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.