beds beds beds

Well, it's time to make the beds.

We've got 50 tomato seedlings going (5 varieties), 10 squash (to be thinned to 5 when the plants get huge), 10 peppers, piles of basil.  And a few extra to thin for vigor.  Soon we'll be planting the next series.  We got a heating mat (4' by 2') for germination and now have 6 fluorescent lights going (using p-cord to raise and lower them).  While just about everything has germinated, we're using the heating mat to (hopefully) keep the little seedlings as happy as we can get.

I wonder how we're going to do it when the seedlings get big enough to transplant into bigger pots.  Seems like we'll need to at least double the amount of light.  Phew.  And Hmm.

The bed situation is quite interesting too.  As per Eliot Colman's suggestion, they're 30" wide.  That makes it easy to straddle them to work on them.  And there are plenty of garden carts that can ride the paths too, to help with harvesting.  We've made them 15' long, basically to fit into our yard as tetris-y as possible.  Who knows tho, huh?

One little trick - there seems to be an old french drain buried across a whole bunch of beds.  I'm guessing that because I'm finding shards of what looks like oooooold pipe.  And, of course, a spectacular amount of river rock.  It took me a few iterations but I've developed a system for getting the rock out, to a depth of 2'. Wire mesh over a wheelbarrow.  Screen out the rocks and save the decent soil (and smaller pebbles) that falls down.  It'll take a while, but when it'll be done, it'll really be done.  Umm...hopefully, that is.

Tada!