Gardening in 3D
May. 5th, 2010 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluesgardenToday was serious prep work day: laying out the stakes that will mark the rows while everything is being planted and getting established.
The stakes themselves are a motley assortment although I was using the short metal ones at the point I took this picture. The hatchet was being used to pound them in until D finally turned me up the mallet just before he left for work. I was convinced at one point that I'd forgotten how to add and, after a few hours in the sun, I was pretty much talking to myself more than not, complete with Appalachian accent.
The tape measure is new to the garden - I'd asked D if he had any steel surveyor's tapes laying around down in the barn (which was not unlikely), he asked if it had to be steel? Uh, no... Anyway, this is what was produced and I'm very pleased with making its acquaintance! It's a 100 foot fiberglass tape that's quite easy to lay out and roll up. It made today considerably easier than it would have otherwise been!
This image tragically fails to illustrate how much work was engaged in this afternoon. The tall posts up front are temporary - I ran out of short ones. The tilled section is where the potatoes will go. The poor roto-tiller went through not only one belt, but two when D put the old one back on to try and get through the rest of the section - which he did, if barely. They're both now in pieces (the belts, that is).
Can you tell there's a storm coming on from that last pic? Actually, I thought it would have arrived by now, but we have a severe thunderstorm watch until 10pm. At the moment, it's sunny and the birds are singing. :P
The pups were outside with us while we were working. River's favorite gardening activities are rolling in the dirt and munching on the grass salad bar that's just everywhere, but Jack's been getting in on the rolling action too and we like to refer to it as 'team rolling'. There was also a bunny that led them on quite the merry chase. After that, they were pretty hot and tired, and as I rounded the corner of the shed to find River hanging out in the coolest shade she could find, I suddenly noticed something very important. This was heralded by me saying, "Hey girl, ready to go- oh my god you're not wearing your collar!!"
I whistled and told her to 'come' and, fortunately, she felt like listening (which, to be fair, River almost always does). I was trying to figure out how in the heck it could have come off when Jack trotted up, tongue hanging out and ready to sprawl out on some nice, cool vinyl also not wearing a collar. Just imagine me frothing at the mouth here and having an after-the-fact panic attack. (To catch up readers who may not be aware: beagles do not go outside without electronic collars or on a leash. EVER. They will follow a scent come hell or high water, no matter how far it takes them, and their selective hearing is legendary. Seriously, it is an absolute rule that outside = collar.)
It turned out that D hadn't done it on purpose, I think he was still distracted thinking about a meeting he attended this morning and getting some tilling done in the garden. "They weren't wearing-? Huh, so that's why they looked at me weird when I asked if they wanted to go outside." Yes, I would imagine they thought that a trifle odd. *does not have nervous breakdown*
Tomorrow, when the pups will be wearing their collars, I'm planning on digging the trenches for the potatoes and getting those planted along with the peas, radishes, corn, carrots and - if I don't run out of inoculant - beans. All the stuff that'll still be underground during the potential frost Saturday evening/Sunday morning. Friday is windy and thunderstorms, although it may not be a lot of rain. Saturday will be mostly cloudy and cool, which would be excellent were it not for the frost advisory that night, but there are still tomato holes to be dug. Sunday looks like tomato, lettuce, beet, onion, leek, and herb planting day. Monday... well, Monday I may not be able to move. :P
The stakes themselves are a motley assortment although I was using the short metal ones at the point I took this picture. The hatchet was being used to pound them in until D finally turned me up the mallet just before he left for work. I was convinced at one point that I'd forgotten how to add and, after a few hours in the sun, I was pretty much talking to myself more than not, complete with Appalachian accent.
The tape measure is new to the garden - I'd asked D if he had any steel surveyor's tapes laying around down in the barn (which was not unlikely), he asked if it had to be steel? Uh, no... Anyway, this is what was produced and I'm very pleased with making its acquaintance! It's a 100 foot fiberglass tape that's quite easy to lay out and roll up. It made today considerably easier than it would have otherwise been!
This image tragically fails to illustrate how much work was engaged in this afternoon. The tall posts up front are temporary - I ran out of short ones. The tilled section is where the potatoes will go. The poor roto-tiller went through not only one belt, but two when D put the old one back on to try and get through the rest of the section - which he did, if barely. They're both now in pieces (the belts, that is).
Can you tell there's a storm coming on from that last pic? Actually, I thought it would have arrived by now, but we have a severe thunderstorm watch until 10pm. At the moment, it's sunny and the birds are singing. :P
The pups were outside with us while we were working. River's favorite gardening activities are rolling in the dirt and munching on the grass salad bar that's just everywhere, but Jack's been getting in on the rolling action too and we like to refer to it as 'team rolling'. There was also a bunny that led them on quite the merry chase. After that, they were pretty hot and tired, and as I rounded the corner of the shed to find River hanging out in the coolest shade she could find, I suddenly noticed something very important. This was heralded by me saying, "Hey girl, ready to go- oh my god you're not wearing your collar!!"
I whistled and told her to 'come' and, fortunately, she felt like listening (which, to be fair, River almost always does). I was trying to figure out how in the heck it could have come off when Jack trotted up, tongue hanging out and ready to sprawl out on some nice, cool vinyl also not wearing a collar. Just imagine me frothing at the mouth here and having an after-the-fact panic attack. (To catch up readers who may not be aware: beagles do not go outside without electronic collars or on a leash. EVER. They will follow a scent come hell or high water, no matter how far it takes them, and their selective hearing is legendary. Seriously, it is an absolute rule that outside = collar.)
It turned out that D hadn't done it on purpose, I think he was still distracted thinking about a meeting he attended this morning and getting some tilling done in the garden. "They weren't wearing-? Huh, so that's why they looked at me weird when I asked if they wanted to go outside." Yes, I would imagine they thought that a trifle odd. *does not have nervous breakdown*
Tomorrow, when the pups will be wearing their collars, I'm planning on digging the trenches for the potatoes and getting those planted along with the peas, radishes, corn, carrots and - if I don't run out of inoculant - beans. All the stuff that'll still be underground during the potential frost Saturday evening/Sunday morning. Friday is windy and thunderstorms, although it may not be a lot of rain. Saturday will be mostly cloudy and cool, which would be excellent were it not for the frost advisory that night, but there are still tomato holes to be dug. Sunday looks like tomato, lettuce, beet, onion, leek, and herb planting day. Monday... well, Monday I may not be able to move. :P
