The Trigram Garden after one month, and other developments
When last I wrote about my home garden, I had broadcast a variety of vegetable and wildflower seeds into the beds that bracket the trigram.
That was two weeks ago. Now that we've had several days of rain and a couple of 80-degree highs, those bracketing beds are full of sprouts. The garlic and onions that I planted along the centerline of those beds have sent up shoots, also.
A couple of days ago, I noticed the effects of what seem to be differing light levels above the garden. The southeastern corner, which receives shade from the neighbor's conifers and the (still leafless) tree south of the garden, looked twice as full of sprouts as the southwestern corner, which gets more sun (thus drying faster) and which is on the windward edge of the plot.
The southern central bed, which contains early vegetables, is crowded with sprouts. Aside from the seeds that I methodically sowed, many more were just tossed onto the surface to randomly fill in the space. Rainfall and watering with the hose pushed a lot of those seeds down the sides of the mound. So, I had to do a fair amount of thinning around the peas, turnips and radishes, which were sown toward the edges.
I had started to think that the peas didn't make it because of the up-and-down temps and an early lack of moisture. But now they've emerged in every spot that I planted them. I used the remainders of the DIY, dowel-rod row cover to fashion arching supports (sort of like what I saw at a garden in India), but I liked the height, shape and modularity of the triangular supports that you can see below.
Now I just need to put up little twig barriers to spare the peas, which are near the edges of the beds, from the mow-n-blow lawn crew that comes each Thursday. A couple of years ago, I went to the crew manager and said that no one needed to weedwhack the garden beds. But the people in the crew would vary each week, and so sometimes desired plants got whacked (even if they were well inside the bed, what's up with that?).
Of course, that can be the thing with growing in someone else's yard: you are subject to that person's ownership and housekeeping prerogatives. But you know what? I'll live, as will at least 95 percent of the plants that I grow.
Anyhow... the day after I erected the supports for the peas, I bought some cedar mulch for the central beds. I spread that around just before a day of heavy rain soaked the area. The next day, I took the dried-out stalks and leaves of pampas grass that had been cut down, and I used them as a mulch for the varied vegetables and flowers in the brackets.
All of this is only half of the story, though, because I also worked to clear out new and established garlic mustard from the edge of the property. I started that process two years ago, but when I raked up the soil in the winter to sow poppies and Datura, I must have uncovered old garlic mustard seeds. They sprouted like shag carpet in a few spots.
I pulled and raked a lot of that growth. I'll have to wait for the rest to grow before I can pull them, because right now there are hundreds of seedlings spread across a 500 square foot space... one in which I had already planted seeds that I now don't want to trample on.
What else? Well, in place of the garlic mustard -- or just to green up and diversify what's growing in that treeline -- I broadcast quinoa, buckwheat, barley, flax, some more poppies, more Datura (just this afternoon, in fact); an assortment of mustards, greens and other vegetables; grass pea, blessed thistle, switchgrass, Jerusalem artichoke, sawtooth sunflower, wild rice, milkweed, bee's friend, monarda, yellow coneflower... and more that I won't recall until the plants grow.
On the other end of this wooded area, which gets lots of southern light, I planted some potatoes and peas, and I transplanted American ginseng, ginger, lupine, rosemary, something similar to carline thistle, and... oh, well, that's it. Now I'll just watch things grow.
Here's a sequential summary of the garden work:
That was two weeks ago. Now that we've had several days of rain and a couple of 80-degree highs, those bracketing beds are full of sprouts. The garlic and onions that I planted along the centerline of those beds have sent up shoots, also.
A couple of days ago, I noticed the effects of what seem to be differing light levels above the garden. The southeastern corner, which receives shade from the neighbor's conifers and the (still leafless) tree south of the garden, looked twice as full of sprouts as the southwestern corner, which gets more sun (thus drying faster) and which is on the windward edge of the plot.
The southern central bed, which contains early vegetables, is crowded with sprouts. Aside from the seeds that I methodically sowed, many more were just tossed onto the surface to randomly fill in the space. Rainfall and watering with the hose pushed a lot of those seeds down the sides of the mound. So, I had to do a fair amount of thinning around the peas, turnips and radishes, which were sown toward the edges.
I had started to think that the peas didn't make it because of the up-and-down temps and an early lack of moisture. But now they've emerged in every spot that I planted them. I used the remainders of the DIY, dowel-rod row cover to fashion arching supports (sort of like what I saw at a garden in India), but I liked the height, shape and modularity of the triangular supports that you can see below.
Now I just need to put up little twig barriers to spare the peas, which are near the edges of the beds, from the mow-n-blow lawn crew that comes each Thursday. A couple of years ago, I went to the crew manager and said that no one needed to weedwhack the garden beds. But the people in the crew would vary each week, and so sometimes desired plants got whacked (even if they were well inside the bed, what's up with that?).
Of course, that can be the thing with growing in someone else's yard: you are subject to that person's ownership and housekeeping prerogatives. But you know what? I'll live, as will at least 95 percent of the plants that I grow.
Anyhow... the day after I erected the supports for the peas, I bought some cedar mulch for the central beds. I spread that around just before a day of heavy rain soaked the area. The next day, I took the dried-out stalks and leaves of pampas grass that had been cut down, and I used them as a mulch for the varied vegetables and flowers in the brackets.
All of this is only half of the story, though, because I also worked to clear out new and established garlic mustard from the edge of the property. I started that process two years ago, but when I raked up the soil in the winter to sow poppies and Datura, I must have uncovered old garlic mustard seeds. They sprouted like shag carpet in a few spots.
I pulled and raked a lot of that growth. I'll have to wait for the rest to grow before I can pull them, because right now there are hundreds of seedlings spread across a 500 square foot space... one in which I had already planted seeds that I now don't want to trample on.
What else? Well, in place of the garlic mustard -- or just to green up and diversify what's growing in that treeline -- I broadcast quinoa, buckwheat, barley, flax, some more poppies, more Datura (just this afternoon, in fact); an assortment of mustards, greens and other vegetables; grass pea, blessed thistle, switchgrass, Jerusalem artichoke, sawtooth sunflower, wild rice, milkweed, bee's friend, monarda, yellow coneflower... and more that I won't recall until the plants grow.
On the other end of this wooded area, which gets lots of southern light, I planted some potatoes and peas, and I transplanted American ginseng, ginger, lupine, rosemary, something similar to carline thistle, and... oh, well, that's it. Now I'll just watch things grow.
Here's a sequential summary of the garden work:
posted by mr damon at
7:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home