Garden II (Planning and Planting)

Managed to get the first of my three gardens planted over the incredible weekend. Used a modified version of the French Intensive Method that has you placing plants in very close proximity to help in eliminating excessive weeding and maximize available space.

I have to admin as I started preparing the soil to place the first seeds I felt very apprehensive, like I was going to do something wrong or somehow screw-up the planting. Not having gardened since I was a small kid had left me thinking that this stuff was a lot harder than it really is. As usual I was OVER THINKING the situation. Within about 1/2 an hour I had settled into a planting routine and was able to relax and begin to see how much fun planting and caring for a garden can be.

While I was planting my little ones watched intently and I was even able to coerce the eldest away from playing with his dinosaurs for long enough to help me plant the red onion bulbs! It is great to see him developing an interest! *One thing I learned is that most of the early season plantings (lettuce, spinach, broccoli, carrots, etc.) are extremely difficult for small uncoordinated hands to manage effectively. Onion bulbs, peas and later season plantings such as beans will be much easier.

Here is what the book recommended for spacing:

Spacing
Broccoli - 12” sq – 1 Plant
Broccoli Rabe & Carrots – 3” in 12” sq – 16 Plants
Spinach – 4” in 12” sq – 9 Plants
Lettuce – 6” in 12” sq – 4 Plants
Peas – 4” in 12” sq – Separated by chicken wire

Basic planting guidelines around Garden #1 (April)
North
Row 1 - 4/25 Peas from seeds (supported w/chicken wire)
Row 2 -4/25 Peas from seeds (supported w/chicken wire)
Row 3 -4/25 Broccoli from seeds
Row 4 -4/25 Broccoli from seeds
Row 5 -4/25 Red Onions from started bulbs
Row 6 -4/25 Broccoli Rabe (one entire packet used)
Row 7 -4/25 Carrots from seeds
Row 8 -4/25 Spinach from seeds
Row 9 -4/25 Lettuce from seeds

Side Garden
Row 1 - 4/25 - Garlic (13 bulbs) and 20 Red Onions

Wordle

I had the chance today to play on a website that allows you to take digital print and quickly and easily convert it to a Word Map. Really a fun tool for writers to play around with to see if the article properly covers the topics that the author wishes to stress. Above is a "wordle" on a story that I recently submitted for publication on "Hunting With the Single Shot Rifle".

You can also do one for your BLOG site!

http://www.wordle.net/

Garden . . .

Aching muscles and joints today after managing to dig several sizable holes in my lawn this past weekend. I was seriously shown up by my 74 year old Portuguese father in law who showed me that men aren't built like they used to be. After six hours of using a heavy hoe to remove the sob and loosen the soil he was still going strong while I was ready to take a nap.

I decided to incorporate a few considerations when I designed the garden using something I read about called the "French Technique". The basic idea is to create access paths and really focus on planting crops in rotation and close together to discourage weed growth. Well, will have ot see how it works.

As I watched the sun streak across the sky yesterday afternoon I was somewhat disappointed that my plots did not appear to be getting as much sun as I had originally envisioned. Well, this year is my grand experiment with my green thumb so I guess I will have to just wait and see.

Next on the list is adding some loam and compost next weekend and getting seedling trays and seeds ordered!