Kara and I planted two strains of peas in the side bed up front. This bed gets sun from early in the morning until about 1P, so I’m hoping they’ll take.
We also planted a bunch of starts in the middle bed in back. Four red-leaf ($1.78), four arugula ($1.78), four spinach ($1.78), four butter nut ($1.78), and four broccoli plants ($1.78). We’ll see how it goes. This was the bed where I grew tomatoes last year.
Started getting the beds ready in both the front and backyard. I can’t get to the Fairmount recycling center during the week (close at 3PM) and their weekend hours don’t begin until April), so I loaded some Lowe’s manure/compost into all five banks. I’d cut Peat Moss in already, so there should be plenty of natural, aerating components in the ground.
I’m debating adding some vermiculite as well. While I really like the intensive gardening approach (Mel’s mix is 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 peat moss), I’d like to know more about the science of how this works. It feels like there should be some academic writing about a different soil composition is absolutely necessary in order to load up a garden this way, but I don’t feel like looking for it right now. I do know that there are crazy thick books about soil and I know that’s not going to get read. I’d also like to see what was there before Mel Bartholomew; where did he get his idea from? Had no one else ever attempted this way of growing things? (His book offers no clues).
Either way, I went to a great seminar hosted by the Penn State Extension Service Saturday morning on Square Foot Gardening. While there was no shortage of earnest folks — is this a necessary trait for gardeners or simply for folks who go to seminars on Saturday morning — it was a well constructed, well-organized, seminar that moved fast and had lots of good information.
One interesting point: worry less about what compost you use and more about using multiple sources. I need to dig more into this topic, too.
1. Daughter wants to ride bike through West Philly. With me.
2. Daughter wants to go to used bookstore.
3. I say — first thing you want to do at a bookstore is look in the window. She picks out the book in her hand, by herself, with no prompting.
4. My work here is done.
Kara and I worked hard to get our greens started today.
We used Organic Mechanics Seed Starting mix, the egg cartons we always save, and planted a bunch of greens:
Lettuce
Winter Density
Marvaille des Quatres Saisons
Green Oak Leaf
Susan’s Red Bib
Burpee Organic Green Leaf
Apart from the Arugula, which has a germination time of 5-7 days, everything else is 7-14 days. That’s when we find out whether this system will work:
Total cost:
El cheepo Home Depot Green House: $25.00
I bought it basically for the prefab plastic cover. Our little cat would tear up the plants otherwise.
Two grow lights and four t12bulbs: $60.00
Seeds: $20.00
Plant starts range in price. At a 1.00 a piece, once we get 100 plant starts, we’ll break even. I’m hoping I can get the greens into the ground next to rows of direct seed to judge the two against each other.
I also want them out in time to start all of the basil and tomato plants.
