Note: It took some time to get the video and images processed, so I had to keep this post on ice 'til I got it all done. Sorry for the delay.
May 26 11h30 a.m. I was just out in the garden getting some planting done but it started to rain. I got some of what I wanted to accomplish done, but not all. Still, I got out there about 9h30 and worked for about an hour or so.
I’m going to update my chart to show what’s in the ground now. I’m short of some stuff and out of cash, so I’ll have to modify the plan a little. I had planned for 14 bell pepper plants, but I only bought two because I was kinda hoping my seedlings would get big enough to pick up the slack, but no go. I’m still going to use them in the topsy turvy though just to see if anything will happen with them in the new soil I bought for my buckets. The same goes for my tomato seedlings; they’re too small to go in the ground.
10h43 p.m. I got in a good solid block of time this afternoon and finished my planting. After running some errands, the rain stopped and the sun peeked out, so I was able to get back in the garden around three thirty or four, and I was out there until around eight. And am I ever sore. Absolutely everything hurts like crazy; especially my bad ankle. I can hardly walk right now.
All that’s left to do now is tidy up the front side. All the crap I sifted out the plots I just tossed to the front, so I used the garden claw and the fork to turn and loosen it up and I started to rake it over and lay some bricks down at the entry. I shifted my pepper plants from the front extension of one of the four by four plots and rearranged some of the lights and ornaments. You’ll be able to see what I’m talking about in the video.
All of this dividing of the plots and getting the plants and seeds in started on Monday. Today is Thursday, so it’s been a pretty long process. I ended up having to redo some of the bricks in one of the four by fours because the measurements were off. I had 48 inches across the top, but by the time I got to the bottom, it was 50 inches. I probably should have used a plumb line when I was laying the bricks. Maybe in the fall when everything is out, I’ll take the time to make sure the measurements are more exact. Also, most of the bricks are still not level, and I’d like to fix that too.
To divide the plots into 1’ x 1’ squares, I started off using T tags to hold down garden twine. I bought 40 tags and 2 rolls of twine. It turned out that one roll did the whole garden but I ran out of T tags. I was gonna go get more, but I decided to switch to the tent stakes I used last year, which turned out to be a lot stronger than the T tags. I thought I’d have to buy more stakes too, but every time I thought I’d have to run back to the dollar store, my Honey miraculously pulled more out his . . . ahem . . . shed.
So what’s in the ground? Lots.
I put in all the plants I bought except for the strawberries because I wanted to put them in buckets, but I don’t know. I had this bright idea, that if I could get some decent rocks maybe I could do some kind of strawberry rock garden in the front part of the garden. Not sure if what I have in mind would work well, but it’s just a thought.
As far as my seeds go, I started all of my carrots and broccoli oh and I put all of my cantaloupe seedlings in even though they were small. a couple of them didn’t stand the strain and have kicked the bucket so I added some new seeds in with the seedlings. The rest I wanted to do in succession so I’ve done half of my yellow and green beans, radishes, beets, spinach and lettuce, and I decided to plant marigolds in all of the front extensions of the four by four plots.It turned out I didn’t have any peas, so I need to get a seed packet of those, and I still need to pick up some onion bulbs and more bell pepper plants.
I really wanted to have some lavender and I also had a seed packet of Jacob’s ladder, but I guess I needed to start those inside ages ago. I just don’t have the indoor space for all that inside starting of things. I read an article about cold frames helping to get an early start on plants, so I might look a little deeper into that option. I don’t know how Lester’s gonna feel about that though. He’s been doing some mental planning for some things he wants to do out there too. We moved the clock from the back end to the front end of the shed. It looks way better there. It looked lost at sea on the back end. Though it was nice to have it there while I was working in the garden. That is it would have been once I got used to the idea of it being there.
I used a couple of different planting processes. For the tomatoes I loosely followed what I had seen on Vitality Gardening. First I moistened the earth where I was going to plant, and after I made my hole, I added a handful of bone meal, then a couple of handfuls of sheep manure. I soaked the plant before I took it out of the pot, sat it in the hole and covered it with earth. I did the same thing for the peppers, cucumbers cantaloupe.
May 26 11h30 a.m. I was just out in the garden getting some planting done but it started to rain. I got some of what I wanted to accomplish done, but not all. Still, I got out there about 9h30 and worked for about an hour or so.
I’m going to update my chart to show what’s in the ground now. I’m short of some stuff and out of cash, so I’ll have to modify the plan a little. I had planned for 14 bell pepper plants, but I only bought two because I was kinda hoping my seedlings would get big enough to pick up the slack, but no go. I’m still going to use them in the topsy turvy though just to see if anything will happen with them in the new soil I bought for my buckets. The same goes for my tomato seedlings; they’re too small to go in the ground.
10h43 p.m. I got in a good solid block of time this afternoon and finished my planting. After running some errands, the rain stopped and the sun peeked out, so I was able to get back in the garden around three thirty or four, and I was out there until around eight. And am I ever sore. Absolutely everything hurts like crazy; especially my bad ankle. I can hardly walk right now.
All that’s left to do now is tidy up the front side. All the crap I sifted out the plots I just tossed to the front, so I used the garden claw and the fork to turn and loosen it up and I started to rake it over and lay some bricks down at the entry. I shifted my pepper plants from the front extension of one of the four by four plots and rearranged some of the lights and ornaments. You’ll be able to see what I’m talking about in the video.
All of this dividing of the plots and getting the plants and seeds in started on Monday. Today is Thursday, so it’s been a pretty long process. I ended up having to redo some of the bricks in one of the four by fours because the measurements were off. I had 48 inches across the top, but by the time I got to the bottom, it was 50 inches. I probably should have used a plumb line when I was laying the bricks. Maybe in the fall when everything is out, I’ll take the time to make sure the measurements are more exact. Also, most of the bricks are still not level, and I’d like to fix that too.
To divide the plots into 1’ x 1’ squares, I started off using T tags to hold down garden twine. I bought 40 tags and 2 rolls of twine. It turned out that one roll did the whole garden but I ran out of T tags. I was gonna go get more, but I decided to switch to the tent stakes I used last year, which turned out to be a lot stronger than the T tags. I thought I’d have to buy more stakes too, but every time I thought I’d have to run back to the dollar store, my Honey miraculously pulled more out his . . . ahem . . . shed.
So what’s in the ground? Lots.
I put in all the plants I bought except for the strawberries because I wanted to put them in buckets, but I don’t know. I had this bright idea, that if I could get some decent rocks maybe I could do some kind of strawberry rock garden in the front part of the garden. Not sure if what I have in mind would work well, but it’s just a thought. As far as my seeds go, I started all of my carrots and broccoli oh and I put all of my cantaloupe seedlings in even though they were small. a couple of them didn’t stand the strain and have kicked the bucket so I added some new seeds in with the seedlings. The rest I wanted to do in succession so I’ve done half of my yellow and green beans, radishes, beets, spinach and lettuce, and I decided to plant marigolds in all of the front extensions of the four by four plots.It turned out I didn’t have any peas, so I need to get a seed packet of those, and I still need to pick up some onion bulbs and more bell pepper plants.
I really wanted to have some lavender and I also had a seed packet of Jacob’s ladder, but I guess I needed to start those inside ages ago. I just don’t have the indoor space for all that inside starting of things. I read an article about cold frames helping to get an early start on plants, so I might look a little deeper into that option. I don’t know how Lester’s gonna feel about that though. He’s been doing some mental planning for some things he wants to do out there too. We moved the clock from the back end to the front end of the shed. It looks way better there. It looked lost at sea on the back end. Though it was nice to have it there while I was working in the garden. That is it would have been once I got used to the idea of it being there.
I used a couple of different planting processes. For the tomatoes I loosely followed what I had seen on Vitality Gardening. First I moistened the earth where I was going to plant, and after I made my hole, I added a handful of bone meal, then a couple of handfuls of sheep manure. I soaked the plant before I took it out of the pot, sat it in the hole and covered it with earth. I did the same thing for the peppers, cucumbers cantaloupe.
What I started doing with the seeds was push some of the earth to one side, put down a layer of sheep manure and then laid in my seeds according to the square foot way. Lester told me that you can burn plants with too much sheep manure, so I started mixing it into the earth in some of the other squares. Then in some of the others, I poked the holes and put a little sheep manure in each hole before putting the seeds in. I just felt that when I initially mixed in my sheep manure with the new earth, that there wasn’t enough of it. So hopefully I didn’t ruin anything.
 |  |  |
making the hole | adding some bone meal | then a handful of compost |
 |  | |
| soaking the plant | plant and soil added |
There’s more bad news to tell you about; this is the worst yet though. If you remember last year I told you about some birds nesting in the roof of the shed which had me too scared to go near it. Well, this year they were back, and again I was scared every time I had to go near the shed. Not only that, they were pooping out the hole and making a mess of the door knob and everything. My Honey came to my rescue and shoved a rag in the hole. the birds still had other entries around the roof, so I didn’t worry that much about it, but the next day there were two dead babies on the ground at the back end of the shed. I felt kinda guilty about that. The birds were an annoyance, but as a mother, I couldn’t help feeling bad about the distress the mother bird must have felt.
Well that’s it for now; long post, long video, but I hope you enjoy.
I think I did a better job of laying down the bricks this year. Last year I decided I wasn’t a good planner and just laid bricks down 
Oh well like I said, it’s better than last year. 
