Raised Beds. Renovated One and Added a New One. Multiplier Onions.

Kitchen garden, from the west

 I cleaned up one raised bed.  There were some plant starts I no longer wanted.  I saved the row of Egyptian Walking Onions to clean up, divide, and replant.  I planted some at the same time last year with good result.  The cleaned up bed will be Ning's Chinese Cabbage bed.

Egyptian Walking Onions, before planting

Egyptian Walking Onions, cleaned and arranged

 After carefully digging out the onion bulbs here is what remains.  It's enough for about 50 starts.

Egyptian Walking Onions Large plants in place, now for the sets.

I cleaned them up, cut off the tops, split apart the topsets, and planted into rows.  They are about 4 inches apart.  We'll pull out every-other-one for scallions, leaving them a reasonable 8 inches apart.

Now they are planted and watered in.

This raised bed is another "molehill gardening" bed.  All of the added topsoil originates as mole hills.  I go around the yard with the wheelbarrow and a shovel, removing the mole hills.  I keep them in a pile and when constructing a new bed, that is the source of topsoil.  I mix with about 30% compost.  The compost is "yard waste" compost from H&H recycling.  I'm suspicious, some of that yard waste is really demolition waste - they grind up old wooden waste - but I think that's OK.

The molehills are finely ground, light, no clods, no stones, no plant matter.  Since they originate fairly deep, using them brings minerals back to the surface level.  They are very easy to remove and haul to the garden.   I'm not worried about the lawn sinking - stomping down the molehills would not help with that anyway.