Life in the no-go lane has its benefits. I'm finding starts difficult to keep alive this year (each year seems a little worse) but I have the time to nurse them along, moving flats from place to place as light and temperature dictate. Slowly they are finding their way out to the garden, where some are getting the shade cloth treatment, as they are shockingly sensitive to direct sun -- even when it's 55F out.
Sensing I'd need to re-start the lower garden -- the two thirds nearest the street -- I held my nose and bought black plastic, leaving it over the bindweed for six weeks. Then I began planting, one row at a time, pulling back the plastic and immediately covering the ground with kraft paper. Potatoes I place on the paper and cover with straw and grass clippings.
Plants in four inch pots are punched in right through the paper.
Peas and beans are dropped down a pipe and lightly covered.
We shall see how all this goes. I was ill with "some lung thing" -- no testing was available -- in March, and I'm short of breath. So I sit in the sun when there is sun, or maybe hang out in the hut, drinking "yard tea" and reading.
A friend sent a poem by Basho:
Sensing I'd need to re-start the lower garden -- the two thirds nearest the street -- I held my nose and bought black plastic, leaving it over the bindweed for six weeks. Then I began planting, one row at a time, pulling back the plastic and immediately covering the ground with kraft paper. Potatoes I place on the paper and cover with straw and grass clippings.
Plants in four inch pots are punched in right through the paper.
Peas and beans are dropped down a pipe and lightly covered.
We shall see how all this goes. I was ill with "some lung thing" -- no testing was available -- in March, and I'm short of breath. So I sit in the sun when there is sun, or maybe hang out in the hut, drinking "yard tea" and reading.
A friend sent a poem by Basho:
FarmerThat's the ticket.
Pointing the Way
With a radish
