Time to Plant for Fall Crops!

sifting compost

Yes, I know it's still really stinking hot, but it's time to get our fall planting on! So time to sift up some compost and make some potting soil. First I sift some compost through 1/2 inch hardware cloth. Then I mix about 1/2 a bucket of perlite to 4 buckets of sifted compost. The perlite helps allow some oxygen into the soil so that it won't get waterlogged. It keeps the soil free draining, sometimes the compost is very fine and packs tightly, excluding oxygen,

adding perlite

finished potting soil

When I have a lot of worm castings I will had some to the mixture, otherwise just moisten it a bit and mix together thoroughly.

ready to pot up cauliflower seedlings

I potted up broccoli and cauliflower seedlings into some pots. They will be ready to go into the ground in about 4 weeks. There should be room in the garden by then.

cauliflower ready to pot up

netting helps keep birds and bugs out

I set up some shelves in the garden to put the seedlings on, and covered them with fine netting to keep birds and bugs out.

yipppee!

Woot! My first box from Peaceful Valley came! (there will be a couple more over the next couple of months)

seeds seeds seeds!

This box contains about 20+ pounds of cover crop seeds. I ordered a variety for different areas. For the top of the hill erosion control I got Dryland Fire Recovery mix along with Dryland Clovers. I also got some perennial clover mix to plant under all the trees I'm planting. I ordered a compost thermometer so I can track the temperature of the compost piles. And lucky me Peaceful Valley gives you free seed packets when you order so much merchandise.

And I love their shredded cardboard packing material so I can toss it on the mulch or the compost pile.

fig tree roots!

Oh wow! My little fig trees are growing roots out the drain holes of their pots!  I'm hoping the weather will cool off a bit soon so I can just go ahead and plant them in the ground in a couple of weeks.