Digging holes

Before I started

After weeks of looking, I finally found a post hole digger.  For those of you unfamiliar with this tool, it's essentially a couple of mini trenching shovels on a scissors-like pair of poles.  You shove it into the ground, pull it closed, and then pull up the captured dirt.  After you get down a certain distance, you stick in your fence pole and then fill it back up.  For more permanent fencing, you might mix up a batch of cement to pour in the hole to really secure things.

Starting to add posts

If I wanted to be that jerk, I would do that, but ...  community garden and all that.  Now the problem with my plot is that the fencing is really piecemeal.  Wooden poles, fencing poles, sticks - you name it.  Some of the fencing itself is welded wire, other is nylon, some is garden center special edging, all of it is a mess.  So I have to think through things, such as how much do I put up an effective, uniform fence in all this?  I'm thinking the real way to do this isn't happening this year.  I would want to dig a foot deep trench all around the garden, place a bottom bar on which to set my PVC into with the fencing strapped to that bottom bar, then fill the trench and make sure the fencing reaches at least 4' above the ground to stop burrowing animals, like the "fat beavers" (aka groundhogs aka woodchucks) from digging under the fence but be high enough to be a pain in the tuchis for the deer to jump.

View from the top of the plot

After two hours of setting poles, and just attaching the current mess with zip ties to keep it out of the way of folks getting to their plots (and making it clear my plot is still not a walk in all you can eat buffet)  until I pick up a roll of fencing.  Who knows, maybe I'll get a bit crazy and dig the trench still. 

I also spent some time digging up the pernicious weeds that never want to leave my plot.  Just like the wild things, they love it so.  I am being like Max and saying, "No."

Of course yesterday I made the grand mistake of visiting the vegetable garden at Tower Hill Botanical Gardens.  If you have never been there, it is a wonderful place full of interesting plants and gardens and things.  Currently, there are fairy houses scattered throughout the gardens.  They are truly delightful, but the vegetable garden made me sad.  It is so far along compared to mine.  The cubanelle peppers are producing fruit, there are tomatoes and it looks green and lush and perfect.  I keep trying to tell myself my garden is right where it's supposed to be, but sometimes it's hard not to compare.

egg plant flower

radishes :) 

I mean, I grew those tomatoes from seed and they are looking healthy and growing, my beans are climbing up the teepee poles and those potatoes!  I started the third set of potatoes "downtown" so they'll be ready for a slightly later harvest into the fall rather than at the end of the summer.  The corn is "knee-high by the fourth of July."  My eggplants are starting to flower.  Sure, I bought those from the local farm, but they are happy and thriving.  My radishes, which I planted from seed a few weeks ago are popping up like, "Hi, we're here and almost ready to go!"

My lettuce failed, so I'll try a different kind this week.  The carrots are really thriving.  I may plant some more to come up when I start pulling potatoes.  Tomorrow my trellis netting should be coming in so I'll start building my trellises for the squash.  I'm going to try to build an arch for the zucchini and summer squash and I'll build my PVC trellis for the full squash box.  Three of the six seeds I planted are starting to sprout.  My one cucumber and pumpkin that survived the chipmunk attack are needing the support.

The tomato trellis is next up.  Since it's the whole box, I think it will be a number of trellised walls, we'll see.

Tomorrow morning, I'll dig some more holes and get some more fence posts in, clear out some more weeds that are creeping into the overall plot.