Yesterday I ventured into the 5th Circle of Hell (aka Home Depot on a weekend) to get supplies to fill in the hole that is to be my garden. Boards, bamboo, heavy garden edging (to keep out the roots of the bushes), a bale of peat (tip: a bale of compressed peat is heavy! It looked so small! I almost really hurt myself thinking I could just haul one off the palet and move it to my cart. Those suckers are close to 60 lbs! I'm feeling pretty studly now that I know I can haul around that much weight if I'm expecting it. The biggest problem for me is size/bulk) Found all the vermiculite I needed at the garden store (yippie!) and the compost.

Garden is finished, although I might add a bit more of the mix to certain areas so they look a tad less ghetto. I lost almost 6 inches in my back row due to the the garden edging and not being as precise as I could be. Part of me wants to dig it back out and see if I can find a heavy fabric to put down or just something thinner and maybe deeper. I want those inches back for my tomatoes.

I'm going to do a mini-experiment with starting some seeds indoor. I chose seeds for plants that you can't actually start from seed outside in the Northwest and they are all for containter gardnes: A chili pepper plant A sweet pepper plant, mini-eggplant. I also picked up romaine and a compact zucchini bush. We've got really large garden windows in the basement. I'm going to see how long I cnan grown 'em in there. Depending on the temperature of those windows (I need a thermometer), I may have just found a nice little way to extend my growing season--at least for lettuces and smaller plants.

I'll have to make final decisions on what to do about a barrier from the roots . It's getting late to get the peas in and I'm chomping at the bit to start the chard and lettuce. I'm planning on picking up 2 broccoli starts next weekend as well as some kale.