Sixth planting

Today I did the sixth and final planting - until I start working on fall crops. I was supposed to plant watermelons and asparagus, but the store-bought asparagus still hasn't poked through, and I've decided to wait and see if anything ever happens with it before planting the seeds. I will still be able to compare growth, and this is just easier.

The watermelon turned out to be difficult to plant, only because I have read wildly different recommendations on spacing - everything from 18 inches to 15 feet! I decided to go with the seed packet instructions in case it was specific to the variety, but even those were quite different and it didn't seem to be related to the size of the watermelon. I planted Crimson Sweet from seeds of change, Sugar Baby from territorial, and Petite Yellow from livingston.

Because the soil still hasn't quite warmed to where it should be, I'm using the cold frames to help the seeds along. I did the best with the space I had and planted them 3 feet apart - just one hill of each variety. I'll let you know how it goes!

Raised Beds??

I received an email asking about garden beds. To answer the question, we are not doing raised garden beds for two reasons: first, due to issues unique to our chosen careers, we can't be certain that we will be here during the summer of 2012. Because we might be in a position of needing to sell the house, we're cautious about making permanent changes to this property. We don't want to spend money on something that will reduce the chances of resale, or the resale value. Of course, killing the grass in order to have a garden is a permanent change, but that is a sacrifice we are unquestionably willing to make. That's just the way we are:) Second, I'm not convinced that raised beds are the way to go. The temperature of the soil in the earth is so much more stable that the temperature of the air, and I am certain that soil in raised beds varies more than soil in earth. That doesn't seem good for the produce. On the other hand, soil in raised beds warms up faster than soil in the earth - possibly extending the growing season, eeking out an extra couple of weeks on either end. But back to the original hand, that soil is more likely to get un-productively hot during the middle of the summer when temperature highs reach record levels. In future seasons, when I've established good growing methods for at least one vegetable, I might experiment with raised beds. But for now, I'm still trying to figure it all out!