Collard greens in the demonstration bed at Whole Earth Center
I’ve just been able to enjoy one of my favorite beginnings: filling a raised garden bed with rich soil and putting in the first plants. Fluffy, dark, weedless, hand-scoopable dirt easily moved aside to accept four young collard plants and a row of sugar snap pea sprouts.
I’m referring to the demonstration bed over at Whole Earth Center where the cedar box is now filled to the top with the #2 top soil/compost mix from Belle Mead Co-op. My younger daughter Ruth and I put down some landscape fabric (so that the whole thing can be removed at the end of the season) and shoveled the dirt out of a pickup truck (thanks to our friend Steve Hiltner at Princeton Nature Notes for use of his truck).
The collards I grabbed on impulse while picking up the dirt at Belle Mead. The peas had been sprouting in a damp paper towel for about five days and had nice tendrils poking out by the time we dropped them into the dirt. They’re the “Super Sugar Snap” variety from Renee’s Garden.
There’s plenty more space to fill: What would you like us to plant next??
It’s in a high traffic hot spot. I’d love to see cherry and pear tomatoes with a sign at child’s eye level that says, “please pick one”.
Great idea, thanks! Do you have some varieties in mind? Let’s plan and plant them together. I’m also hoping we get a good crop of sugar snaps and children pick them too.