WEEDed?

did i WEED after my previous post? well, kinda...i actually tilled/dug/cut up weeds and dug them under the soil. the weeds were not going to seed, so i thought it might help put in some nitrogen and aeration into the soil. i only did about 1/16 of my garden space (divide and conquer strategy), but it was only because it started to rain again and i didn't want to turn into a muddy mess. (its been raining a LOT lately!)

after doing some of that *W* word, i felt rather invigorated. its going to be a good amount of work to get all the weeds (although i dont think i will be using all of my gardening space...i can't overdo it!) but if the whole garden is the same as that small patch i worked on, its not nearly has hard to work through in comparison to what i had started with 2 years ago. my soil back then was incredibly compacted (think concrete-like), dry - it was really a nightmare and i can't believe i actually did all that work. here in the bay area, we are blessed/cursed with clay soil. when that stuff gets hard and dry, its like hammering into rock. and thats what i did back in 2008. i hammered down till about 12" into the ground to break up the soil, i worked in a lot of organic soil conditioners and compost and it seemed to have worked and kept the soil - for so long, even - extremely "soft" and workable. *pat on the back*

on monday, i started some sugar snap and snow peas - i placed them i layers of wet paper towel in a small bowl to let them sprout...good way of testing which (if any) seeds are still viable). many of them (id say around 98%) sprouted by last night, so i planted them all in small peat pots. that along with broccoli (calabrese), monnopa spinach, various lettuce types (including yummy butter crunch), and pak choi. we'll see what we get in the coming days. im growing these in my garage since we are expecting a lot more rain.

once the rains lighten up, i will plant some carrots in the ground.

in about a week or two, i'll start planting some warm weather crops in the garage too - tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumber, eggplant, and beans (green, soy, garbanzo). ugh...didn't i say i was going to take things slow??? *sigh* problem is, i ordered all these seeds back in 2008 (i didn't realize how many i ordered!!!) and they are all so tempting! i can always plant the seeds and see what happens...who knows, maybe some are not even viable after all this time...?