Yeah, I know. Cultural overload to channel Kirk and Kangaroo in the same sentence, but it fits the bill.
All crazy on the western front. Work is insanely busy, spring is a month early. We have two new ‘rescue’ dogs, and my wife is squeezing ten years worth of out-of-town travel into six months.
So, any update is by necessity, a quick pictorial one. From this morning:
Some irises, with a hint or Knockout roses to come.
The ten foot long, high tunnel cold frame (now mostly open) was a huge success for greens through the winter and early spring, The true test? Whether shade cloth can make succession planting work through the summer….stay tuned.
A good spring for plums. The plum curlicos thought so too.
The good news? Tons of baby peachettes. The bad news? The same. So I’ll be removing most (down to one per six inches) so the young tree grows instead of the fruit, leaving enough to whet our appetite for a full grown tree.
Now HERE is the real deal. Midday on Saturday, this 600 square feet of dirt, was a two year-old chicken yard, with foot tall weeds and some seriously entrenched turf. After hours with a borrowed Troy-Bilt Horse and my Mantis tiller, and more hours on my knees with a shovel making the raised beds…..voila! Three dozen (so far) heirloom tomato varieties are comfy, after being raised from seed in the back room. They’re mostly planted about 16″ deep, so drought shouldn’t be an issue (given the water bottles).
Yeah, I buy liniment in bulk.
Posted on April 16th, 2012 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Gardening
I really enjoyed reading this post. It’s nice to read about growth.It makes me feel positive.The irises are lovely and those are some tasty looking greens. We had a peach tree when I was growing up and it produced a lot of peaches. My mother would enlist the three of us to peel peaches and make peach preserves to put away until the winter. I still love fresh peaches. I was notorious for eating a number of the peaches that I peeled. The tomato beds look great. How deep do you bury the water bottles?
“How deep do you bury the water bottles?” Perhaps the best comment I’ve ever read.
I want an invitation to dinner. Whenever you think the peaches and tomatoes are at a peak. Or, two invitations, if they peak at different times this year. I will gladly offer Mr. Mature for farm labor in return. (He’s the real gardener now. I’ve been relegated to “conceptual gardener” status.)
Oh, and serious iris envy. I keep planting them and they keep disappearing. Name five to ten things I must be doing wrong.
Nance, That could be arranged if you guys manage a trip to this area.
Sheria,
Here’s how they work:
http://www.harborfreight.com/6-piece-watering-cone-set-93182.html
No burying needed.