her able hands

I clocked six hours of uninterrupted garden time. Just me, my ipod on shuffle, my favorite garden tools, seeds, plants, straw, manure and dirt.

I misplaced this guy for an entire season and felt as if I had lost a limb whenever I went out to weed. It’s a Korean Weeder and Cultivator and I’ve grown to depend on the clean, thorough way it slices through the root systems of Violet, Quack Grass, Plantain, and Purslane. Run it along a row and it hills soil up against the bases of the plants, very handy during dry seasons like we seem to always have around here lately. Loose, weed-free soil helps get much-needed moisture to plants roots. I loosened the soil around everything that’s grown tall enough to mulch, then watered and heaped on loose straw.

I have to make the time to get out there and cultivate next door on a weekly basis this season if I want to be able to harvest anything. The Violets encroach in just a matter of minutes. I swear, I cleared the Chard, Peas and Radish and half an hour later, there were whole new clumps pushing up through the loose soil. But I can’t curse it too loudly, my gorgeous niece is named Violet, and I find myself anthropomorphizing the perky, green leaves with her exuberant nature and have to remove them gently, gently, like leading a child away from the china cabinet.

Planted:

Tomatoes
Fava Beans
Mammoth Dill
Boston Market Cucumbers

Cultivated and/or Mulched:

Chard
Peas
Radish (which are going to seed already!)
Potatoes
Raspberry Canes
Salad greens

Plants Still to Buy

Romas
Basil
Peppers
Eggplant
Lemon Verbena
Chervil

I wrangled one of the front garden beds clear of weeds, added manure, peat moss and aged bark mulch (that probably will sprout a million Burdock babies the next time it rains, but what the heck, it needed something). The other side has a thick layer of sod that has moved into the bed, so I cut it with the shovel, but got sidetracked and it will have to wait until another day.

This is the new attempted keyhole bed, lasagna style, where I’m thinking of planting my three sisters hills (Country Gentleman Corn, Kuri Squash, Scarlet Runner Beans) and maybe a few more tomatoes and basil. It took me about an hour and a half to layer the leaves, straw, manure, straw, manure, straw. I’m counting on the thousands of red worms to turn it into excellent soil. If I do plant tomatoes, they’ll be plain old Roma from the nursery, and I’m wishing I’d saved the San Marzano Paste plants to put here, it gets at least a few more hours of sun than the beds next door, but those girls needed to get in the ground.

My pictures are dark, taken after the sun had moved beyond the tree line to the west, and I couldn’t figure out any way to make them brighter and have definition in photoshop. Everything has gotten so green, it’s hard to tell what’s what. So much to learn! I almost didn’t put them up at all, but you can sort of see the “M” shaped bed, right?

The salad greens are coming on strong, now, and will hopefully make it into my big, maple bowl in a couple of weeks, along with some fresh herbs and a homemade vinaigrette. Too bad the radish will be gone.

We topped off the weekend with grilled, herbed chicken, potato salad, white bean salad and asian cole slaw… and an icy glass of Sangria. Just lovely.

Technorati Tags: garden, planting, weeding, garden tools, cultivating, mulch, lasagna garden

Bookmark It