April 29, Wednesday

Checked my bed for weeds, found none. No apparent animal damage to the tomatoes. Gave it 2 gallons of water.

Walked the yard spraying dandelions. Found many more than I expected. Only 2 in bloom, vs quite a few at Neighbor Mack's and many more at the other neighbors. Need to keep an eye on it. Possible some of the ones I sprayed were sick or dead holdovers from the crew spraying last summer? Some looked pretty old and sickly, but not brown.

Bed complete!

Headed to Lowe's for more seeds this afternoon:

• Carrots: Sweet Treat Hybrid, Burpee
• Carrots: Petite 'n Sweet, Burpee
• Leeks: American Flag, Ferry-Morse
• Basil: Summerlong, Burpee
• Parsley: Single Italian Plain-Leafed, Burpee
• Nasturtium: Vesuvius, Burpee
• Eggplant: Black Beauty, Burpee
• Bell pepper: Chinese Giant, Burpee

Total cost: $12.86.

I'll start the eggplant and peppers indoors and put them out in place of some harvested spinach or lettuce. (I'm counting my greens before they grow.)

Also picked up a couple of tomato plants at $3.48 each:

• Tomato: Red Beefsteak
• Tomato: Goliath Hybrid

And a rain gauge for $1.98.  Total with tax, $23.86.

Got the 2 tomatoes and all the seeds in, and the rain gauge installed.  Here's the result, with a couple of unhappy-looking tomatoes:

I watered them in a bit better after this was taken in hopes they'll perk up. Neighbor Mack warned me in no uncertain terms that it's too early to put tomatoes out, but the 10-day forecast looks fine, and I'll eat the $7 if I can't eat the tomatoes. The mud patch on the lower right is where I left my overturned sod on my concrete porch to dry out and die. After a rainy couple of weeks, there still seems to be plenty of life in it. Need plan B.

I marked up a copy of my plan so I'll have some idea what went where:

For now, at least, I know what it means.

Now lets hope the wildlife doesn't chow down on the tomatoes before I get them protected. Looked for semitransparent garden cloth at Lowe's, but they have none. Might try bird netting, but the garden cloth keeps out bugs too, and still lets in plenty of light and rainfall. Need to give this some thought.

Also calculated how much water I need to give my bed an inch of rain. 11 gallons (thanks Google).

April 27, Monday

After generally unpleasant weekend weather, finally got some seeds in. Spinach, mesclun, 2 kinds of lettuce, and marigolds.

First laid out a 1'x1' grid of twine across the bed and drew same on my plan. Very helpful siting my seeds, as I'm planting a crowded bed. I think I'll keep the grid on until I see enough sprouts to know what's where.

And while I'm at it...

Here's the plan for my Spring garden, cribbed from The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C Smith.

I'm changing up his crops a bit. Dropping the beets and radishes. 1-4 will be spinach and various salad greens. 5 is eggplant, 6 carrots, 7 leeks, and 8 parsley and other herbs. 9 and 10 are marigolds and nasturtiums, which scare off various pests.

And because I'm getting a late start, I'm going to go ahead and stick a couple of tomato seedings among my greens. All the rest will start from seeds, I think. Mr Smith has a whole scheme for replacing one crop with another as they are harvested. Cool, huh?

OK. I've been lazy.

And the weather's been variable. And I've been working quite a lot. So nothing's been planted. But I wanted to post a photo of my box o' dirt. Doesn't look like nearly as much work as it felt like.

April 15, Wednesday

It's done!

Got the rest of the sod pulled up. It's lying face-down on my porch to dry out and expire.

Used my edger to turn the soil about 6 inches deep. Raked it out and, because it had been turned, it completely filled the hole where it and the sod had been. Lots of worms. Some shallow roots from my huge silver maple maybe 30 feet away.

Added what soil I could from the small bed I had dug up. Many roots from my single eggplant. I used all but the most densely matted roots.

Backed my pickup up to the bed and dumped the first bag of Miracle Grow organic soil in. And immediately saw why the bags were so heavy. The soil was soaked! It glistened! Like if you soaked a potted plant until the water ran out the bottom. Well almost like that. Much wetter than the soil I had been working after a day of rain (my plastic tarp blew partly off). In any case, the 40-pound net weight bags were much heavier and I am not quite the physical wreck I had seemed. Which was confirmed later when I had no trouble moving two 75-pound sand bags.

So all six bags went in and filled the bed right to the top of the 2x10 sides. After which I read the instructions and saw that I was supposed to mix the new soil 50/50 with my dug-up soil. Too late. Also finally read what's in the new soil. Compost, peat, composted manure, chicken droppings. The worms should be happy. Altogether I now have about 16 inches of well-turned soil. My roots should be happy too.

Too tired and back-achey to put my seeds in. Need to let the soil dry out a bit so I can break up the clumps. Tomorrow.

In closing, I wish to express my deepest regret to the families of any earthworms who were inadvertently bisected during my onslaught. I can only hope there's some comfort in knowing that they gave their lives so that other worms could have the best soil on the block.

April 14, Tuesday

Not so rainy and not so cold. Stayed in to complete taxes.

April 13, Monday

Rainy and cold. Stayed in.

April 12, Sunday

Redrilled the screw holes and finished the frame. Removed my old very small garden bed (2'x2'), which covered part of the site for the new bed. Went inside to rest my aching back. Got caught up in the Masters final and watched thru the end.

Back outside to dig. Pulled up some sod to plant where my old bed was. Dug up about 1/3 of the sod total before my back needed more rest. My back muscles, if indeed there are any, spent the winter in front of the PC and the TV. They ache when I change the cat box. I have to hope all this moderate effort starts to strengthen them up. The ache is gone with 30 minutes rest, but it's really quite debilitating when it's there. Next outing I'll pretreat with some Tylenol. 

I'm delighted by what I saw beneath the sod. Black, healthy-looking Illinois soil. Not packed hard, digs and crumbles pretty easily. Plenty of worms about, which means there's enough microscopic life in there to keep them happy. Whatever trouble I may end up having with pests, varmints, or disease, it should be no problem getting a garden started in this soil. The topsoil I bought is probably overkill. But I did need soil to fill the frame.

Rain due tomorrow, so I covered my site with plastic and an old painter's tarp. I hate digging mud. Weather today and yesterday was gorgeous for working outdoors. Sunny in the upper 50s. I'd say I hope to finish the digging and get some seeds in on Tuesday, but it's really up to my old back. I'd love to get the topsoil out of my truck. It's costing me, and our environment, gas mileage.

April 11, Saturday

Got to work on my garden frame. Built the ends up with 2x4s, and they do look kinda cool. Borrowed a 2x4 from the Mack the Neighbor. Bought one later to replace it after dinner with Ma and Pa. With tax, $1.72.

Finished one end, ran into trouble on the other. Screws wouldn't go all the way into my predrilled holes. Eventually my screw driver ran out of power. Tried driving the screws with my ancient electric drill. It's not built for it, but it worked better than expected. Still some screws wouldn't go. I think I need to drill the holes larger. Probably only a problem where I'm hitting knots in the wood. Had to dash off to dinner. Hope to finish tomorrow and get the garden dug.

My Garden Begins

Hit Lowe's on the way home from having my truck serviced in Belvidere. Spur of the moment, efficient use of gasoline, etc. Bad idea.

My one bed will be 3'x6', enclosed by 2x10s. I estimated I'll need 12 cubic feet of garden soil, i.e., 18 sq ft x 8 inches deep. Bought six 2 cu ft bags of Miracle Grow Organic Choice garden soil at $7.92 each. Managed to get 3 of them onto a cart before getting help. They seemed to weigh at least 100 lbs. Later found they're marked at only 40 lbs. Can't believe I couldn't lift 40 lbs. Need to sort that out later. For now, they're still on my truck.

Bought seeds to start now. Didn't have my list, but I know spinach and lettuce can start in April. If the marigolds get frosted, I can always replant.

1. Spinach: Bloomsdale Long-Standing (Burpee). 
2. Lettuce: Simpson Elite (Burpee).
3. Lettuce: Ruby (NK).
4. Mesclun: Sweet Salad Mix (Burpee).
5. Marigold: Petite Yellow (Ferry-Morse).

Total cost: $7.46

Then went for building supplies. Talked into drywall screws by Lowe's guy. Course thread, 3 in. One lb for $2.48.

And two 8-ft 2x10s at $4.80 each. This was dumb. For some reason at that moment I thought I was building a 2'x6' frame , so two 8-footers seemed right. In fact I am building a 3'x6' frame. Could exchange them for 10-footers, but...

Checked the basement for leftover 2x10 scraps. None found. Found plenty of 2x4s though. I'll measure for sure, but if I have enough 3-ft lengths I'll stack 2x4s to build up the ends. Might look cool. Or, probably, won't. But that's the plan. Need to get it done tomorrow so I can get the six bags of soil off my truck. Don't like driving around with an extra 240 lbs or, as I suspect, 600 lbs in the bed. Wouldn't be prudent.

Total cost (with tax): $72.60.