Vegetable garden May 2021

This year will be the second year we start a vegetable garden since we moved to Conway. We treated it well over the winter with a layer of mulched cow manure and then thick layer of straw to protect it.

Last year we found out that our cute neighbors, the woodchuck and mother deer with fawn, could not the resist the tempation to sample some of our veggies. We then quickly emprisoned our garden with a 6' high fence to keep the veggies in and our animal friends out.

There were still a few invaders that we will try to keep at bay this year. One is the cabbage worm, the teenage version of a white butterfly also called the cabbage butterfly. This guy loves kale and lots of it.

The other one is a yet to be identified animal, it would strike just when a strawberry would be at its finest, I suspect a bird or a chipmunk. But hopefully with some netting can keep them out.

I still saw some grubs from the japanese beetle despite spreading milky spores  and nematodes. The good news was that I saw more and more earth worms.

The vegetable prison is 24' by 16' and we created 8 beds. We used the straw that was left over from the winter on the walking paths between the beds.

This year again we seeded and planted various vegetables and spices. All the seeds and seedlings were put in on Saturday May 22nd. I had seeded the carrots, spinach and radishes. I also planted a row of sun flowers along the south-side of the garden, hopefully that will create a nice colorful border.

For the layout of the beds see below. I will try to make a weekly drone shot from above and see how the garden progresses.  For now watering the beds everyday, it has been pretty dry this week.

For watering we bought a Zero-G garden hose. These are super light garden hoses. We had bought another brand last year, but it ruptured within a month. The Zero-G one looks more promision and have friends that used it for more than 2 years already. The key is to not keep the hose under water pressure. So after  use turn off the water and release the water out of the hose.