A little more progress

Some more plantings in the LBC garden tonight-- tomatoes. We were only able to do this thanks to my good neighbor, Clyde, who was very kind to loan his tiller to our effort. Now the plot has a much better tilth. One can actually insert a shovel and not hit a rock or a tightly compacted agglomeration of the clayey morass we call "soil" in this area. Soon we'll put in the "three sisters": corn, beans and squash. These 3 go together in a special way. The corn grows up tall and straight-- a perfect natural trellis for beans. And the large squash leaves act in such a way as to shade the ground and thus prevent weeds from growing. Rather like mulch on a vine.

This reminds me of an article I just read about gardening in -of all places!- Wired. However, since it's Wired, it has to have a geeky neologistic nomenclature; thus, "domestic terraforming".

Drip, drip, drip.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I wanted to use drip irrigation for HS garden plots. This comes from my having used it when I lived in Phoenix- where water is unspeakably expensive (at least in comparison to what it's like here in KY). I'm still a big fan of it because, if it's done well, it saves a lot of water. We don't have quite the same water issues as they have in the desert, but that's no reason not to be water-wise. My attention is on this matter presently because of the special report I just saw in this week's issue of The Economist. Check it out and see if you're not suddenly interested in saving a little bit of water.

Progress (bit by bit...)

Little bit by little bit, we're making progress on our first garden.  We'd have it done and planted by now if (and what a big if it is!) we had more than an hour at a time to work on the plot.  Piecemeal work notwithstanding, here's where we stand at present:

Those little green dealies are cucumbers, by the way.

Breaking ground

Our first dig is under way!

The plot is a 10'x15' area in the back lot of the church:

Many hands make light work, as they say; that was (more or less) true yesterday evening as the lads of Boy Scout Troop 17 grabbed shovels and got right to work:

The guys also worked on lashing together some bamboo stakes to make a climbing structure for the cucumbers and melons we hope to grow in this space (hard to see in the picture below).  Here's the state of things as of last night:

Sure, it doesn't look like much just yet; but we'll be at it for a while yet before it looks like a proper garden.

It's a go

Appears as if the final "yes" for Harvest Stewards' first garden has arrived. We'll begin digging and planting on Monday (17 May) at Latonia Baptist Church, with the assistance of Boy Scout Troop 17. Pics later.

And speaking of pics, here's a little bit of what I have to get into the ground here at the homestead now that our "last frost date" is upon us:

That's a load of peppers, tomatoes, elderberries and goldenberries.  That last one, Physalis pruinosa is a great little garden berry, related to tomatoes and peppers (family Solanaceae).  It's such a shame that they're not more popular.  I once bought some at a farmer's market in Brisbane (Queensland, Australia), but other than that, I've never seen them for sale anywhere.  You can eat'em right off the plant  or dry them into little raisin-like bits.  Good stuff.

Correction: I have indeed found goldenberries for sale...  At Whole Foods, one may find goldenberry "raisins" from Kopali. 

Still, the raw version of goldenberries, I've never seen sold here in the States.

Here's what we got:

Here's what Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds donated to Harvest Stewards:

• 10 packets of assorted melons
  
• 15 packets of assorted squashes
  
• 10 packets of radishes
  
• 15 packets of okras
  
• 15 packets of assorted greens
  
• 10 packets of cucumbers
  
• 10 packets of carrots
  
• 10 packets of cabbages
  
• 30 packets of assorted beans
  
• 10 packets of onions
  
• 10 packets of Swiss chard
  

It's hard to adequately express my thanks to the folks at Baker Creek for making such an enormously kind (and just flat-out enormous!) donation. In keeping with the ethos of Harvest Stewards, I'm doing my utmost to get every one of those seeds into the ground. Wish me luck!