14 April 2015

Getting our hands dirty

Walt decided it was time to change the configuration of our vegetable garden, and I'm doing the tilling. My impression is that consolidating the four square garden plots into one large square plot means we are going to have a much bigger garden this summer. I have one more patch of deeply rooted grass to till up today and then the first pass will be done. I'm tilling around a couple of rhubarb plants that came up unexpectedly.

The newly configured garden will cover 100 square meters (1100 sq. ft.) or more of ground.

If this weather continues through the summer — realistically, I doubt it will — we could have quite a harvest. One thing we are going to do is try to spread out our plants so that they are not so close together, giving them more breathing room than we have before. If the weather goes damp, better air flow might dry the leaves on our tomato and other plants faster and prevent mildew. We'll see.

The two unexpected rhubarb plants will get moved next year— no need to dig them up right now.

The other dirt we have to deal with requires use not of a tiller but of a shovel and wheelbarrow. Since our long drought ended a few years back, our yard has been overrun — well, underrun, really — by moles. Before he can mow the grass, Walt has to go knock down dozens or scores of molehills and scoop what we call the mole dirt into a wheelbarrow. We use it to fill holes and ruts, or to pot plants in.

“Mole dirt”

The temperature today is supposed to be in the mid-20s C (mid-70s F) in the shade. It's much hotter in the sun. These days would be what we might expect in June, or even in July and August. In past years, when April has turned this warm, May and June have given us cold snaps and a lot of moisture. We'll see if that pattern repeats itself in 2015.

10 comments:

  1. Here's to satisfying hard work and the fruit of your labors!

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    1. It is satisfying -- especially during the harvest season.

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  2. The grass will be easier to mow with the larger garden. I like how you make good use mole hole dirt.

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    1. All winter, when the ground is very wet and soft, tractors and trucks and cars make ruts around the outside of our hedge. Walt mows out there in spring, summer, and fall. Mowing is easier when the ruts are filled in and have grown over. So we fill them in in the spring.

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  3. great work! isn't it wonderful to be working outside?
    :-)

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    1. It is wonderful but I am exhausted. Age, I guess.

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  4. wowwork i progress. Your garden is big

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    1. It is big, and it's getting bigger. Sometimes I think we should scale back, but that'll be for the future.

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  5. That sounds like a good way to reconfigure the garden space. Will you have pathways across it for access, or long rows of plants?

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    1. We haven't talked about that kind of arranging yet. I just hope we can keep the plants spaced out better so that it will be easier to weed between them and they'll get more drying air flowing around them. You can never go wrong by preparing for a damp growing season in this Loire Valley climate.

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