Ya know….I just don’t want to do a food post. I have been cooking so much, trying new recipes, enjoying company that when I get a moment of relaxation…I just don’t wanna. So as my family sits down to their grilled cheese sandwiches…
I
wander
outside.
Yes, the air is lovely at this time of night.
I’ll stir my compost.
Talk to my starts.
Urge my tomatoes to grow faster…
…eventually I jump on our new trampoline.
It’s a lot of fun, just me.
No kids to worry about.
I jump high.
Let’s talk starts. Most of the vegetables that have a longer (not longest such as melons and squashes) harvesting time, I tend to start them in small pots. Usually ones that I have reused from last summers 6-pack of annuals.
beans, peas, broccoli, carrots, jalapeno, green onions, etc….
I’ll start them late April/early May. They tend to get a bit leggy by the time mid-May rolls around so I need to plant them in larger pots, separating the plants into their own containers. To start the seeds I tend to plant about 3-4 seeds (depending on the type of plant) per pot. So now I have all of my starts. So pretty. So healthy. Next step is for the first week of June to come around so that I may plant them in my outdoor raised bed. See, right now there are all snug in my greenhouse.
Every morning I stroll outside,
walk a hundred or so feet to the green house and
prop open the 4 ceiling vents as well as leave the top half of the door open for a nice cross breeze.
So bitchin’ that the door splits like that. Keeps the hungry deer out yet allows for some fresh air.
Every evening,
I stroll back out and close it all up,
whispering sweet nothings in the nodes of my plants.
I like my greenhouse now, although there is plenty of work to do inside. We do not have the funds to build all the planter boxes I want, so for right now I use pots and enjoy the handy shelter it provides, as temperatures still drop into the 30s at night. My heirloom, organic tomatoes arrived so late. They are tiny little guys and I’m frustrated. I ordered them because the closest plant place *ahem* Wal-Mart, surprisingly does not carry organic tomatoes…. Ah well.
My husband did have enough wood for a shorter planter box where I planted my white, yellow and red onions. Hopefully I will grow enough to provide for most the year ahead. We will see. Up at this altitude, always a crap shoot. It is only my 3rd growing season here so I am still very much an amateur although I study, take classes and listen when other growers talk, I feel I am picking up essentials that will ultimately provide life to some vegetables this year.
Once I am able to plant outside, all my quicker-growing crops will be planted.
Seeds.
Arugula, spinach, lettuce, radishes, cilantro, more carrots, and anything else I want to stuff in that 4×12′ raised bed.
I may just come down with the case of the eff-its and plant all my starts and seeds tomorrow….we will see where the sun takes me. Until then….check out my black gold:
Composting at 8500 feet is rather difficult. A bit more difficult than say, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. The Master Gardeners who taught the first high altitude gardening class I went to even discouraged it.
I scoffed.
Quite literally.
I have been composting since grade school, since my age was a single digit. You will not tell me it won’t work.
Oh wait.
Dare me.
I dare you to dare me!
Anyways, I think we finally got it. And I was able to figure it out without blood worms. Thank goodness.
A gardener who is deathly afraid of worms? Huh? Me? Naaaaa…..
I look at my compost and tears nearly form. It is beautiful. To the umph degree. No need for fertilizer for this girl. No way. I’ll remove some of the dirt from the raised bed as it is quite depleted of nutrients from last years crop and add this compost. Mix it all together and hoe it nice. Voila. A lovely soil mixture eager to feed my new crop. Life is good, says my plants as soon as I transplant them.
Maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow.
Until then, happy growing friends.
