Planting Tomatoes

Late last week my mom and I went out to Brickyard Farms to buy some tomato plants.  It's a great local plant nursery and farm, and the owner was super helpful.  Today we planted the tomatoes in the straw bales.  Here's hoping it is warm and sheltered enough on the south side of the garage for these plants to thrive.

I bought 14 plants, planning to put two in each bale.  Someone donated eight more tomato plants (the taller plants).  They were in the church office during the warmer weather, so some of them were a little worse for wear.  I planted as many as I could fit, putting three plants in each bale.  This whole straw bale garden is a bit of an experiment, so we'll see how things go!

Planting tomatoes.

The kids enjoyed the sunshine while we worked.

Old McElim had a farm...

Done!

Now we water and wait.

Planting the Pumpkin Patch and Signs of Life

Today we planted a row of seven hills of pumpkins!  Hopefully by mid-October or so we will have plenty of pumpkins ready to go.  I don't know how many children are included in the families that use the food pantry at TUMC, but I want each of them to have a pumpkin for a jack-o-lantern this year.

Removing the sod cap.  The kids are helping.

We added organic fertilizer.

Mixing the fertilizer into the soil, and loosening the soil for planting.

Pumpkin seeds!

This is very interesting.

Tucking the seeds in.

Our finished row of planted pumpkins.  Now we wait!

In other garden news, some of the seeds we planted earlier are sprouting!  Check it out:

Radishes!

This bean tried really hard, but a bird dug him up.  I may need to replant all the beans.

Kale!  (Parsley in the foreground.)

Lettuce!

Onion!

Planting!

Today was a big work day.  We got to work just before 10 am and were heading home at 4:30.  During that time we got all the posts for the deer fence set up, installed the drip irrigation system, and put seeds in the ground.

Setting up the posts.

Laying out the drip irrigation system.

Pressurizing the system.

Checking for leaks.

Planting potatoes!

Burying the drip tape for the irrigation.

Planting beans.

Photos taken while gardening are always flattering...

Quitting time!

It was a long day, but we got a ton done.  My mom broke her arm this week, so instead of playing in the dirt, she got to keep an eye on the twins inside the church.  Chris intended to help in the garden, but ended up kid wrangling for most of the day, which was also amazingly helpful.

My dad and my husband put up all 30 T posts for the deer fence and got half the netting up.  The wind picked up enough that it was too difficult to install the rest, so we are saving that for another day.

The drip irrigation system, ordered from Dripworks, was very easy to put together and install.  Once we pressurized the system we found some leaks, but those were easy enough to fix.  We started putting the drip tape and fixtures together in the morning when the plastic tape was a bit stiff.  The tape was warmer and more pliable in the afternoon, so we could get tighter seals then.

The drip tape in action:

Each emitter on the drip tape uses a half gallon of water per hour.  There is an emitter every eight inches.

Once the irrigation system was all set to go I started planting.  I planted Yukon Gold potatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash, summer squash, two lettuce mixes, two varieties of kale, two types of green beans, a beet mix, two kinds of carrots, radishes, and yellow onions.  I also planted four parsley plants that were given to me.  I intended to plant cucumbers, but I misplaced those seeds somewhere between my house and the garden.

Tomatoes will go in later this week, once I build a support structure for them.

Raking

Today's plan was to purchase T posts and set them up for the deer fence.  After a bit of a run-around, we decided to order in some eight foot posts instead of buying the seven footers that were available.  The T posts will be in on Friday.

Since I had gone through the trouble of loading up all the kids and driving into town, I decided to grab a rake and clean some of the clumps of sod out of the rows.  I spent close to three hours raking, and it's looking quite nice.  My kids had had enough fun after an hour or so, so my parents took them home and I finished up alone.  It was quite peaceful.

Picking out sod clods.  (Don't mind the wide screen effect--my automatic lens cover has issues.)

Raking.

Looking good!

I was feeling pretty frustrated and overwhelmed by life in general, so it was really nice to work in the dirt for a while.  A gentleman who lives in the neighborhood stopped by while I was working to compliment me on the garden.  He said his mom used to have a garden, and he always loved to sit near it and enjoy the quiet and the growing things.  It was nice to talk to someone from the neighborhood and to hear that the garden is already making a positive impression on people, even though nothing is growing quite yet.

I thought I might start planting yesterday, but I decided to wait until the drip irrigation system I ordered arrived.  It will be here Thursday, so Friday will be a big workday.

Setting Rows

The compost has been sitting on the garden for over a week now, so it is time to till it in.  My parents and I spent a few hours working.  First my dad tilled the compost in, which was far easier work than breaking up the sod in the first place.

Once the compost was churned in well, we decided that we should add some lime, since soil around here tends to be quite acidic.  After a quick trip to the Feed Store, we had the required lime.  We spread the recommended 50 pounds per 1000 square feet, then tilled the plot again.

Spreading the lime.

Tilling.  Again.

Next, we set the rows.  We put the furrower attachment on the tiller and set to work.  Putting the rows in went quite quickly once I stopped waffling on how wide I wanted each row and pathway to be.

Starting the first path.

Garden in progress.

Once all the rows were set, we raked stray soil off the lawn and used rakes to clean up the pathways.

It's really starting to look like a garden now.

Spreading Compost

When we last saw our compost pile, it looked like this:

Before.

My parents, concerned that the rain would make the compost too difficult to push around if we left it, spent a few hours shoveling compost the same day we had it delivered.  My dad and I finished the job today.

During.

After.

I checked on the straw bales today, too.  Their temperatures are still sitting right around 80 degrees F.  This isn't nearly hot enough for the rapid composting I want.  My mom and I decided to try a different fertilizer.  I suspect that the organic mix I was using is not high enough in nitrogen.

The bales, just hanging out.

I am starting to get a little anxious that I am getting too late a start on this garden.  I really hope to see at least some produce for all this effort.  The good news is that the really tough work is nearly done, then the fun stuff of actually tending a garden will start!

Compost and Straw Bale Update

One great resource Tillamook has to offer gardeners is the Hooley digester.  Cow manure from many of the local dairy farms is broken down and the methane is converted into electricity.  The leftovers make wonderful compost.  The good people at the Port of Tillamook Bay donated ten yards of compost for our garden project.  A few gentlemen at both Saint Peter's and TUMC offered to help transport the compost, but lucky for all of us, Pastor arranged for Rosenberg, a local builder's supply store, to deliver it for free.  This kindness saved us a literal ton of work, since we won't need to shovel compost out of the beds of pickups or off trailers.

The plan from here is to spread the compost out across the garden and let it sit for about a week.  Hopefully the compost is hot enough yet to cook and kill any sod that remains in the garden plot.  After a week, we will till again to mix the compost into the soil.

Today I checked the temperature of the straw bales with a compost thermometer.  Their internal temperature is only about 80 degrees F.  I added a shovel of hot compost to the top of each bale.  I will check the temperature again next time I go by the garden.  Hopefully the straw starts breaking down soon and we can get planting.

Thank you, Rosenberg!

And this is what ten yards of compost looks like.  It isn't as big and scary as I thought it would be.