Orange Bell Peppers Planted 5/17/06 & Kellogg's Breakfast Tomatoes Planted Weeks Ago (& obviously expending the majority of their energy producing the world's largest tomato root systems, because you can see that not much it going on above ground.)
Realization Of The Day:
My garden is becoming slightly tidier because of this blog, as I often find myself doing a bit of extra weeding and clean up before taking photos.
Not unnecessary, only-'cause-it's-a-photo-shoot stuff, though. Little things that should probably be done that I would usually blow off. But it's always so nice when the garden looks less like a weed-infested jungle—even if that famous grower for Chez Panisse (whose name escapes me—anyone know it?) lets the weeds literally do whatever they want in his plots, claiming the more natural the better.
I read an article written by a woman who went to visit him, and she was blown away when he harvested enough food for three meals (which he then cooked for her) when she couldn't even see anything edible in his garden. Well, you can't get a better client than Alice Waters, so he must know what he's doing. Whenever I start to think the garden is a big mess, I remind myself about this guy and feel much, much better. But I still I'd rather have it all neat and tidy.
Realization #2:
I didn't get a single thing planted yesterday. Too many distractions around the farm. Now I have to decide (here's where you wish you didn't know about minding the moonsigns) between the lesser of two 'evils:' an infertile day in the 3rd quarter, or a fertile day in the 4th quarter. And then of course there are schedules and the weather conditions to contend with.
Sometimes it just boils down to getting whatever you can done whenever you can get it done! Though I accidentally planted four rows of beans (from three different packets of seeds) on the wrong day a few weeks back, and only one row came up. So was it the beans or was it the moon? We're up against tremendous odds in the garden.
If my weeds would limit themselves to edible one, I'd be inclined to let things go a bit too. Later in the season, when I'm canning and picking and whatever else is on my plate I'll take some pictures and then you'll know what lax maintainence really looks like!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I do all the weeding I can now, because later when our terrible tiger mosquito problem begins (probably this week, unfortunately) the weeding slows to a standstill. I wouldn't mind the weeds except that nasty stuff like porcelain grapes and mulberry and walnut trees like to hide in them until they become difficult to pull out without disrupting the rest!
ReplyDeletei have a chef panisse garden even though i prefer more tidy...i think it's our american upbringing...our parents are to blame! (and that's the story i'm stickin' with).
ReplyDeletei'm in a tizzy about these freakin. moon/star/planet signs too. i curse the person who threw that into the equation by coming up with the idea! i want to plant NOW!!!! moon and stars be damned!
How do you stake your tomatoes and peppers? I was intrigued by the poles!
ReplyDelete