Page 8
The INDEPENDENT, June 19, 2003
Baa Too B iiIt?
By Schann Nelson
Wow! What a difference a
month makes. Last month the
garden was a brown potential
with a few brave potatoes, peas
just coming up and the garlic.
Now, I’m having trouble finding
places to put all the things I
want in, discovering delightful
flower com binations nearly
every day and have enjoyed a
small harvest of peas and spinach. Every bed is plant
ed, seeds are up and the paths are mulched, giving
the whole vegetable garden a bright golden look. I
even saw a snake yesterday, for the first time in sev
eral years. Since snakes eat slug eggs, I think snakes
are GREAT. Four cats (now down to just one) were just
too many for the snakes to survive.
Years ago we fenced off the area surrounding the
house from the rest of the barn yard. I was not at all
tolerant of chickens in my garden, and have been
known to have a screaming fit if they, or larger live
stock, trespass into my part of the yard. The vegetable
garden is in the sunniest corner of the yard and still
does not get any sun until after 11:00 a.m. Ten raised
beds, each approximately 4’ x 10’, are the structure in
this garden with perennial flower beds between the
garden and the back lawn. The beds have been es
tablished and maintained for a long time now and vary
greatly in width and length.
I have been very lucky this year, taking advantage
of the awesome three-tier plant light unit I was given
by a dear friend several years ago. After taking the first
set of houseplants that spend the winter there outside,
I planted a bunch of brassicas and lettuce. After get
ting the remainder of the plants outside, and planting
out the lettuce and brassicas, I started cucumbers,
basil, squashes and a few flowers. This is why I’ve
been able to go from almost no garden to a nearly full
garden in less than a month.
I had started two different salad greens blends in
side. When they got really crowded (because I always
over-seed lettuce, which is a mistake) l< ^ Z *
VERY carefully transplanted teeny, tiny baby
chervil and radicchio and lettuce from a Eu
ropean salad blend into larger pots. At the
same time, I took clumps of lettuce blend and
ary, so I took dirt from the
end of this bed for the flow
ers. After removing the dirt, I
placed a teepee of poles
over the space I created and
planted both bush and pole
beans. I’m looking forward to
pictures of my adorable
niece in her own private
“house.”
The remainder of this bed
includes a short trellis of
pickling cucumbers, three
hills of lemon cucumbers and
a bush zucchini.
I plant
lemon cukes for eating raw,
since I can easily tell them
apart from the pickling cukes.
Though
cucum bers
and
squashes are not supposed
to like being transplanted,
these look great. They were
in flats where they were
warm, watered and dry on
A pole teepee is sim ple, yet fo rm s a good trellis fo r clim b ing veg etab les. top for |ess t^an a week, and I
just kind of stuck them in the garden between cabbage was able take them inside at night. The baby plants
and cauliflower, thinking that they would mature and are beautifully spaced along a piece of green fence, an
be out of there before the brassicas took over all of the effect I can’t achieve with seeds planted in dirt. The
space. Much to my surprise, the lettuce in the garden squash is still in 4-packs, has roots emerging (some
is thriving and nearly all of the European stuff died.
times even before the plant) but will go in the ground
I spent the entire Memorial Day weekend working in today or tomorrow. It’s been fun to watch these large
the garden. While not great weather for sun worship seedlings emerge like volcanoes, pushing up the dirt.
pers, it was the best kind of weather for working out
Zucchini would be a good choice for small children
side. Cool enough so I could work outside all day and to plant in good warm weather like this. The seeds are
also dry enough to be able to work and move dirt. I large enough for small hands to handle and grow
moved several cartloads of good garden soil from the quickly, so the kids d o n ’t forget about them before
end of one bed to the perennial beds. The poor flow anything happens. Of course, then you have to deal
ers rarely get the compost and mulch that the garden with zucchini, something not known to be well loved by
enjoys annually. Since the garden is on a slight slope children. Beans of all kinds are also dramatic, as are
the beds tend to move a little downhill every year. This radishes, sunflowers, and pumpkins (pumpkins are
particular bed was sort of escaping the garden hard for me to get ripe ones though).
bound-
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