- Last Sunday and Monday we planted potatoes, German Butterfinger and Yukon Gold, one in each box on the north side of the shed so they will be well shaded. We also reviewed the planting notes on the bag for the Yukon Gold potatoes.
- Beets (Jupiter variety) undersowed in the newest bean bed after consulting the companion planting color-coded simple chart.
- Carrots also undersowed in the other two bean beds. Another packet of Ferry-Morse rainbow assortment in the old pea patch (which also has now four volunteer sugar pea plants up) and Danvers 126 in the original garden box that has the purple bell pepper start and a couple silverdusts on one end along with the assorted garden beans.
- Beets (Ruby Queen variety) put into the other half of the cabbage/chard box. The cabbage looks like it is starting to head, and the swiss chard looks impressive, so it's time to test just how good a substitute it really is for spinach (which is struggling in the old tomato box, although volunteer dill plants look decent but not spectacular)
- The sweet corn in the old compost heap is rocking it ... pole beans will go in sometime this week, along with zucchini and summer squash, with a perimeter of pumpkins as well as the volunteer acorn squashes.
- Speaking of compost, we have run out of our homemade compost and I bought a Bobcat bucket load from Lynn up the highway ... and I will likely need another bucket load or two before this season's planting is done.
- New fruit trees for the orchard: a bit of a surprise! My neighbor came over with two orange tree saplings in one hand and his shovel in the other, and planted them for me on Wednesday "Nosotros somos amigos!") He also showed me how big of a "crater" to put around citrus trees, so we'll be digging up more rope grass in the near future on the rest of our struggling citrus trees.
- Garden fresh salads should begin this week, as the green leafy lettuce from the seeds I collected last year are looking great out there. I may not know exactly what variety or strain these lettuce plants are, but I do know they are thriving. I also have a volunteer green romaine lettuce coming up from under the layer of compost, so I will save seeds from that one as well. Finally, the blush-tinted lettuce (Ashley variety) and the collards I planted in that box are also rocking it, alongside even more volunteer acorn squash.
- Tomato starts are up and need transplanting. All three varieties planted have sprouted: San Marzanzo, Brandywine, and the Mortgage Lifter seeds from 2013, so I will be taking an assorted dozen next door as a "Muchas gracias por los arboles naranjes." ("Many thanks for the orange trees.") The other 70-some-odd will go into the walk-in greenhouse we bought at Big Lots and hubby put together over a week ago. Dad called me Friday and one of his questions was if that was up and running yet.
- Raking up the fallen dead leaves is now a high priority here, after seeing tangible and very positive results! Must make more compost, for possibly the autumn, and definitely for next spring.
So that is a summary of the past week's playing in the dirt, with some notes for this week's round of playing in the dirt in between chickening and building for chickens. LOL I wore my cute little cheapie Tractor Supply T-shirt to the county fair yesterday, and the folks at the UF Ag extension booth noticed and commented on it: "Living Life One Acre at a Time." I mentioned it was so appropriate because while we only have about two and a half acres, we're doing most of this by hand, so it really is "One acre at a time." Ya know, we may have the front acre almost covered by now.
Just to keep this from being a solid "wall of text" here is one pic of my silver dusts, shortly after I transplanted them. I have two more pics, but the pic card is not playing well with GIMP right now.
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| three silver dusts with a couple aloe veras |
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