Gardening 201

A year of trial-and-error and quick-learning has made a substantial difference in the garden at Erin's house. Yesterday, I hand picked a salad of lettuce and spinach leaves, and it was only May 13th! That was a far cry from last year, when nothing was even planted until the beginning of June.

So many things seem to be going well. We have a developing patch of sunflowers--last year, the seeds were eaten by birds before they could even germinate. Last year, we had as wide assortment of greens growing, but few that were tasty. Much was planted too late, and entire sections of the garden just didn't do much. There were many tasty things from the garden, so it was a success, but I am hopeful to see it develops much more and make the most of everything we plant.

Potatoes are about 8 inches high right now. There were some that were sprouting in the bag and going bad, so instead of throwing them out, we decided to put them in the ground to see what happens. I don't have high hopes due to the beetles and fungus I've heard about, but we'll see. They are planted early enough to possibly avoid some of those ailments (we don't want to use pesticides).

Same worry about the green beans--last year they were tore up something fierce by bugs, to the point where they only yielded about a serving of beans. There were a few to nibble on while you were out there, but nothing much to bring back home. Hopefully, planting now will avoid some of the bugs. Some of the worst beetles don't start descending on us until late July.

Already, we also have strong patches of kohlrabi, multi-colored beets, peas, two kinds of onions, and broccoli. Something's nibbling the broccoli, but they are hanging in there. There are numerous "volunteer" tomatoes all over the place, coming up from the thickly composted soil. I'm mad at the the possum or whoever it is that's eating the strawberries! We put some chicken wire around a plant that has new buds on it, hopefully that will keep him out.

I just planted some green beans, dill, okra, more lettuce, celery, arugula and flowers. Erin put a batch of transplanted herbs in the front, along with the sage, thyme and chives that are coming up from last year (very exciting). Oh, can't forget the asparagus that is on its 2nd year, so it should have something for picking!

We decided not to rent/buy a rototiller, but to dig the garden out by hand. That is partially insane, but consider that I sit in an office all day and this is a very good form of exercise. Its awfully hard, though. I turn over every square inch with a shovel, which isn't so bad. Then I rake the hard clumps smooth with a hoe, which is outrageously difficult. The downside of this method is that the ground is much clumpier than if it were machine-tilled. Some clay sections are just impossible. The more I hoe the looser the dirt becomes, but its tempting to quit and say its "good enough." I dig a couple of rows each day and have some nice exercise out of it.

Much of the dirt is rich, though, and boosted with compost and some peat that we throw in the clay-ey sections. Interfering trees, roots and endless English ivy has been removed, which probably choked out a lot of plants last year. There is plenty of space, but we are conscious of conserving. Erin discovered a method of mixing spinach and carrot seeds--the spinach grows up, the carrots grow down, and the spinach is eaten before the carrots develop significant greens. I'm not against planting rows between other rows and clearing one crop out to start another.

Once the tomatoes and peppers are planted, space will be a premium. We are also thinking of sweet corn, which might not be too smart considering it requires a fairly large crop to cross-pollinate, but its a fun thing to grow.

Frost has long been over, so we really could have planted everything a month ago, but who knew? As it is, we took some risks and they have paid off. We planted a few things easily, and we figured if they got killed by frost, the worst that would have happened was that we would have to just put something else there, so it didn't seem like a loss to give it a try. Most of the early crops were cold weather ones, anyway.

There are numerous tomato and pepper plants almost hardened enough to be outdoors full-time. We don't have as much variety as last year, but quite a few healthy plants. Many more sweet peppers and not as many hot peppers. There are also cabbage, cauliflower, bok choy and brussel sprouts plants growing slowly but well, and ready to be transplanted outdoors. Basil has been seeded in pots. There are also insect-fighting flowers like marigolds and nasturtiums just starting to sprout in pots.

We're ready!