Distant Storm

Starting a Garden.

Just when I was poised to till under the grass...
We get a P-Patch plot!

Getting Educated:
Just days before receiving notice of the plot, at the local rummage sale I purchased the book, Down-to-Earth Vegetable Gardening, published by Garden Way and featuring Dick Raymond for $0.50.

Meeting Our New Garden:
Last Saturday, after our initial tour of the plot, we began cultivating the soil, turning all the weeds under and bringing up soil from 8" below. Fortunately, several heads of chard, two heads of broccoli, a nice bush of rosemary, and a small bush of lavendar were already doing very well. Lots of worms were present too. Char Char kept look out while we worked the soil and turned up weeds on the walkway on the southside of our plot and covered with wood chips. That evening I returned and snagged about a pound of chard, removing older, low-hanging leaves, and keeping the best of these exterior ones. The weeds that didn't readily turn under we used to start a small compost pile which we'll keep stocked with our kitchen remnants.

Buying Seed:
That night I visited several seed company websites, and decided to go with,
Sow Organic. Territorial Seed Company has a very nice site with lots of pictures but a limited organic selection.

We decided on these varieties for our beginner's 100 (sq ft) organic garden and our backyard container garden. I considered more tomatoe varieties but tried to keep my budget down. I'm still thinking about potatoes and garlic.

• Item #1: Bountiful Stringless (H), Snap Bean (1)
• Item #2: Scarlet Nantes, Carrot (1)
• Item #3: Little Gem (H), Lettuce (1)
• Item #4: Tom Thumb (H), Lettuce (1)
• Item #5: Siskiyou Sweet, Onion (1)
• Item #6: Cal Wonder, Sweet Pepper (1)
• Item #7: Genovese Basil (H) (1)
• Item #8: Bloomsdale, Spinach (1)
• Item #9: Chadwick, Small Tomato (1)
• Item #10: White Finger, Radish (1)
• Item #11: Sugar Pod II, Peas (1)
• Item #12: Survivor Italian, Parsley (1)
• Item #13: ORLST Giant Red (OOO) (1)
• Item #14: Nutribud, Broccoli (OOO) (1)
• Item #15: Eco (OOO), Brussel Sprout (1)

Soil Preparation:
Today, we purchased the following:

• 56 L of organic potting mix
• 13 L of organic starter mix
• Organic fertilizer
• pH tester
  

Starting:
Also, I took inventory of the planters that we inherited with our rental and also found an equivalent amount of potting mix.

We forgot to buy a starter green house but decided we'd try turning water bottles into little planters buy cutting them in half, poking some holes in the lid, inserting the lid end into the bottom end, and filling the lid end with dirt. The base of the bottle will allow excess water to drain off.

This evening Char and I made a quick visit to the garden to get a soil sample and add to the compost. The soil tested at about 6.0-6.5. Slightly acidic, or sour, but not enough so to worry about. I also started a spreadsheet to track our costs. I'm looking forward to getting back to Walden.

Next Steps:

1. Till again
2. Start starts
3. Collect popsicle sticks

Labels: Garden

posted by M. @ 9:19 PM