It’s almost time to plant everything in the garden for the year, so here is an update!
My seedlings are going strong
The only seeds that didn’t sprout were some old pepper seeds from last year, so I will call that a win. The beans and peas are doing so well that I enlisted my mom to transplant them into larger pots for me. The plan is to move everything into my greenhouse this weekend, so hopefully I can plant everything next weekend. Normally I would wait a little longer, but we have a bunch of travel and events in April, so I might need to roll the dice on frost and get them in the ground a little early.
Compost
The Schiele Museum of Natural History in Gastonia sells compost from their farm on Fridays in March and the first part of April. You really can’t beat $20 for a tractor scoop full. So mom and I went 2 weeks ago to get my first load (2 scoops) in the bed of Dad’s truck. It took a good chunk of last weekend to get the compost off loaded into the first tier of my garden and my raised beds. Tomorrow we are off for another load that I will off load into the other 2, slightly smaller tiers of the garden.
EGO Cultivator
I am in LOVE with my EGO Cultivator! It’s a little heavy and awkward, but still lighter and much easier to use than a gas powered version would be. And it works like a charm!
We are traditionally a Ryobi power tool family, but when we moved to this property, we realized that we needed tools with more oomph for yard work. We started out with the EGO string trimmer, but you can change out attachments like the cultivator. So one piece can have multiple uses if you buy the additional attachments.
I have used the cultivator on all 3 tiers so far to clean out all of the grass and weeds that grew over the winter. Then I used it again on the first tier before I put the compost down and it breaks everything up, so I can walk right through and pick up and roots, etc.
Mulch
Another upgrade to the garden this year is mulch in my 2 walkways between the tiers. Last year it felt like I had to pull more weeds from the walkways than from the garden itself. So since I didn’t have to build or repair much of the garden structure this year, I put down weed barrier and added mulch this weekend. It should definitely keep the growth down and should help some with water draining into the walkways as well.
So far the 2026 garden is starting off strong! Fingers crossed that planting goes well and the frost doesn’t bite! Here is a look at my garden prep for the year: Prepping My Garden for 2026
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