Tending our garden

Today was our 11th anniversary. Now accepting accolades.

So we've established a tradition that works well for us, and fits with our climate. That is, May 10 being the average last frost date around here, it's not unreasonable to count on planting the summer garden on or around our anniversary, the 15th.

And so it was today. As I type, my finger skin feels a tad crispy from the drying effects of prolonged contact with our silty soil. Usually I am prudent and wear gloves when gardening, but two factors were against that choice today: 1) when transplanting precious "little planties" as Kali calls them, I prefer greater dexterity; and 2) it just felt too dang good.

The bed preparation started Thursday evening, as I marked off the edges of old and new beds first with stakes and string and then with my edging iron. By Friday a.m. the edging was finished, so that in the afternoon, while Kali spent a few hours with neighbor friends, Janelle and I could enjoy a little romantic interlude...hauling chicken manure.

Yes, that's right. One of the few times from this past year when Janelle and I have had time to ourselves, and we chose to haul manure. Hey, it was fully composted, o.k.? Thanks to our neighbors S and M and their happy chickens for the fertility help. :)

Of course if you know us very well, you know that, by way of affirming and encouraging our relationship, that time was better spent than going out to paint the town red would have been. Or even gazing at each other as we linger over a candlelight dinner. Honestly, intimate candlelight dinners sound nice and I suppose they wouldn't hurt once in a while, but they're actually kind of awkward. It's hard to have a good and intimate conversation in an environment ostensibly designed for promoting good and intimate conversations. Am I the only one who feels that way? Anyway, we hauled and spread manure, and it was really great.

I spent the rest of the daylight hours hoeing in the manure we'd spread.

This morning, then, while the girls were getting breakfast around (which was waffles made on the brand new [Happy Anniversary to me from Janelle] cast waffle iron...nice and crispy!), I watered the garden, giving special attention to any new beds that were to be "sheet mulched" later in the day. See below for an explanation of sheet mulching.

Having wrapped ourselves around some waffles with chicken gravy, peanut butter, butter, syrup, and/or strawberry sauce, we then all headed out together to spread hay mulch. Kali and I had worked hard a couple of weeks back to make the first cutting of hay, now it was time to deliver it to its intended use. I carried forkfuls of the fragrant dried orchard grass to the garden, while Janelle arranged it in a six-inch layer on the 42-foot bed that was to receive tomatoes.

We then switched to preparing new ground: three brand new beds (four if you include the one Kali is using this year), six feet wide by nine feet long. Two of these I had decided to prepare using a technique known as "sheet mulching" (Kali decided to sheet mulch hers as well). This involves depositing a layer of compost or nutrient-rich compostable material (think composted chicken manure in this case), followed by a layer or layers of cardboard or newspaper, which should be wetted before applying. On top of this, a layer of your choice of mulch material. We chose fragrant dried orchard grass, because we have fragrant dried orchard grass.

One of the new beds required sodbusting (I was unsure of how sweet potatoes would produce under sheet mulching conditions. Also, we were out of fragrant dried orchard grass). Janelle was a good sport, trying out the farmer's hoe for the first time. We also installed a trellis for the cherry tomatoes before Janelle and Kali went in to work on lunch. I worked on tidying up from our bed-preparation whirlwind, but I was beginning to drag, and to long for a glass of tea and a soft chair in a cool room.

Fortunately, about that time my aunt G stopped by with some friends for a visit, so I was at least distracted from my lethargy and enjoyed the cool house for a bit while giving them the ol' tour. No soft chair, but the friendly faces were nice.

When they had gone (leaving a lovely anniversary plant with us), we decided to walk across the hill to a neighbor's place and see his freshly hatched Bourbon Red turkey poults. I wanted to wait until the sun was a little lower anyway before beginning transplanting, as that is one way to reduce transplant shock.

About five o'clock I went out to get my mind oriented to the task of transplanting, making final decisions about spacing, locations, etc., and to stretch out the string, get measuring tools in place, and plan out our planting sequence. We put the first tomato plant in at about six.

Between six and eight thirty we planted and watered in: 14 slicer, 13 Roma, 6 cherry, and 6 dicer tomatoes; 12 sweet and 3 hot pepper; 15 basil, 8 eggplant, 12 sweet potato, 1 dill, 6 marigold, and 6 cilantro in the main garden, plus: 1 Roma tomato, 1 cherry tomato, 1 eggplant, 2 sweet pepper, 1 nasturtium, 1 parsley, 1 fingerling potato, 1 basil, 1 dill in Kali's garden, then: three hot pepper near the fire ring and one aforementioned lovely anniversary plant by the front walk.

Phew.

I think we earned our ice cream and popcorn, which was what we had for supper at 9:30.

Sometimes I wonder: what is it that normal people do on evenings in May? I don't really know, but it can't be more fun than this.

Oh...I can tell I'm going to be stiff!