As predicted, I woke up pretty sore yesterday morning. Especially in my shoulderblades, so it must have been from lifting the shovel over the fence to spread the compost on the new bed. A whole truckload of compost, one shovel at a time! I can hardly believe we did it.
Yesterday was a much easier day. In the morning we went to the Raleigh farmer's market, which has great plant sellers. There are several nurseries that specialize in herbs and native perennials, both of which I'm very interested in. We bought a few things but not too many, as I try really hard not to overbuy & risk something dying before I can get it into the ground. (Although, as the work progresses and we have more beds with nice soil, digging gets markedly easier and I can get way more plants into the ground in one afternoon.) Let's see, we bought a few herbs to tide us over until the seedlings get bigger: one basil, one cilantro, one parsley and one epazote. Which is a Mexican herb that, like basil, is no good dried. So I'm very happy about having fresh epazote this year. One herb seller also had another Mexican herb called culantro. I never even heard of it before! But Georg remembered seeing it on the Rick Bayless show. We didn't buy it because we wanted to check and see if we have any recipes that use it first.
We also bought a few flowers: two pink dianthus that had pretty silvery foliage, to plant by the Chinese orchids; a big ass orange and red galliarda for down by the road, and pineapple sage and bronze fennel for the butterfly garden. The butterflies like the flowers on pineapple sage (which really does smell like pineapple), and the caterpillars eat the fennel. And also a tomato plant, again to tide us over until our own seedlings get going.
There was only one disappointment: last time we were at the farmer's market, one of my favorite nurseries had had these really interesting irises with two-colored foliage. The iris bed looks really drab when they aren't in bloom, so these variegated irises would be great to add some color the rest of the year. But I didn't buy them at the time, because like I said, each week I try to buy only what I know I can plant within a day or two. But when we went back yesterday, they were gone! He said he had sold completely out & won't have any more until next spring. Dang. Let that be a lesson to me, if I see something beautiful and unusual I shouldn't wait.
After we got home from the farmer's market I put a pot of chili verde on for dinner, then got to work sowing the seeds on the new bed by the road. It was tedious but easy: I had a yardstick & a short stick for a marker. Just lay the yardstick on the row, pop in two seeds every 8 inches, move the marker, move the yardstick, then repeat. Although I have to say, by the time I was done all that stooping gave me a headache! After sowing 3 rows, each 60 feet long, it didn't seem so easy anymore. I felt like Mrs. Elton picking strawberries:
"the best fruit in England -- everybody's favorite -- morning decidedly the best time -- never tired -- every sort good -- delicious fruit -- only too rich to be eaten much of -- inferior to cherries -- currants more refreshing -- only objection to gathering strawberries the stooping -- glaring sun -- tired to death -- could bear it no longer -- must go and sit in the shade."
Unlike Mrs. Elton and her abandoned strawberries, I did get all my seeds sown. I hope they come up! I'm still rather suspicious of this whole seed thing. All I have to do is put tiny little bits of bird food into the ground, and in two months I'll have flowers? I'll believe it when I see it.
While I was sowing seeds, Georg planted almost all the plants from the farmer's market! Yay! We also took some time to survey the garden and see how everything is doing. The vegetable garden is coming along well. The beets and chard look great, the tomatillos are up, and the summer squash are just starting to emerge.
This morning I woke up sore again. This time mainly in the hamstrings, which I guess is from the stooping to sow all those seeds. I didn't realize that would be hard on the legs but I guess it is. If I only had time to do this kind of yardwork every day, I could get all buff again.
Today I had a work meeting in the middle of the day, but then in the afternoon I headed back to the dump for another load of compost. This is the fourth truckload I've bought from them, and I have to say it was inferior to the previous three. It hadn't really finished composting, and was still pretty mulchy: lots of bits of sticks & things in it. Also I could tell it was still decomposing because it was hot, almost too hot to touch when I was tying a tarp over it. Still, I guess at $7.50 per truckload I can't really complain about inconsistent quality. With the volume we need, we simply can't afford the price per bag at Home Depot.
The place where I want to put this compost isn't ready yet, so I piled it up in an unused corner of the yard. I was rather pleased that it only took me about 3 hours to unload the whole truck, and I finished just before Georg got home from work. It was easier this time than on Saturday, because I didn't have to scoop it out of the wheelbarrow with the shovel, just dump it out on the ground. On the other hand, I was already tired from the weekend, so at times it felt harder.
There's tons more to do in the yard, but I think I need to take some time off from yardwork and get some paying work done. Although I should at least get the insecticidal soap mixed up and spray some aphids that I saw yesterday. I'm beginning to understand that this gardening thing never ends. No matter how much I do, there's always so much more to do!
2 Comments
i am embarrassed to admit that i've never been to the raleigh farmers market. they're open every day? next time you go, perhaps i should tag along... ;-)
They are open every day but a lot of the plant sellers are only there on weekends. I'd love to go with you sometime! We tend to go early-ish to beat the crowd. Although we found this past week that if you go too early, some stalls aren't open yet.
The plants do tend to be more expensive there than at Home Depot, but not outrageously so. But you have the good karma of buying locally grown plants from a small business. Plus the farmer's market people are knowledgeable & give good advice.
There are plant sellers at the Durham farmer's market too, though I think not as many as in Raleigh.