The Garden Part 4 -- 4/26/09

With most of the hard work done last weekend, this weekend was shaping up to be a breeze. First, during the week Sage was able to procure the seed potatoes from Russell's that I've been waiting for. We went with the "superior" brand -- not 100% sure what those will be like, but hopefully they'll be good whatever they get. My info on potatoes is quite extensive, and it sounds like they need to be re-buried every couple of weeks, to make sure that none of the potatoes get exposed to sunlight. Either way, they require a lot of attention as the summer moves along.

The row of potatoes all planted. Sage was a bit late with the "action" shots.

The blackberry bushes also arrived this week, so those went into the ground as well. Nothing too exciting with those.

Blackberry bushes in the ground.

Another quick project was to put up a simple trellis for the peas to grow up, if they ever did.

Bamboo poles and twine.

I'm a bit worried about last week's planting...there's no sign of the peas yet, but that's not too surprising. But no sign of either the radishes or lettuce either. Sage thinks a few buds are starting to pop up, but I think it's just weeds. (But considering I can never tell the difference between a plant and a weed, I have to let everything grow until it can be identified.)

The last big project was to surround the beds with a fence. It'll never keep out the squirrels, if they really are the garden pests our neighbor thinks, but it'll keep out rabbits anyway.

Rabbit-proof fence.

Sage approves of the fence in her favorite t-shirt.

The last touch: a rain gauge. For no other reason than I like to measure the rain.

Waiting for the first drops to hit.

Saturday afternoon brought another huge delivery: llama shit! It actually didn't smell as bad as I thought it would, and there were little sprouts growing in it, so I figured it must be good stuff. Not knowing what I'm really supposed to do with it, I figured I'd just work it into the soil.

Working in the llama poo

And that was it for the weekend. I hope to see some of the lettuce and radish sprouts this week, as I need to thin them out a bit. And then I'll probably plant another set of each. The weather this weekend was crazy-hot: over 80 degrees both days, and close to 90 today. I'm sure it'll be back to the 40's in a couple days, however. But the leaves are starting to come out, the grass is getting greener, and the tulips are about to pop. Summer can't be far behind.