Can you believe that I still have one tomato from our garden still ripening on my kitchen counter? We had a bumper crop of green tomatoes before our late freeze last year, and I'm just now finishing them up. We still have a decent supply of okra and kale in the chest freezer, and I still have two jars of homemade marinara sauce in the pantry.
There's nothing more wonderful than an early Spring in the South. Two weeks ago, New Daddy tilled our 18' x 40' plot. The following week, we started implementing our new weed control plan, based on Debi Pearl's garden instructions in this video. We made two trips to Walmart to get cardboard boxes and another trip to the feed store for hay to hold the boxes down. We had a pretty wild thunderstorm this week, and the boxes stayed put. Yessss!
I think this year's weed control system will be far more effective than the nasty weed "fabric" that we laid down in gapped rows last year. The weeds took over the gaps, and I lost the battle.
In other news, Precious has asked for her own garden plot. Also, I'm looking forward to growing an heirloom variety of okra that doesn't toughen as it grows. Not Clemson spineless, I tell you!
Thus the cycle restarts...
Showing posts with label moving earth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moving earth. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Oh, wow
One night this week, our next door neighbor, a Great Procurer and Disperser of goods, loaned New Daddy an older model Ford tractor that someone loaned him. New Daddy used this tractor to furrow our planting area. Thus, our planting area is twice-- well, almost three times as big as last year's.
Then, this morning he bought a used tiller that he found on Craigslist. A self-propelled, rear-tine tiller that doesn't realign his back. After a visit with family, he then came home and proceeded to till the area. Just as the sun was starting to dip below the trees, I ordered pizza to be delivered, and we started planting.
We finished four hours later, with the help of our halogen work lamp and the ladder that held it. (That would have been 11:15 PM.)
New Daddy now has a much greater appreciation for the meager gardens that I have attempted in previous years. Plus that, we enjoyed doing something together outside. It was almost like a date, a garden date. There, doesn't that sound nice?
Here's what we stuck in the ground. After looking at the kale and carrot seeds, miniscule thingies that they are, I don't see how an aetheist could stand a chance. Only the Almighty God could make those dots grow into food-giving plants.
Corn- 4 looooong rows Howling Mob and Country Gentleman
Beans- rattlesnake pole beans, sewn in the corn so that it can climb the stalks
(We were going to try the "Three Sisters" method of corn + beans + squash, but my squash seeds disappeared before we started planting. I finally found them when I came inside for the evening, and I'll start them when I put my tomato plants in, in about two more weeks.)
Borage- interspersed between rows
Radishes- not sure what we were thinking when we planted 2 loooooong rows of this.
Carrots- 126 Danvers (variety, not number of plants)
Kale- 2 rows Siberian
Spinach- Tyee
If some of these varieties look familiar, as in, what I planted last year, that would be correct. I had so many seeds in the freezer, I just opened the door and planted what I had. I did throw away two empty seed envelopes when we were finished.
And... for Easter, I'll be sporting my "dirt" manicure. An earthy look, yes?
Then, this morning he bought a used tiller that he found on Craigslist. A self-propelled, rear-tine tiller that doesn't realign his back. After a visit with family, he then came home and proceeded to till the area. Just as the sun was starting to dip below the trees, I ordered pizza to be delivered, and we started planting.
We finished four hours later, with the help of our halogen work lamp and the ladder that held it. (That would have been 11:15 PM.)
New Daddy now has a much greater appreciation for the meager gardens that I have attempted in previous years. Plus that, we enjoyed doing something together outside. It was almost like a date, a garden date. There, doesn't that sound nice?
Here's what we stuck in the ground. After looking at the kale and carrot seeds, miniscule thingies that they are, I don't see how an aetheist could stand a chance. Only the Almighty God could make those dots grow into food-giving plants.
Corn- 4 looooong rows Howling Mob and Country Gentleman
Beans- rattlesnake pole beans, sewn in the corn so that it can climb the stalks
(We were going to try the "Three Sisters" method of corn + beans + squash, but my squash seeds disappeared before we started planting. I finally found them when I came inside for the evening, and I'll start them when I put my tomato plants in, in about two more weeks.)
Borage- interspersed between rows
Radishes- not sure what we were thinking when we planted 2 loooooong rows of this.
Carrots- 126 Danvers (variety, not number of plants)
Kale- 2 rows Siberian
Spinach- Tyee
If some of these varieties look familiar, as in, what I planted last year, that would be correct. I had so many seeds in the freezer, I just opened the door and planted what I had. I did throw away two empty seed envelopes when we were finished.
And... for Easter, I'll be sporting my "dirt" manicure. An earthy look, yes?
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