Here’s to hoping the Hammen Home Produce is more productive in 2012 than it was in 2011!
Over the weekend the Mr and I got a truck load of Garden Mix from Great Western Supply in Tenino, WA. This mix is 1/3 dirt & 2/3 mushroom compost from Ostrom’s Mushroom Farm, just up the street from us…which I find funny, because we had to drive 20 miles total to get compost that is produced less than a mile from our house…but at least it’s local-ish. By having our good friend’s truck available to us, we saved ourselves a $55 delivery fee…so our nutrient rich soil only put us out $16+gas!!
After unloading a full truck of soil with only one shovel and one hoe (long story about how we break things and haven’t figured out how to fix them) we were content to let the soil sit for another 24 hours. I have been suffering from some muscle spasms in my lower back…sort of unexplained but most likely roller derby related…and I want to try to take it easy, key word being “try”.
The very next day I opted to skip church and go to derby practice…probably not the best choice for my back but it ended up being good in the long run. I had practice, ran some errands, and then tried to make it to church for our annual plant sale…I had put my name and phone number on a plant…but by the time I got to church everyone was leaving and my plant was gone! Sheesh! I had been babying that plant all week, dropping in for watterings twice…and gone from under my nose. Looking a little sad, one of the leaders of the sale offered up a peach tree to me for free…no one wanted it! But of course as I head out to look at it’s condition (because I didn’t remember a peach tree from my watterings…so I know I neglected it) another couple is saying they will take it….Nooooo! I’ve got to admit…my face got more pathetic looking and it might have been intentional…long story…I got that tree…my efforts were not wasted.
I took my free plants, yes plural, as a couple other sad babies remained unwanted…and got them home to soak for the afternoon. Everything perked right up again…then it rained…so they are going in the ground tonight like happy little clams.
I could not stand to let the garden sit, untouched, another day, so after lunch I got my butt out in the dirt and started plotting things out. I went back to regular zucchini, which I have in the sunniest spot this year, alternating with pac choi. We like our choi small, so if it doesn’t thrive we won’t be hurt. Leaf lettuce and arugula are growing to the right of the zucchini. Bush beans are planted behind the zucchini, and our winter growth are in the shadiest part of the plot, brocoverde and collards. I intend to keep our tomatoes and peppers in planters again this year. They did fine last year, just needed more calcium in their feeding regimen. I had a bit of blossom losses before I knew how to fix that…eggshells!
After all that work, I even managed to put my scarecrows in the ground and cover the tastiest of seeds with black plastic to keep our murder of crows out! Can’t wait to get home and see how that worked out…and to take a picture…like I said the rain and kept raining into today…so timing was perfect in every way. I could not be more pleased with our weekend efforts!
The blog title is a total nod to my dad, who introduced conservation to me at a very early age, and who also hates the phrase, "stuff like that." 