How does your garden grow?

So spring is nigh.

In theory, anyway. Considering we got about six inches total of snow this week I'm a little hesitant to fully believe it. But fingers crossed!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon planting the two maple trees finally, now that Mother Nature's version of March Madness has subsided. We also shoveled out a trailer full of topsoil and then spread grass seed.

Our front yard is almost done!!!

Of course, my celebrating has to be mildly subdued on account of my screaming back muscles. But whatevs. It was worth it.

The next major step is getting the garden prepped and ready. In theory it should have been started by now, but again, Mother Nature kind of screwed that plan up. Apparently this coming week is supposed to be really nice and get up into the 60s, so I'm super stoked about that!

We have eight 4x8 raised beds, and last year we grew snap peas, green beans, black beans, pinto beans, lettuce, carrots, onions, corn, and tomatoes. Unfortunately, the lettuce got eaten by slugs and the corn didn't mature enough before the end of the growing season. We also tried growing peppers and herbs, but neither turned out well. Likely not hot enough.

This year, we plan on amping up the nutritional value of the soil to increase our yield. While we were up to our eyeballs in carrots, peas, and green beans, everything else was a little disappointing. Not bad for our first ever garden, but there is some serious room for improvement!

First, once our greenhouse is mended we are going to start peppers and herbs in there. We also plan on building a potato tower, which I'm super excited about. We started potatoes last year, but they quickly were consumed by slugs... or rabbits... I'm not sure which. Either way, I was unimpressed. Hopefully the tower protects them. I'm going to look into planting repellent plants around them to keep away the nibbling thieves.

Also, we need to blend some compost and organic fertilizer into the beds and get the seeds planted, and I'm looking into copper tape to repel the damn slugs. Last year we tried sprinkling a barrier of slug repellent, but they just slide right over it. Bastards. Apparently copper tape is much more effective, and is also 'greener'. It's also pricier for a garden as big as ours, but it may just be worth it to not lose food to them.

Hopefully the weather really does improve as is forecasted, and I can spend next weekend being Mary Mary Quite Contrary.