So I have been a bit lazy the past couple of days, but there has been a lot of rain so I have some updating to do . . . still have a lot to do this week in the garden and leaving on Thursday morning for BC so tomorrow and Wednesday will be busy, busy, busy!!! Oh yes, just wanted to say that I do have a job because I am sure that anybody who is reading this doesn't think that I do, but I do - just wanted to set that straight.
Originally I had planned to follow my friend Kamar's advice and allow the back planting bed to remain wild in order to show everyone what the rest of the garden "would have looked like" if I hadn't done anything. In fact I really thought that this was rather ingenious and I was going to add some sunflower seeds to make it a bit prettier, but then something monumental happened that really turned the gongshow into high gear. A farmer friend of mine lets call him "The farmer," because that is what I call him although he does have a name gave me a lot of seedlings. Now seedlings are an amazing thing because it looks like stuff is already growing as soon as you plant it - fantastic!! You have already succeeded just by planting. So the farmer gave me 4 different kinds of tomatoes (two cherry, two regular and one of those regular is an heirloom variety), leeks, cauliflower, two kinds of peppers (one hot and one not) and potatoes so I had to use them and clear out the back bed. MAJOR endeavor!!! This required me buying anther 10 bags of manure and soil, de-weeding the entire back bed and transplanting 4 plants that were uncovered among the weeds and then the heavy watering of the back bed to prepare for planting - this is Marki lesson numero uno!!! And then finally the planting.
So, I went out and bought the bags, de-weeded and transplanted. I have never really transplanted plants before and they were quite large so I was really worried that they would die, but it seems that 2 weeks on that they are doing well in their new homes. So after the above was done and the fresh soil and manure was mixed in I turned the sprinkler on the bed and went to the gym. I left the water on the bed for about two hours or so to make sure that the soil was really moist because as I have mentioned the soil in the garden was originally like sand so it really needed a lot of watering. Around 4:30 pm my Mum came over and talked me through a planting strategy, i.e. rows - vertical versus horizontal. Once again she provided me with some sage advice - you want to make sure that you can access the veggies without trampling them - ingenious!!!!!!!!!!! So I planted and followed the planting directions with respect to spacing that the farmer provided me. Another great thing about seedlings is that you can see them really well when you are planting them so you can tell if you are spacing them in the proper manner. Just for those who are interested tomatoes need to be just over a forearms length apart and leeks a pinky finger apart and just as a side note leeks really suck to plant because you need to separate each little blade and plant individually, soooooooooooooooo frustrating:)
Alright, so that is how the back garden bed was created and that also puts an end to the back blogging and the physical hard labour. Marki sent me some pics of the herb garden that she took , which is just beautiful and also the flower garden that I have included here because they are so great - thanks Marki!!
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