Rosie Works In The Garden.

For the past two days, I've been working in my yard, preparing some beds for planting.

Yesterday, I worked on my potential vegetable garden on the south side of the house, in front of my herb garden. I'd already tilled the whole bed several times. Let it rain on it to get weed seedlings germinating, then tilled again. Now, what is that in the first row? Why it's manure and crushed egg shells. And I tilled all that in.

Thusly. And formed 3 separate beds in the first row. Look closely. They're there.

I planted Mr. Hawthorne's heirloom tomato seedlings in the first bed. I laid down newspapers as a mulch to cut down on my weeding.

I mulched the bed on the left with newspapers and pine needles which I have plenty of. I also planted tomato seedlings in the middle section. I'll also use the newspapers and pine needles to mulch between the rows. Recycle my newspapers and keep moisture in and weeds out. I'm nothing if not all about the Earth and being Green.

This is my garden bed in the back yard on the west side, ready for Moonure and tilling.

And more of it.

I tilled in the Moonure on the right side and formed two horizontal beds, Then I added more Moonure to the left where I'm making vertical beds.

I tilled the Moonure in and formed two vertical beds.

Then I formed 3 more horizontal beds and two vertical beds at the end which are very hard to see. I like breaking up the beds into vertical and horizontal areas instead of just long rows. It's much more visually appealing and easier to work, weed-wise. And I'm ready to plant.

Here are some Beefmaster tomatoes I bought at Kmart yesterday. Remember, I have about 60 seedlings of heirloom tomatoes growing already. I just wanted something different. Let me show you how I plant my tomato seedlings.

First I pinch off the lower feed leaves (not true leaves).

Then I pinch off the next set of leaves. I just leave the top two sets of leaves.

I open up the roots a bit.

Make a channel in my soil and sprinkle 10-10-10 in it.

And I lay the tomato in the channel lengthwise, pulling up the stem at the leaf end.

And I cover the bottom part of the stem and pile the soil up to the first set of leaves. This allows for a strong root system to develop, since roots will take off all along the buried stem.

Here are 2 Early Girl seedlings in one pot. When I buy seedlings, I always try to find multiple seedlings in one pot.

Again, pinch off the lower leaves.

And slice down between the two seedlings.

Divide the seedlings and plant. And always be sure to water well after planting.

I planted tomatoes in the first two horizontal beds on the right and assorted peppers in the first vertical bed on the left.

Here's my herb garden and 'maters on the south side looking down from the deck. Happy planting, all.