http://www.aaenvironment.com/CMX/guide-compost.htm

Linda's garden, early June.

A few weeks earlier...

and at the outset, with brother James. They cleared away 'weed trees' to provide more sun and air for their garden's west side. Note underfoot, the layers of cardboard used under the beds a la "no-till", or "lasagna" practice: they added green and brown layers, then topsoil, coir and compost to make a rich, 7-inch deep bed for their seedlings and seeds.

Started from scratch in mid-May with all-volunteer labor and donated supplies, and located in the marvelous Zinsser Community Gardens, the Giving Garden of the Hastings food pantry has a very decent start in life by early June.

The potatoes are just peeking through in the bottom bed (actually the top, on the slight hill). The 18 x 18-foot space will be an intensive mini-farm to supply the freshest of vegetables to local families.

In its early days, leveling the raised beds on the sloping site presented a few challenges, ably met by the team headed here by Jenny Conte of the Hastings Youth Advocate's office.

A few days later, homegrown, donated seedlings awaited their new home in the middle bed, while the upper one still needed digging, sieving and amending of soil, whose results are seen in the other beds above.

The after-school Homework Club's children have built, tended, and eaten from their raised-bed and terraced food garden since April.  In the foreground, the long, split-level home of Sugar Snap Peas above and potatoes below, planted low to accommodate soil to be mounded over tubers as the foliage grows upward.

Linda's garden, the food pantry"s Giving Garden, and the children's garden at the Homework Club are all in Hastings on Hudson. The Special Ed classes' garden at Siragusa School 14, an International Baccalaureate school in the Yonkers district, will thrive well past the school year, maintained by concerned parent neighbors.

These ghastly little gastrpods seem to like French Sorrel as much as I do---we both have a sour tooth. The background is a favorite lampshade of mine. Is it time to place the beer traps out again? The last two netted....nothing.

Measuring plants in three categories---1 inch, 2 inches, and 3 or more...

Eagle-eyed Jacklyn, right,  found the tiniest plant of all!

Zachary K. and Michael C. are just about to transplant the pea plants they grew indoors.

Skinny tomato seedlings are about to get a better growing space. Ideally, we would've waited for the second set of tiny leaves---the true tomato leaves---to appear before doing this.

Wet the potting mix---it takes a lot of water, but don't overdo it!

Put an inch or two of that lovely moist potting soil in the bottom of your bigger pot...

Nestle your small seedlings down quite far---but the leaves should be above the rim. These peat pots will biodegrade and allow roots to grow through undisturbed.

Tamp down any air bubbles, but be careful---these babies are delicate!

Separated this way, the two (actually four) plants---Prudden's Purple Heirlooms---will be easy to transplant into either a bigger pot or outdoors. (Whoops---I think I broke the one second from the right. We'll see if what's underneath will turn into more green.) In two or three weeks, these plants should be strong enough to plant outside, and the weather should be warm enough.