Dig dig dig
Put in the garden this weekend. Chris did most of the building of frames and putting up of fence, and I did most of the digging. Plus a bunch of stirring. Mostly stirring. I'm really not particularly good at spading, so to mix in the compost and peat, I just mostly knelt there and squooshed dirt with my fingers. I don't know why turning dirt with a shovel isn't something that I can do easily, but it's not. However, I rather enjoy gooshing dirt with my hands, so it was all fine, apart from the cutworm that I gooshed, which was really deesgusting. Planted three tomatoes, a couple of peppers, a few lettuces, a couple rows of radishes, a row of kohlrabi, and dug a bed for asparagus. And by 'dug a bed', I mean just that, cutting a brand new, 4 foot by 2 foot, 12-inch deep bed out of the grass and clay. Since Chris was trying to get the lawnmower to work at the time, it were all me, and now my butt muscles hurt in places I wasn't even aware that I HAD butt muscles. And then a bunch of kneeling while I separated the claydirt from the grass, because you can't have grass in with the asparagus, 'cause it's too hard to get back out again. And then more handmixing of compost (yes, by compost, I mean cow manure) and peat moss into the claydirt, and then a careful planting of ten little year-old asparagus crowns, covering them with manure and dirt, and now comes the waiting. I hate waiting.
Once they start coming up, I will be adding more and more dirt to the trench that's currently in the yard until it's all back up to fill the planter box that Chris built around the trench I dug. Apparently, this is why asparagus costs so much, it's a pain in the butt to establish. Then, next year, we may get to eat a few, but not very many, really skinny asparagus shoots, and then the year after THAT, we'll get to start harvesting for real. Of course, by then, I might've decided that asparagus is really and truly a pain in the rear, but supposedly, once it's established and I've added dirt to the bed to the proper depth, I'll be able to just mulch the thing and not have to really do anything other than cut it down at the end of winter and eat it once it comes up in the spring. Here's hoping. I enjoy planting, at any rate. Weeding, not so much, but planting and mixing dirt, I like.
I'm thinking of planting a bush cucumber or two, and I'm pondering a winter squash. If we do the squash, it'll most likely be along the neighbor's fence, so I'll probably be courteous and ask him first if he minds, seeing as how squash have a tendency to take over the planet, given half a chance.
So, I have a 2'x2' area left mostly unplanned for... what else should I plant? I'll be planting some more radishes and kohlrabi as time passes, and possibly raddichio, but what other vegetables should I plant? I want nice ones that don't take much tending other than watering and occasional weeding. I don't like carrots, and I didn't have any luck with beans or peas last year.
In other news, the payment for my electric assist motor cleared on Thursday, so I'm hoping that it'll show up on my doorstep very soon. I may email or call them tomorrow and ask for a tracking number, just so that I can have something to check online every ten minutes. Hee.
Once they start coming up, I will be adding more and more dirt to the trench that's currently in the yard until it's all back up to fill the planter box that Chris built around the trench I dug. Apparently, this is why asparagus costs so much, it's a pain in the butt to establish. Then, next year, we may get to eat a few, but not very many, really skinny asparagus shoots, and then the year after THAT, we'll get to start harvesting for real. Of course, by then, I might've decided that asparagus is really and truly a pain in the rear, but supposedly, once it's established and I've added dirt to the bed to the proper depth, I'll be able to just mulch the thing and not have to really do anything other than cut it down at the end of winter and eat it once it comes up in the spring. Here's hoping. I enjoy planting, at any rate. Weeding, not so much, but planting and mixing dirt, I like.
I'm thinking of planting a bush cucumber or two, and I'm pondering a winter squash. If we do the squash, it'll most likely be along the neighbor's fence, so I'll probably be courteous and ask him first if he minds, seeing as how squash have a tendency to take over the planet, given half a chance.
So, I have a 2'x2' area left mostly unplanned for... what else should I plant? I'll be planting some more radishes and kohlrabi as time passes, and possibly raddichio, but what other vegetables should I plant? I want nice ones that don't take much tending other than watering and occasional weeding. I don't like carrots, and I didn't have any luck with beans or peas last year.
In other news, the payment for my electric assist motor cleared on Thursday, so I'm hoping that it'll show up on my doorstep very soon. I may email or call them tomorrow and ask for a tracking number, just so that I can have something to check online every ten minutes. Hee.