I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!We finished building the second 21 foot long raised bed on the weekend and worked on getting it filled up on Monday. We let it settle and my intention was to plant it on Tuesday, but it was 86 degrees for most of the day. It finally cooled off enough to be outside around 8:30. DS and I transplanted the onions out of the totes I was growing them in. I gave them a deep watering and will water again tonight. We did get the rest of the blackberries planted, too.
By the time we were done moving the onions the sun was almost down, so I didn't get to plant any seeds. It is hot again today, but not nearly as awful, so I will go out after dinner and plant seeds for carrots, radishes, parsnips, broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi. I am only going to do one row of cauliflower. Last year was the first time I was able to successfully grow it and I'm still a little hesitant to plant more after years of failures. Since I only have the two beds for now, I'd rather not risk much.
DH isn't going to have time to work on the third bed for probably a couple of weeks. He's got a lot of overtime planned. The next paycheck should be a very good one. I can plant more broccoli and perhaps cauliflower then for the freezer. And I'll sow more carrots for canning.
We've been picking strawberries for a week now. There hasn't been much, enough for everyone to have one every other day, but a lot are ripening. They are very good berries.
I still have to plant the sweet potatoes. I got a 90 day variety called Beuregard. I have the slips in water in a window. I am going to grow them in big round totes, with trellising for the vines to grow up. I'll put the totes on black plastic, because I don't want the runners escaping out of the tote and going into the ground. The whole point of growing this way is to avoid digging in the ground. We'll set the totes up where the fourth bed will go. That way we can build the bed around it and next year have a fourth one ready to go. As well as a fifth and sixth one.
Next year we'll really be able to grow a lot of food. This year it will mostly be eating fresh from the garden with some to can and freeze, but not enough. Still, it should lower food costs July through April and that money can go to save for pork and chicken bulk purchases. And I should have harvestable lettuce in a couple of weeks and radishes in 3 to 4. It will be nice when I can just cut the grocery budget in half for most of the summer.
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