Mid-month musings.
I was really struggling to finish this one in the way I wanted to, mostly because I had to cover SO much at once. Rather than agonizing over trying to finish it, I’m just going to post what I had and try to fill in the gaps in an upcoming post!
A lot happened very quickly, and then nothing happened for awhile. Now things are happening very quickly and they will continue to accelerate until my garden finally becomes sentient and consumes me to use as fertilizer. Not a bad way to go, honestly. But anyway…
The first round of seeds went okay. I made a few mistakes again this year, but that’s alright. I got new humidity domes and planting trays, but the domes are so high that the lights weren’t close enough, and everything has gone a little leggyy. Thankfully, that’s nothing some deeper planting when repotting can’t fix. Mostly. My peppers and eggplants are still tinier than I would like, but hopefully once they’re outside for hardening off I’ll see a bit more of a growth spurt. And the brassicas that I started early accidentally got cooked in the greenhouse because I totally forgot about hardening them off. But that’s alright, I’ve restarted a few that I’ll let grow in the greenhouse for a bit to protect from the GOD DAMN SLUGS, and then they’ll be transplanted mid-summer for a fall harvest.
Round two of seeds has been a ton of fun. I forgot just how fast cucurbits can grow! These giant leaves popped out in less than a week, and now all of my squash are already outside because there’s just not enough room! Next year I will definitely be investing in more lights (one went out a few days ago, big sad) and a grow tent. One night uncovered was all it took for someone to get a littttle to curious and take a chomp.
The beds are in and it was…a process. Our backyard is very weirdly sloped, with the highest point being the middle of the porch, and everything slopes down towards the fence from there. I had a lovely ambition to lay down stone in order to level the yard and it would have been very pretty, but was prohibitively expensive. So we had a couple of friends over and we dug them in instead. It worked really well, and the end product is going to look much more natural once the grass grows back in!
The old beds were a lot worse off than I thought and what boards didn’t fall off on the outside were completely rotted and had to be dug out rather than pulled off. They served their purpose well for a few years though, and now the soil from them makes a great base layer in the new beds. I naiively thought there would be enough that I wouldn’t have to get any extra fill dirt, but that’s nothing new. There’s always been a bit of cognitive dissonance when it comes to knowing how much dirt I actually need. It’s funny, I knew I was more than doubling my square footage, but now that they’re in, I’m actually starting to get a bit worried about my ability to stay on top of it all. Also nothing new, and totally cool, too.
If you’re new ‘round here in my little corner of the internet, I am…a bit of a chaos gardener. I can try all I want to make things perfect and beautiful and organized, knowing full well that Mother Nature will run her course and I just have to let it happen. See the Day of the Triffids level shit that happened with the beans last year, or the tomatoes that took over in year two. Hell, the first year with the garden my dumbass thought I could grow a Big Max pumpkin, and that bitch grew into a bush, over the fence, and INTO my neighbor’s TREE. There’s a special kind of beauty in how untamed the garden gets by the end of a season, and now I get to embrace it even more!
The herb and fruit garden has witnessed the most progress and is working up beautifully. My grape vine, after almost four years, finally has a permanent home! Along with my ‘Caroline’ raspberries, a new golden raspberry, and a freakin purple-leaved blueberry bush. They will take precedence in that bed, and herbs (both medicinal and culinary) will just have to make do with the space I have. I’m super stoked to have found a bay laurel plant at my local garden center, though it might have to come inside when it’s getting colder. Lemon verbena, Genovese basil, hibiscus, yarrow, hyssop, calendula, and poppies should all be going in some time this week. Now that I’m thinking about it, I could probably write a whole post on that bed. But I can do that another time. Hopefully.
To close this one out, I would