Celeriac

Better than Christmas morning, the Wasatch Community Gardens Plant Sale.

Mod Rain, Fog
46°F
8°C
Humidity 100%
Wind Speed W 7 MPH
Barometer 29.75 in
Dewpoint 46°F (8°C)
Visibility 3.00 mi
Wind Chill 42°F (6°C)
Last update 12 May 9:05 am MDT

Dylan willing, supportive, it's clearly not his thing, but he goes with me because I go to guitar stores with him.

Two kinds of tomatoes†, a bit random because I only wanted Mexico midget tomatoes, and they didn't germinate this year. A different sort of celery*. Two varieties of Hummingbird Trumpetå, one for the raised bed, one as verge groundcover. Got everything in,in moderate rain, and not very warm, each composted and saturated with a bucketful of water. Feeling a bit chilled and stunned, hence the lack of detail as to variety.

Garden is no longer sparse, I had to actually figure out where everything was going. Which is pleasing.

No pink run this year, no idea why, although I'd heard there had been some kind of financial scandal.

Thinking about how what I'd planned after the first gardening class had little to do with what actually happened. I'd measured and planned linear beds, all double dug, with lots of edibles. The back was done first, for vegetables, beets and swiss chard.

Ha.

I had to clear the ivy off the House first, which was many times more difficult and time consuming than I'd imagined. I didn't have any of the right tools to dig, there were rocks and tree roots, the soil came back very high in phosphate, over fertilized, or maybe just dog crap, as well as other more visible trash, and ashes from the fireplace, and building debris. Too many trees to let in enough light even for mint and parsley, no chance for heirloom tomatoes. And the elm seeds in their spring papering fling. At least the chives are still going.

Let's not even talk about Hedge.

My first attempt to dig a trench in the front was too late, the ground baked to hard pan, found out the sod had plastic mesh in it. Even the sunflowers were meagre and sad the first year, only my compost pile worked at all. Tree roots and hedge roots stifled competition, I suspect.


And the verge, full of weeds, got the woodchips when we took down the trees of heaven, some of them. It helped, but then nothing else would grow except different weeds. Spent months digging that up, the buckwheat managed there, but didn't re-seed as much as hoped. The sunflowers did take off the third year, to create a forest. Snails are a continuing issue, as are earwigs and pillbugs.


I knew about planning for various plants to bloom at different times, and kept the thought in the back of my head. Focused instead of perennial, drought tolerant, hardy plants. And what happens? Well, there are a limited number, and they seem to have sorted themselves out to bloom at different times.

Still raining, the Tree is getting very green and leafy. I may go out and snag snails, drop them in vinegar, compost them.


Later.


*Brilliant Celeraic.
†Lucid Gem beefsteak & Oregon Spring early globe.
å Creeping and taller.