Starting the New Year with the garden.

I'm a bad blogger. I admit it! But at least some work is happening in the garden. And if I have to choose between getting that done or writing about it, well getting it done produces better results :) .
However, I have a moment here so a little recap:
I trimmed the garden back to 5 beds. I had five the first year I started and it was manageable. I expanded to 10 and it was just too much. Too many pests, too many weeds, too many headaches trying to get everything planted. I feel that I can keep up with the 5 beds and am looking forward to a productive season.
I planted 3 beds on New Years Eve day. Carrots, peppers, watermelon, 4 different lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, onions, tomatoes & some herbs.
I have one prepped for February, and one more that I'm currently cleaning up and getting ready to prep for corn in February. My corn has never grown well and it is the one crop that I was really excited about. I am going to be extra vigilant this year against those cutworms.
Oh, and I guess its really 6 beds. I always forget about the herb box at the back door. I think that is still manageable. Honestly the herbs pretty much take care of themselves. I still need to add some more compost to that one too and get it ready.
I didn't get any gardening done after I cleaned up the beds last fall. And all of the weeds grew back until I basically plowed the one box under. After that one stayed clean I churned them all up and it seems to really have helped the weed issue. No more horse manure!
I also want to be better about keeping the nutrients in. All of this info on blood meal and fish emulsion and bone meal - its enough to make my head spin. But I think if I just read a little bit a day instead of trying to take it all in at once I can manage.
So that's about it. I'm in off season for my figure shows so I have a bit more time to put into the garden. I did walk away with a trophy last season so that was awesome! I'm looking at doing 3 shows this summer/fall so good thing the garden is pretty much dead in the summer.
Sorry to be gone so long, and I'm hoping to keep up a bit better this year. I need to be more productive and organized so that's what I'm working on.

WEEDS - almost gone!

Alrighty, I am ALMOST done with the weeding project. All of the garden beds in the main garden are DONE.  Yay!  Still have some work to do on the paths and in the flower bed next to them, but this is good progress. And I also have the herb garden at the back door to finish.  But I'm excited that I can start some planting probably this weekend.
Here are some progress pics:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now that is MUCH better. :)  I left in some ground cover that I like back there. And I didn't mess with the stuff on the fence...yet.  Ok, gotta head out, but I'm happy with how it is coming along!

Almost Done Weeding!

I've only 2 boxes to go. Honestly I could have finished them this week. I just got incredibly lazy. Every time I would look out there it seemed overwhelming and I wouldn't even go out. Which means weeds had grown back in the other beds I had already done. I am REALLY regretting the horse manure. Yes, it was great to make everything grow, but the weeds it brought in are insane. Next year I may have to totally empty these boxes and redo my mel's mix. But there is no money for that this year.
Today I did 3 beds. There's only the herb box at the back door, and the old strawberry box left. And some weeds that are around the boxes, but my main concern is to get those boxes ready to plant. It isn't necessarily pretty out there right now, but it is functional!
So I did NOT meet my goal of getting them done by the 15th. However I am close and will finish them up this week. Besides, its extra calories burned, right?  :)
I'm not going to be planting all the boxes right away, I'm wondering if I should cover them with plastic to try to reduce all of the weed problems. And there are tons of these diamond shape bugs in everything. Will try to get a pic. They remind me of some sort of squash bug relation, but not quite.
Sorry to be so absent. I'm 4 weeks out of my show and my mind is on workouts & diet constantly.
Have a great evening! (ok, it's 10pm and evening is over...)

Heading out to weed!

Ok, I'm heading out RIGHT NOW to weed another box. I've got 6 done, and only 4 to go. I think I'll make my goal!! :)  Alright, there's still the pathways in between and stuff, but I'm happy with the progress.
On another note, if I'm scarce again for the next few weeks don't worry. I have a figure competition coming up in 5 weeks and it is taking over the majority of my time. I still plan to have the garden up and running mid month though.
Will take a pic of the garden and update tonight if it isn't too dark.

Progress Pic

On my way! Half way through the boxes now. Yippeee!!

I did leave the carrots in that one box. And I left the legitimate ground cover that I planted right there by the wheelbarrow. Right now its raining so I am not getting out in the garden today. Still, it's 8/3 and I'm halfway there so I'm really happy about that progress.

Dead Batteries

I need to replace the batteries in the camera so I can get a pic of my progress. I've got 5 boxes cleared so far. Yay! In FL this time of year it is hard to find a good time to be out in the garden pulling weeds. It is either ridiculously hot, or the mosquitoes are out. Of course, when I'm planting seeds it isn't ridiculously hot. Just when doing undesireable tasks, haha!
When clearing Jake's box I found some carrots growing in there so I left those behind. That way there's something that actually belongs there :)
I'm happy to see there are worms still in the boxes. But lots and lots of other bugs which I'll get a pic of.
Oh, and a pretty black wooly caterpillar was inching his way along one of the boxes. I did get a pic of that, but...dead batteries.
Ok, that's my catching up post. I'm trying to be better about blogging, but there's so much going on. BUSY!

Cleaning Up Day 1 & 2 - Shortest blog of mine ever!!

10 minutes yesterday weeding, and 10 minutes today. A little progress!!