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| Tobacco |
I guess, maybe time for an update? I'll let you in on how things are going garden wise. Things are coming along good. Some small hiccups but I think things are recovering even from those. We've had a tonne of rain lately. It's been raining every night, except so far tonight. With a few thundershowers that were tornado serious that lasted a few days. That was most of June. So, being that I don't myself own a car, it's hard for me to always find a way, or time to get over to the garden, being on the opposite side of the city. I got over a couple days ago for the second time since planting, the first was just to transplant a few more tomato plants only days after the actual planting. So it's been nearly a month since I've been over to have a good look at what's going on.
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| Planters |
What I did see I was really happy with. Things had sprouted up all over the place, and in some cases more than just that. I've now got potato plants a little over a foot tall, onions at the same height, countless tomatoes started and gettin juicy. The tomatoes really surprised me, I didn't know at all what to expect with them. Over half of my fifteen or so plants are greenhouse orphans, bound for the dump from being uprooted. They're now all incredibly happy and flowering. Sunflowers, squash, corn and beans have all popped up. Not all then have come up and I'm afraid that a few might have been lost to mold. All is ok though there are enough of them to make a good go of things on the three sisters end. Sam was rather excited to see his sunflowers coming up.
A tobacco plant that was eaten by birds the day after transplanting has sprouted back to life. Though it's small and only has one leaf at the moment it's alive, whether it will live to produce or not I'm not sure. Our
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| Potatoes |
Alpine strawberries have just about doubled in size since planting, which is great, I don't know what to expect from them. And on a big plus, no weeds yet. We did a good enough job digging and clearing the first time there were no soil-borne weeds left, and nothing has sprouted up, also no pests yet that I've seen, and no evidence that any have been there. Everything over at the garden is doing swell. All the rain hasn't been a downer for me, it's actually just been creating less work. The planters in our walkway are also doing great. Everything's shooting up like rockets in slow motion. My cucumbers at zuchini's have made it to the second tier of the trellis,
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| Potatoes |
which is exciting to me, it's like a horse race, and I'm on the edge of my seat just to see who will get there first. My tomatoes here are doing great. I've got more basil than I think I can use, Or at least I haven't used really any yet, I don't really know why. I have one basil plant that I did take from early on, and didn't think would survive, and so got some more to take it's place. Now it's fully recovered and is doing amazingly well.
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| Onions |
My dill was doing great, until I robbed nearly all of it. We'll see if it keeps producing or if I crippled it, if I did it was for a good cause, Which I'll talk about in a later post. Corn's getting thick and tall, they're now nearly at two feet, and about an inch around. Soy's growing up the middle and my squash is actually big enough now to start acting as the ground cover. Looks like the three sisters in a cube planter is going to work. I had radishes in one planter that I've harvested about half from now, but the other half we're crowded by the first half and so they're growth was stunted and they've gone to seed. Instead though, of pulling them out and planting a second batch I've been letting them go purely for the experience with the plant. I want to see if I can recognize all stages of it's growth, and possibly collect the seed to save. So nothing but good news around here as far as the garden goes. The excitement hasn't died down at all, this is still more entertaining than any blockbuster movie I've seen.
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
-Masanobu Fukuoka; One Straw Revolution.
Friday the 13th, I don`t think I have ever had a bad one. This particular Friday was exceptional. Sam and I spent the evening helping a neighbor build a section of a Rammed Earth wall he is putting up in his backyard. Rammed earth is a technique I`m entirely new to, I had heard of it but have never seen it used. There's not a lot that goes into it. Rammed Earth requires nothing more than a little concrete, dirt and water. Unlike the usual concrete mixture that you see in things like skate parks this takes a very low amount of actual concrete, making it a much more economical means of building. That being said it is more physically demanding. Rather than just the spread and smooth of regular concrete, Rammed Earth takes a physical ramming, of course. The finished product is beautiful and strong.
