Preserving

Sunday, March 18, 2012

New Garden Plots......Day 1........OMG!!!

Before I went to the new site, I had to go to the old plots and work for a couple of hours. I removed all of the old short rusted T Posts for Dora. Then I trimmed back the blackberries and removed their supports. There were three 9' posts with wire fencing. Boy, was that a job! Then I had to go search for a Port O Pottie down at the ball fields!!

When I got to the new site, I have to admit that I was a bit overwhelmed at first. Then I remember what my honorary Mother said to me. It's like eating an elephant....just a little at a time. First I got out my measuring tape to make sure that they were the size they were supposed to be. Next I got out my field tape and strung it down two sides. Then I started leveling out the one end. The only way to do this is to lay the turned sod over as flat as you can, remove big rocks and fill in with some loose soil. I found many a nice big worms under the sod! That made me very happy!

I don't know if you can tell from this picture how hilly and uneven it is. The turned over sod seems like mountains!

I managed to level out about 10' x 30' when I bent over and heard something rip! Yes, my old jeans gave way! 

Now I only have another 30' x 30' to go. After I am done with this step. I will either put the fencing down two sides or start framing out the beds. That will depend on when they get the permanent posts in place. The beds for the Strawberries, Blackberries, Raspberries, Asparagus, Onions and Potatoes will be the first to be done. I am definitely having a big load of soil delivered as soon as I can. I'm going to put down paper and then put soil on top. That is the only way I can do this site and be able to garden this year. 

There were a two other gardeners there today. Whitie, the nice gardener who gave me wonderful Sweet Corn on a few occasions and Sweet Potatoes last year. He is in his 80's and told me he is also having some soil delivered. Steve, the guy who watered my plots for me last year was also there. He got out his rototiller and tilled for about 20 minutes and then left. 

Tomorrow, will be day 2.............I wonder if I can finish the next 30 feet????

22 comments:

  1. You made me laugh so hard about your jeans. The thing about gardenrs is that we just keep planting and ignore the rip. Maybe I should keep a pair of exrta leggings around just in case. They never rip, maybe they get holes, but they just keep stretching and stretching, which create other issues.

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    1. I just wrapped my sweat shirt around my behind and finished!

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  2. Oh me - you are so right about the elephant analogy. My mantra when doing work like that is "it's hard by the yard, but a cinch by the inch". That's helped me through many a gardening session!

    At least you didn't have your 'wardrobe malfunction" in front of a big crowd! :-)

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    1. Little by little is the only way to get something like this done. I was lucky that the other two gardeners were no where near me!

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  3. Don't you know it's not nice to moon people? ;-)

    I gave myself an 8' a day goal, the distance between 2 fence posts. That worked pretty well for me, and I sometimes actually exceeded the distance. Like that elephant, the rough parts are getting smaller day by day, bit by bit. I must admit, yours looks much more daunting than mine.

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    1. Granny, this is going to take a lot of work. I could have gotten more done if I didn't spend two hours at the old plots. I'm going to shoot for 15' tomorrow.

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  4. Ugh! I don't envy you. Shaking out those clumps and leveling off the soil looks hard. So did you head for home when your jeans gave away? Or did you just continue working?

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    1. Ugh is right! I wrapped my sweat shirt around my behind and finished what I was doing. It did give me an excuse to go home though. If not, I probably would have over done it today.

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  5. You are ready to move to hills somewhere LOL... you already have that backbreaking work of turning sod and picking rocks out down to a science! A true homesteader girl :)

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    1. Thanks Erin, I really didn't know what I was going to do when I first got there. This seems to be the only way to do it. I started my beds here at the house on top of solid clay. I put paper down over the grass and added compost and soil. I add compost to these beds twice a year and the beds are nice and deep now.

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  6. Finally! Day one whoopee! It sounds like you have a good plan. I can't wait to see things begin developing. We have an elephant in our garden too. We've got to turn the compost and shredded trees into the dirt. We don't even own a tiller! It's been a dilemma for us. Tomorrow I'll turn a row for peas at least, maybe another one for broccoli and cabbage. Like you said, one bite at a time! Happy fencing.

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    1. That's the only way to do it, one bite at a time. I really don't think I'm going to till this. I'm pretty much an anti-tiller. There are so many nice big worms. I'll just keep layering on top and let the worms do their thing!

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  7. Sounds like you did well for your first day.

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    1. I got more done then I thought I would. Now for day 2!

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  8. Digging out and then shaking sod out of a new area is the worst! I'm sure you'll have it done soon. The way your approaching the problem is the best way, slow and ateady. Of course, that is providing that your wardobe holds out :)

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    1. Ed, I just have to make sure that I keep my old sweat shirt with me to wrap around my behind! Just in case!

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  9. It's such a pity they didn't get there act together so you could do some preparation over winter - maybe then the frost would have broken down the lumps a bit too! Still better late than never!

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    1. Sue, If Dora was the garden coordinator last fall, it would have be tilled and we would be in much better shape right now. She is a great gardener and hard worker and will push as much as she can to get things done for us. We are just going to have to deal with what we have.

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  10. Great exercise regime, do you think they could include it in the olympics - this looks perfect training for London.

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    1. That's a great idea Liz! Hopefully I will loose my winter fat getting this site ready!

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  11. I don't hold with the softly softly approach. Get stuck in and you'll be relaxing when others make the pain last a whole year!

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    1. I'm not going to lolly gag around getting this done! It may take me a couple of weeks to get it level, fencing up and beds in. I've got veggies to plant. I know it will take many all year to not get much done!

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