We have had so many storms and so much rain at home this year, that I have been delayed from doing any real work in the garden. I tilled about 3 weeks ago; there was an ubiquitous amount of trash plants, grass, random weeds and such. I decided to do a double till and let the sun cook the weeds and grass that then had exposed roots.
And then the storms came. And the rain followed that. And then my working week began, and there was barely enough daylight to get out and start planting after my "normal" job. And then the weather broke, and lo and behold...I had to work overtime. And then the rain started...and lasted through both of my days off. Rinse and repeat for three weeks.
Finally, they weather on my day off was amenable to get something, anything, done in the garden. The weeds had grown up from when I had last tilled and had taken over all of the work I had done last time, so I had to get the tiller out for another double.
You can see the old battle-axe here. I traded a few Magic: The Gathering cards from my collection and 25 bucks for this beast nearly 12 years ago. Regular maintenance and this monster fires up on the first pull and will chew through cinder blocks if they get in the way.
Now we always have a very fruitful garden, and whether we just get overburdened with the amount of produce or become lazy, some fruits are left on the vine/plant. I was very hopeful that we would get lucky and have some of what I have always called "volunteer" plants, or plants that grow from the fruits that had dropped to the ground and were left to seed. With this in mind, before I tilled I decided to visually sweep the garden plot to see if this was the case, and...
...there were green beans! I put a cut piece of metal fence along where they were growing to mark them safe from the destruction of the tiller! These are a vining variety of beans, so I will leave the fence there. It is at an odd angle, but hey, free beans!
...and there were watermelon plants! I dug these up an set them aside to be replanted in a place where they wouldn't invade the other plants. Very viney, very invasive.
...and there was one cucumber! I decided to plan the rest of the garden around this one plant, since everyone but me likes cucumbers in our home. Not to mention they are very fragile, and would rather just leave the plant where it was growing.
...and there were tomatoes! I found loads and loads and loads of volunteer tomato plants hidden in the grasses and weeds among the un-tilled garden. I put a wire frame cage around the ones I was certain we were going to let grow, and broke some sticks to use as markers for some of the smaller ones that were in more difficult locations. Their fate would be decided later when I had a good layout in mind for the rest of the planting.
Breaking sticks for markers was not without its own reward...
as I managed to take a fairly decent sized chunk out of my palm. I bandaged up and got back to it.
After finding and either marking or digging up all the plants we were planning on keeping, the tilling began. It was like driving a go-cart at 1/4 MPH while dodging obstacles that were far smaller than my foot. Challenging, but far from fun. But necessary.
I had these packages that needed to be planted. They had been sitting around for far too long, and it was much later than I would normally plant tubers.
I dug small hills for each of them in 5 separate spots in 3 rows.
As they begin to sprout, and being so late in the season I certainly hope they do, I will fill in the area of the rows that is unhilled to make plenty of room for them to take up as much underground space as they might need.
A different angle on the hills. Behind them there are few tomato plants, a very odd "L" shaped planting of 3 different onion sets, marked off my the concrete slabs, and a metal grate on part of the bean crop. Still a lot of weeds, but a good portion have been pulled and thrown between the rows.
I took a little break and spent some quality time with my 4-legged family members. This guy is awesome, and old. He sat on the back porch and waited for me to come give him a little love.
This good girl right here wouldn't leave me alone, but she is scared to death of the tiller. She thought she was helping by stealing my stick-markers, so I had to get her a stick befitting her size an attention.
She is terribly addicted to sticks of all sizes. This is more of a small log, but she is a big girl. Terribly addicted.
And the "final" setup of the garden for this year. There is a little bit of room left between all of the tomatoes, which are staggered around, and near the cucumber. The watermelons made it to the far back corned in their own little hills, in the hopes that they don't invade the rest of my plants. There are also 2 potted tomatoes in the upper left of the photo. I dug these up not only to make room for the rest of the plants, but because I think these may be either Roma or Cherry/Grape tomatoes that were cross-pollinated with some heirloom tomatoes. The rose on the right...has been there for years.
Wish me luck! This is my first post in this community, so hopefully this drums up enough interest for me to update as she grows!
