Our Backyard Garden--Off To An Earlier Start

A generous layer of maple leaves provided a warm
blanket over the winter, and will serve as a moisture
preserver and weed suppressant this summer.

I'm experimenting with no-till gardening in the 10' x 60'  plot behind our house this year, which means uncovering just as much of the leaf mulch as necessary, making furrows with a hand tool, hoe or shovel, then planting the vegetable seeds or plants and waiting for the harvest. 

I'll soon be planting a row of pole green beans right beside the row of sugar snap peas shown here. The beans will piggyback their way up the fence as the peas are being harvested. I've already planted several feet of pole beans and a couple of squash and lettuce plants, way earlier than usual, so I'll need to cover the squash and beans whenever there is a threat of an overnight frost. 

With the climate change we're experiencing, our frost date keeps moving back, and I'm expecting some erratic (and dryer?) weather this summer. So we'll see how this works.

Gardeners are in good company, since one of God's first acts was to create a garden for the first human pair to inhabit and care for. In John's gospel God is called a "gardener" (or vinegrower or husbandman) by Jesus, who frequently went into a garden to pray, and he was himself mistaken for a gardener after his resurrection.

May we have a productive growing and gardening year in 2023, and make every day Earth Day.