My greenhouse smells like a pizza

My now almost-empty greenhouse has been smelling like a pizza for weeks as the tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, and basil took off in their growth. Makes me hungry every time I go in there. The sun has warmed the soil enough that we got to transplant most items this past week.

Our significant bindweed problem – what drove me to disassemble our raised beds and start over with a giant hugel bed – has returned. Damn, this weed drives me nuts. But our latest connection of white vinegar + salt + dishwashing soap applied through a large sprayer is keeping it at bay. Sort of. Speaking of the hugel bed…

Year One learnings from new hugel bed:

• It is actually too warm for cool weather crops like spinach, which immediately bolted when I transplanted them last month. Stick your fingers several inches down into the bed and you can feel the warmth being generated by the woody core decomposing.
• The grape cuttings I used as part of the debris core are actually sprouting despite being buried under 1′ of straw, compost, and soil.
• Next time I should use something more decorative as a winter cover crop than rye grass; it looks too similar to our lawn grass and pasture grass, making the bed itself look untidy (from a certain perspective).  🙂