Stomping the green-eyed monster

Heading out to the garden this afternoon felt like stepping into a green house. The coming storm had already laid down the humidity and the temperature was something like 76 degrees. That should be good for our six tiny pea seedlings. And they'll need all the help they can get after the thorough stomping they received from the green-eyed monster.

When Molly's gardening exuberance inspired me to take a picture of her sitting in the garden again, Ian had had quite enough. He stomped through the peas so he could get his turn being yanked out of the garden. After a brief explanation, he offered an extremely heart-felt apology to the pea seedlings, promising that their mommy would be here soon and that he would take good care of them from now on.

It's growing

There is nothing quite as refreshing to the soul of this gardener than a good rain storm to water seeds and fill a rain barrel and seeing the first green sprouts poke out of the ground.
These are lettuce seedlings. I also have one pea sticking out.

Water

Having been raised in the high mountain deserts it's hard for me to wrap my mind around a serious drought in a place where rain falls hard and fast in big drops.

Yesterday we installed a rain barrel to ensure that our garden can get water, despite stage 3 drought restrictions. I still hold out hope that enough rain will fall to fill the reservoirs; however, as they are up stream, it's not a terrible idea to have a rain barrel anyway.

Our rain barrel is a small one only 35 gallons, but I hope that it'll be enough for our small square foot garden adventure.

Ian loves to water. Every day he throws a fit that he can't water more. Luckily Mel says that you can't water a square foot garden too much; although, I'm sure that Raleigh City might disagree.

In the ground

I did not soak the peas that we planted today, contrary to Mel's advice. But Ian's baby elephant gave them a good soaking once they were in the ground.



Two strawberry plants with the green leaves excite the garden. Even if they don't produce anything, they make the space seem like someplace things could grow.

Despite my over planning, I put the peas where I didn't necessarily want them. I was going to plant the 4 squares that my cover will cover (and keep the birds away from the seeds) with 2 strawberry plants, peas, and lettuce. So, I thought I'd put the peas in the square furthest into the garden, but between corralling two kids, they went in the very corner, so we'll have to reach over the strawberry to harvest the lettuce. Hopefully, the strawberry won't get too trampled—although Molly's already crawled over both plants and given it her best effort to rip their leaves off.

Planting Schedule

peas	carrots (12/16) Mar. 25	parsnips (1 long row of 8) Mar. 25	peas/peppers Mar. 17
peas/peppers Mar. 10	green beans	parsnips (1 long row of 8) carrots Apr. 25	green beans
strawberries Mar. 8	lettuce Mar. 10 Mar. 25 Apr. 6	peas Mar. 19	green beans
peas Mar. 8	strawberries Mar 8	green beans	peas/peppers Mar. 19

Mel's Mix

I finally got all the pieces together to mix up my 'magic' Mel's Mix soil. It was way more work than I wanted. He has an ingenious way to mix the three ingredients (vermiculite, peat moss, and compost)—with a tarp: dump all the stuff and then move the tarp to roll it all together.

Well, my tarp turned out to be too small. And, it is definitely a two adult persons job. I ended up using Ian's little plastic shovels (so as not to tear the tarp) to stir things together.

After I lugged the stuff up to the garden spot, I was disappointed to find that I only have enough for just over two boxes. I think that I must not have gotten enough compost. I went to the city and filled up two garbage bags.

To save the day, Ryan was enthusiastically impressed with the soil. Hopefully the cats won't invade the one box that I left uncovered tonight and we'll actually get seeds in the ground tomorrow.

Strawberry Shock

While I was out and about looking for vermiculite and compost on Saturday, I was also half-heartedly looking for strawberries. I didn't find any. I am almost unable to believe this, as my research shows this is the time to plant them. I saw starts of tomatoes, but no strawberries.

Compost and other soil matters

So, who knew that compost would be the Mel's Mix component that I would have the most difficult time obtaining. I am still very pleased with my pile, but I tried to "screen" it on Saturday to determine how much more I'd need to buy and there was only a negligible bit that would pass through the screen I was using. Possibly I need a screen with bigger holes, but still I'm going to need to add some. I had not given it much thought as I assumed that I could just pick some up wherever I found the vermiculite or at the least from Lowes. But, the nursery that stocked vermiculite, had very expensive compost. I did get a good tip from a friend about getting compost from the city. It is cheap ($3 for any size load) and relatively close. But it doesn't come in bags and from the website I think that the operation favors truck loads—of course, it would since that's how most people will want it.

I am pleased with having locate vermiculite, it's not very common around here. When I talked to mom, she said that is because Mel is a Westerner. And the peat moss was easy as they stock it at Lowes.

I had hoped to go get the compost from the city today, but didn't make it. I'm not sure when I'll be able to do it. There is supposed to be some very nasty stormy weather moving in. I would kind of like to have it before then, so that the rain can wet it for me, but it might just blow away before the rain comes.