Okay.. since I planted raspberries...
Last Friday I planted a couple of the onion plants and the surviving rosemary plants. It's been so hot that not a lot of them are making it. Getting them in the ground will hopefully better their chances, but this is just one of those tricks of gardening you can't account for all the time.
When I came back to water later that evening, there were bean sprouts!
These are them as of yesterday, doing very well I might add!
Tuesday I decided to put a bunch more seedlings into the ground. I set up two beds in the lower bed of the North garden (it's a little too big to reach, so I made a couple divisions so it's more accessible). I planted four or five rows of tomatoes and two rows of onions. They're settling in fairly well, but it's still very hot so time will tell. I've been watering regularly and hopefully that will help. I mulched them all with compost, so hopefully those nutrients will leach down and make everything a little better.
I still have my work cut out for me though. There are still plenty of seedlings that need to go into the ground. Each seedling is wrapped in newspaper which will give it some protection, but now that they're in the ground the newspaper should decompose. I ripped it a bit around the edges so that if the roots do need to expand, it isn't so hard.
I turned the compost again (I did filter out a large chunk of it to use as mulch) because it's been running fairly hot. Compost piles will naturally get fairly heated, because of the decomposition activity that takes place, but if they get too hot, it can kill the bacteria that are necessary. Turning it will lower the internal temperature and also give it air. Usually you can tell that a compost pile is ready to use when the temperature reaches a consistent level, but when you're continually adding to it, it's more of a sight trick. But if you're using the sifting method as I have been, you need to be consistently checking for mold. It should be easily avoided if you're composting correctly, but you can never be too sure and putting mold on your vegetables can be devastating.
Yesterday I had intended on putting the rest of the seedlings into the ground, but first I had a meeting with Suzanne from the Sustainability Office. We talked a bit about my role as gardener and what else I might be working on this summer. After I get the seedlings into the ground, my job will mostly be weeding, watering, and harvesting. (I wish the there was a W word for harvesting, then I could call it the three Ws... alas). Anyway, that's not enough to fill up 20 hours a week.
Most of what we talked about is the EcoHouse garden, as a project that needs to happen soon. The backyard of the EcoHouse is out of control in that it is almost entirely weeds. Now the only reason I haven't pulled them yet is because I'm concerned about the soil washing away if there isn't anything there to hold it in place. Fortunately Suzanne was able to allocate some funding to buy new plants for the garden. She and I went on the DNR website to look up suggestions they had for shade gardens (which has been the biggest problem the yard has faced). With those recommendations I went online to the outback nursery website to see if they even had those plants available. My friend Maars and I drove out that afternoon to Hastings to pick out some plants. We bought three Maiden Hair Ferns, Two Blue Cohosh plants, Two Jacob's Ladders, A bronzeleaf Diervilla, Four Winterberries, Two Shagbark Hickories, and an American Plum tree.
Maiden Hair Ferns do WONDERFULLY in the shade, so we'll probably plant these in the darkest part of the hard. Hopefully they'll spread too, which will be very good for ground cover.
Blue Cohosh was apparently used by American Indians as a kind of contraceptive or to induce labor. It's also associated with abortion... interesting things you learn on wikipedia. It does say not to take the herb if you're pregnant... Anyway, it does well in the shade and has pretty blue berries.
Jacob's Ladder does well in the shade and has pretty purple flowers. No fun facts about this one except that it does well in the cold.
Bronzeleaf Diervilla does well in part shade and is good for erosion control and massing. So very good for the back yard.
More on winterberries later, I need to look into something.Shagbark Hickory trees prefer full sun to part shade, so they'll go on the edge of the hard to create a border where they can get enough sunlight. One of the great benefits of these trees is that they have edible nuts. Asa had recommended them as additions to the sustainable forest so this was a great find.
American Plums need full sun, so this is a tree we're hoping to plant in the front yard in place of the viburnum that... died. But anyway it doesn't need that much water which is good and it produces fruit. I'll call that one a win.
So that was my day yesterday, aside from a rather embarrassing moment where I found a baby robin wedged between two of the plants I'd bought, apparently hiding. Thinking I'd move it somewhere safer (BAD IDEA) I must have terrified it (it had been sitting so placidly until this point!) because it starting crying... and then I was attacked by a mother robin. It chased me. Across three yards. So. Lesson learned, don't mess with the will of nature.
Today I'm planning on planting the rest of the seedlings, I'll head over to do that this afternoon when the sun isn't directly overhead.
No comments:
Post a Comment