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.  

Those rhizomes traveled a long way.

Not much I can do at the moment. Brief puttering and thinking about stuff. Quite some time back I ordered some heritage iris rhizomes.

By heritage, I indicate varieties that are genetic clones, through generations, from the mid 20th century, to the 19th century, and in some cases the 16th century. Propagated in endless succession by gardeners, and sometimes by nurseries, and sometimes by neglect, for generations and centuries. I ordered these rhizomes back in August of last year.  Ordering so far ahead is a leap of faith - a lot can happen in 8 months, and has.

 The raised bed is set up for them, and already has other irises, already well amended with a mixture of leaf compost and local soil (about 3 parts soil to 1 part compost), plus wood ashes, plus near the surface level, more kitchen compost and a generous dusting of ground eggshell for calcium. The irises already in the bed are growing vigorously, with stout green leaves, longer each time I look.

The rhizomes are shipping here,, should arrive today. It's interesting to me - and probably only to me - to look at the shipping record online. These rhizomes, having traveled through decades and centuries, and some at least across one ocean, and back and forth across a continent, are traveling again.  More when they arrive.

Location	Date	Local Time	Activity
Vancouver, WA, United States	04/05/2013	7:27 A.M.	Out For Delivery
	04/05/2013	7:01 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Portland, OR, United States	04/05/2013	6:35 A.M.	Departure Scan
Portland, OR, United States	04/04/2013	11:32 P.M.	Arrival Scan
Hermiston, OR, United States	04/04/2013	7:54 P.M.	Departure Scan
	04/04/2013	5:38 P.M.	Arrival Scan
Spokane, WA, United States	04/04/2013	2:31 P.M.	Departure Scan
	04/04/2013	11:55 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Hodgkins, IL, United States	04/02/2013	10:37 A.M.	Departure Scan
	04/02/2013	6:28 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Oshtemo, MI, United States	04/02/2013	4:18 A.M.	Departure Scan
	04/02/2013	4:07 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Wyoming, MI, United States	04/02/2013	3:08 A.M.	Departure Scan
	04/02/2013	12:22 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Ypsilanti, MI, United States	04/01/2013	9:44 P.M.	Departure Scan
	04/01/2013	6:53 P.M.	Origin Scan
United States	04/01/2013	4:22 P.M.	Order Processed: Ready for UPS

from Renaissance herbals.



from http://irapl.altervista.org/nit/viewpics.php?title=Iris+florentina

(from the linked website:  Iris florentina
Picture modified from Gilg, Ernst; Schumann, Karl - Das Pflanzenreich Hausschatz des Wissens (1900) - Permission granted to use under GFDL by Kurt Stueber. Source: www.biolib.de - Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this image under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.
More to follow.