Lil sprout

First, I'm sorry I haven't posted sooner. There just hasn't been anything to report and things haven't progressed much to be worthy of pictures.

We had a strange storm this week that gave us almost constant thunder and rain for several hours, but not a lot of lightning. I checked the forecast after that, and it said we were supposed to have storms every day until next Wednesday. That hasn't been right, but we've had really high humidity.

The sweet peas that I put in were duds. I bought another packet and sat on my butt clearing soil of weeds and planting the new seeds. My neighbor from the next plot over waved hello and after a few gestures, she came over and confirmed I was planting seeds.

Through more gestures, she told me I should soak the seeds in water and wait until the sprouts were of certain size before I planted them.

I put the seeds back in the packet and continued to clean up the edges where I came upon dozens of pea seeds from my last planting that never sprouted. I collected those too. And I found some beans too.

A couple of nights ago, I took all of the gathered seeds plus unplanted seeds from my seed stash and started soaking them.

I remembered a total cheat I could use. Not because I'm too lazy to do it myself, but because I'm too impatient - I went to my favorite natural food co-ops and bought a bag of conventional sprouted bean mix. It's full of beans, peas, and lentils that are already sprouted for use in salads.

I also stopped by the Farmer's Market. After more clean up and hanging the last 18' of fence, I realized how much space was going unused. Pflaum's weren't there, so I bought from a guy who owns a nursery in the area. It looks like he's kept his plants on the cart because the tomatoes were going sideways to get the sun, and anything with tendrils was wrapped around anything else with tendrils. Everything was $1. I bought a bunch of peppers to replace the ones I started and planted, that disappeared. I bought a few tomatoes and herbs.

I decided to get some petunias to replace the ones I killed off by not watering them enough. I found some draping plants and some climbers.

When I got home, I went straight to the garden to plant everything I'd bought. I planted the climbers along the fence line that goes around the brasicas that won't be very fussy about a little sideways shade. Each plant had at least 5 tendrils so I unwound them from each other, and laced them through the fence. Even though I thought it was going to rain last night, I watered in all of the new stuff.

Oh, one of my neighbors who is from Vietnam, but also speaks Chinese (his father is Chinese) and English  asked if he could use some of my garden space for his plant. I showed him the spot and it's all settled in. He's going to make me pork wonton soup in thanks. He owned a noodle cart in Saigon before his wife died and he came to the US. The leaves of the plant are an ingredient.

Neighbors do a garden stroll to see how each plot is going. Since I have so many plants people don't recognize, I get a lot of visitors. When I point out the flowers, I get different reactions along the line that I'm wasting space with flowers that I could have planted with tomatoes. 

Perfect Weather

Look at that forecast! Ten days of my favorite kind of summer weather!

I've been kind of quiet because, well, there isn't much to say. It rained a lot. We had at least 7 inches of rain in a 10 day period. It was too mucky to be in the garden and it didn't need to be watered.

When I put straw on the garden, it didn't go the way I'd hoped it would, but it's a lesson learned. I took the straw off of everything and I lost a few peppers.

I broke down and bought chicken wire to replace the floppy plastic fencing I was using. I thought I bought a roll 5 feet tall and 150 feet long. I took down all of the fence I had and hung overlapping sections of chicken wire. My plot is 60'x11'. After hanging all of the fence, I can barely tell I've taken any off of the roll. It's still to heavy to lift and carry. At least one neighbor is going to buy some from me. I told her I would sell her 15' for $1. She's got a long, outside plot like I do. I think others might be interested and I can get rid of most of what's left  and make back some of my money.

The brussel sprouts that I broadcast are doing well. Yesterday, I weeded the bed and spaced the plants more evenly.  Today, they are standing straight and it seems like they've grown a bit overnight. I'm really happy with them.

The rhubarb has kicked off. The carrots have begun to show themselves and I have planted two more rows. I have seeds enough to plant again later this sumer. The peas are finally coming up, and now they'll have a sturdy fence to grow on instead of being tugged on by the plastic fence in the wind. The tomatoes I bought are growing from their original awesome condition, and the tomatoes I started from seeds are really, truly growing!! I haven't killed them! And there are lots of them! If they all grow the 7 feet tall as the others have in the last few years, my tomato-house-arbor-thingy will really serve good purpose.

4 O'Clocks from Burpee

Now that I have so much more and sturdier fence space, I decided to take advantage of it. I've planted more peas. I've planted a whole packet of long beans. 4-O'Clocks are the evening version of Morning Glories - the open in the evening and stay open until daylight. They are trumpet-shaped flowers and should draw hummingbirds and  honeybees. Instead of a climbing vine, they are bushy and may grow to 30" tall. I've put them along the fence line on the southeast corner and I plan on adding more sunflowers in that corner. The flowers will do well in the sun, and the brussel sprouts and other cooler-loving veg might be better off because of the shade.

The lettuce I planted from seed survived the rain. I bought some more greens to put in the bed with them. I accidentally bought swiss chard - two kinds. I put all of it in last night. The 3" pots that I bought had 12+ seedlings in them, so I'm going to have a nice carpet of greens. I have more lettuce and greens seeds that I hope to cycle through for the rest of the summer. I don't know if that actually works in the hotter weather, but I'm going to try.

I do have some pretty big spaces that are un-planted and covered with straw. It will keep the straw there for now and keep out the weeds. I want to keep some ground-space aside for the butternut squash I've got going. Having enough room for them has been a big problem for the last 2 years.

I had to move the bird feeder. It hung over the work space I made for myself under the tomato-house-arbor-thingy and earlier this week, I stepped inside to a soft, bouncy carpet of sunflower sprouts. The mass of them was solid and about 6" deep. It's easy enough to kill off the sunflowers there, but the seeds have continued to spread all over my garden and the one next to me. The bird seed I bought this year is the problem, and I bought 35 pounds of it! I've filled the two big feeders with the trouble seeds and hung them on the tree near my plot. I bought some of the same seed that I bought last year and put that in a smaller feeder last night. It was nearly empty today. I will move it into the tomato-house-thingy tomorrow so all of the "good" seeds are in the garden and the big feeders can empty or spill without messing up the garden.

I can say I am really satisfied and pleased with the garden right now. It looks like it's going to be very successful, and I think it's going to be pretty too. It still hasn't been worth it to take pictures - everything is still small and they don't show well in pictures, but with this week's weather, things should be aces by next Sunday.

My hands and feet are covered with little cuts and scratches from the chicken wire, I have my first bug bite on my face, the mani/pedi I got last week is doing wonders for keeping my nails from looking gnarly and stained from all of the digging, and my hands have been swollen and sore for the last few nights because they haven't done any real hard work in years.

eh

I don't have much to report. Friday I spread straw between rainstorms. Saturday it rained and I brought some plants for my friend's balcony garden. Today it got to nearly 95F, followed by severe storms.

I haven't been able to get in the garden for all of the wet. It looks like it might be nicer this afternoon, so I'll be able to check the status of the straw and fill the bird feeders.

I've got to replant the soy beans. They've completely skunked out. I haven't been terribly successful with the lettuce so far, so I may plant more carrot and lettuce seed.

That's about all.

Memorial Day is the standard date to start planting gardens here in Minnesota and farm fields are almost completely planted. I know a lot of farmers were able to plant in early April. I'm not sure if that means we're going to have early crops or bigger crops than normal.

The Pflaum's, the folks that I buy plants from at the Farmer's Market obviously got an early start because most of their seedlings were getting good and root bound last week.

I'm at a tipping point. I could buy a few more packs of plants and fill in the naked spots with a surer thing, or I can plant seeds, wait, and still hold my head high if there are bare spots.

Lots of water

We've had hours of soaking rain for the last few days. It's supposed to rain again tonight so I went to check on things. According to my rain gauge, my garden had more than 2.5 inches of rain, but I think it might have been more. Everything that was in a container was completely overflowing. The seedlings that are still cupped were in a plastic under-the-bed bin. The cups were overflowing. The bin was over flowing. Amazingly, nothing was dead. Everything was turned on it's side to drain while I worked.

We're expecting more rain tonight, but Sunday, it's supposed to be 95F+ and hazy. The rain has been washing away some of my surface soil. The heat will turn the silica left on the top of the soil tough and crusty. Today I cultivated and spread straw. The straw is wet and heavy so I spread it thinly. It's hung up on the leaves, but I expect it to settle in. The onions and garlic are suffering from rain wash, so over the next few weeks, I hope to get them well covered with straw to slow down the rain and keep the bulbs out of direct sunlight. I hope it works.

More and Less

I had a slow start today and couldn't get myself to the garden until this afternoon. I've been 2 days behind on watering, so it had to happen today. I also moved a lot of seedlings to the garden still in their cups, so they'd dry up really fast.

After watering, I grabbed a chair, faced where the sun should be, and read for a while. With the little bit I got, I still turned pink. More to come.

There was a lot of activity this evening. There's always a crowd an hour or two before the sun goes down, but this gang wasn't just watering. Today was a building and planting day.

It really began to feel like rain and I realized it would be a good time to get the cupped seedlings in the ground to get settled in over tonight and tomorrow's rain. The tomato seedlings I started, but hadn't planted toughened up. The plan is that they will climb up the sides of the arbor thingy from the inside and the outside. A few days ago, I saw that some of last week's tomato seedlings completely disappeared, but when I got to digging around, I found them. They were smaller than I remember and they were barely above ground, but they were there and alive. I've got all the tomatoes I think I have space for now. I have more plants. Some will go to friends. Some might be back-ups in another part of the garden.

I put in the last of the peppers that were cupped - at least 7. Looking at them now, I think I've put the peppers too close to each other. There's a big empty spot next to them I have no plans for. I have other empty spots I've decided to keep so I might have room for the squash vines. I'm still not quite sure what I'm doing there. I've been very successful with butternut squash in the past and I've struggled with space. I think I've got it down all right.

The lettuce, spinach, herbs area is really stiffled. Things aren't nearly as far along as I'd like.

I churned and scuffed up as much of the soil as I could to prepare for the rain. Things were getting too smooth and crusty from the rain.

All that's really left to figure out is the brussel sprout bed. The broadcast seeds are coming along nicely. The seedlings that were being out-paced by the weeds last week are big enough to be identifiable. They're turning up in clusters and will need to be thinned. That's happy news. I have some cupped seedlings too. I'm giving them a lot of room. Not only are they delicious, but they're kind of cool. I've seen stalks almost 4 feet tall with hundreds of sprouts. I'll have my own little field of them and I'll harvest after the first frost or two.

More plants have survived that I thought would last week. Less worry, and less dirty work to do. I will watch it grow, harvest in a few weeks, and watch the birds in between. 

I spent some time clearing out the edge lawn-edge of my garden plot. When I was digging out the weeds and clumps of grass, I dug up Japanese beetles and some kind of larvae I've only seen on websites and pesticide packages.

I've tried to be "brave" about squishing up the posts that will ruin my plants, but doing it with my hands is so hard. I have to be wearing gloves, and it helps if I can pick up the creature with soil so I don't have to look at the guts or feel the crunch.

The wind has been blowing around the green mesh fencing I have on the outside edge of my plot. It's an east-west fence and it billows in the northern and southern wind. The posts are holding up well, but the bottom edge isn't secure. When I cleaned it up, I pinned down the edges with garden staples. I probably bought twice as many as I needed, but I'm covered to be sure and I have extra just in case.

I cloched a few of the greens I bought at the farmer's market on Saturday. It really worked well with the spinach and lettuce. In just a couple of days they look really great.

Some of the baby tomato plants I started and transferred to the garden have completely disappeared. Not even a wilted, flattened stem. I hope that they might just be sleeping from the shock and they'll perk up in a few days. It's happened before with other plants, but I've never started tomatoes before. I still have some that haven't been moved, so I will let them grow more before I put them in the ground. I'm very happy to say that not all of the tomatoes I've already planted have died. I'm very excited to see what happens.

I didn't get to the garden today, but I plan on going out tomorrow when it's not very, very hot. I churned up the dirt a bit. With the rain and watering, the silt washed away leaving a shiny shellac of silica on top. The water just runs off to the low spots. So far I'm not able to churn up all of the garden because in areas I've seeded, the plants aren't big enough to see clearly. When the water washes over the top the baby plants are deep enough that their stems are locked into the silica and they aren't washed away.

I'll take more pictures tomorrow. I've also got to install the strings for the beans and other climbers (they're doing great).

This bit of weather coming up is really warm for Minnesota in May. We've had a really warm spring (and winter, and fall), but there is always a chance that something strange can happen with the weather. I think we'll skip the tornadoes this week since it's already been warmish.

Pictures! Tomorrow! Yay!

Weekend planting

We have had a definite break in the rain. Friday we had grey skies and got a trace of rain. Yesterday was lovely. Today and this week are supposed to be great.

I decided to get some herbs from the Pflaum Family at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market. They have been so helpful with my gardening these last few years. They've answered my questions, and best, most happiest of all, the seedlings they sell are totally reliable and only $2 or 3/$5 for pots that are about 2"x2" with several seedlings in each clump. I've made mistakes in the past, killed something I liked, and was able to go back and get some more.

Yesterday, I grabbed a flat and started shopping. I decided to get 3 different varieties of slicing tomatoes, rosemary, basil, lemon basil, lemon thyme, catnip, Italian parsley, spinach, salad mix, pole beans, sweet peas and probably something I'm missing.

I planted everything I bought plus tomatoes, peppers, and some squash. The garden is really filling out. The seedlings help me visualize how the garden will look over time. I can't quite tell if things are too close together. I'm planting double wide rows of peppers and they seem a bit dense. I've staggered the tomatoes into two rows  with some closer and some further from the arbor. I plan on putting twine woven on the arbor uprights to  support the tomatoes.

I bought pole beans. I really like fresh green beans and I really like to watch them grow. They climb so fast. They are next to cucumbers and zucchini. I've set them on the east side of the arbor about a foot from the base. I'm going to run twine from the plants to the top of the arbor.

I'm going to move the last of the seedlings to the greenhouse or maybe outside because the greenhouse is getting really hot during the day. When I was moving things around yesterday, I noticed the spinach seedlings in my apartment were bolting. They're only 2" tall! I'm going to take them outside and shade all of the spinach with a tight weave nylon window screen so they are mostly shaded. I should have put them in sooner. I didn't get any spinach last year - it bolted right away. My book says this is caused by days that are too sunny too long. Wish me luck.

I'm going to try to spend all day outside reading and planting the last of the seedlings and a few more seeds. Everything should be done. All I'll need to do after is water, weed, and maybe thin. Oh, and eat too. The peas should be producing pretty quick.

Sprinkle and little peppers

Today was my first real day of watering. I got to use my brand new Black N Decker spray nozzle and I see that the building has replaced last year's hose that was cracked and leaking. It might even be long enough to reach the whole garden. I am really, really lucky that my plot is closest to the spigot.

Last night, I put about a dozen peppers in the ground - poblano and cubanelle. I put stakes next to all of them so I can see where they were in case they die off. I didn't water them in. Only one was not doing well, and it was really small compared to the rest.

The weeds are starting to pass the brussel sprout seedlings. Since I broadcast the seeds and didn't lay them in rows, I'm not sure what is what right now.

Also, the songbird seed mix got everywhere and it's sprouting. Last year's seed had been neutralized so it wouldn't sprout. Not this stuff. There was so much seed dumped on the ground from the storms that I brought the songbird feeder inside to get the birds to do some cleanup. The nyjer seed chickadee feeder was empty so I refilled it. Since the seeds are so tiny, and the chicks have to pull them out of the sock mesh, it doesn't spill, even when it's really windy. The songbird feeder will go out again tomorrow and there should be some sweet singing tomorrow evening.

I've moved more seedlings from my apartment to our greenhouse and they'll be ready to go outside in a few days. Tomatoes will be last.

*happy dance*

A few days ago, I had a dream about creatures that look like meal worms being inside vegetables that were cut open.

Then I had a dream that my hands were cupped full of seeds and there were meal worms squirming around in the seeds.

This morning, I had a dream that a large part of my plastic mesh fence blew over onto the garden. I went to the garden and my neighbors laughed at me for my lousy fence and when I pulled up the fence to stake it in, all of the soil beneath was carpeted with seedlings. And they didn't have any.

I've had a lot of dreams about the garden, but I think this group means something special.

I haven't been able to work in the garden for days because of all of the rain, but I thought I'd check it. We had rain again today and we got another .25 inch. The bird feeder was completely empty and seeds were scattered everywhere.

I straightened up the fence with the longer poles I bought this weekend and filled the bird feeder.The brussel sprout seeds I scattered are sprouting! Delicate lines of sprouts show where the lettuce and carrots will grow and all of the alums are shooting up green stems!

I'm not sure I should be so giddy. Honestly, this isn't about the wonder of nature, it's about validation that I didn't screw up.

I can hear a lot of birds at the feeder - all kinds of song. I will gladly buy bird seed for having that sound in the evening.

It's rain again

 We had a wicked rain storm again last night. Thunder and lightning and driving rain that sounded like hail.

I checked the rain gauge this morning and for all day yesterday and last night, we had 2.5 inches of rain. That's nearly 5 inches in the last 3 days. We might get rain again tonight.

This morning my squash seedlings were flattened and the leaves were pasted down with mud. The plastic mesh fence caught a lot of wind and  came loose in places - the peas couldn't hold on to it. All of the water highlighted the high spots with sand and low spots with silt. I can level things. Everything is very fixable and it's kind of nice to have a test like this so early in the season

It's going to be good. Hopefully it will be warm enough in 2 weeks that I can get serious about transplanting the peppers and tomatoes.

It looks like the brussel sprouts might be sprouting and the onions are spouting too.

Good stuff.

1st Market day of the season

I went to the Farmer's Market for the first time today. I was looking for the guy who sells cat grass and seeds. He's not there all season, so I was really happy to find him. I got oat grass and wheat grass seed for $5. It's plenty to keep a couple of pots in rotation to keep Emma happy.

I also acquired some head scarfs, sun-dried tomato and roasted garlic oil with balsamic vinegar and I got some mendhi and a bindi from my friend Judi.

It's been stormy for several days now. I stopped by the garden and checked my rain gauge. We got .5 inch of rain last night. We had another really heavy rain this afternoon and we may have more rain tonight.

There are tornado warnings in Minnesota again tonight. Yesterday, a tornado touched down in Kiester, MN (near my hometown) according to a Twin Cities station, but I couldn't get feedback from anyone on FB for details. Social media is the way to go for rural disasters. People can post without electricity or phone and the word can get out fast. Two years ago, there was a lot of damage from a tornado that hopped through that area. I was worried this might be the same, but according to today's news, only one farmstead was hit and the owners actually lived in a farmhouse 2 miles away, so all were safe.

We're in for possible tornadoes in Minnesota again tonight. Before tornadoes come rain, wind, and sometimes hail. Sometimes thunder and lightning.

We won't see the super moon tonight, but we'll get more rain. I'll check the rain gauge tomorrow. It may be around 2 inches.

so nice

I forgot to take a picture of the tomatoes I took to Bible study. I transplanted 48 of the "Red Currant" cherry tomatoes into 3oz paper cups last night. They were all laid out in a shallow bin and I managed to find a home for every one. They were a lot of fun. And I was glad to find homes for them!

I've been so much more successful with seeds than I expected. There is always the chance that I will kill the poor things when I get them in the ground, but the seed stretch is going away and "true" leaves are coming out all over.

I'm really, really happy with the yellow cherry tomatoes. They are getting 6 inches tall, leaves everywhere. It's not weather-safe to put them outside for at least 2 more weeks. They are going to look great.

I stopped by the garden on my way in. The soil is in great shape. In the past, heavy rain would take the soil in the runoff and a layer of sand would be left behind. Then the soil would get really hard and it would have to be cultivated all summer.  Today, the soil is dappled with sand in the rain drop pits, but it's stayed put. The soil didn't run off the mounds and it's all loose and workable. I'm so glad I did all of the pre-work to prepare the soil. I'm very happy.

I checked my rain gauge. We've had 1.5 inches of rain in the last two days. It's been very helpful. The onions and garlic are starting to send up shoots. Rhubarb is coming along. The fence I'm using is plastic and pretty flexible. It's been billowing in the wind. The peas I put in are having a hard time holding on, so I added more stakes. Flowers look very happy. I haven't seen a sign that the seeds are sprouting, but it's been less than a week. This is going to be great.

I plan to get more seedlings ready to go to share when I to to volunteer at church on Tuesday. I still have about 200 seedlings or more of the combined types of seed. I will not be able to use that many, so I'm very happy to share them. So much food from a tiny thing! Nature is wonderful.

abundance shared is abundance doubled

Tomorrow is the last day of Bible Study until the fall. We wrap up with a pot luck and hours of gab. It's not really my thing. I don't eat much. People comment on how little I am eating. I finish eating before everyone else.  You'd be surprised at how much things are about eating when you don't eat.
I LOVE to cook and I'm good at it. I love to cater. I love to set up parties and I love to hide behind an apron. No such luck at a pot luck.

I've been thinking about what I will make for the party or even if I'll go. A few weeks ago, when I was offering someone seedlings, she suggested I bring them to the pot luck as my thing to share.
Easy peasy. I can take them to the party. Make my presence known and dodge out whenever I want because I don't have to wait around to collect my pan or help clean up.

"Red Currant" Indeterminant Cherry Tomatoes

The 36-cell seed starter with tomatoes has been doing really well. Even better than I thought they would be at this point. I pulled out the bin of soil I've got in my living room and the 3oz paper cups I bought and started moving seedlings. I had read something about putting at least three seeds in every container when starting seeds, so that's what I did. I started running out of space so in some of the cells, I sowed five seeds.

I transplanted 40 or so into the tiny cups to take to Bible study and I still had a lot left over. I moved the rest, three to a cup, into the larger party cups that have been in rotation as I've moved seedlings to cups to planting. I lost track, but I think I planted at least five of them with these seedlings. All are watered in.

"Carnival Mix"
Sweet Peppers

I decided to transplant the "Carnival Mix" of peppers from the 18-cell seed starter. These were at least two seeds to a cell, but they're doing so well, it's just a matter of time until I have to move them. So I replanted those too. When I moved them around I realized how well they're doing. The stems are really green and firm; not delicate at all. I moved these three to a cup in the party size cups. All are watered in. I really look forward to see the varieties mature.

I am really happy with how all of this is going. I don't know why I've been so worried. Maybe it's just the wonder of it all. I was genuinely worried that I wouldn't have enough plants from the seeds I sowed and that I would have to buy some from Pflaum's at the farmer's market. Even with all of the sprouts, I've still worried that I would break them or kill them somehow. Last year, things did not go well. I hat lots of weak, spindly seedlings that couldn't handle being moved at all.

I got dirt happy and decided to split up some of the spinach cups too. There are at least five plants in each cup and sometimes many more. The spinach came up OK, but the stems have stayed spindly. Then the food leaves came up, they kept getting longer and longer, just making the whole seedling floppy. The same thing happened with last year's salad mix - they all fell over and died. When they died, I had them in a container and I just left it in the garden. It came back to life and did really well until it bolted.

I'm hoping that this year's floppy spinach, lettuce mix and herbs will revive with more space and heat. I've split my bet though. I've put some of the spinach seedlings in the ground already. Some are in clustered cups, and now some are split up in larger cups. Something is bound to work. I have nearly 50 spinach seedlings between the three settings.

My living room is clearing out. I have cups covering  The Rack, but there are only about a dozen left on the cardboard box island in the middle of the room.  I have some downstairs in the greenhouse too, but I can't remember what is there. These really established tomatoes and peppers could go to the greenhouse now too, but I know my plants are so much further along than the neighbors' and I'm afraid that some will be stolen. It's a sad reality.

Tomorrow after the party, I'm going to check on the peas I transplanted the other day. The rain has been such good timing!

I will take pictures of the minicups for church in the morning. The lighting isn't good here at night.

rain, cheerful rain

It rained last night and this morning we had a heavy rain blow through with high wind. It was supposed to hail to, but we didn't get any here.
There is no need to work at it today.
grow! grow! grow!

Remember, these are BEFORE pictures

Oh, man. I took pictures of my garden plot today and downloading them, they look awful. There is wood everywhere. Right now, I'm using planks to reach into the garden to plant, then backing out and using the plank somewhere else. There's a pile of tools and stakes by the arbor thingy - I'll just call it The Tomato House and the wheely bin is turned over. Embarrassing, but I want to document progress.

Here goes...

The Land. The long plot on the end is mine.

Looking west

Looking east

Onions and garlic near, brussel sprouts and rhubarb far

Rhubarb

Spot for flowers

Soybeans

Marigolds on the fence line keep away pests

The Tomato House

Peas, marigolds ad squash

in the dirt!

It rained last night and the weather is supposed to warm up, and the hose is finally available, so I decided it's time to put some seedlings in the ground.

I am very happy to report that all of the soil prep seems to have done it's job. We've had rain a couple of times now and the top layer has not run off downhill leaving sand. Everything stayed put.

The rhubarb is doing well. The flowers in the bed I put in the other day are starting to perk up, and the marigolds around the garden look very happy.

I decided today is the day for peas. Some of the vines were well over a foot in the apartment and the tendrils were getting frustrated with nothing to hang on to. In they went. I also put in a couple of butternut squash and a zucchini. I have more vines that are ready to go.

It's time to transplant the tomato and pepper seedlings from the jiffy starter trays into cups. They're doing really well. (I couldn't remember which is which because I didn't label them when I put in the seeds. The true leaves are out and now I can tell which are which.)

red cherry tomatoes

mixed sweet peppers

Close-up of the red cherry tomatos

It really, really, really looks like a garden now. I took some pictures while things were messy, but it's a start for the record. Next week it will look even greater. Lots of things should be sprouting.

Warm sunny days, rain at night. I couldn't ask for more.

Oo, I forgot. I put two pepper seedlings in just to see if they will survive. Tomatoes and peppers usually go in about three weeks from now, but it might work. 

: p

Briefly, the hose drama continued today. It wasn't there when I went to the garden. When I came back to the building, my key fob that opens the door didn't work. A regular lobby stalker told me I needed to go to the office to have it fixed. This has happened before - faulty system.
I called the manager at corporate to let her know the hose wasn't available. She seemed pretty interested. Then I went to the office to get my key fob fixed - normally it's either programmed into the system or swapped out.
They were expecting me. Before I had time to say it didn't work, the manager told me it was a loaner and I had to pay for it. I did pay for it. Back in 2010. I asked if she turned it off today she said no, she turned it off yesterday. So, she took time to go through my file to find any problems then she intentionally and manually locked me out of the building.
She locked me out of the building.
She went to the electronic ledger and found the payment in August 2010.
Fuss, fuss, fuss, blah, blah, blah, she couldn't fix it, blah, blah, "a guy coming in this afternoon to fix it, blah blah and she finally agreed to swap it instead of making me wait for the guy.
I called back that manager at corporate and left a voicemail. I haven't heard back.

When I got home, there was an envelope on my door

and on the doors of most of my neighbors.

I've been feeling a big nervy about calling my building manager's boss about getting access to water for our garden. Retribution is always possible. I've considered a "surprise" inspection notice or something like that, but envelopes everywhere was a puzzle.

Today is the day the results of the resident feedback survey were responded to via letter. The letter was signed by the same person at the corporate office I spoke with yesterday about the hose access. The garden was mentioned. The dirty halls and lobby were mentioned. Both are the direct responsibility of the building manager.  I don't want to be her today.

Trying to make it look like I'm working hard

My apron thing fell through. I found a person on etsy.com who had a lot of different styles of aprons available. We chatted online for a couple of weeks and then she sent a message that her real job was getting busy, so she has to back out.

I've been looking all over the net again. I'm a big gal, and I hate to buy something online that may or may not fit. I found a few options, some so inexpensive that shipping would double the cost. I asked a super-sewer friend if she would sew one for me if I provided all the fabric, etc, but her sewing machine is broke. I have a sewing machine, but I don't have any room in my apartment to run a machine. I've used my machine sitting on the floor, but it's not the way to go for a nicely finished project.

I've been looking online for some place that would sell aprons locally. I'm not looking for the regular belt around the neck, belt around the waist, kiss the cook kind of apron. I want something that crosses my back and has good sized pockets for my tools so when I bend over, everything stays where I put it.

LOTS of putzing and I got nothing. I live in Minnesota so searching for "apron" "garden" "smock" "country" "minnesota" "history" "prairie", etc in various combinations gets me all kinds of things that are not an item worn on the torso to protect body and clothes while working.

Even the farm supply store doesn't have anything. I started to look at men's work shirts and thought I could modify the sleeves to be the right length, a little belt cinch in the back. Then I thought I could take some of the spare fabric and make pockets. The shirt is about $22, add some notions and thread and I could get the whole thing done for $25.

DUH. I don't need a brand new shirt. I live by several second hand shops and I'm sure I can find something there for a few bucks. I have to train my brain to remember re-purposing things that are used. I've got "buy" down and "make," but re-make doesn't come to mind readily.

I'm blogging from my volunteer gig at church. When I leave here, I'll stop by Savers and get to work at it.

The hose should be available to us today. I called the corporate office for our apartment complex to explain how difficult it has been to get the hose and have the water turned on.

I've got to run errands and take a nap before I can start the crafty business. It's nice to have this checked off the list.

Give them something to talk about

Song birds are everywhere. I decided today is the day to put out the feeders.

I have a thistle sock with nyjer seeds for finches (they like to cling and swing when they eat. This was a huge hit last year. Nyjer seeds are little, tiny things and I thought that the amount of traffic I got would empty the sock quickly, but it lasted alright. I'd like to have 2 this year, so I went to the dollar store and bought a package of mesh bags used to wash lingerie inside a machine washer. I could get two or three feeders out of each. To buy a thistle sock empty, it costs about $1.75, and they are hard to find. A lot of stores sell thistle socks already filled with nyjer seeds for about $6-11. Make your own, I say.

I also have a standard, general 4 sided feeder. I've bought two of them because I went through so much seed last year, but I've only put out one. I may keep the other in my apartment so when the first is empty, I can fill the second and do a quick switch. Once again Country Wisdom and Know-How gave me plenty to read about birds, bird houses, and bird feeders. Tiny birds - like chickadees - were my main visitors last year. I decided I'd like to encourage song birds, so I read up and bought a mix that I hope will bring us more songbirds. I decided that the blue might be a gird landmark for the birds. I also hung a little wind chime nearby to provide another landmark.

My apartment is on the garden side of the building, so I can hear the singing creatures. The sun is starting to go down. It's cool and quiet. I can hear all kinds of birds chirping outside, maybe they are passing on the word - there's food here.

30 April The Weather

We've been in a cold spurt for over a week now. It's a flux in weather that isn't unusual here. The temperature has been closer to normal - our mid-80's a month ago was too much to hope for, but sometimes it's hard to tell.

I've been watching things because I actually have seeds and plants in the ground, but I just pulled up the weather and I was surprised. I thought when I looked at the weather yesterday, we were going to be in the 60's this week but look! Rainy and warm is a nice way for the plants to get going.

Some of the seedlings are in the greenhouse and the rest are in the apartment. Fingers crossed!

My kingdom for a hose

Trouble. I know, I'm trouble.
Last week I went to our apartment building's office and asked for the tool shed to be unlocked and the hose to be set out for us to use at the garden.
This week, I watched for the hose. Nothing.
Yesterday, I went to the office, saw the building manager in the hall and asked her about the hose. She said she needed to fill out a work order and it would be done yesterday or today. I said yesterday would be better. It wasn't out by 6p yesterday.

I went to the garden around 4p. Still no hose. If we don't get the hose today, we won't have it until next week.

I went to the management office again. I asked after the hose.

I planned on the water being available and since it was not there, I might have had to plan differently. I was just trying to get an answer - would we have water this weekend?

She does this backward, spinning, evasive thing when she's got bad news, even if it's something small, so it's hard to tell how bad the news is. It takes a really long time to get to a straight answer and it seems to be an attempt to wear a girl out while throwing out ridiculous excuses/reasons/accusations in the process which contradict each other.

She didn't put in a work order. She doesn't have to put in a work order. She did not notify maintenance to do it. This is not going to change until next week because maintenance is on call during weekends, but otherwise not available.

The swamp of crud I went through to get that information out of her is ridiculous and entirely unnecessary. Even when I restated the above, she refused to confirm it. I could only get a "maybe" and "that's not what I said."

This is one of those integrity-break thingys that make me crazy. If you did something or did not do something, and someone asks you a direct question about whether it has or not happened - answer the bloody question so things can move forward. If you've got bad news spill it. If you've set consequences, enforce them.

I'm universal on this one, I'm not excluded from responsibility or penalty. It's easier that way. I don't do "politics." It's an autism thing. I literally don't understand it, don't know how to do it, and I don't always recognize it. I prefer things predictable. I am monumentally focused until "the end" is achieved.

Any hooo....

Without access to the garden hose, the most efficient way to get water out of the building is to fill the container in the craft room on the main floor of the building, go down the hall into the stairwell, through a one-way locked door, past the non-functional greenhouse to the garden. Return to the building via the main entrance which is also locked, but our passkeys will let us in. Go past the office, down the hall to the craft room and repeat.

When we have access to the hose, it's connected to the corner of the building, and it's 50 foot length almost goes to the north-east corner of the garden, but not quite. Those gardeners (most of us, really) keep a water heater tank and use a spray nozzle to aim water to fall into their tank, then they water by hand.


In my new spot, I am exceptionally lucky because I am so close to the spigot. It worries me terrible that 70 and 80 year olds are trying to carry gallons of water in and out of the building. Easily half need a cane or walker to get around. It's a contradiction of reason. Plant as early as possible to get as many crops as possible versus risk falling. It's made worse that most keep their walking paths under 10" wide to keep the growing area as large as possible.

So I'll carry water out this weekend, hope for a hose on Monday, and keep the onion, garlic, and spinach going by hand until then. Someone stole my watering can, so I'm going to find something else to use, like a waste basket.

and on...

more

Whooo, I'm tired, so if this gets rambly, I apologize. I want to get this into the log before I fall asleep.

I got a lot done today. I can almost call my plot half ready.

I bought a coil hose and itended to set it up, but I realized the way the drain is set up, the hose wouldn't fit because the nozzle is supposed to be male and the way I set it up, it wasn't the male collection I need for a garden hose.Another trip to Home Depot today got me the part to fix things.

I spent some time cleaning up - getting all of the stakes, misc into the permanent storage that I bought. I walked around the garden planning a bit. I have boards laid out so I can walk through the garden without sinking 12 inches. I moved them around a bit.

I transferred the garlic chive and rhubarb I pulled out of the garden a few weeks ago. They're all tucked in.

I planted and/or set spinach (from the starts in my apartment), carrots, lettuce, red onions, chamomile, brussel sprouts, chives and some peas.

I'm ALMOST 50% planted in. The starts in my apartment are doing well. When I turned the spinach out of it's party cup, the roots were almost 10 inches long in many cases. The chives I transplanted had their thick, twining roots going in circles in the bottom of the cup.

The transferred spinach seedlings are covered with clearish plastic which I hope will keep them warm enough for them to grow alone outside.

Not a bad day, but now I must sleep.

Claim it. Own it.

I got a late start today. Copied the garden  plan I'd made into a notebook. I've spent so much time reading up on different combinations of plants and what additives each kind of plant needs when it's transplanted, that I can't remember it all.

Home Sweet Home
The Land is outlined in red, my plot is in white.

I hung fence around the perimeter of my plot. I put up the garden trellis, but I made it bigger and a slightly different shape, dug out about a foot of soil from inside the trellis to mound around the edges. Tomatoes will go on the mounds and be trained up (and over?) the trellis.

I flattened the soil inside and used boards to hold up the mounds from the inside so it wouldn't fall in. I laid some carpet strips on the inside to keep the packed dirt down, weed free, and not too mucky.

Mr Hu, Mr Tse, Mrs Lang, Mrs. Gao, Mr. Bu, and a few others were outside working in their plots. As I was working on the trellis, they asked if I was building a house. The carpet made it a done deal for them, they couldn't stop laughing.

I am often the recipient of shaking heads, chuckling, and outright laughter. Sometimes people just cruise by to watch me, some come right up to me and take tools (or whatever) out of my hands to try to stop what I'm doing because they think I am making some kind of monumental mistake. I don't mind being different, but interference or anything more than a casual suggestion just pisses me off. I rolled with it the first year and a half, but last summer, I lost my patience. There is no benefit in "being nice to old people" around here. The respect doesn't go both ways. I'm not used to this, but it's got to be a cultural thing I'm missing. I've decided it's better to stand my ground and cut off the pushy people. I'd rather be left alone because people think I'm crazy than be pestered and patronized by friends.

There trellis is open to the fence on the north side of my plot. I don't want to make too much shade for my neighbor without losing vertical space. I left an opening on the side so I can get inside the trellis area. I'm using it to store my water reservoir, tools, stakes, and other things I don't want stolen. It does look like a little house and by mid-summer, I hope it's covered in tomato plants, flowers and climbing vines, with a cool, shady place inside.

I laid in three rows of soybean seed, all of the yellow onions and garlic. I put in three rows of carrot seed, and I set in the reclaimed onions I took out last week. We still don't have access to water, so I didn't water anything in. The soil is really light and was pretty warm today. I hope the dry, cool conditions will keep the garlic and onion starts from rotting until I can water them. Tomorrow I hope.

I've set aside and "alum patch" for all of the onions, garlic, and carrots. They are supposed to play together nicely and they will be near-ish tomatoes, soybeans, brussel sprouts and peas, which is supposed to be OK. When I first drew the plan, I thought I might have planned too much space for them, but when I've put them in the ground, it looks like it will be OK.

The plot seemed to change shape as the day went along. First it looked so big, then too small, then bigger than the other plots that are still untouched. By the end of the day, I checked the fence line. I'm glad I put it in before I started. My plot looks so much bigger than the plot next to mine. I felt guilty, but everything checked out OK. I adjusted the hay bales so they didn't push the fence over the north boundary.

Dehydrated and worn out, I cleaned up my mess of twine and fence packaging and came in. I think I was outside for 4 or 5 hours. I finished a lot more than I thought I would. I'm going to try to get water to the garden tomorrow, put in the last of the onions, get the peas going, plant the rhubarb and chives I'd brought inside and water it all in. Tomorrow.

It's supposed to be in the 30's Thursday and Friday nights, so the live growing things will have to be kept inside until they are tougher, then cloched when outside.

My antsy self is satisfied. The plot is mine.

Tilled

When I came home from volunteering, I had a bag of groceries, but I stopped to catch up with a few gals by the mailboxes. Katya saw me through the glass door and freaked out. I let her in and she told me the rototiller guy was going to come at 6p and it was almost time and I needed to hurry. I gave her the $7.35 I owed her for the garden rent, but she was frantic that I come to the garden.

I put away my groceries, changed clothes, grabbed the tools-in-a-trash-bin-on-wheels and went to the garden. Tiller Dude was doing his thing, Gregori was supervising and Katya was pacing around my garden plot (formerly hers).

I still don't know what was so urgent. I thought perhaps the garden shed had been unlocked and all of my stuff was in the way since I was the last one to put my stuff in. I thought maybe others were waiting for me, but there was no one else in the garden. The shed was still locked.

Katya pointed at the rhubarb in my plot. I'd split the rhubarb patch that was there, moved a few plants to her plot and transplanted the rest into a different part of my plot. For some reason, this tweaked her and she wasn't sure if I was OK with it. The rhubarb in my plot was fine. There was a circular conversation about the rhubarb that I don't understand, but eventually she went away.

Gregori doesn't stand well. I got him a chair to sit in. He saw me use my awesome new Husky 2-in-1 ultra thin pocket knife with folding 5" serrated blade and said I looked like a bandit. We talked about the tattoo on my calf that I got in Thailand and how beautiful Thailand is and how much he hates my tattoos and pierced nose. He couldn't even figure out what my Thai tattoo is, so I pointed out the lotus flowers and the vines. It's not colored, so sometimes people don't see it right away.

While we were talking, Sofia come out, said something to Gregori, then looked at me and said "Why are you showing your body to my husband?" Whoops. I explained and I think she got it. We joked a bit about me being a bandit and they both told me how much they don't like my tattoos.
Sofia gave me the business card of the Tiller Dude we've been expecting for over a week now. She asked if I would call him, explain she hired someone else and tell him to not come. Her English is pretty good, but she doesn't hear well, so the phone is difficult. No problem.

Gregori was getting tired. Tilling took longer than he expected.. Gregori needed to pay the guy, then put up the stakes to mark the plot boundaries. Sofia asked me to help him. No problem.
Tiller Dude finished. Gregori paid him, unlocked the shed, and dug around inside for stakes to mark the boundaries.

Katya popped up. She started digging through the shed, pulling things out, throwing them on the ground. None of it was hers. Last year she stole things from the shed when it was first opened so I started to worry. She was as frantic as she was when she told me I needed to go to the garden. I asked her what she was doing. First she said she was helping me. Then she said she was helping Gregori. Then she said she was getting her things out, but I pointed out that none of the stuff she pulled was hers. I guess it's over-stimulation. She wanted to be right in the middle of the action. I got her to go inside.

Mr Hu joined us. Gregori supervised my measuring and Mr Hu pounded in the stakes.

I had enough time to put up a few border stakes and my outside fence (it's open to the park on 3 sides). The sun was down and it started to rain.

All of the good stuff I added to the plot has been tilled in. All of my structure stuff is garden-side. Alums and carrots are ready to go in the ground. very happy.

22 April Weather

I've got a new plan

I've had my head in the books all day. I finally made a chart with the plants down the side and notes next to them in columns so I could keep track of what I needed to know to plan the layout. I noticed quickly that I made some big mistakes in last year's planting because I put plants together in the same bed that don't do well together.

I cross-referenced the seeds I have with the companion plants that do best together with sun exposure, harvest time and size. I made a 10x60 grid and arranged the plants. Alums (onion, garlic, chives) can be interchanged, squashes can be interchanged, and the flowers I've already chosen are really flexible with the rest.

Each space is 1'x1'. I've got room left over, but I have more seedlings than my plan calls for, so I might break even somewhere in the middle. With this plan, I'm going to produce way more than I'm going to be able to eat, so I'll give it to my neighbors. One person caught me in the elevator (with a pitchfork in my hand) and asked after my garden and mentioned he'd like some green tomatoes if I have any to spare.

I'll have plastic mesh fence all around, so I'm trying to take advantage of it as climbing space for peas and squash. I'm able to reach in or open the fence on three sides, so I home to take advantage of more reach and less walking path. I'll build and arbor-thingy in the middle for the tomatoes to brace themselves against, and I'll use the space under the arbor thingy to keep my water supply, tools and other miscellaneous things. I hope they're hidden enough that people don't steal them.

It's nearly 10p on Sunday and the garden still hasn't been tilled. Now that I've got my head full of facts, I've got my mind on more soil prep - primarily doing what I can to warm up the ground. My first plan is to lay clear-ish plastic over the ground. The sun is supposed to heat up the ground and the plastic will hold the temperature and the moisture. Warmed up enough, I can plant. Then some things will get straw as insulation and some will get cloches with the tops open. But I can't do a thing about anything plot related until the ground is tilled. Gratefully, I know I'm not the only one who is antsy. Poor Sofia, the garden president in charge of collecting money and hiring the tiller, is probably driven nuts with people knocking on her door. Her English is pretty good, but she can't hear well at all. Her husband Gregori hears fine, he's very shy about his English. They'll do fine with the other Ukrainian and Russian folk, but the Chinese folk speaking English will be difficult for them both. I'm glad I didn't take the job, but if I did, the ground would have been tilled by now.

The peas I've started are almost 2 feet long and I've got to plant them soon. I stuck drinking straws in the cups and wrapped the vines around to give them something to do. They were beginning to hold on to each other. I shouldn't have started seeds so soon. If it doesn't work out, I'll eat them as pea greens in a salad and plant outside when the weather is warmer.

In an effort to shake things up, literally, I've put a fan on the seedlings. I hope that by stressing them with the breeze, they'll toughen up a bit. It's all part of the scheme to get everything hardy enough to move outside. All of the quiet ones have emerged and look like tiny, but healthy seedlings. They'll be my fretting project for the short term.

Till then.

nothing to do but wait

Around midnight, I noticed a sign in the lobby saying the garden tilling would be Saturday or Sunday.
In reality, most of these seedlings cannot go outside yet, they are too small, but I started to think about structure and design more.
It's been a grey day. Temp is about 45F. I needed to get out of the house, so I went in search of hay bales. I've been reading a lot about how useful they are with peppers and tomatoes so I went looking.
The first place, a big greenhouse place, had "totally nu" hay "bales." The hay was shredded into bits less than an inch long and it was packaged in a one cubic foot rectangular bag, like the peat moss I bought. Twelve bucks.

I went to a place called the SouthSide Farm Store. It's in Minneapolis at 38th Street and Bloomington Avenue. I know they sell urban chicken supplies, so I thought I'd check it out. 

Bales of hay like you would imagine them were stacked against a fence under a tarp. Nine bucks per pop. Small local business owner. Chicken feed in South Minneapolis for goodness sake. I thought I wanted three, but only two would fit in the station wagon.

I didn't realize they'd be so big. They are real, farm-sized bales of hay - 3'x1'x'1'. Satisfying though, to drop off those great big bales in my garden spot which still wasn't tilled when I got home.

I went to Home Depot and walked around in circles. I touched all the things I thought I would buy, but don't need yet.

I bought the 45 gallon wheeled garbage bin I planned for water storage. At home I installed the washer and nozzle bit so water will drain from the bottom and can be connected to a hose. It was really easy. The whole thing took 15 minutes.


I moved my tools and miscellaneous stakes from my walk-in closet to the bin, so when I'm able, I can wheel all the stuff out in one go. They were getting scattered about the place. After the first go at it, the cat isn't interested in smelling them anymore.

hmmm....

What to do? 

I took a nap. The seedlings have taken a pretty bad turn. I don't know why. More reading to do. 

More planning to do. I paced the garden and it's about 60'x10' with a 4'x5' patch of rhubarb already set.
Back to the drawing board as they say.

so much to see

I am amazed. Continuously.
I think the reason I have gotten so verbose about gardening and spend so much time thinking about it is because it is amazing. I could say "creation of God," but my ego is too involved. I want to give credit to myself. Not for creating, but for encouraging growth. Facilitating the beginning. Respecting it all and expressing the appropriate measure of awe to this magic.

I never had a chance to plant my own garden in adulthood until now. I don't have children. I think the combination of those two things keep the novelty inspired in me. If I had a pack of screaming kids hanging on my legs, pooping on everything, I might have lost sight of the glory and wonder with so much noise and urgency around. Plants are quiet. Slow, fast and brief.

There is a big part of me that sits stunned, looking from a distance thinking "I had something to do with that." The same part looks closely at the tiny leaves as they appear between two others. The same part that pokes at the seed hull that is still attached to the tiny stalk pinning the first two leaves together. The same part that turns the pot on a sunny day and watches the little plant turn and flex to face the sun. If I use warm water, sometimes I can watch a tight leaf uncurl right in front of me.

All the same, these beautiful little things don't need my tending. When I go to sleep or run my daily errands, they keep growing and they require little of me. I think that is part of the reason I think about it so much. All I have to do is provide sunlight, water, and something nice to grow in. So simple. At the same time, I know how fragile plants can be. And that as easy as it seems, there is so much wonder in what I don't know that I want to do it right.

I have means now that I didn't have when I had my first garden 2 years ago. So I've done what I can to find nice soil and planting matter mixed together nicely. I bought seeds like any you might find at a store, but I chose brands I know. I held the seeds in my hand and set them in as carefully as I could with my own hands.

I watched.

A challenge in success is the worry it causes.

I planted a bunch of seeds in pots and trays in my apartment, watered them, and put them in the window. Within days some broke the surface and unfolded their heads. They greened up, the stems became sturdy. It was amazing that it happened so fast! But it made me look at the other pots and trays sitting quietly in the window next to it. What did I do wrong? Did I do something wrong? They can't come up all at the same time, they are different kinds of plants. I can't expect them to come up at the same time. But still I wonder.
While I'm trying to manage the teenager plants that are twisting around to catch the sun, I look and the silent soil. I touch it with my finger to test that it is damp. I adjust it's position in the window to catch the best light and I wait.

While the quiet ones wait, I have to move around the teenagers to larger pots, untangling their roots and burying their roots in new, loose, lovely soil. I press the soil in around them like tucking them into bed. I give them a drink of water. And then I go to bed myself. When I wake up in the morning, I check to see if they are OK and if I see them twisting to get to the sun, I know all major needs are met. Nothing to do until they outgrow their new pots.
And I look at the quiet ones inspecting the soil closely for a tiny greenish bump the size of a mustard seed. With the first one I sigh, nod to myself and calm.

But then I refill the empty small pots where the teenagers grew. I shake the seed envelope and thwack it with my finger to knock all of the seeds to the bottom. I tear off the corner, pour them in my left hand, and place them one seed at a time into the waiting soil. I pat them in, water and wait.
I add a label so as all of these seedlings grow and move from one pot to another, I know what I am moving. At a very young age, they all look the same - not the fuzzy haired blue or brown eyed baby, but a stem split into two leaves.

Roundish pair of leaves with a dimple that look like lilly pads means the plant is a brassica. When it grows up, it's going to be something like cabbage. The long, narrow tipped leaves mean the plant is a nightshade and might be a tomato or a pepper. The next leaves that come narrow the list of possible candidates in the roll call of my garden. I really won't know if it's a pepper or a tomato until it's larger. I won't know if it's fruit is supposed to be yellow, red, or green until the fruit is firm and stretching it's skin. So I label them.
Now and as a bonus, the label stake acts like a sundial and I can see how the light is moving across the soil to pass the time. The stake is the anchor I use as a pivot to turn the plant one quarter turn each day so the seedling grows up straight. The label lets me match peppers to peppers and brussel sprouts to brussel sprouts so I can see how similar and different they are.

And while the growing plants wave in the sun, I watch for the quiet ones.

And then one afternoon, I notice a tiny, impossibly slender stem that could be a strand of my hair has broken the surface and stands up straight holding tiny leaves on it's tiny frame. exhale. Where there is one, there is many and over time, I watch it's brothers and sisters arise while I turn them and turn them to help them grow straight while they reach for the sun.

One of the trays looked a bit crowded with little seedlings - so much smaller than the rowdy teenagers were - so I decided to give them their own pots. I filled a plastic party cup with soil, patted it down, and made a hole with an un-sharpened pencil. I use a plastic fork to loosen the soil in the tray as gently as I can holding my breath and gasping with every slip and sign that I might have broken a root. An inch tall above ground, they have long lacy roots and it's obvious I got there in the knick of time. I moved them to their larger homes in threes and fours, patted the soil, and watered them in.

In stores, grocery stores, department stores, convenience stores and hardware stores I can't walk past a display of seeds without slowing down. I refer to my mental list of seeds at home and try to recall my wish list and check the display. I want red cherry tomatoes, but I have my heart set on Sweet 100s which I've purchased as seedlings at the famer's market and have been so good, but they only have Red Currant. I don't know Red Currant so I am suspicious, but I can't walk away without staisfying the itch for red cherry tomatoes.

They tray that held the quiet ones is empty since they've moved into their own pots in threes and fours, so I scoop up some more soil, pat it into the tray, shake the seed packet, tear off the corner, pour them into my hand and lay them one by one into their starter homes. I pat them in and cover them lightly with soil. I water them in, and put them in the window to stare at.

Over and over and over I've done that this year. It seems that every seed I've sowed has emerged and now I am surrounded by plastic party cups with little plants following the passing of the sun across my apartment living room and trays of quiet ones getting so much of my attention by being so quiet.

The rowdy teenagers are nearly a foot long after a week while some quiet ones haven't peeped in two. From trays they went to cups of three and four to cups of one and two while they spring forth looking for the sun and something to climb on. I'm nervous to get them into the ground as soon as possible. All I had to provide was sunlight, water, and something nice to grow in, and they are running out of something nice to grow in.
I regret starting so many different kinds of seeds at the same time because the fast growers went off like fireworks setting the bar so high, then climbing higher and higher so that I worry about them falling. The taller they got, the more intoxicated they look trying to turn towards the sun. They send out tiny tendrils looking for something to hold it up and the moment a tendril touches something, it wraps around it like a baby's fist and holds on for keeps. The tendrils toughen like wire and make tight coils around the thing it's found.
When they are twisting around like this, looking for the sun and something to hold on to, if they touch, they will cling together wrapping their tendrils around each other and shooting their vines up to get higher. I have to be careful so that this doesn't happen in my apartment. It could, and I could deal with it, but moving them together can be tricky. Planting them into the ground is doubly hard. If one fails, the other is still wrapped around it and I have to separate the tangled living from the tangled dead.

Today a dozen tiny green threads have emerged. I've worried after them for weeks, but they seem fine now. I've learned that the density I've planted with previous seeds is too close and I will have to move these tiny ones to their own pots in an inch or two because the roots are so well developed, and so important. Right now, I'd have to handle them with marshmallow tweezers small enough and gentle enough to hold the seedling while I'm tucking it's root into a new plastic party cup.

With all of this going on around me, it's a wonder I can sleep. It's a wonder I can leave the house without running home to check my babies.

And then there is the wild. Sunlight I can't control. Water that isn't tame. Soil that I've tried to make as a nice place to grow as I can - 500 pounds of compost, peat moss, and manure so far. As I move the teenagers outside and the others to follow them, doing my rounds will mean going down twelve floors, through the door that will lock behind me. I'll pass through the plastic mesh fence to check beds where the seedlings reunite and remember they're tray days while they grow. I'll check the water, pull the weeds and sit back in wonder that I had a part to play with this. I'll walk around the building, enter the lobby, wave my passkey in front of the sensor to unlock the door and go back up twelve floors to wait with the babies until I check on the bed outside again.

It's a wonder.

Still No Till

Friday morning is Bible Study time. I drove into Minneapolis to buy an old storm window from an architectual reclamation store. I'm thinking about making a cold frame. The storefront is occupied by someone else, so headed home.
I stopped by Turtle Bread Co. in my old neighborhood and I scored my favorite things! They have a rotating daily menu and their baked goods fly out, so getting my favorites isn't always possible, but I snagged them today.
The garden isn't tilled yet. It's sunny and 54F but the wind is making it very chilly. I had visions of getting the fence up and transplanting the peas (which I shouldn't have started inside and are HUGE and nearly potbound). I can't do any of that until the till. I have a space cleared and turned for onion sets, but I'm not feeling it. I want to make big moves.