This was my garden at the beginning of May. It usually looks like this in early spring. We always have good intentions of maintaining a winter garden, totally possible in southwestern BC, but the previous few winters have been COLD and snowy. Record-breakingly cold. So the frost and snow killed the swiss chard and most of the leeks, and the lettuce, which I started from seed in late Sept/early Oct didn't do anything.
The contraption on the right is a soil sifter on a stand that my sister/roommate made. You are looking at the back of the sifter. It is designed so that a wheelbarrow can be wheeled underneath the mesh. It's very handy, although not super-sturdy, as she whacked it together quite quickly (My sissy's a handy girl, we jokingly call her the "man of the house").
Every year, we sift the soil, digging a little further down and mixing in copious amounts of topsoil, manure, peat, etc. Every year we "rotate" the "crops" we grow in a 4 bed rotation. This year, we decided to box out these 4 beds. We also decided to create two new beds, one for tomatoes, and one as a "nursery" bed - where I intend to start my fall and winter crops from seed in July/August. So far, so good, but maybe we're too ambitious? We have completed 3 of these 6 beds. Still, I love my veggie garden.
This is my garden today. In fact, it's almost the exact same shot!
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