I’ve hardly been online today because we wanted to take advantage of the sunny weather to get our garden ready. My mother will be coming at the end of next week with ten beef steak tomato plants (I think), two cherry tomato plants, and two bell peppers. I also got seeds for Bush Champion cucumbers, Danvers Half Long carrots (which are still plenty long from the info on the packet), and Rosalita romaine lettuce. We’ll grow our own salads if all goes well.
So today we spent the day weeding the main garden (which wasn’t too bad because we had weeded it before), tilling the rows (Joel did that with a Mantis Tiller his mom passed along to us) , staking the edges, and then weeding the strawberry patch next to our shed. Oh, and we mowed a little bit.
While we were doing the weeding, the four younger kids were out with us; Alexis was in school. I decided it was time to help them understand what a “family garden” was, so I told them they had to help us by picking up all of the rocks they could find in the garden and putting them in a bucket. The younger two loved it – it meant they got to get nice and dirty. (As soon as we came inside they were placed in the bathtub.) Desta was very good about it, not complaining and looking for rocks for quite a while. Branwen, on the other hand, only helped under protest. *sigh* Well, it won’t be the last time she’s required to help out in the garden, so she might as well get used to it. I think she’ll enjoy planting the plants and seeds next weekend a little more. Weeding wasn’t really an option since either only the tops come off or the children are constantly needing my help which doesn’t allow me to keep working on my own area. So picking out rocks it was, whether they liked it or not.
We got a lot done. The garden is ready for planting. I’ll tie twine to our stakes to mark the boarders more effectively against rampaging children and puppies on the next good-weather day. I’ll also hang out some foil pie plates near the tops of the taller stakes to help keep birds away. I think I’ll get a couple for the strawberry patch for that purpose, too. We’ll put out the tomato cages once the tomatoes are in the ground. We’ll put some lime down before that, and then I’ll put egg shells in the holes with the tomatoes to give them some extra calcium. The other plants are more of an experiment since I’ve only ever had room for a few things before and have just grown tomatoes.
Oh, and apparently our dog doesn’t recognize a mortal enemy when he sees one. I saw a cat in the yard last night and decided to show it who was boss by letting the dog out at it. A few mistakes: our dog is very short right now and the grass was rather high. He couldn’t see the cat. I kept trying to point him in the right direction, but he just wasn’t getting it. I threw his toy ball closer and closer to the feline who was laying there waiting rather calmly. When I finally got the silly pup to see the other furry beast, he stopped, sniffed while straining forward so he didn’t have to get too close, then started bouncing around barking excitedly. So second mistake: he’s still very young and not at all sure of himself. He didn’t go any closer to the cat. Actually, his bounces mostly took him in an arc on one side of the beasty. It was cute, but entirely ineffective at ridding our yard of the encroacher. I finally walked closer (I was already only four feet or so away), and the cat decided it had had enough. It took off across the yard and ran through a gap between two of the fences. So you’d think the puppy would chase it, right? No. He was more interested in bouncing and yipping at Joel who had come out to see if he could help. Oh well.