Jack feels guilty so the Wednesday guest post is on Wednesday – –

It’s the time of year to start thinking about planting and growing things again. We usually start with seeds inside in trays or plastic cups and that’s what we’re doing now with mostly tomatoes, but beginning to move on to peppers and other things.

We checked what needs to be started both before and after the last predicted frost and I made a ‘calendar box’ with compartments for each week. In each compartment we put the seed packets that are due for planting that week.

Since I hate gardening and have always considered it a Calvinist punishment for some past or future sinning, I have been designated management and Wendy is labor. So my job is to research what goes where in the garden and when it’s safe to transplant.

We have some black walnut trees and they produce a substance called Juglone which is toxic to particular plants, so this determines where we can plant certain things. An alternative is to construct raised beds with garden cloth and clean dirt and we will be doing that soon as well.

We had an additional corner of the backyard turned over by friends with a powered tiller a few weeks ago and that will give us more options. We need to keep our four chickens out of the growing areas so Wendy has made a fence round the tilled area and reinforced the existing fence round the inherited vegetable garden

Another job that Wendy has started is to make a chicken proof fence to keep them out of the yard area closest to our house and back deck. They are very friendly and when they hear our kitchen door open they come running and poop on the deck!

We learned a good few lessons last year and we’re hoping that things will be easier and more productive this time around.

Wish us luck – –