The Cool weather bed is complete!

The bed is complete!  The cool weather bed that is.  I actually finished this earlier this week, but didn’t have a chance to write about it.  I worked really hard to get this done by tomorrow since I will be working for the next two weeks with a highly unreliable schedule.

The final bed

I ended up making a few more changes to my plan based on what I found at the Primex Garden center.  The three changes I made are:

1) I took the sage and thyme out of the bed, and put them in a separate planter (see below).  I did this mainly because I wanted to have my herbs near the kitchen so I could get to them quickly.

2) I planted radish seeds in the 2 square feet mentioned above

3) I planted bok cauliflower transplants, bok choi seeds and sweet pea seeds in the remaining 9 square feet (peas =2, bok choi 2, 6 cauliflower transplants in 5 sq ft)

Newly planted peas (top left seeds), bok choi (bottom right seeds) and cauliflower (lower left transplants)

This was the first time I have ever planted seeds like this.  I’m a little concerned that I may have put too much soil over the seeds.  I’m not sure how you are supposed to adequately measure 1/4 or 1/2 inch of soil over a seed!  At the end of planting everything when I did the peas, I realized I could just push the seed down the desired depth.  Well…too little too late.  For the others I removed soil, sprinkled the seeds (I couldn’t get myself to limit to a grid) and then covered them up with soil.  I distinctly remember thinking “hmmm..this looks like the same amount of soil for the 1/4 inch depth and the 1.2 inch depth seeds).  Hopefully I didn’t complete,y kill my chances of having vegetables grow!

Sage & Thyme removed, and radish seeds planted instead

I bought several planters like these below to put on the deck outside the kitchen.  I drilled new holes into them for better drainage – because they come with only one hole (go figure =)  Drilling was easy – made myself proud!

I drilled extra drain holes into the planters before starting.

Then I planted most of the herbs together as you see below

Thyme, sage, rosemary & garlic chives

With a separate pot for the more aggressive species

The “hard to control herbs:” mint & oregano

And yet another pot for more cilantro seeds.

Newly planted cilantro – I have one more empty planter to do another crop of this (can’t get enough cilantro!)

Looking forward to the “fruits” or vegetables of my garden soon!

In their final resting place