Weeding & Feeding

I'd planned on rest and relax on Sunday. 

But Sunday morning was gloriously beautiful, and when I stepped outside with my coffee, my thought was that I ought to plant the tomatoes I'd bought on Friday before I started relaxing.  I came inside to put on my shoes, collect my gardening gear, and mix up some fertilizer.  While doing this, I remembered other little jobs that needed doing, and so instead of walking across the road with a trowel and a pack of tomatoes as I'd envisioned over the coffee, I drove across the road on the lawnmower, pulling a wagon-load of tools and supplies. 

I planted the tomatoes, ran the tiller, fertilized, staked the sweet peas, mowed the grass around the garden.  As I was doing this, Nephew Bradley - the same Nephew Bradley who had enjoyed planting tomatoes two days ago - showed up on his bicycle.  He stopped at the fence.  "S'up, Bradley?" I asked him. 

He shrugged. 

"Sunday afternoon?"

"Yeah," he said.  He lingered on his bike, toeing the gravel with his shoe.  I just knew he was going to ask if I needed help, and I was already making a mental list of things for him to do.  "Well, I'll see you later," he said abruptly, and rode on down the driveway to Nanny's house.  Phooey. I kept working, thinking there was a chance I'd snag him on his way back.

A few minutes later, he rode past me again.  "Bye!" he called, without even stopping.

A little while later he was back at the fence, straddling his bike.  "I'm bored," he said when I looked up.

Hah!  I had him!  I stood up, shaded my eyes with my hand, and gave him a thoughtful look, as if I was trying to come up with a good idea for him.  "Well, do you want some work?" I asked, expecting him to jump at the chance.

"NO!" he said without hesitation. 

I laughed, thinking he was just teasing.  I looked down to adjust the velcro straps on my gardening gloves, planning to offer to "let" him run the tiller, but when I looked up again, he was GONE.  I looked down the road and saw him sailing down the hill on his bike, standing on the pedals as if he'd been pumping hell for leather to get away.  Hmph.  I went back to work. 

Nearly five hours later, I gave out, without even having finished everything I wanted to do. 

Squash and Peppers

I made a run to the greenhouse today for squash seeds.  I ended up buying all sorts of seeds - greens for this fall, giant pumpkins, and such - some of which may never get planted.  Pepper plants, a few herbs, and another pack of tomatoes - "Super Fantastic," or so they say - hitched a ride home with me.  I wanted to buy tomato cages, but the good ones were nearly $10 apiece, and I need about 50.  Do the math.  I could hire somebody to stand out there and hold them up for that.

The early garden needs plowing/weeding.  If I can get the little black tiller cranked, we may have a go at it this afternoon.   

First Tomato Planting

Nanny bought tomato plants yesterday, and per the almanac's recommendation, we set them - about 40 plants - in the ground today.  Nephew Bradley had the bad fortune of showing up just as we were preparing to dig the holes, and we drafted him on sight.  It turned out that, once we got the holes dug and starting the planting phase, Bradley liked the work. We may make a gardener of him, yet.

I prepared hills for squash, but when we dug through the seed supply, we couldn't find any yellow squash seeds, so I'll have to make a run to the seed store tomorrow. 

We sowed the first row of the garden in flower seeds - sunflowers (big and dwarf), zinnias, and marigolds. 

Nanny got out Pop-Pop's "bicycle-on-a-stick" planter and put down two rows of green pole beans.  Tomorrow, we're planting peas and okra.

I'm stiff as a poker, already.

Gardening for Real

I've already had a few turns around the garden this year, but the season officially opened today, for today I broke out the red straw gardening hat. 

The cabbages, broccoli, and brussels sprouts that I planted last month have just been sitting there, doing nothing.  I've been intending to fertilize them for days, but never had my supplies and tools handy.  Today, when I got home from work, I rode my bike to Pop-Pop's, both to air up the bike tires and to look in the shed for the fertilizer.  Going down the driveway, I noticed freshly-tilled soil in the big garden; Mr. Charles had been there today with his tractor, and it's ready for planting.  "Looks like I need to buy some tomatoes tomorrow," I said to Pop-Pop as I rode up to the shed, where he was working on a lawnmower. 

Nanny was there, too, handing him some tools.  "The almanac says to plant above-ground crops on - shoot, what day was that?"  She grabbed the almanac and handed it to me.  I didn't have my glasses and couldn't see the tiny print without laying the book on the floor and standing on a chair to read it.  Pop-Pop handed me his glasses, but they made me dizzy.  Nanny handed me hers; they worked fairly well when I held the book 3 inches from my nose.  "It says the 15th through the 17th," I told them.  "I'll get the plants and some seeds tomorrow, and we'll poke them in the ground the day after."

I aired up the bike tires, found the fertilizer, and pedaled back up the driveway to my house to find a bucket and some water.  I mixed up the fertilizer in the bucket and hauled it to the garden.  The ground around the plants was pretty hard, so I came back to the house for a hoe, my gloves, and my hat.  Now, it's gardening time. 

Peas Are Up

The sugar snap peas and the broad beans I planted a couple of weeks ago are up.  It's about danged time - seems like I planted them ages ago.  We went out of town from the 23rd to the 31st, and the first thing I did when we got home was run to the early garden to see what had happened while I was gone.  Thankfully, the cabbage, onions, broccoli and brussels sprouts were still standing (no rabbits, yet - knock on wood), but only 2 of the bean seeds had sprouted, and none of the peas.  I was beginning to worry.  It looks like only  half of the broad beans are up.  Tonight's rain may encourage the stragglers.

The radishes are coming along, and I thinned them a little more today.  The lettuce is showing itself, but isn't nearly big enough to eat.  There's no sign of the larkspur, evil stuff.

I was pleased to find that the rosemary has over-wintered.  I intentionally left last year's fall leaves and dried weed stems around it, hoping they'd protect it.  Before we left on our trip, I pulled back the weeds and leaves and found dry rosemary stems, but no sign of life.  Today, it has new green needles.  I was also pleasantly surprised to find a very nice clump of green parsley among the dead weeds.  I should've picked some to use for supper.  Just now, as I have the thought to go back for some, the rain begins.