Don and I spent a morning spreading leaves over our two garden plots at the Community Gardens. We've gardened there for the past 3 summers, taking over the plots our daughter had for the three previous seasons. The soil is very sandy so we have to add organic stuff to try to enrich it and the create a more humous soil which is better for growing things. We had saved the leaves from raking last fall and got the last bag dumped and spread out just as the guy showed up to till all the garden plots. Great timing since we wanted the leaves turned under and into the soil. Now we just let the worms do their thing!
After we got that job done, I began working on the front flower bed. Although it's a new bed, there seemed to be a nice assortment of undesirable plants germinating. Weeds, in other words. Where do these guys come from! Since I've not done any of the kneeling, stretching, and getting up and down since last summer, I decided to split the job into two days, and yesterday, I got it finished with very little soreness in my body today.
My little plants that I started in the house here a couple of weeks ago seem to be doing pretty well. The first picture below is the tomatoes, peppers, and other assorted things that will go into our personal garden.
This second picture is of the 24 cabbage plants I've started. I may keep a couple of them for personal use but most will go to the food shelf here in town.
Last year we'd decided that we didn't need both plots for personal use and ended up having a lot of barren ground that had to be weeded a lot, for no purpose. We figure we need about 1& 1/3 of the two plots and the other 2/3 will be planted with things for the food pantry. Cabbages, carrots, ,onions and potatoes are the goal. Today I want to get the potatoes and onions and tomorrow they can be put in the ground. The cabbages aren't big enough yet and it's still too cool for the carrot seeds.
Also today, I want to begin cleaning out the raised flower beds Don built last summer. We have some day lilies and iris in the beds but there's a lot of dried up plant material that should be removed to the compost bin before we put in new plants for the summer.
All of this to say that I've not been in the sewing room for days. Last summer, I did very little gardening since I had that extremely sore thumb and wrist, but now that's been fixed so I expect that I'll be getting my hands in the dirt a lot more. And frankly, it feels very good to be outside after such a long winter.
I plan to continue working on my quilting projects throughout the summer but at a slower pace. And I probably will continue posting but again at a slower pace. When Lily's here, and the weather is so very fine, I find it hard to spend time inside on the computer when there's so much that can be done outside.
Don and I were talking about an anticipated train trip to Washington this September and one of the things we want to do is some hiking in the Olympic National Park as well as at Mt. Ranier National Park. That means that I need to begin training NOW! I already have a plan: Begin with the 1.5 mile walk in my neighborhood for a week or so and see how that goes, gradually increasing the distance. Speed has never been my goal, just distance. All this upcoming hiking also means that losing a few pounds--Let's be real here, I need to lose a LOT!--will help my poor knees tolerate all this walking. I've had success in the past with a low carb diet so I prowled around the internet looking for ideas, and I think that's the way I'm going to go. Wish me luck with this new venture. I'll be posting updates from time to time, but only if things are going well. If I don't say anything about walking and dieting, you'll know I've not followed through but for now I'm going to be positive about it.
So I'd better turn off this computer, lace up my walking shoes and get a move on!
No comments:
Post a Comment