Winter Planting–Phase 1

It seems strange to be thinking about winter in the height of a heat-wave of summer but I suppose I was thinking of spring with snow on the ground...  A fascinating awareness of life and death and the cycles of life, I have to say.  In any case, I spent some time this past weekend filling in the bed that I cleared out of radishes a little while ago. I sprinkled a bunch of wood ash (for potassium), blood meal (for nitrogen), some soil with wood chips in it that my parents gave me (from when the maple tree stump in their backyard was ground up), and topped it with an organic topsoil and some crushed eggshells (for calcium).

I planted 2 rows of napa cabbage, 2 rows of broccoli, and 2 rows of cauliflower.  So excited to see how they turn out!  I also planted 2 rows of leeks in where 2 of my tomato plants got eaten (I think maybe a racoon?  Just had the top bitten off...) I sprinkled in some wood ash and blood meal into a shallow trench, covered the seeds with topsoil and am crossing my fingers. Leek seeds are surprisingly tiny!

PEAS!

I have pea pods on my hilariously small shelling pea plants! They're about the size of the plants themselves.  My sandy soil has not been their friend....  But I wanted to build up the nitrogen in that worst soil area with some peas and beans so before I plant anything else in the area (for a fall crop), I'll leave the nitrogen fixing roots in the soil and perhaps just cover the whole area with topsoil–wood chip mulch included.  Year one learning curves an soil building!