More than half the garden was planted on Tuesday

May 24, 2017 - Wednesday

46 degrees/rain/calm winds

Pentoga Road

I'd waited as long as I could. When the first shower quit Wednesday morning, I grabbed three Brussel's sprouts and headed to the garden. I wanted to plant something, anything.

I'd made a conscious decision sometime ago that I'd plant the cold weather crops directly into the ground on the orchard side rather than the raised beds on the garden side.

There are clear and defined rows, the overlap of two pieces of mulch under the chips, where the strawberries once grew. After ceasing productivity last year, I pulled the berry plants leaving a large bare area. 

I quickly remembered why I originally went with raised beds.

It was often difficult to find enough soil in which to plant. Sargie and I grow good rocks, really good rocks. 

There's a guy over in Alpha who often has an ad on Craigslist trying to sell his rocks. I used to laugh at him, but maybe he knows something I don't.  I could be sitting on millions of dollars and not know it.

With the broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussel's sprouts in the ground, I moved on to the more delicate vegetables, the black cherry tomatoes and peppers.

Those, along with the Early Girls, were planted in cloth pots with a tomato green house placed around each.

I've wanted to try straw bale gardening for several years and when Sheri gave me two bales the 4H Club had used on a holiday float, I took it as a sign from Baby Jesus that this was the year. I've been treating the bales with lots of water and fertilizer to make compost out of the insides of each.

The cavities were filled with compost and tomatoes planted on top. It'll be interesting to see how they turn out.

With the orchard side of the garden completed, I turned my attention to the other where I planted peas, peppers (under cover) more broccoli, and radishes.

Snap peas

The soil in the raised beds had dried significantly by afternoon and made planting quite enjoyable.

Early peppers under cover.
Jalapeños on the far side. Closest are the California Wonder sweet peppers. The rest will be planted in a more conventional manner once the weather warms.

Neighbor Mike called and asked if we might go get some wood chips for his garden. While waiting for him to pick me up, I stood in the garage and cut up the seed potatoes.

I wanted to let them scab over during the night so they could be planted today. The variety is Red Norland.

Mike, his wife, Germaine, and I, made our way to Gaastra where we dropped Germaine off at Lettie's, her mother. It didn't take Mike and me long to scoop all the chips he wanted and we were soon back at Lettie's to pick Germaine up for the ride home.

Seems Lettie had made a fresh pumpkin pie earlier in the day. Would we stay for a piece? My favorite kind of pie coupled with Lettie's great cooking? My mama didn't have no dummy.

Mike, Lettie, and Germaine

Lettie has a piano in her living room and she asked if I'd play a bit. Since I hadn't touched a piano since Christmas the playing was sloppy, but we managed to sing to a few tunes, Sentimental Journey, Boogie Woogie Boy of Company B, Listen to the Mocking Bird, Mockingbird Hill, Misty, etc. etc. (Mike had been talking about seeing a mockingbird in his yard a few days ago, so of course, we had to sing a couple of mockingbird songs.)

Sargie was closing last night and I was in no hurry to come in the house. Another hour was spent in the shop shaping a shallow bowl from birch. I hope to make a fitted lid for it this morning.

It was past 9:30 before Sargie pulled in the drive. We ate a quick meal of leftovers and called it a day. The poor girl, I don't think she slept well as she never had a chance to unwind before bedtime. Neither of us are too fond of her hours.

Sargie opens this morning. I'm going to head to the shop for a while and hope it will quit raining so I can plant potatoes. 

I'll go to Iron Mountain late this afternoon so we can drop the Kia off at the mechanics for new brakes. They can work on it first thing Thursday morning and since Sargie closes tomorrow and doesn't work until late morning, it should be finished when we get back to town.

It's time to throw another log on the fire. Oh yes, we're still making a fire every morning to take the chill off the house. The peppers may be in the ground, but there's still a nip in the air.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

I teased Sargie when she wanted to buy this small plastic garden cart a couple of years ago saying it was something only a fifi gardening person might use. Turns out it's the handiest thing in the garden. I use it like a wagon and when I'm planting or weeding, I can sit and push myself along the row as needed. I'm not certain Sargie's ever used it.
(Call me a fifi and I'll use YOU to straighten that hand trowel above.)