We had a cold snap that killed the 3 tomato plants that I had already planted in the front raised bed area. Amber thought we needed more tomato plants, so we planted 7 more in the row garden area. I also planted a lot of watermelon and muskmelon. The cucumber, squash, and bean that I seeded several weeks ago have still not sprouted. My fig tree rootings are all alive and growing.
All six of my raised beds now have something planted in them. I moved wood chips into the walk paths in the row garden.
I bought a peach tree from Tractor Supply for $15. The variety is “Sam Houston”. It is now planted in the new swale.
Here is what is now planted:
This is year number 2 for the hugelkulture bed experiment. It still needs soil added to some areas where wood is sticking out. I have a lot of beans and melons planted. Most excited to see how the melons do!
With the help of Aiden and Amber, we added a lot of cantaloupe and watermelon in the huglekulture bed, along with a lot of cowpeas and beans. We also planted a few okra and cucumber in the front raised beds. Several of my tomato and pepper plants were injured/killed in the late April freeze we had last week.
I’m trying once again to direct-seed cool weather plants in the heat of summer. The ‘feels like’ temperature was 105°F today because of the high humidity due to the 2.8″ of rain this morning. Nice to have the rain though! I was unsuccessful in direct-seeding plants like this last year.
Earlier this weekend before it had rained, I was able to move a lot of top soil out of the “pond” area and place it on the eastern part of the Hügelkultur bed #1. Just before dark I added straw mulch and planted about 50 bean plants, then distributed a packet of buckwheat cover crop to a lot of the bed. The plants I’ve had growing in this bed haven’t done very well. I think it is a combination of not enough soil, the typical first-year poor performance of a hugelkultur bed, and not enough water. I added more soil to this part of the bed compared to the part I already have plants growing in– hope that helps. I’m eager to have plants growing in it to hold the steeply-sloped soil in place. I figure beans are a good choice.
The seeds I ordered from Willhite finally came in. We planted mainstream cantaloupe, yellow petite watermelon, jackson wonder speckled bush lima bean, Texas cream 8 cowpea, summer melody squash, honeybaby winter squash, and large sunflower mix on the north side of the bed.
We spread straw over the south side of the hill. The cowpeas, okra, melons, and squash I planted on April 8 are popping out of the soil now.
I dug up the huge comfrey (bocking 14) that was in raised bed 3 and split it up into a bucket full of crowns. I planted one at the base of many of the fruit trees, and a bunch of them in the hugelkultur bed. I also planted a few melons (Ice Cream and Kajari), some lima beans, flowers, and 2 varieties of okra.
I picked up some pepper plants and another tomato plant from McKinney Feed and Seed yesterday, and planted them today, along with some lime beans and bush beans. Sometime last week, I planted cucumbers, cantaloupe, and watermelon. I took pictures of my new trees also.
