New Introduction

This blog has been converted and now is devoted to tracking the progress of my new garden at 160 Transit St., Providence, RI. I will be keeping a log of my activities along with notes about the garden. Goals of the blog are to:

1) Include pictures of all of my activities in order to have a detailed account of my full gardening season

2) Figure out how to import the weather for each day that I post something

3) Post daily in order to fully capture the progress of the garden

Thus far, I have done the following:
- I pulled all of the weeds that were occupying the space that is now my garden. The area was untouched for several years so the plants were all perennials and appeared to have complex life cycles. Moreover, they did a good job fixing the soil, as it was very rich and dark.
- The garden plot is about 13' by 21', or 273 sq. ft.
- I created a path down the center and then I turned all the soil thoroughly using a shovel and a garden hoe. I then worked in about 7 bags or 280 lbs. of shrimp and lobster compost, as well as a decent amount of peat moss.
- I then covered one of the two beds (created by the path) with clear plastic in order to warm the soil. I left it on for 5 nights.

On October 1st, 2006:
- I sowed indoors, 6 cells of each of the following: Spinach, Kohlrabi, Arugula, Broccoli Raab, and Onions.

On October 4th, 2006:
- Broccoli Raab and Arugula plants both sprouted and I thinned them down.

On October 6th, 2006:
- The Onions, Kohlrabi, and Spinach sprouted and I thinned them as well.

On October 10th, 2006:
- I removed the plastic covering from the outdoor bed and sowed approximately 580 Winter Rye seeds. This is a cover crop that will be worked into the soil this coming March. I then recovered the bed with the plastic. The seeds are expected to sprout in 5 to 10 days at 60 degree weather.
- I sowed the Winter Rye very poorly. I broadcast them over the bed in a hurried manner and I accident's sowed some areas very heavily and other areas received barely any seeds. Thus, I will probably have patches of thick Rye and bare patches in the same bed.
- I built a cold frame on this day as well. All of the wood was 2" thick. One piece of wood was cut to be 5' long and 1' tall, one piece was 5' long and 8" tall. The last two pieces were 3' long and one edge of each was sloped so the top was 1' and the bottom was 8". I assembled them into a rectangle using small pieces of wood as reinforcements at the corners. I placed the cold frame on the other outdoor bed, lining the path that I had made. I bought two pieces of plexi glass that fit perfectly over the top to create a sort of miniature greenhouse. I thoroughly turned the soil within the frame and worked peat moss and about 30 lbs of compost into the top 4 inches of the soil.
- For the indoor plants, I fertilized with an organic kelp extract diluted at about 1 part per 1000 in water.