One Down, One to Go
Last week Davin and I built the raised bed frame and installed it. By the time we got around to it, it was late in the evening so we didn't have much time for anything else. The next day we went back over and planted a few tomatoes, but again time was tight so not much was done. My plot neighbour mentioned that a few of his tomatoes had been lost to cutworms so I made it a priority to put cutworm collars made of toilet paper tubes around my transplants. The garden is great because it is opening things up to a new set of challenges that I haven't had to think about in a while. For so many years my veggie gardening has taken place in containers, and while I've had my share of pests to thwart, I haven't had alot of problems with soil-dwelling pests. Although my cat found a cutworm crawling on our deck the other day! Anyways my toilet paper tubes seem to have done the trick because a recent trip to the garden showed that everything has settled in well with no damage or trouble. As much as I've hated the rainy weather lately, it has allowed me the freedom to leave the plants unattended without worry that they'll dry up in my absence.
My cat finds what looks to be a cutworm on the deck. Yesterday I had a community plot meeting so I carried over some more soil amenders and the remaining transplants. I had a whole tray of extra transplants that I'm hoping my fellow plot members will take. After a very long meeting I had just enough time to almost literally throw my remaining plants in, toss on some straw mulch and soil to hold the mulch down and get out of there before a downpour. I got home JUST as the rain starting crashing down! At least the mulch will be held down. I plan to go back and finish the job soon. This year I decided to go with huge 9 foot stakes Beate got for me at a farm place near her house. With nine huge stakes set next to tiny transplants it looks like a stake garden rather than a plant garden. It's kind of bizarre.
Boring picture of my plot before it was fully planted or mulch had been applied. My main garden plot is now filled to capacity. Actually I plan to toss on a few dill and basil seeds (you can never have enough basil) but other than that it's very much done. Here's the final rundown of plants as I can remember them:
Yellow Pear Cherry Tomato
Yellow Perfection Tomato
Orange Banana Tomato
Purple Tomatillo
Black Krim Tomato
Cherokee Purple Tomato
Sweet Chocolate Pepper
Ground Cherry aka Cape Gooseberry
Garlic
Egyptian Onion
Sacred Basil
Genovese Basil
Dill
Shunjuko (?)
Anna's Russian Tomato
Black Plum Tomato
Lemon Boy Tomato
Lemon Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) -- Okay these I am most excited by. They're an heirloom cucumber that are yellow and round! How crazy is that? See a pic here. Some more interesting info about this variety here and here.
Egyptian Onion My smaller partial shade plot still has some space left. I bought some rouge d'hiver lettuce to throw in there and I might try a broccoli but it's getting awfully late.
HEY KIDS! You can now search my archives since 2002 by category or month.
This time last year: When nature attacks.
posted at 12:40 AM
« Herb Fair 2003 |
Main
| Off to Montreal »
| 
