Starting a garden from scratch is a daunting task.  I’ve reclaimed lawn in the past for a garden but this is different.  What we have here is virgin land.  All it has ever been is coastal forest.  This is a good and bad thing.

The good is the soil is fantastic.  Full of organic matter light and fluffy because the garden is located at the bottom of a draw.  The bad is getting all the tree roots and branches cleaned out from the logging that took place over a year ago.

I did a PH test last weekend and the nitrogen, as expected, was low.  Because this is a spruce/alder forest I expected a fairly high acid reading.  Actually it came out 6.5 which is workable.  The potassium, potash and phosphorus were all low so as I’ve been building beds I’ve been adding the amendments and tilling with my mantis.

I’m going for the raised bed garden as raised beds will help heat up the soil faster and I like a geometric garden layout.

Yesterday while watering I saw one of the two small helpers who live in the greenhouse.  There must be plenty to eat otherwise I don’t think they would be there.

I have two frogs living in the greenhouse.  This one seems to like to crook neck squash starts, the other likes the tomatoes.  As I said, every little helper helps.