May 21, 2011 The Planting Has Begun

 

The Planting has begun

We were getting everything ready for planting on the most traditional planting weekend of the year…May 24…. I thought I would get ahead of the rush and go to my favorite garden center (Kingsway) during the week.  I would purchase anything that we had not seeded ourselves…

I purchased the onions, leeks, cabbage, a few carrots mine looked a little thin J…my annual herbs I use a ton of basil so I bought about 50 plants… (next year I will try start these as well), Buying them is not cheap….cauliflower and broccoli (found out that they grow really fast from seed L).  Nasturtiums for their edible flowers, and marigolds for around the tomato plants to keep the ants away…

I looked at the plants we had grown and having never done them before I was not really sure how they were doing…

A week or so prior I had visited Walter from Pingle Farms… and he smiled and said “ if they are still alive now then they will be fine”.

I set out this weekend to visit the various people/gardens  that I had befriended for the Documentary and I quickly learned that my plants were doing just fine and that they would harden up very quickly once they were placed outside.

One thing for sure  is that I have spend way less money this year than all the previous years when I was purchasing flowers for the beds.. Growing 17 flats of various vegetables from seed certainly goes a long way.. Lots for the gardens and left overs to give away to friends.

I have used what ever I have in the garden shed to trellis the plants…Bamboo stakes tied into a tripod for the eggplants, wooden stakes from the burlap wall used to protect my roses from the harsh winter temperatures, last years bean trellis’, the fence along the compost area for the zucchini… Amazing how many treasures are in the shed after 9 years of gardening…

As for tools… more gardens, requires more help… I simply ask people to bring along a shovel. Why buy what we can share. 8 people- that includes the 2 cooks… got to eat and eat well!,  2 hours of planting on Saturday and 2 hours of planting on Monday that pretty much covered  the bulk of the planting… I will continue filling in spots throughout the upcoming week.  THE REWARD…. We all know that we can come during the summer and autumn and pick to our hearts content.