gardening: lessons learned

[chhotii]

Thinned carrots today. What a pain in the knees! I must learn to sow the carrot seeds more evenly so they're easier to thin. Need not over-seed, they germinate at a great rate.

The peas, on the other hand... I don't know why more of them didn't sprout. Maybe I killed those by not watering the garden regularly after putting the seeds in. I really need to get my ass in gear and get out to water the garden before 9:00am (because of the water restrictions). It's easier now that Sqeaky-boo tolerates the Baby Bjorn carrier better. Perhaps I can incentivize my ass out of bed if we set up that X10 controller for the coffee machine.

The peas that have sprouted look a little chewed up. I wonder if this has something to do with the huge snail population in the garden. Need to put out beer traps. So now we have 2 uses for cheap beer people bring to our parties: making stew, and killing snails. (Oh yeah, that reminds me: I think my post regarding the party failed to post on suspects.)

Spinach looks beautiful so far. Let's see if I have more luck with spinach than drbitch does, now that I have woodchuck-proof fencing (but, oops, left the fence open when I rushed back in to feed the baby).

I put my seedlings outside to harden off last Monday and that seems to have killed off most of them. Oops! I'll be buying tomato seedlings at Mahoney's this year after all. There hasn't been frost, that's not what killed them. I didn't realize that the soil in the starting containers would dry out so much faster in the sun and the wind, so they got the shock of wilting on top of the shocks of being moved and colder temps. Must be more careful about keeping seedlings moist when they are hardening off in the future. Maybe if I made sort of little tents out of plastic wrap over the seedlings, they could enjoy the outside sun but have some shelter from the wind? Do they sell some kind of little glass boxes to put over tender young plants at the garden center? A website suggests using 2L soda bottles (either green ones, or clear ones with more holes) as tents. I could do that if I used the little dirt-balls instead of the 6-packs as starting containers. And, oops, I wasn't supposed to leave them out all night from the start. Oops, I sure did it all wrong this time. Also, the tomatoes were a bit leggy, which made things worse. Need to make sure seedlings get more balanced light.

I need to be sure to get a good hearty farmer's breakfast before trying to do a many-hours session of garden work. I have been prone, of late, to spells of very bad low blood sugar ickies. This morning I had my usual light cereal and coffee breakfast, after which I got less than 2 hours of garden work in, had to come in to feed the baby, and then didn't want to go back out because I sensed that things would get ugly if I didn't have protein soon. (Must eat, even if I feel fat! Even if the size 12 jeans feel snug! (Horrors!) Not eating will only rebound in more eating.)

To-do list (which might take awhile, fitting this stuff in around 24x7 baby care):
* water hanging basket
* start collecting and cutting up 2L soda bottles
* close "door" in garden fence
* post to suspects about Rich's b-day party
* unload cloth diapers from dryer
* clean up kitchen
* laundry
* try to find little sippie-type tops for Avent bottles
* beer traps for snails
* plant more peas
* thin spinach
* put up tomato stakes to see just how many tomato plants I have room for anyway
* transplant whatever tomato seedings haven't completely died
* buy more tomato seedings from Mahoney's to replace dead ones
* discuss X10 control for coffee machine
* consult organic gardening book on the subject of fertilizer

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[tamidon.livejournal.com]

btw, if your produce gets too exuberant I offer canning them for a split of the results