Planting Day One
May. 6th, 2010 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluesgardenToday would have been more fun if it weren't also day 3 of of this headache, but I still managed to accomplish quite a bit anyway.
First thing, I set out to dig the two trenches for the potatoes. D arrived when I was almost finished with the first one, observed for a moment, and finally asked if he might be of assistance? No, no - I had it covered. That line on the left, the meandering, yellow one? That's the trench I dug. The one on the right? That's the one he ended up digging with the actual trencher that I hadn't bothered to retrieve.
(D: "Were you drunk?"
Blue: "It was twenty minutes ago! Also, I was shoveling.")
This is a trencher. It works considerably better than a shovel for this task. Just FYI.
River thinks my trench will work just fine. For sitting in, anyway.
So these were what was going in said trenches. Namely, 24 seed pieces of Carola potatoes and 29 of Yellow Finn potatoes. I cut them last night so that the cut sides dried a bit before they went in the ground but, like letting the eyes pre-sprout, this is an optional step.
In they go, cut sides down. (I did straighten the trench a bit. Or tried to.)
Peas were also planted. D had secured the camera and then wanted to take this picture from another angle. I suggested there were plenty of weapons laying around.
These are beans, but the peas I'm planting in the previous picture had the same treatment. The black sludge is water mixed with a combination (pea/bean) garden inoculant. It theoretically aids in germination.
About 2:30 my brain said "Lay down or fall down, genius." so the nausea and I headed inside to curl up in a ball and whimper for a while. A bit of a nap did wonders for my headache, surprisingly enough (it's day three, after all - not like it's from the sun), and I was able to go back out. Aiming to keep it that way, I put off fertilizing anything else to avoid the smell. The manure doesn't really smell of anything, but I was doing it with the fertilizer, so it was put off too.
Such an exciting day in pictures! The list of things accomplished (as much for my records as anything):
· Divided carrot and lettuce/radish rows into 4 sections each with intent to plant a portion of each section with different varieties (will wait a week or two, then plant some more for staggered harvesting).
· Planted: peas, potatoes (2 types), dry beans (2 types), green beans (2 types), carrots (4 types), radishes (2 types), and lettuce (2 types).
· Dressed peas and potatoes with manure and fertilizer.
· Watered in all the plantings, the greenhouse plants, and the mint that was wilting and looking pitiful.
· Added/Replaced all but two seals in the various hose sections. (Need different type of seals for certain quick connect sections?)
· Did you read the 'planted' one up there? Cause, seriously, it deserves another mention.
Notes:
· Perlite seems like it will work fine for covering up the carrot seeds, but I went through a lot more of it than I did the soilless seed starter mix that I used last year. The price is about the same for the two items, but I used almost an entire bag of Perlite for what added up to 20 feet, so the seed starter (or BM1 - I think it will work fine as well) would be more cost effective.
· Replacing the hose seals was as much fun as I thought it would be.
· I suspect the tomatoes are ultimately going to run out of patience and just plant themselves.
First thing, I set out to dig the two trenches for the potatoes. D arrived when I was almost finished with the first one, observed for a moment, and finally asked if he might be of assistance? No, no - I had it covered. That line on the left, the meandering, yellow one? That's the trench I dug. The one on the right? That's the one he ended up digging with the actual trencher that I hadn't bothered to retrieve.
(D: "Were you drunk?"
Blue: "It was twenty minutes ago! Also, I was shoveling.")
This is a trencher. It works considerably better than a shovel for this task. Just FYI.
River thinks my trench will work just fine. For sitting in, anyway.
So these were what was going in said trenches. Namely, 24 seed pieces of Carola potatoes and 29 of Yellow Finn potatoes. I cut them last night so that the cut sides dried a bit before they went in the ground but, like letting the eyes pre-sprout, this is an optional step.
In they go, cut sides down. (I did straighten the trench a bit. Or tried to.)
Peas were also planted. D had secured the camera and then wanted to take this picture from another angle. I suggested there were plenty of weapons laying around.
These are beans, but the peas I'm planting in the previous picture had the same treatment. The black sludge is water mixed with a combination (pea/bean) garden inoculant. It theoretically aids in germination.
About 2:30 my brain said "Lay down or fall down, genius." so the nausea and I headed inside to curl up in a ball and whimper for a while. A bit of a nap did wonders for my headache, surprisingly enough (it's day three, after all - not like it's from the sun), and I was able to go back out. Aiming to keep it that way, I put off fertilizing anything else to avoid the smell. The manure doesn't really smell of anything, but I was doing it with the fertilizer, so it was put off too.
Such an exciting day in pictures! The list of things accomplished (as much for my records as anything):
· Divided carrot and lettuce/radish rows into 4 sections each with intent to plant a portion of each section with different varieties (will wait a week or two, then plant some more for staggered harvesting).
· Planted: peas, potatoes (2 types), dry beans (2 types), green beans (2 types), carrots (4 types), radishes (2 types), and lettuce (2 types).
· Dressed peas and potatoes with manure and fertilizer.
· Watered in all the plantings, the greenhouse plants, and the mint that was wilting and looking pitiful.
· Added/Replaced all but two seals in the various hose sections. (Need different type of seals for certain quick connect sections?)
· Did you read the 'planted' one up there? Cause, seriously, it deserves another mention.
Notes:
· Perlite seems like it will work fine for covering up the carrot seeds, but I went through a lot more of it than I did the soilless seed starter mix that I used last year. The price is about the same for the two items, but I used almost an entire bag of Perlite for what added up to 20 feet, so the seed starter (or BM1 - I think it will work fine as well) would be more cost effective.
· Replacing the hose seals was as much fun as I thought it would be.
· I suspect the tomatoes are ultimately going to run out of patience and just plant themselves.
