Progress continues...

 Yesterday the boys who did a lot of the work a month ago came over to start working on my 10x10 box - the one the bunnies recently vacated.  First I had to move the chives and walking onions to my onion box where they will now reside.  

The boys came and first, they cleared all the mugwort and mint from around the edges of the garden!  They spent a good 45 minutes pulling and hauling weeds before they set to work starting to clear the box.  This boxy is so dodgy and needed to be dealt with.  years of back and forth and such lead to weird mounding and depths throughout the whole area.  With the boards and bricks removed, the uneven depth of the box is a lot more clear.  

I wanted to focus on one side of the box, if I could get the tomatoes in this weekend, then I knew I'd be good.  So they dug down to the bottom of the existing lumber and ripped up old weed barriers and other things - like long lengths of roots.  They then lined the bottom with cardboard, hardware wire, and weed barrier before adding soil.

The results are beautiful!!!

I will be able to add a simple frame down the middle and string some twine for the plants and add my indeterminate (vining) tomatoes.  I have my "galaxy" tomatoes (Super Nova, Moonbeam, Midnight Pear) and my Atomic Grapes.  I can also transplant my determinate (bushing) tomatoes to their box - the San Marzanos and Romas for sauces.

I tell my students that indeterminate tomatoes are, "Oh, you would like a tomato, here have a tomato," all day all summer while determinates grow and flower and then suddenly yell, "TOMATOES, WE'VE GOT TOMATOES," and are done shortly after that.  You get a LOT of tomatoes at once from those plants and each one is important.  The indeterminate tomatoes are great if you want something on a salad or to pop in your mouth.  I wouldn't make a sauce from cherry tomatoes, even if I might cut some in half to throw into something I'm making.  On the other hand, I wouldn't put a Roma on a salad.  Each tomato, like each person, has their own way of being and enriching our lives somehow.

I planted a couple of dozen corn seeds over a couple of feet in one box (or was it three dozen over four feet... I have to go and look today), transplanted a bunch of pepper plants, and the peas are almost tall enough to start latching onto their poles.

I left some room for eggplants and this week I'll have my son come over and finish the other end of the 10 x 10 box so I can get some squash in.  I love that the boys are now taking ownership of my plot.  Before leaving, one of them was, "We'll get the old PVC and lumber cleaned up next to put in the bean teepee.  I would say they have more than earned their CSA share from what comes out of here. ;) 

Let the Weeding Commence

Every gardener will tell you the one thing that truly sucks is weeding.  For me, it's not the boxes so much (although there's some of that from the breakthrough, persistent ghosts) it is the spots between the beds.  This year, as an attempt to cut down on that, I am slowly but surely getting kids to help by laying down cardboard and then spreading an alternative to saltwater marsh hay.  between my beds is looking sharp and it really is cutting down on a lot of the weeds.  

Yesterday, my youngest took a turn and spent a couple of hours going after some particularly nasty mint and mugwort and got the areas that border the plots next to mine under control.  Funny thing, this morning a Facebook memory popped up of him going after the weeks along the retaining wall at our old house from 11 years when he was a freshman in high school.  

He did a good job, not the job I'd do, but he did a good job and I'm glad I don't have to worry about it as much now.  This weekend, I'll get one of my helpers to go after the ones along the fence, get the cardboard down, and some more mulch.  I'll get my tomatoes in now that my box is refilled and refreshed.  The next big job is the 10x10 box in the middle of the upper part of the plot.  Now that Rascal and company have moved on, it's time to get that area prepped and ready so I can start my squash and get my indeterminates into the ground.

My peppers are ready to go in the ground soon along with my eggplant.  Then it's time to get some tomatoes off to a few other folks out there and it's all good.  My lilacs are thriving and put out some little purple flowers to make me smile.  The deck is starting to look good with the lettuce all popping up and the herb garden starting to delight in being outside.  For now, it's all good.

 

Bunnies, squirrels, and tomatoes

A couple of weeks ago, we found a nest of newborn bunnies nestled between my Egyptian walking onions and chives.  When I was down last week checking on things, there was one little rascal who was bold enough to explore while I was there.  I did name the bunny Rascal and, when we checked the nest, there were 4 or 5 babies in there.  I know babies only stay in the nest a few weeks before moving on when they're big enough.  Sure enough, yesterday Rascal and siblings were gone.  The nest was still warm, but I knew they were gone without me being able to say goodbye.  Checking today, the nest was empty and cold.  

So now it means I can bring the boys back to clean and level my 10 x 10 box and I can think about how to configure it for my indeterminate tomatoes and squash.  Right now I'm thinking a 10' high trellis centered in the box with strings for the tomatoes to climb.  I have a bit to think about it.

When I got home from the garden, I wanted to get my lettuce started on my deck, but we have squirrels.  I love Phat Phred and his antics on the deck.  He uses the umbrella over the table as a playground merry-go-round, running along and spinning it until he goes flying.  I swear he's screaming "Whee" as he goes flying across the quad.  He and his buddies also use the sunshade on my porch swing as a see-saw.  But they also dig up all my plants.  Last year I tried using hot pepper flakes, stones... you name it.  This year I figured I'd make a cage for the top of the box made out of hardware cloth and was pretty pleased with myself.  I can get it off pretty easily and it keeps the squirrels away... right?

Phred made it clear what he thought of my protective cage pretty quickly.  sigh  If only he weren't so damn cute.  So far, he only uses it as a seat while eating and hasn't tried more, but give it time I suppose.  

I also planted my herbs in the planter.  I have a platform inside that leaves a couple of inches for rainwater under the plants.  I filled the rest with soil, put in the herb seedlings - rosemary, sage, oregano, and thyme.  I then laid pieces of hardware cloth on the surface around the plants, added a little more soil, and then a layer of decorative river stones from the dollar store.  They're last year's stones, I gave them a good rinsing first and let them dry in the sunlight.  Again, so far so good.

Phred and friends have pretty much left it alone.  I know he did walk over it once and then sat on the lettuce cage to let me know he didn't like the feel on his paws.  Again, I don't understand how sitting on that stuff is any more comfortable on his fuzzy little butt; however, it doesn't seem to bother him too much.

Of course, yesterday, he sat on my table out on the deck and ate there all while watching me in the kitchen.  When he was done, he stretched out in the sun on top of my covered grill to catch some z's.  I'm OK with him hanging on the deck, really I am.  So long as he doesn't mess with my plants.  I am going to plant some carrots in a bucket and hardware cloth on the top as well to make sure he doesn't mistake it as a place to hide his nut stash.  Just like last year, I will leave an open bucket of dirt for him to use as a stash so he can play gardener too.  

Then there are my tomatoes... oh dear, so many tomatoes!  While my broccoli didn't really make it in my downtown garden, the peas and onions seem to be doing just fine.  My tomato seedlings all germinated.  You would think I would know how this works by now... but no.  I figured most of my seeds were either old or from a company I wasn't sure about.  Since my atomic grapes were a major bust last year, I ended up planting the seeds I had left after my students raided the pack.  (I told them not to... but kids are kids and there isn't much you can do about that.  Turns out it was a good thing as ALL 3 DOZEN SEEDS GERMINATED!!!

I hadn't expected to end up with 30 Atomic Grape plants, but there it is.  I'll pass them onto other people and keep some for me, but I have lots of indeterminates this year.  I have a dozen Midnight Pears with a ton more that need to be separated and repotted.  I have a half dozen Supernova Grapes and four Berries and Cream cherry tomatoes.  I haven't even started on the San Marzano and Romas!  I'm thinking this year the 4 x 4 tomato box will just be the determinates.

Then, of course, are the peppers and eggplant that all came up.  Lots and lots of peppers, hot and sweet, are all showing signs of true leaves and need to be transferred to their own pots.  I started them all at the same time as the tomatoes and they all lived on the heat mat until they popped, but the tomatoes seem to have really enjoyed the conditions.  To be honest, I feel like I started them all a couple of weeks late, and yet they all feel on track at the same time.

Next week I've got to have the boys come back to do some weeding.  I have figured out that if I cover the ground with cardboard and then place the hay on top, there aren't nearly as many weeds as the parts of the garden covered with the hay mulch.  Even then, those areas are a lot less weedy than the areas with no mulch, so I think this science experiment is yielding some early results.  I'll keep an eye on that as the season progresses.