Start of Fall Planting - Prepping Garden Beds

OK...the fence is built...now comes the real work, reconditioning the soil in all my beds so I can plant my fall garden.  Mind you, it's 103 degrees outside and I have to haul 15, 40 pound bags of compost around.  Hardly a task to get excited about.  But my husband and I have a couple of family events coming up that will take us out of town next week, and I *really* want to have the beds ready and seeds/seedlings planted before we leave.  So I have to suck it up and get to work...

I started very early this past Wednesday morning (the sun was barely up) and dumped three bags of compost in each of five beds.  The 6th bed is still producing beautiful peppers so I won't do anything with that bed just yet. 

Actually, the first thing I did was rake all the old mulch off the top of each bed and scatter it over the ground.  This mulch has served its purpose and it's time to replace it with fresh mulch. 

Then I dumped 3 bags of LadyBug Revitalizer Compost into each bed and tilled it in well.  That was an enormous amount of work and when I was done, I quit for the day.  I was out in the garden for about 4 1/2 hours and in this heat, that's enough.

And Friday morning, I finished the job.  I replaced all the soaker hoses in every one of my garden beds.  They (the soaker hoses) simply don't last very long.  The hot Texas sun just eats them up and if they last one season (summer or fall), I consider myself lucky.

After the soaker hoses were laid, I put 2 bags of mulch in each bed, spread it out and tada...done!

I tried a new mulch for my beds this fall.  It's made by LadyBug, a company in Austin that specializes in natural and organic products.  I love their stuff.  The mulch is called Sylvan Formula and it looks (and smells) amazing...like a forest!  It contains hardwood mulch, two kinds of composts, humate, molasses and cornmeal, among other things.  It sure was a lot easier dumping only 10 bags of mulch as opposed to hauling 90 wheelbarrels full from my cedar bark mulch pile!  Look at this beautiful stuff!

And tomorrow brings the fun stuff...I plant :)