Well it's been a doozy last couple weeks, I must say. First off, the weather is FABULOUS. Days like today make me want to take a snooze in a hammock. It's supposed to be 67 tomorrow!
But who can snooze when there's so much work to be done! I spent a lot of time in the yard today, inspecting. Wola and I had a great time yesterday exploring the yard. We discovered violets growing in the lawn, one lone dandelion (which I promptly picked and threw into the street to prevent it from seeding), lots of buds on the trees, and the garlic is coming up VERY well. Lots of maple seedlings, also... but those will be smothered when I get my wood chip mulch down (when I finally get it!). We also dug all the weeds out of the brick planter at the end of the patio, in preparation for either my strawberries or herbs. I still haven't decided what I'm going to put in there.
I potted up all the tomato seedlings and ended up with 73 total! Wow... lol. 4 different varieties and also a couple tomatillos, although I still have to finish potting the rest of those up. I will also NEED to pot up all the broccoli, onions, and cabbage next weekend. I might even try and get it done during the week at some point... some of the cabbage seedlings were falling over even before they have their first true leaves. I think because it's pretty warm there inside the grow rack, especially under a humidity dome.
I might also instead of potting up, just stick the onions right into the ground. Next weekend will be busy. I'll need to get a bunch more compost so I can plant into it especially if I want to get my onions right in, and also I'll be planting my potatoes that I just got this weekend. They are in a flat in my dining room, greening up a bit in preparation for planting. I'm also going to sow carrots, radishes, dill, chives, cilantro and parsley (both the rooted and the regular type).
Then I also have to put together my box for salad mix (it'll be real quick, just 4 - 1x6 boards screwed together in a box shape), fill it with compost and plant! That's a lot of compost. Now that I'm thinking about it, I should just go get a truckload instead of buying bags. I think I'll make some phone calls today and see - I bet it would be cheaper and I could just top off all my beds with any remainder.
And the other thing I'll need to do soon is to arrange for a day off from work so I can work in the garden, like spreading mulch and whatnot. Of course, that assumes I'm able to GET SOME MULCH.
Note to self for next year - only plant similar items in each flat! It's a pain to have a partial flat of mostly tomatoes (which are all going nuts) and eggplant (which have only germinated one so far). Also, I am DEFINITELY doing soil blocks. Transplanting from a solid flat into smaller pots, egg crates, TP tubes, etc. is a pain. Soil blocks will be a lot easier, I'm thinking. I'm going to get one of the teeny size for the initial germination and then probably a 2".
5 months ago
