Planting Blueberries and Expanding the Salsa Garden

After the morning chill from the light frost lifted, Karen, Bat-Enkh and I headed outside to double the size of our side street garde. Our purpose was two-fold: 1) Karen had bought four blueberry bush starts we needed to get in the ground, and 2) we needed more room to maximize the potential of the 2009 salsa garden.

Karen was totally excited about planting blueberry bushes but we didn't have the garden space in which to put them. Well, we have the room now. We also had to test our soil as bluberries like an acidic environment. Naturally our soil is alkaline, so we needed to work some acidifier into the ground. It didn't take the three of us all that long to get it done. It actually went a bit faster than we thought it would. Karen was in charge of planting the blueberry starts.

Regarding the salsa garden, last year the tomato plants kind of overshadowed the peppers which created some challenges. Consequently we doubled the garden space in anticipate of this year's salsa crop. Karen also plans to add our own onions this year. Tomatoes, jalepeno peppers, banana peppers, bell peppers, and now onions will all be home grown this year. We also worked 120 pounds of humus into the salsa side.

Here are some snapshots from our garden expansion:

Bat-Enkh and I bust up the clods and remove the grass after turning the soil with shovels.

Karen and Bat-Enkh continue the expansion.

Tucker and Tanner are overwhelmed by all the activity.

The finished garden expansion.