Tomato Seeds and Fertilizing - June 18, 2020

After yesterday's post, I went back to work in the garden.  We've been working hard at weed control for the past couple of weeks.  I've been trying to pull the weeds up rather than just chopping them down.  Between the rows, there were piles of pulled-up grass.  I've been deliberately leaving those piles in place to see if they would form a mat to keep new grass from sprouting under them.

My mother had a friend, Evelyn, who grew awesome vegetable gardens.  I used to quiz her for garden tips.  Once I asked her how she managed to keep her garden so clean.  Of course, her answer was that she worked hard at it.  She said that her son would run the tiller between the rows until the middles got to narrow (as the plants grew), then they'd use a hoe.  I asked her if they just cut the weeds down or if they dug them up by the roots.  She said they dug them up.  I can still hear her saying, "...turn them roots up to the sun . . . ."

So that's what I've been doing, turning them up to the sun. 

It doesn't take long for the sun to dry them.  As the days have gone by, I've just added new grass to the original piles.  Of course, some of the stuff under the bottom wasn't entirely dead when I tossed new grass on top, and some of it managed to take hold and keep going.  But for the most part, leaving the pulled-up grass in the middles really did act like a kind of mulch.  I could see a difference in how much grass had sprouted BETWEEN those piles versus how much grass was UNDER them. 

However, yesterday's to-do list included fertilizing, and I planned to do it with liquid fertilizer and a sprayer.  I knew that if I left those grass piles in the garden, the not-dead-yet grass would revive and create monstrous clumps, so I raked all of the clumps out of the middles before I sprayed the fertilizer. 

For the first time ever, I hated to throw away dead grass.  We normally toss it over the hill into the field.  Yesterday, I piled it up beside the shed.  It needs to be spread out in the sun so it can finish drying.  I'm going to do that this afternoon, and when all of the grass is good and dry, I'm going to use it for mulch.

I remembered to plant the tomato seeds, but I did something dumb: I planted them too close to the cucumbers.  Those runners will have no problem reaching the spot where the seeds are.  If they don't shade the seedlings, they'll try to climb them.  It'll be interesting to see which of them - the tomatoes or the cucumbers - wins the fight.