There have been some successes and many failures… the greatest failure being the greenhouse fiasco... you see I built this greenhouse:
Random planting notes starting with planting a blueberry. Notice the soil prep,.. Potato- every eye will produce a plant cut 21 hours before planting to develop a scab to help prevent mold growth... Plant red onion starts in rows with room to grow... imagine large red onions and plant accordingly. Strawberries... It was recommended I buy "hood" so I did, CT also bought some ever bearing variety and there are some others that were in the garden before... should give us a good variety, even though as you may remember, I swore off growing strawberries given the Vancouver fiasco. Basically I have strawberries at the base of the fruit garden (plums and blueberries), and in the rocks that support the garden, so I am not really losing space, I am just using space that is not ideal for vegetables:
Being more experienced this time I used the greenhouse material and some chicken wire to create a seed protected zone (A barrier where squirrels cant get at to dig in peanuts). I sewed the chicken wire together with the PVC piping... we cannot tolerate this nonsense:
My problem was that I wasn't in a "greenhouse state of mind"... I am a greenhouse rookie so to say. What went wrong? Two words: Blast furnace! Put it to you this way... since we went with failure before success lets look at the positive in the failure... So, say some moron forgets to open up the greenhouse on some suddenly hot day with peak sun and the temperature rises inside... well we now know that beets are the species most likely to survive this insane indiscretion, followed distantly by kohlrabi, and a lone cherry tomato plant. Clearly ventilation and temperature regulation are key elements of greenhouse mastery... call it a learning failure... making it a good failure! Once again I will buy big tomato plants from the nursery paying for the head start (or wait until they start blowing them out… most likely). This growing plants inside in suspect conditions with little children bombing around is perhaps a net negative. Comparing a small tomato seedling and a large tomato plant from a greenhouse you will see that the greenhouse plant has probably more than a thousand times the chlorophyll filled energy producing green matter. And that is your head start, and it is a race, make no doubt about it. That plant has to get big, flower and produce tomatoes before the fall monsoon comes in. On a financial issue it is a failure because seeds are much cheaper but at this level it is about the joy of growing your own food. With that logic we are here to get in touch and to be comfortable with growing food... I would even go so far to say that it would be negligent to deprive our children from growing up and not seeing food grown by the people that sit at the dinner table. Too busy my ass... that's the thing, the plant does all the work... you just set the parameters. Gardening is very spiritual on that level. I haven't yet abandoned the idea of a shelter for the tomato plants... my reason being to keep the rain off them and discourage the growth of blight. Did I mention I might have done the same greenhouse “blast furnace” bit on my neighbours plants... the ones I stood in front of and stated my word as a man gardener that “these plants will not die”... I guess I still have a few weeks to work some magic... I'm thinking of an illusion where I replace the heat baked crumpled sprouts with some king hell plants and just eyeball the bastard when he gets back and say... "Yea that's the way I roll, what can I say, I have a green thumb"... or I could admit failure... but I think if he had some real nice plants he would be happy and I, for some short period, could avoid the tagline "absent minded savage maniac".
Blueberries- I have a Patriot and a Duke by the plum tree... I have 3 Chandler (red stalk), another 3 Duke, 3 Early Blue and a Ruble (keeps leaves)... these notes are for my use. That is a lot of blueberry bushes for our hero, but you see I got a deal... At the local Nursery, which is a very good Nursery the Blueberry plants were going for 20 greenbacks. I located a guy and his brother that sell bigger plants from a farm down near Salem Oregon for 6 dollars so I went down there before a hockey game I had in Sherwood. Holey mackerel it is a long way, and I almost missed the game cause some jackass in a sports car tried to turn around on a narrow farm road rather than back up a half a kilometer and got stuck... I was figuring I am not coming back here (due to distance issues... excellent plants I might add) so I bought as many plants as I could fit in the car and for a while, a short while, I became the neighbourhood blueberry broker. Alarming lack of bees of course, which reminds me to get a mason bee colony... a nice buzzing honey hive would really do the trick... we shall see.
Garlic- coming along quite nicely... a few suffered collateral damage from the squirrel insanity, and that whole plot has taken on a new level of mind crushing. I hate to get off topic again, but we really do need a neighbouhood wide cull of the squirrels… but murder is such a harsh word to the local squirrel sympathizers. It's really my time for a BB gun; I never had one as a kid... too dangerous, so now as a parent I am moved to the line of justifying bringing one into the home. Oddly enough my father had a BB gun... he just failed to mention to me that he had one... probably saved him having to replace windows at the cottage... and outdoor light bulbs. My "community together" project that starts with a major coordinated squirrel eradication, has received divided support, so in pulling a page from the great community activists I have welcomed the dissenting voices to the conversation... "Very interesting you feel that way... perhaps we could get a taxidermist to set a squirrel stuffed pelt on you balcony that you could enjoy until the new squirrels move in for the next scheduled slaughter".
Yes the garlic is growing well.
Beets& Spinach- are up and off to the races... bare patches where fucking squirrels, dug fucking peanuts supplied by fucking neighbour
Peas- are up... similar squirrel issues.
Did I mention I planted again? The greenhouse fiasco lay hard on my heart... what to do, what to do,… and then we came up with (we... me and silent Internet partner) the idea that a Stanley Cup victory salad garden was in order... plant the salad and by the time the Cup has been won the salad will be ready... excellent idea for sure as it has now begat a salad eating frenzy, and how can that be bad?
Who knows what new failure is around the corner? We are better off this month than we were last month.
I guess I should mention... a man took a poke on the index finger from some chicken wire that he had on his garden plot of land.... he did it too himself.
No pain no gain.
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