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m using the Saran wrap to create a mini-greenhouse.<\/p>\n Below, a week later.\u00c2\u00a0 Even more green grass.\u00c2\u00a0 You can see the fava beans easily now, in the lower left corner and the one next to it.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve taken away the second chicken wire cover, because the beets (which are still difficult to see, in this picture) were poking up through the holes.\u00c2\u00a0 Also, I’ve switched over from the Saran wrap greenhouse to ones made out of drinking glasses.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of the chervil came up, so you’ll only see 2 glasses in the chervil square instead of 4.\u00c2\u00a0 The other glass is covering some newly-sown marjoram, which also requires light.\u00c2\u00a0 I replanted the chives that never came up, with fresh seed.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’ve planted a third square of radishes, and some cilantro.\u00c2\u00a0 Dill, too, but that’s in one of the pots that you can’t see in this view.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a bunch of stuff in pots, along the edge of the yard, and on my patio, but I’m just focusing on the raised bed here.<\/p>\n And, finally, a photo from May 5th, 4 days ago.\u00c2\u00a0 More cayenne pepper, marking sites of past and continuing depredation by pesky squirrels.\u00c2\u00a0 You can see a lot of changes from the previous week.\u00c2\u00a0 Things are really taking off now.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been thinning the greens and adding the thinnings to our salads, or just using them to garnish whatever vegetable side dish I’m serving for dinner (microgreens!).\u00c2\u00a0 I ate a radish, but it really wasn’t big enough.\u00c2\u00a0 The first square of radishes is growing rapidly, though.\u00c2\u00a0 I think they’ll be ready next week.<\/p>\n Sometimes I write, too.\u00c2\u00a0 It would be fair to say I’m more excited about the gardening right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I thought people might enjoy seeing some pictures of this year’s garden. I spent much of March anxiously gazing out my window into the yard, first wondering if the snow would ever melt, then wondering if it would ever get … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n