I have had snow pea, lettuce and onion starts in the greenhouse. The garden is ready, the plants are ready, but I'm not. What if I plant them and no food? We have spent a good amount of money and lots of time and energy. So the pressure is on to produce.
I went out to the garden yesterday with hoe and shovel in hand. The stakes were all in for the snow peas. The soil was tilled and ready. I loaded all my starts onto the cart for the trek to the garden area. I had carefully planned out where I was going to plant everything. Now the moment was here.
There are three stakes placed about 8 feet apart, with string running from stake to stake . There are 5 levels of string. The idea is that the peas climb up the string and begin to produce. So I dug a trench (instructions say 3 inches deep) along each side of the string. The book says to plant plants on both sides....or maybe it says seeds, and I don't have to grow starts...don't remember. The first row I plant too far away from the lowermost string. I can only hope they attach to the string. I think I am going to have to go out and as they get taller, just place them on the string. The trench down the other side was almost directly under the string...that will go in my notes for next year.
Then I dug trenches for 2 rows of beans. I soaked the beans overnight before dropping them in the soil 1-2 inches apart. They are bush beans and they are huge. I wonder if I could harvest some beans this year, and save some for seeds next year? Are these things processed in some way before they are packaged, or am I paying for dried up beans from last year?
Next the salad bowl lettuce goes in the ground. I started plants from seed in the greenhouse, but someone told me 2 days ago that I don't need starts...just pour the seeds in the ground. That sounds fabulous to me. It is much easier to drop some seeds instead of planting peat pots. I think I made a lot of extra work for myself.
Bunching onions went in next...these are known commonly as green onions (who knew?). I also had peat pots with starts in them. Now that was something to see...these little teeny threadlike starts sticking up out of this pot. I could barely see them, and after I got them planted, I could only see a couple of the tiny little threadlike green sprouts. I hope I haven't killed them all. I think those would have gone in better as seeds also...anyone ? anyone? Help...what needs to be started in pots? I get lots of conflicting information, but I am sure there is a best way to do things, I just don't know what it is.
I was waiting for the communing with nature to occur as I was out there sweating, dirty, with bugs crawling all over the place. My back hurt from bending, and my boobs were falling out of my bra. This was fun. Not feeling at one with nature yet.
After everything was in the ground, we hooked up the hose and sprinkler and started to water all the wilty looking greenery. I went in the house, got a drink, washed up and walked back out to check the watering. I have to say....it felt very good to see all those tiny green plants out there inside the fence, and imagining that soon...very soon...I could eat some lettuce and peas. That felt like a major sense of accomplishment. I may like this soon.
I went out this morning when I got up and looked at all the little plants. They looked a little less wilty this morning. Is wilty a word? If these things actually grow, and we get some clean, healthy edible food, I may try this again. That would be a success story for me.
I ran out of steam yesterday, but this weekend I plan to put in the potatoes, squash, leeks, cucumbers and more lettuce. If any of you have any advice, I will gratefully accept it. You may save me time and energy, and lord knows I could use some good experienced advice.
Until next time,
Karen
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