| The new beds are up and ready and the old beds are “refreshed” and ready too! Setting up everything required some work but we believe it will pay off in the long run with TONS of veggies. The 2 old beds had left over dirt from last year and the new ones were completely empty so we had to do a few things involving…you guessed it…SOIL. | Las nuevas jardineras están listas y las antiguas han sido rejuvenecidas y también están listas! Preparar todo tomo un poco de trabajo, pero creemos que valdrá la pena a largo plazo con MUCHOS vegetales. Las 2 jardineras antiguas tenían tierra del ano pasado y las nuevas estaban completamente vacías así que teníamos que hacer algo con … ya saben … tierra. |
| With the old beds we took out every weed, dug around to look for unwanted roots and also to loosen up the soil (we want fluffy soil for the vegetable roots to grow). The new ones needed to be filled up with good material since they only had the newspaper and fall leaves that will keep weeds at bay. | En las jardineras antiguas sacamos todas las malezas, desenterramos raíces no deseadas y soltamos la tierra (queremos tierra suelta para que las raíces de los vegetales crezcan). Las nuevas necesitaban ser llenadas con buen material ya que solo tenían las hojas y el papel de diario en el fondo para mantener las malezas a raya. |
| We needed a ton of soil (or at least very close to a ton), so we ordered a truck load: 4 cubic yards to be exact. This soil was designated to fill up the beds and also be added to the front yard were part of the soil is poor quality. After a little research we found a local nursery (Southern Nurseries in Nashville) that had a garden mix named Holy Cow Garden Mix. Their mix is organic and they really stand behind their product – it looks fantastic! | Necesitábamos una tonelada de tierra (o cerca de una tonelada), así que ordenamos una camionada: 4 yardas cubicas para ser exactos. Esta tierra fue designada para llenar las jardineras y también agregar un poco al jardín del frente para mejorar la tierra de mala calidad que tenemos ahí. Después de investigar un poco, encontramos un vivero local (Southern Nurseries en Nashville) que ofrecían una mezcla para huerta llamada Holy Cow Garden Mix. Es tierra orgánica y ellos están muy orgullosos de la calidad de su producto – la verdad se ve fantástico! |
| A truck came to deliver our order of soil and placed it in the back yard – it barely made it through the gate. At first Chupi and Chori loved to eat the stuff! Crazy doggos, it looks like chocolate cake but I am sure it doesn’t taste all that great. We filled up the new beds and topped off the old ones. Now we have plenty of left over for the front yard. We will see how the plants like it when we start planting some stuff. Can the spring hurry up a bit? | Un camion vino a hacer el despacho de la tierra y la puso en el patio trasero – apenas paso por la reja. Al principio Chupi y Chori solo querían comerse la tierra! Están locos, la tierra parece torta de chocolate pero estoy seguro que no sabe igual. Llenamos las jardineras y rellenamos las antiguas. Ahora tenemos bastante de sobra para poner en el frente. Veremos si a las plantas les gusta una vez las instalemos en su lugar. Se puede apurar un poquito la primavera? |
Los Rodriguez Life 
10 responses to “Soil is the key to happy plants!”
Oh, you kindred spirits! If you only lived closer to the ocean, I’d encourage you to add seaweed to your organic mixture. But Holy Cow is always welcome — in fact, a favorite Mother’s Day gift around here is a load of composted manure.
Best of luck with the plantings.
By the way, don’t forget to share some photos of that shiny new wheelbarrow at the end of the season — I can’t think of a more useful, or well used, garden implement.
we heard on a BBC gardening show that seaweed was really good for compost! Too bad we aren’t closer! haha and yes – that wheelbarrow is our newest gardening tool – we had been using a dolly and huge plastic tub for a long time but the tub broke and we figured it was time to invest in the real deal! I’m sure it’ll look good and worn by the end of the season! 🙂
Grew up on a farm. No details, but this was the kind of soil in our garden every year. Fresh!
We love fresh soil. I don’t think we ever imagined we would get excited about soil!
Healthy soil, healthy people!
That’s the idea!
I enjoy reading your blog. I really like to read the spanish and try to stimulate my language learning too. Keep up the good work.
Que tengas un buen día. (I hope this is correct).
Good job! Thanks George, we are glad you can use the Spanish writing in the blog. Nos vemos pronto!
Leave it to Leslie to look gorgeous while gardening! I´m going to try to do a bit of inner-city gardening this year so I´m taking notes. Hope all is well with you two!
In that nice terraza you have there you can use pots. If you want veggies you can do tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, peas, even strawberries….so many options. And of course a bunch of flowers. Go crazy, its fun!