May 10th, 2008 - Garden update May 10
Been doing a bit of work in the garden since returning from vacation. I have a problem, however: I can only work for about 30 minutes or sciatica kicks in. Today, I worked for 90 minutes then 30 minutes later. I hope I’m ok tomorrow. :( I did try to keep things easy. Here’s what I’ve been up to:
- At the beginning of the week, I planted strawberries–Alexandria alpine and Italian alpine from One Green World. Wish I’d found them last year–I only found seeds and I didn’t have any of them germinate. The s’berries are listed “bundle of 5″ so I was picturing an actual bundle so figured they were just roots. Nope–I got 10 live plants in the mail! They seem to be doing well, especially the Alexandria ones–they were packed a bit better and were in great shape when they arrived as well. Except that animals, probably squirrels, are intrigues by the compost I mixed in and keep digging holes around them. So far, they haven’t dug up the s’berries, but…. Maggie helped me, which is ironic since she can’t eat them. Speaking of which–some of the Italians had berries on them already. I had to trim them and all the flowers off (oops, I’ve forgotten to look for more) so I ate the ones that were large enough to taste. The largest one, although still yellow, was sweet! I may be able to eat some later in the summer.
- Compost. This has taken me a lot of time. The compost bin isn’t fully composted, so I can’t just dig it out and put it in the garden. I have to put the large pieces back in the other bin. Before Friday, I just used a pitchfork which wasn’t all that useful. Yesterday, I used a rake as a sifter. That worked better but was quite awkward. (I sift into a bucket.) Today, I found a wire tray at a garage sale. (I also picked up a plastic strainer, and then remembered a big one I had downstairs. Neither was very effective.) It’s perfect! Well, at least a lot better than my other options. So I sifted 3 2/3-bushel baskets of compost today and took them to the garden. It’s neat to see the decay and to get to the good stuff at the bottom of the pile!
- Planted: greens, carrots, onion sets, and zinnias. Got the onions at the downtown hardware store. At Menard’s, they come in packages of 100 for $1 or more. At Kitz & Pfeil, it’s a bin and it’s $1/#. I got 33 cents worth and it was more than enough for two rows. I used the extras (probably another row’s worth) for green onions. I hope these all grow better than last year’s did. Most of them got little bigger than the sets. I was told that they need more water–they weren’t in the garden so never got watered and we had a bit of a drought.
- Ordered tomatoes, peppers, and basil from Foxglove via the Red Radish. They’ll come in on Friday. Which means I need to prep 2.5 beds (1.5 for tomatoes, .5 each for peppers and basil) by Friday. I hope it doesn’t rain. I also need to plant my beans I think.
Given my sciatica issues, coming after a winter of working on my lower back and weight lifting (personal training at work), I’m getting more worried about my ability to keep up with a garden this size. I don’t have a problem weeding or harvesting (mostly). But digging the beds, sifting and carrying compost…it’s tough for me. So I’m going to look at more fruits and perennials. Starting with raspberries. Instead of putting them in the back, I’m going to turn over at least two beds to them–just one for now. And maybe alongside the house as well, since the watermelons don’t appear to have germinated. Out back, we’ll put blueberries instead–that works better since they need acidic soil so hard to do in the garden. So I also have to prep for raspberries this week; they should have been planted a month ago.
This also makes sense cost-wise. Raspberries are $4/pint at the farmer’s market! Carrots are $1/bunch. I’ll probably still plant carrots anyway…. And I signed up for a 1/2 share in a CSA this year. They mostly do veggies. And if that seems to work out, I can do a lot more fruits in the garden and still be happy. That and greens. I love fresh salads from the garden. And flowers.
Now I need to go stretch out before bed. I’m sore!