Day 3 - Got a fair amount done

I went to the allotment after work today and got a fair amount done. I woke up and began generating school files at 6 am so I was able to get out at a decent time and have a late lunch in the garden around 3:30 pm. I was surprised how much physical labour I was able to put in after a day of brain flexing and butt sitting!



I am kind of really liking the ground cover that's happening on the little path from my chair to the compost pile ... I wonder if it will stay this tame - if not I'm ripping it out my its roots and planting the pretty little flowering ground cover growing in my old potato drawer. Julie has some on her paths and I like it ... a lot!


Arriving to see something done that I'd forgotten about and not even realized I was doing when dumping Fall leaves from my friends driveway carefully over parts of the garden made me feel good ... mulched garlic that is creating a border around the top of my new tomato patch ... now I know what to do with all the extra garlics growing in it (I did say arriving to see something done ... now I'm seeing what it means I have to do that wasn't ON the list) HA :(


I did a quick hand raking through the old strawberry patch where just a few survived along the far edge so I put in my new one from Saturday's Swap along the far edge giving me more options for using the space close to the new pea patch. This is going to be my little fruit section as it's close to the Tayberry and Raspberry plants. Pumpkins and Melons will do well to use the fences to climb on and over (I'll have to remember to keep an eye on them so they are trained and don't hop 40 feet over into the next allotment like they did in my first year ... fortunately the other gardener never really visited and didn't say anything when I told him about it when I did see him). I also spent a few minutes planting the Callas in beside the compost as a wall to hold the potatoes in. All in all that took about 30-45 minutes.



I had already dug this little area to plant beets so putting in the little bok choy and mitzu that Julie gave me earlier on in the day and the little 6-pak of chard and kale I brought from home was a breeze. It may have taken about 15 minutes to do. I watered before and after. Then the little 'dirt bird' and his teal black friend visited it and ate a couple seeds while I watched them. They came for a little bird bath in the water I was flooding the soil with before I left (so it will be easier to deal with on my next visit)!

Here are my next four days work ... prepping the tomato patches for my 56 tomatoes!

Here's a side view of the paste and cherries patch ... I have ground cherries this year so they should do well along the fence I hope. You can see the newly planted little kale, bok choy, chard and mitzu growing in with the beet seeds in the back.


Here's the original tomato patch that held 20 tomatoes back in 2008 ... I'll be spacing them further apart this year so less will fit ... maybe 16 if I'm lucky. Notice the $15 green plastic recycle bin in the background I just purchased to haul manure (it was hell on wheels literally) ... way too low to hang on to properly and push the poop ... pulling the poop was way worse and I almost had to pick it up and carry it in my arms ... the only thing that darn thing its good for is putting papers and silly things in to bring back and forth to the car ... mind you there's enough of that each trip so it will be useful - just not the same poo I thought it would be good for.


Here's the area of the garden that I used to throw my zucchini into and let them take over but this year I'll be clearing it up for more tomatoes! Zucs will have to figure out their own Plan B ... I'm thinking they can take a hike up the other side of the fence! Pumpkins on the northeast wall and zucs on the south west ... melons to the northwest and ground cherries to the south east. I'm sure I got that all wrong - they will get it right.


Here is the new 2009 tomato patch - it held 20 tomatoes easily and will again this year. Please let there be no tomato blight in my soil.

And finally the tomatillo patch and it's twin on the other side ... maybe this is where the zucs will go which means I am going to really have to be vigilant and keep my eye's on them and not let them grow so big and wander out too far and eat people on the main path. My first year I could barely carry them to the car they grew so big. They were each at least half my size. I had no idea I wasn't supposed to be so proud. It was a rather good year for rain - not too much and not too little - perfect for growing monster zucs without lifting a finger. That was the summer I thought the garden hose was a snake and I didn't return out of fear for about a month or so.