Garden Update—Beginning of April

I wish I had some great photos of happy seedlings to post.  But I’ve got a big fat nothing.  I ordered my seeds, and they took FOREVER to arrive.  (Note to self: no ordering from Pinetree Garden Seeds next year!)  I was NOT happy.  So I was finally able to plant seeds in the middle of March (grrrr…).  And here’s my handy dandy little diagram of what I’m planting/will be planting (fingers crossed) for spring: Only problem?  Nothing’s growing except three radish plants, two of which are NOT where I planted them.  The parsley, sage, oregano and thyme all overwintered, so they’re also growing.  So 7 plants out of a bajillion.  Good thing I didn’t plant everything all at once! (My errant radishes) Suspected problems: 1.  Wind.  The wind is terrible here in the spring.  This could disturb any seeds that were planted towards the surface (most of your teeny seeds) and dry the soil out quicker. 2.  Water.  Raised beds drain well.  That’s good and bad.  I think my soil’s drying out quickly, and I haven’t been amazing at watering every day by hand.  I have my soaker line set up, but there are some problems with the main line that it’s hooked up to, and I haven’t been able to turn on automatic watering yet.  3.  Birds.  There have been several fat robins that have taken to digging for worms and other bugs in the garden.  I love the birds, and it’s good that there are worms in the soil, but they’re disturbing the seeds/seedlings. 4.  I have no idea what on earth I’m doing and I’m just pretending to garden.  Very likely. (Sad barren garden with non-operating soakers) Possible solutions: 1.  Mulch.  I’m going to locate some straw (or hay?  I can’t remember which one it is you’re supposed to use) to mulch.  This will protect the seeds from the wind (hopefully).  It should also help with the water problem and possibly with the birds. 2.  Water.  I’m trying to be better about watering daily.  As soon as I can, I’ll get the soakers set up so that it will go automatically. 3.  Floating row covers.  I found a place that makes fabulous row covers to protect from the elements and critters.  Not in the gardening budget for this year, but I want some for next year. 4.  Try, try again. (At least there are a few spots of green in this one.  You can also see that we were one board short in finishing our dividers.  Sad!  Finishing this is somewhere in the list of projects.) I’m not going to put out my second set of seeds until I have some mulch, and I’m hoping to find that by early this week so I can get them in before it gets ridiculously hot around here.  It was 80 degrees this week, so my window of opportunity is narrowing.  And if nothing works, there’s always summer and fall plantings.  And next year!  Anyone know good sources for hay/straw around here?