gardening under the influence
May. 21st, 2009 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lolaraincoatSo I have spent the past twenty-four hours or so coming down with a flu, and thus being unable to get very much done that I needed to get done and also not thinking too clearly. This, obviously, was precisely the right time to finish up getting the vegetable beds in. So I want to record here, before the fever gets any worse and I forget everything, exactly what's back there - especially the tomatoes. This may be very dull for you, so maybe you shouldn't click here.
So! Tomatoes first:
Oxhearts (4) and Yellow Pear (1, in a pot out front) were the only industrial tomatoes I planted. Otherwise, it was all heirloom varieties: Green Zebra (2), Purple Cherokee (2), Black Krim, Nebraska Wedding, Brandywine, Feurwerkes (2), and Coyote. No cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes this year, though I may yet relent and put in one Black Cherry in the fennel patch.
Otherwise, I put in peas and runner beans and lots of onions, habañero and jalapeño chiles, and assorted herbs - lots of basil, as usual - and lettuces. We grew the arugala and the beans from seed this year, which turned out pretty well. I skipped the tomatillos this year because they were so badly behaved last year (when they were volunteers) and the year before. Also, no squashes this time, because last year's experiment with getting them to grow on top of the grape arbor failed entirely, and we don't really have room for them anywhere else. I might try again with hanging baskets of eggplant seedlings along the alley fence; that worked out okay last year. So perhaps we're not quite done with planting after all.
The perennials are all doing fine so far, except for one patch of thyme which was huge and healthy last year, but this year is almost dead. Our finicky apricot tree has set about as much fruit as last year, though of course it's early days yet. The pear tree we planted in front last spring was covered in blooms last week, and the fruit was already visible yesterday, so that's pretty exciting - we weren't expecting much from it for another couple of years. We've already had a few onions from last year's onion patch that survived the winter nicely. The raspberry bushes are flourishing, and so is the rhubarb and sorrel (and I have finally learned that the youngest sorrel leaves are the ones you want to use in your salad or spanikopita - they get more sour as they grow.) The strawberry plants have set fruit already. Fennel is everywhere except where I've weeded it out.
The front is now evenly balanced between lawn and flower beds. The lilac we put in last year is blooming right now and smells delightful, or would smell delightful if my nose were working at all. I'd like to get the front a bit closer to being flowers with grass pathways moving through it, but that may not happen this year. Maybe I could move some of those coneflowers (also known as bachelor's buttons, I learned yesterday) which are taking up so much of the sunniest bit of the back flower bed, and strangling the poppies, into a new patch in front? Or maybe I'll get to that next year.
As usual all this planting required way more fertilizer than our compost heap produced: we have gone through almost 120 liters of sheep manure plus some bone meal, so far. I've been watering almost every day, too, because it has been so dry for the past few weeks. So that's not very ecologically-minded - lots of heavy resources being trucked around to make this garden. On the other hand we are already in the time of year where a significant component of every supper has come out of the garden, and that will continue to be true until late October. Somewhere, Al Gore and David Suzuki are smiling at us. Me, I am smiling at the lilacs.
So! Tomatoes first:
Oxhearts (4) and Yellow Pear (1, in a pot out front) were the only industrial tomatoes I planted. Otherwise, it was all heirloom varieties: Green Zebra (2), Purple Cherokee (2), Black Krim, Nebraska Wedding, Brandywine, Feurwerkes (2), and Coyote. No cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes this year, though I may yet relent and put in one Black Cherry in the fennel patch.
Otherwise, I put in peas and runner beans and lots of onions, habañero and jalapeño chiles, and assorted herbs - lots of basil, as usual - and lettuces. We grew the arugala and the beans from seed this year, which turned out pretty well. I skipped the tomatillos this year because they were so badly behaved last year (when they were volunteers) and the year before. Also, no squashes this time, because last year's experiment with getting them to grow on top of the grape arbor failed entirely, and we don't really have room for them anywhere else. I might try again with hanging baskets of eggplant seedlings along the alley fence; that worked out okay last year. So perhaps we're not quite done with planting after all.
The perennials are all doing fine so far, except for one patch of thyme which was huge and healthy last year, but this year is almost dead. Our finicky apricot tree has set about as much fruit as last year, though of course it's early days yet. The pear tree we planted in front last spring was covered in blooms last week, and the fruit was already visible yesterday, so that's pretty exciting - we weren't expecting much from it for another couple of years. We've already had a few onions from last year's onion patch that survived the winter nicely. The raspberry bushes are flourishing, and so is the rhubarb and sorrel (and I have finally learned that the youngest sorrel leaves are the ones you want to use in your salad or spanikopita - they get more sour as they grow.) The strawberry plants have set fruit already. Fennel is everywhere except where I've weeded it out.
The front is now evenly balanced between lawn and flower beds. The lilac we put in last year is blooming right now and smells delightful, or would smell delightful if my nose were working at all. I'd like to get the front a bit closer to being flowers with grass pathways moving through it, but that may not happen this year. Maybe I could move some of those coneflowers (also known as bachelor's buttons, I learned yesterday) which are taking up so much of the sunniest bit of the back flower bed, and strangling the poppies, into a new patch in front? Or maybe I'll get to that next year.
As usual all this planting required way more fertilizer than our compost heap produced: we have gone through almost 120 liters of sheep manure plus some bone meal, so far. I've been watering almost every day, too, because it has been so dry for the past few weeks. So that's not very ecologically-minded - lots of heavy resources being trucked around to make this garden. On the other hand we are already in the time of year where a significant component of every supper has come out of the garden, and that will continue to be true until late October. Somewhere, Al Gore and David Suzuki are smiling at us. Me, I am smiling at the lilacs.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 07:15 pm (UTC)Oh you are such an inspiration!!!
Date: 2009-05-21 08:24 pm (UTC)THis year I decided to say, "Screw it!." My back yard is too shady for tomatos. I have dug out an annex to the flower beds in front of the house. That area of the yard get's loads of sum. I hope the yummy nightshade plants thrive there.
Re: Oh you are such an inspiration!!!
Date: 2009-05-21 08:26 pm (UTC)Re: Oh you are such an inspiration!!!
Date: 2009-05-21 09:57 pm (UTC)p.s. I miss you so much.
p.p.s. I meant delirious. I guess it's time to lie down now.
Re: Oh you are such an inspiration!!!
Date: 2009-05-21 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 01:46 am (UTC)And the flowers in front look good, if I do say so myself.