Then I moved on to the bed next to that one. Starting on the west end, I planted 18 inches of perilla purple shiso (a spicy Asian mustard that grows about three feet tall). The south half of the bed (maybe 2' x 30'?) has three kinds of beets (crapaudine, cylindra, and tall top early wonder) and two kinds of cauliflower (early snowball and purple sicily). The north half of the bed has seven varieties of carrots (short and sweet, danvers, A#1, amarillo, lunar white, chantenay, and nantes) and two varieties of broccoli (de Cicco and rapini). All are listed in the order I planted, so I know what's what. This may look like a blog, but really it's our gardening notebook!
Many of the seeds I planted today are very small, so I used a spice container that had three openings (the one below sadly only has two!). The main opening was perfect for pouring the seed in. The opening with small holes (like salt shaker) was perfect for the smallest seeds. Finally, the smaller hole was perfect for tapping out the larger seeds. It made it much faster than trying to place all the seeds by hand.
Of course, there are lots of special tools available for this that are very inexpensive ($2–4), but if you forgot to order one when you ordered your seeds and don't feel like going out to buy one, I think the spice can is a great substitute.
Meanwhile, D. was very busy before dinner! He spread 1 lb of sulfur for every 100 square feet of vegetable bed (some had already been done, some not). This will pull down the pH of the soil. Bacteria in the soil will oxidize the sulfur to create a weak sulfuric acid, thereby lowering the pH (making it more acid). (Low pH and high acid always seem like they should be opposites to me!)
Then he worked on reinforcing the wheelbarrow which had become a bit wobbly, and took ten loads of compost into the next bed we're working to fill (about 32' x 5', about the same size as the berry bed). On his way out of the back yard into the front yard to get compost, he took a load of bricks with him so he could mark off the areas where the trees were planted so they won't get accidentally trampled by the kids.
We each spent about 90 minutes in the garden today. Enough to make quite a dent in what needs to be done! The trick now is to keep all the seeds well-watered and not to let them dry out. I already realized I didn't water the front today, and I really should have! We're really going to be missing an irrigation system until we figure that one out...
I always had trouble remembering to water, so I put it on the timer. We had drip irrigation installed at some point, that year we had the best crop. Unfortunately, it started getting clogged and had a few runins with the kids and became useless. Which is unfortunate because it was somewhat expensive. Next time, I'd get a soaker hose in between plants and still put it on a timer.
ReplyDeleteWe used timers and hoses last year, but now we're going to need an irrigation system. There's not enough water pressure to run through all the beds (1,800 sq ft). :) IYH, we're going to work on an irrigation system that is integrated with the rain barrels and fish pond. We do have some timers lying around, and could put maybe 1/4th of the garden on soaker hoses until we get an alternative up and running. We could have probably 1/2 the garden on soaker hoses (2 different water sources), but I don't really want to buy more soaker hoses if we're only using them for a little while. Hmmmmmmmmmm........... We'll be installing it all ourselves, and D. is pretty familiar with it all from his fish-farming days.... We'll see! :)
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