I tried to get to the garden early today so I could water before the sun came up, but sleep was WAY too appealing, so I'm going to head back over in about 30 minutes or so and finish the job.
When I got there I started off with some simple projects. I weeded the South bed, thinned out the gooseberry bush, and harvested some arugula and lettuce. There wasn't enough to sell, so I think I'm going to plant some more so that future harvests can be sold. I also trimmed the currant bush a bit, but it's flowering so I decided to leave most of it.
I'd been reading a whole lot about herbs and how great they are, so I decided to plant some more herbs in the herb section of the South Bed. There's already plenty of mint, sage, and parsley, but I added more cilantro, then planted dill, cumin, and fennel.
I planted spinach and nasturtium (an edible flower) next to the mixed lettuce bed, but I'll plant more lettuce and spinach tomorrow I think. Today was mostly a surveying/ maintenance day.
I checked on all the seedlings at the North bed and made sure they're still moist enough. I'll be planting them starting next week, I think.
A lot of people don't know that Dandelions are edible. But few people choose to grow them, and they're a bit particular about how you can eat them. And since they are ultimately choking plants that kill desired vegetables, they have to go. Today was an epic battle. The MULCH shed was devoid of any of the weeders I'm used to (and are particularly good for getting at the roots of the weeds) so I used a small potting shovel instead. Crude, but effective. I remain unconvinced that I got all the dandelions in the beds, but for now, all visible plants are gone from the North bed, the South bed, and the EcoHouse beds.
My friend Reed came to help for an hour or so. While he was here he helped prune one of the elderberry bushes (it's really more of a tree now) over by the EcoHouse and thinned some of the flowers over in the South Bed.
I turned the compost pile over by the German House, it was looking a bit dry. I added some greens to it. I'll start bringing over my coffee grounds in the morning to add to that. I also turned the bin, which is looking a little too wet so I added some browns.
Using some of the leftover seedling sale money, I bought two weeders, a pair of pruning shears, and some strawberry seeds. I'm going to try to get them to grow next to the rhubarb by the EcoHouse. Also, Reed is going to check and see if he can transplant a couple berry bushes. I'm not sure of the logistics of that, I guess I have some research to do.
Reed and I made a list of things we'd like to see happen, if cost weren't an issue. First of all, we need to fix the fences around the beds. If that means putting up more steaks as a quick fix, then it's a good investment. They're falling down and seemingly ineffective, which is really too bad. I'll see what I can do with them this summer. We'd also like to get to work on a rain garden for the lower part of the back EcoHouse bed (which is currently unplanted). It's sloping, so there'd be a good amount of water reaching it. We'd like to see more berries in the perennial garden (and hopefully those strawberries will take!). And finally, we'd like to be growing something in ALL of the beds. Hopefully that will happen, I do have 3 months to get to work.
Tomorrow I plan on thinning and planting. Also, hopefully I'll have some pictures to post!
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