Before we actually got to planting, we decided to finally take the tree down in the backyard which is ugly and very close to the retaining wall (and blocks sunlight from our garden). That turned out to be a 3-day project, but it was worth it. Most of the time was spent cutting up the branches and bundling them so our trash service will take them way. They will take 4 bundles per week, so it will take several weeks to get rid of all of them, but that’s fine.
Once we had the tree down, we could start planting the garden. I had tilled the garden on Thursday, so all we had to do was put down the soaker hose, the black plastic and then put the plants in. I saved the black plastic I used last year in the garden, so we used the same holes. I learned this method from Angie Fender in Indiana, and it works quite well. I don’t think she used a soaker hose though. Not too much watering is required in Indiana, but in Colorado we definitely need to water the garden. Using a soaker hose under the black plastic minimizes evaporation. Planting the garden was a little trickier this year than last, since Spencer wanted to help, which mostly involved him poking the trowel in the dirt, but also involved him pulling out a few plants. We branched out this year a bit, and did a variety of tomatoes and hot peppers, plus some cucumbers, butternut squash, and peter pan squash. We bought the plants on Friday, and got the tomatoes and peppers in on Saturday, but didn’t get the other stuff in on Sunday. They don’t seem to be doing as well. It could be the extra day, or the extra “help” we got from Spencer putting those in. Or it could be that most of those did not fit on the black plastic. We’ll see how things turn out.
