I have my fingers crossed that the weather predictions will finally kick in and be as predicted... What a mess. The Sunday (Memorial Weekend) temps were supposed to be in the mid 70Fs but, no... In fact the whole week was supposed to be nice and warm both during the day and no lower than the mid 50s at night. But, the predictions were wrong. The cold air kept blasting in from the mountain, making it cool and overcast most of the week, with occasional thunder storms. So my seeds were in a watery limbo, starting to sprout and no where to go. Yesterday, finally, a good day and the ground today was perfect and warm. Now the hope is that the seeds all come up. I planted 40 seeds this year in the ground, with six backups in sprout starting pots in the green house.
This year, to prep the soil, I purchased a new dark tarp (no holes) and covered the raised garden beds the last weekish of April. Last week, I pulled back the tarp, chased away the family of snakes living in there, pulled out the dead plants/roots, etc and tried to stomp down tunnels/burrows. I watered the ground heavily and have been going back each day to "stomp" down the new mounds that keep popping up. That's the nature because the tarps tend to bring the "vermin" in to eat slugs, bugs and bug eggs. On the positive side is that, essentially, the soil is tilled, and the weeds are dead naturally, without any chemicals. Plus, a lot of the bugs are gobbled up by the snakes and rodents. It is a win, win, but then, I have to work a bit harder to keep them out of there until the garden takes off. Then the daily watering keeps them out for the rest of the summer. It's a process of persistence.
This is the beginning of the corn journal for this year. 46 seeds started in all with the hopes of having 40 plants, five rows, with eight per row in my six feet by eight garden spot. Last year, I planted a lot of "double seeds" here and there, but chose not to do that this year since they had already sprouted before planting. Plus, I feel like the double stalks became more hassle than it was worth.
