April 23rd, 2007 - Garden alive!
Friday night, we planted the Nanking cherry bushes. These arrived nearly a month ago, but I missed planting them right away in the bit of nice weather. Thank goodness since it then snowed and froze for a while! They dried out a bit, even though I’d kept the shredded paper damp–not sure how they were dry while the stuff around them wasn’t. Eric dug the holes, with Maggie’s help. Then I filled them in with compost; Maggie was a bigger help with that.
Compost: woohoo! My compost pile from a couple years ago really has composted even without turning and such! I prefer to do less work, especially given the size, location, and shape of it. There’s LOVELY dirt in there!!!! Can’t wait to put it on the garden. Except the work involved, since it;s in the far back southeast corner of the lot while the garden is in the front northwest corner.
Saturday, I had a bad headache and only went out as described in the last post and didn’t do any gardening.
Sunday, I discovered a bunny (most likely) had chewed the middle cherry in half!!! I asked Eric if I should put fencing around them so he wouldn’t accidently run them over when mowing, but I guess that wasn’t what I needed to worry about. Got some wire and used that on two and put some old chicken wire around the third (the one that had been eaten).
Maggie and I cleaned up the garden a bit then planted peas, rutabagas, and onions (sets, bought that day, and bunching from seed). Maggie did a great job helping with the peas; she got them right in the row! The first few she actually got them evenly spaced as well, but it was just by accident. She didn’t do as well watering; last year, I bought a little watering can just for her. She loved it. But she tended to pour it down at her feet instead of the row. She always then liked to walk where she’d watered. The hardest thing for me this spring will be letting go of my neat, prefect, unwalked-on garden. It’s just not going to be that if I want her to help. And I really do WANT that instead.
I also planted my cannas. Put them in the back of the bulb garden. They survived the winter to a better extent than in the past. Past years, they’ve been pretty dry by the time I plant, but I found only a couple. So I had a lot more to plant than I expected. The area is quite thick–I hope they grow better, but am not sure as this isn’t as sunny an area as before.
Sunday was a beautiful day, around 80 degrees. Eric brewed beer for the first time, with help from Sean. Maggie and I worked in the garden and she ran around with the dogs a lot. Proof she was tired: In the morning after lunch outside, she happily went inside for her nap. All other times she’s had to come inside this spring, she’s been VERY upset.
I have to check my planting list; I suspect it’s time to plant a few more things. When I get back from my conference, I intend to plant the rest of the onion sets in the back garden, too. I only planned room for a half row–which was only 18 onions with 100 in the package! (I didn’t have time before I had to get Maggie up from her nap.) I wasn’t even sure about planting them this year, because the last time I did, they were really small. I figured that since onions are so cheap, even at the farmer’s market, why bother again? Then Mom mentioned them in our Sunday morning call, saying it was past time to plant them. My problem is that I planted them in late May in the past! So, here’s hoping for bigger onions this time around!