something every day
I'm going to try to write something every day (for the next few days) in my livejournal.
Today Aaron and I built and filled two new vegetable beds with soil. Today, like most days, I woke up at 7:30 with Buzz the cat meowing for his breakfast. I fed him and dressed myself and he and I went out the door into the backyard.
I pulled the hoe out of the shed and got to work. Aaron had partially dug the first bed for the spring crops already, so I finished it and lined it with 4x4 inch cedar planks. I marked a second bed and began de-weeding and tilling the top layers of the compacted dirt.
Within this half hour, the sun had gotten a quarter-way up, and my sweater was stifling-hot. I changed into a tank top and got back to work. I put all the extra garden soil I had left into the first bed but still needed amendments.
I took a look at the new vegetable seedlings. I found a snail crawling on the Poblano pepper plant. It had destroyed three of the leaves. I took the snail off and crushed it. I have a hard time killing snails lately, but if I've seen one crawling on my plant, I do kill it. Ones in other parts of the yard, I ignore. Aphids had found my tomato seedlings. I felt frustrated and a little worried that the pests had already set in on my carefully-chosen, brand-new plants.
I went out at noon to get fresh soil amendments from the local nursery and stop by Sunshine Community Gardens for some tomato growing tips. At Sunshine, I found Randy, the resident tomato and pepper expert, and he told me to expect my tomatoes to grow taller than five feet! I'd have to find a cage to hoist them that high above the ground! I was astonished. The little aphid-beset seedlings are now only six inches high. I think Sunshine must have something in the water. In three months, we'll see.
A spontaneous thunderstorm threw heavy raindrops on the road between Sunshine and the nursery. It left as soon as it came, leaving a gleam of water on the leaves of the seedlings and saplings at the nursey. I picked up garden soil and compost and went home to install it.
Aaron finished tilling the second bed for me, and started tilling a third to plant his sprouting ginger rhizomes. (He had gotten the ginger for a Chinese medicinal tonic, but hadn't made it in time. The ginger had its own plans.)
By the end of the afternoon, I had planted two tomatoes, one pepper and one eggplant seedling. I gave them little cloches to protect them from the cool evenings. The rest of the seedlings were treated for aphids with a fresh batch of insecticidal soap (three parts water, one part rubbing alcohol, and a few drops of peppermint castille soap). They went inside for the evening.
Now I'm home, me and the cat and the plants.
Today Aaron and I built and filled two new vegetable beds with soil. Today, like most days, I woke up at 7:30 with Buzz the cat meowing for his breakfast. I fed him and dressed myself and he and I went out the door into the backyard.
I pulled the hoe out of the shed and got to work. Aaron had partially dug the first bed for the spring crops already, so I finished it and lined it with 4x4 inch cedar planks. I marked a second bed and began de-weeding and tilling the top layers of the compacted dirt.
Within this half hour, the sun had gotten a quarter-way up, and my sweater was stifling-hot. I changed into a tank top and got back to work. I put all the extra garden soil I had left into the first bed but still needed amendments.
I took a look at the new vegetable seedlings. I found a snail crawling on the Poblano pepper plant. It had destroyed three of the leaves. I took the snail off and crushed it. I have a hard time killing snails lately, but if I've seen one crawling on my plant, I do kill it. Ones in other parts of the yard, I ignore. Aphids had found my tomato seedlings. I felt frustrated and a little worried that the pests had already set in on my carefully-chosen, brand-new plants.
I went out at noon to get fresh soil amendments from the local nursery and stop by Sunshine Community Gardens for some tomato growing tips. At Sunshine, I found Randy, the resident tomato and pepper expert, and he told me to expect my tomatoes to grow taller than five feet! I'd have to find a cage to hoist them that high above the ground! I was astonished. The little aphid-beset seedlings are now only six inches high. I think Sunshine must have something in the water. In three months, we'll see.
A spontaneous thunderstorm threw heavy raindrops on the road between Sunshine and the nursery. It left as soon as it came, leaving a gleam of water on the leaves of the seedlings and saplings at the nursey. I picked up garden soil and compost and went home to install it.
Aaron finished tilling the second bed for me, and started tilling a third to plant his sprouting ginger rhizomes. (He had gotten the ginger for a Chinese medicinal tonic, but hadn't made it in time. The ginger had its own plans.)
By the end of the afternoon, I had planted two tomatoes, one pepper and one eggplant seedling. I gave them little cloches to protect them from the cool evenings. The rest of the seedlings were treated for aphids with a fresh batch of insecticidal soap (three parts water, one part rubbing alcohol, and a few drops of peppermint castille soap). They went inside for the evening.
Now I'm home, me and the cat and the plants.