Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Gardening

"To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves" M.Gandhi

It was in the 80's yesterday. Even for us, that's ridiculous. This is the time of year for sweaters and soups and cuddling under extra blankets. This is not the time of year for shorts and tank tops and BBQ's.

While my Spock side cautions me to be patient, look for rain and remember, it is January, my Kirk side is straining at the bit to get outside and start planting. I've spent the last four days planning my garden and trying to figure out how best to use the small space I have without completely ridding us of yard for Joseph to use.

Side note: Chad's eyes are already glazing over when I wax poetic about making our yard edible.

January is officially bare root season. I can safely plant my grapes, blackberries and raspberries. My plan is to use our fence line as a trellis and plant two grapes - I'm thinking Concord, but will know more when I visit the nursery - a thornless blackberry and a thornless raspberry.

When March rolls around, I can get serious. I'm moving all tomato production to the side of the house . I have room for four plants - cherry, Roma, beefsteak and pear. Tomatoes at the side of the house opens our container garden for a lovely experiment with carrots and cucumbers. At Mom's suggestion, I'll be planting the carrots in rotations so they aren't all ready to pick at once. I'll put in two cucumber plants and enclose them in cages. I've discovered that they need a bit of sun, so I want to keep them away from tall plants. Joseph's garden will be growing a zucchini. I need to do a bit more research to find out if I need two plants for pollination purposes or if one will work.

At one end of my fruit, along the fence, I'll plant two snow peas and two knight peas. They do very well all jumbly and crowded, so, after measuring our fence, I'm thinking four will work nicely. (I could push it and do five..I'll wait and see what the area looks like.) I'm a bit concerned about planting two varieties in close proximity. I might end up with a snowy knight pea. Mom suggested I stick to one variety. I need to do a bit more research.

At the other end of my fruit, I'll plant green beans. No question about various varieties here. Next to the green beans will be movable boxes for my herb garden. I've never had much luck with my herbs, but think that if I'm able to move them around to take advantage of shade, sun and water, I might have more success.

At the back fence, I'll plant a row of garlic and a row of onions. I'm still trying to decide if that will be the best place for them. They'll only have partial sunlight and the research I've done indicates they may need more. I have another section against the house that I could potential move them to.

Against the side of the house where the sun shines all day long, I'm going to plant bell peppers (three of them) and a jalapeno. Again...I'm a bit worried about cross pollination, but at the worst, we'll just have either sweet jalapenos or spicy bell peppers. Not a bad combo either way.

I still have about six feet of space that I can utilize. I'm playing with the idea of lettuce. If I do that, though, I have to get cracking soon.

Gardening Resolutions:

  • I swear I'll keep my tomato plants under control this year. I know. I know. I say that every year, but this time I mean it.
  • I will not let my tender sensibilities prevent me from thinning my carrots. As much as I hate to choose seedlings for death, they need the thinning to prevent the mutations produced last year.
Next weekend, we have a three day-er. Poor Chad will be stuck hauling and carrying and digging while I prep the soil in our garden areas and get those bare roots in the ground.

In the meantime, we're off to Disneyland for Chad's birthday. Joseph, Chad, Melissa and I are going to spend tomorrow at the happiest place on earth. We're doing a one-day trip and have to be back on Thursday in time for Chad to attend a work meeting. Still...it should be fun!

1 comment:

Carole said...

Well you seem very organized and I think Chad is well on his way to helping you. In March we will see how far along it is, to estimate if I will be helping out. LOL Remember to fertilize now and a non acid variety. We are using llama. Very organic.