I know, I know

I know that I haven't posted in a couple weeks, but it's ok, I promise. I've been working in the garden too much! I'll have a huge post and lots of pics next week. Oh, and p.s.....I'M DONE! Well, as done as you can be while waiting for things to grow and pulling random weeds. See ya Tuesday!

The Great Tomato Quest

Man, what a beautiful day outside. If you missed it, shame on you! I got a lot of stuff done today that I've been putting off (not weeding, of course), and it felt pretty awesome.

My first stop was Lowe's. I picked up my yellow squash seeds, cucumber seeds, okra seeds and five different kinds of tomato plants. Then I did some other stuff, but absolutely none of that is at all relevant, so I'll skip it. You're welcome.

I decided to use the ground that I prepared on Saturday for my tomato plants. I bought six plants, and five different kinds. Two of paste tomatoes, two different kinds of large hybrids, and two different kids of heirloom tomatoes. I know that the roma, or paste, tomatoes will grow well, and I have big plans to make some of Rick Bayless's salsa and can them to use year-round. I'll definitely give some more info on this when we get to the canning stage of the year, because I'm pretty pumped. If you don't know me that well, I have a man crush on Rick Bayless. If you do know me pretty well, then, well, you already know and have understandingly forgiven me.

I bought the other four kinds of tomatoes because I really want to figure out what is going to grow best for me based on my location and soil composition. The two hybrids are Atkinson and Red Beefsteak, both developed by Burpee. The two heirlooms are Pink Brandywine and German Queen. The Beefsteak and German Queen are both supposed to be very large, dense tomatoes, and the Brandywine and Atkinson are both tomatoes of average size and yield.

While I love to grow anything, tomatoes are by far my favorite. If you've ever bitten in to a freshly grown tomato out of someone's back yard, you understand. It has gotten to the point where I can't even buy tomatoes at the grocery store anymore because of the way they taste. Did you know that all tomatoes at the store are picked and shipped when they're green? They are sprayed with a chemical that reddens the tomatoes instead of allowing them to ripen naturally on the vine. I'm not saying that this is unhealthy, but you can't tell me that an unripened tomato that is picked and travels 2000 miles to your local grocery store is going to taste the same as one picked from my backyard. Oh, and I don't think I need to tell you how many fossil fuels were used, how much carbon emitted, etc., etc. to get that tomato to you either. Grow it yourself people! Buy at the farmers market from local farmers! If it's not in season, eat something else. Yeah, I get cravings for stuff too, but imagine all the things your missing. Want a list? Hop on animalvegetablemiracle.com and check out the vegetannual. Have you tried half of the things on that bad boy? Do it. You'll be a happy, cleaner person more in touch with the world around you. Oh, and don't buy stuff from Chile. That's stupid.

Thanks for letting me rant a little today. This has become such an important part of my life that I can't help from sharing with everyone I meet. Have a great day, go for a hike, plant a tomato plant in that patch of dirt next to your house, in a pot on your apartment balcony or patio, or even at your parent's house. I'm sure they won't mind!

Today's Playlist

Good Ol' Fashioned Nightmare-Matt & Kim
All I Want is You-Barry Louis Polisar
Lookin' Out My Backdoor-CCR
Old Dan Tucker-Bruce Springsteen
Spaceman-The Killers
Shady Grove-Blitzen Trapper
Summersong-The Decemberists
My Name is Jonas-Weezer
Whole Lotta Love-Led Zeppelin
Blister in the Sun-Violent Femmes
Chicago x 12-Rogue Wave
Magic Carpet Ride-Steppenwolf
Naked As We Came-Iron & Wine
Ocean Breathes Salty-Modest Mouse
Ode to LRC-Band of Horses
Sweet Rose-Matt Costa
Dock of the Bay-Otis Redding

Ooooo, pretty!

Ok, so we'll start out with a little honesty here. I really don't want to go work in the garden. I don't want to put my gardening shoes on, I don't want to casually glance out the kitchen window at it, and I certainly don't want to have to go crawl around on my hands in knees in the dirt and pull up those stupid, godforsaken roots of grass anymore. In case you couldn't tell, a wall might have been hit.

I spent yesterday morning/afternoon weeding and raking the area in front of my green beans in order to plant my cucumbers. It really only took about an hour or two, but that was an incredibly long amount of time for the small amount of space that I picked over. It is probably only about 30 square feet, but it was a tough little spot. All I can figure is that I just didn't do a very good job of tilling in this spot because I had waaay more stuff to pluck out here than anywhere else. Oh, I of course I forgot that I have yet to purchase my cucumber seeds, so I'll just have to rake it again once my dumbass goes and gets some. Yeah, a little special needs today.

I do have a little bit of good news, though....MY LETTUCE HAS SPROUTED!!!! I can barely tell, but it's there, reaching for that yellow sun for all it's worth! I have only watered the garden twice since I put the original crops in, counting on the one day of rain and the good amount of moistness (word?) in the earth to help it out. My aforementioned ninety year old neighbor never waters his garden, relying solely on mother nature to give him a hand, but I just don't know if I trust that bitch enough. She can be a little persnickity. Especially when I call her that, so.....I'll probably be watering a little bit this year! Ha, suck it nature! Sorry, I get a little carried away sometimes.

I got nice and crispy yesterday, so I definitely needed to take it a little easier today. I got home from work around 5, farted around a little, and then headed out into the garden to get some planting done-NO WEEDING!

Yesterday afternoon I put corn, green bean, and yellow bean seeds in containers to help them sprout earlier. In all the books and articles I could find, I found that corn is not supposed to go in until you are sure that the average nightly temperature will stay in the fifties. So....I went ahead and planted it. It's been in the eighties here during the day and the sixties at night, and this looks like it will continue for the next week. It's a little bit of a gamble, but corn has an incredibly long growing period-three to four months. I planted four fifty foot rows with about one foot between each plant. I ended up putting forty eight seeds in the ground. I really could end up having tons and tons of corn, but it is easy to freeze, so I would rather have too much than not enough. I also planted my beans today and set them up on either side of my makeshift trellis. As you can see from the picture, it's in pretty long rows as well. I am really looking forward to having enough beans to eat all I can handle now and still have enough left over to freeze and help me get through the winter months. Wow, that sounded like I'm expecting famine, plague and lean months without easy access to any grocery store. Well, maybe I am.....Ha ha, sorry. Not an end of the world guy, I promise.

Today's Playlist

1. Tegan and Sara-I Was Married
2. Dave Matthews Band-Lie in Our Graves
3. Radiohead-Nude
4. City and Colour-Constant Know
5. Chris Isaak-Winter Waves
6. U2-Exit
7. Bright Eyes-I Believe In Symmetry

Short list today, but I really was only outside for about thirty to forty-five minutes. If you ever have any questions, you can always drop me a comment, and I'll respond as soon as I can. Sorry, but I hear beer calling me. Bye!

85....in April?

Yup, the title was accurate. Eighty-five degrees on April 5. Seventy-seven at 10 am. The season has barely begun and I am already quite crispy. I think I'm just complaining because I feel like it, though. In all honesty, it was an absolutely beautiful day here today, with plenty of sun and almost no clouds. Do I wish I had put sunscreen on? Maybe.....

I spent about two hours today raking, tilling, and weeding two rows about forty feet long. I have been looking ahead on our forecast for the next week or so, and it looks like we are completely in the clear concerning frost, and even cool temperatures in general. Since I have that slice of really great news, I've decided to go ahead and begin planting my summer crops in stages. Today's efforts were the first step towards that goal.

The first year I had a garden, my dad and I put three four by four posts into the ground about fifteen feet apart. Beginning about one foot off the ground, we attached chain link fencing to the posts. We planted rows of beans on each side of the fencing and trained them to grow up, through, and along the fencing. This was a pretty good idea, but our yields were never that strong. I always felt that we should have done a better job weeding than we did, but this will be the first year I'll actually be able to see if this was a great, decent, or piss-poor idea. If it can pass as decent, I'll be more than pleased.

This year I will be planting green beans along one side and yellow wax beans along the other. I don't think I'll have any problems with the two, but we'll see. This afternoon I pulled seeds out of each pack, placed them in water, and set them on the window sill to soak overnight. This is supposed to speed up the germination process, but I have never tried it before. Rolling the dice once again. I also put corn seeds in water for the same reason.

I have a lot to plant tomorrow, and I'm a little pooped from today, so I don't plan on doing any more raking or weeding until Wednesday. I know that I have to keep working on it, but I don't think I'll be able to describe the level of meticulous, annoying work it is to pick one root of grass after another. I need a day off from it.

Meanwhile, Two Weeks Later.....

So the intermittent rain and intense amount of work have kept me busy for the past couple of weeks. Big time. In the past couple of weeks, I have completed the following:

1. I have raked and pulled weeds, grass, pine cones, rocks, roots, sticks, and other various pieces of debris from about two fifths of my garden.
2. Since I have what doctors call "an inability to gauge distance, walk in a straight line, or put one foot in front of the other," I placed stakes on each end of four rows and ran kite string or twine between them to ensure that I planted straight and evenly.
   
3. I planted my first crops!!!!
4. I raked a forty pound bag of peat moss (fancy name for cow shit) into the area I will be planting my corn in a couple weeks.
   
5. I discovered that I hate weeding, raking, and anything to do with bending over for long stretches of time.
   
6. Oh, I have to either start doing some yoga, or start drinking enough beer to convince myself that I don't ache all over. Any guesses as to which activity I will be participating in?
   

Today I planted the earliest of my vegetables. I really should have put these in a month or so ago, but with all the rain and a 40 hour a week (sometimes-heh, heh) job, it has been impossible to finish preparing the soil for planting. From left to right, I planted twenty foot rows of lettuce, red leaf swiss chard, cabbage, and bok choi. All of these should be ready for harvest in six weeks to two months, which is just about perfect. By June 1st, I should be dining on incredible salads, succulent greens, and all the ingredients of some incredible egg rolls and potstickers.

The amount of hard, physical labor that has been involved in the past couple of weeks hasn't been too bad. I can tell you that I have had every ounce of my patience and work ethic tested, though. If i squatted down in one area, it would take me anywhere from fifteen to twenty minutes to pull up all the grass and weed roots that I could reach from that spot. Multiply that by about fifty and you've got a pretty good idea of how I spent my time lately. I'll say this for the first, and definitely not the last, time on this blog. STUPID FREAKIN' WEEDS!!!! Whew, that's better.

I now have to prepare the remaining six rows for planting. I'm planning on finishing them up in the next two weeks, and having the rest of my garden in the ground by the end of the month. Optimistic, but I really feel like I need to get my ass in gear in order to have the longest harvesting season possible.

Today's Playlist

1. Whole Wide World-Wreckless Eric
2. The '59 Sound-Gaslight Anthem
3. The Cave-Mumford and Sons
4. Adventures in Solitude-The New Pornographers
5. Adrift-Jack Johnson
6. Advice for Young Mothers To Be-The Veils
7. After All-Wyclef Jean
8. Ain't No Easy Way-Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
9. Coma Girl-Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
10. The Girl-City and Colour
11. Hang Me Up To Dry-Cold War Kids
12. Furr-Blitzen Trapper
13. I Made a Resolution-Sea Wolf
14. Diplomat's Son-Vampire Weekend
15. Like the Way She Moves-Chris Isaak

Parting thought-Asparagus, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Blueberries, Strawberries and Cabbage are in season right now!!!!!!! Go get you some fresh produce wherever you can.