Garden Update: We finished up turning the earth in my garden, adding 5 cu' of manure and 4 cu' of sand to my garden. We put in 3 cu' of manure, 2 cu' of sand and 10 cu' of "Local Hero" soil with chicken manure into James' garden. His garden is still turning up all sorts of bricks, cement chunks, rock, ash, broken glass and even whole bottles. We suspect that there used to be a building behind his house, and that people burned their trash back there for years.
Ladybugs: We scattered some lady bugs in James' garden -- I scattered two pint containers of lady bugs in my garden -- they seem to be hanging out on the tomato seedlings and also on the peppermint (had little white specks on it).
Garden photos are now up for you to view!
Last night I plotted out the space requirements for all the plants -- I'll have 16 pepper plants and 32 tomato plants in the ground, and hope to have 4 tomato plants in containers. I planted sugar snap peas, regular peas (grow to 16" high), chard and parsley this morning. I'll put dill and one of my rosemary plants along the fence, in view of my kitchen window. Tonight I'll get the lines measured out with James' help and we'll get my tomato plants into the soil.
Thanks for your comment about Rapadura. I think I will try Sucanat. I have seen it in the bulk section at Whole Foods/Wild Oats!
ReplyDeleteNice blog Jenn! :-)
ReplyDeleteSaw you wanted to use less water for irrigation... You should mulch if you don't already. Cover the soil to cut down evaporation. Bark chips work well but gets pricey if you need a lot (if you can't get it for free). Grass clippings also do the job :-) ..but look a bit untidy.
Cheers! Paul
Thanks, Paul!
ReplyDeleteYes, I want to use some grass clippings but unfortunately my front and back lawn are comprised of foxtails and green onions.
The mower does too good a job of pulverizing what I cut -- and with this weather, I think the lawn will be dead for the rest of the year. I definitely do not want to get bark chips -- so I'll have to start looking around for someone else's grass clippings. :)