First planting 2011

The weather has been beautiful for the past few days, and so when I got off work a little early yesterday, I went straight to the garden center to buy plants and seeds for the summer vegetable garden.  I knew that Nanny had already bought several 4-packs of tomato plants and a few squash plants; I picked up some eggplants, peppers, one more tomato, and some seeds for squash, okra, butterbeans, green beans, blackeyed peas, and zucchini. 

The whole garden plot was disked back in February, but only the rows where we planted potatoes, onions, and fava beans had been tilled, so I dragged Mr. Easy out of the tool shed.  He has an electric starter, but I thought I'd give him a chance to show me what he's got.  I adjusted the levers and gave the cord a yank.  He fired up after just one pull, and we headed for the garden.

I think I'm going to love this tiller.  It's big and heavy, but fairly easy to control when it's digging.  After I broke up the soil with the tines in reverse, I set them to turn forward and smoothed the rows.  The tiller handles will swivel to the left or the right, enabling the operator to walk beside the tiller so as not to compact the soil in the rows.  In most places, it was fairly easy to guide the monster while walking beside it, using just one hand. 

I got in about 2.5 hours worth of tilling before The Husband came home from work and told me we had a dinner date and I should quit.  Reluctantly (I was "in the zone" and hated to stop, and I hadn't yet planted a thing), I steered the tiller toward the shed and came back to the house to get cleaned up for dinner. 

This morning, I took my coffee on the patio.  The sky was a little overcast, and soon I heard distant thunder.  I hurried inside, put my gardening clothes back on, climbed on my bike, and rode down to the garden to set  the tomatoes, squash, and pepper plants before the rain came.  Nanny came out to help.  We managed to get all of the plants in the ground before the drizzle started, but there wasn't time to plant any of the seeds.  Now, it'll probably be several more days before the ground is dry enough to work. 

I made a vow to get a head start on the blight problem this year.  This morning's effort may have been for naught since it looks like we're in for more than a sprinkling of rain today, but I mixed up a bucket of liquid copper fungicide and dunked the new tomato plants in it, dirt and all, before putting them in the ground.  We then poured the left-over mixture around the plants, hoping to retard the fungus still in the soil from last year. 

We also intend to try growing some tomato plants in bags of potting soil.  It looks easy enough.  When this rain slacks up, I'll be on my way to the garden center for potting soil and plants.  I'll let you know how it works.