Sunlight

Now comes the first of the strangely dark periods for the garden.the next comes in late August.

Late winter/early spring are great; plenty of hours of sunshine. then the trees leaf out ( very early this year due to a heat wave;but welcome when there is such heat as this house gets hot without the shade!) for about a month, until the sun is higher in the sky, there is more limited sunshine.

so we are already down to, in Eliot Coleman's words, the one percenters. the small things that can be done.

The white strips on the front of the beds really do help. they scatter sunlight for us nicely.

Mineralization-by adding rock dust ( granite in our case) rock phosphate, greensand and trace minerals-and lime- we have allowed the natural balance plants need, and they only take it up at the rate they can use. no run off, no loss of fertilization.

Hardscape-any of the new walls and corners do add some heat to the area. plants up and happy and growing well, will take off again in May/June, even if growing slower now.Straw is my mulch of choice and it also is light enough to scatter some light.

this is also why i started virtually everything as transplants and put them out 2 weeks early ( some of it was 4 weeks early this year) a late frost is manageable with row covers. i get the maximum sunshine to new plants.

container gardening-potatoes and tomatoes are in large pots ( I have saved every shrub container for years! so recycled too) and sitting in sunny parts of the yard, freeing up the beds for other things .they are attractive; placed to look like they belong, not just hanging out in weird spots.

future plans-an upgraded greenhouse to grow through more months of the year.

will let you know what I think, next month!