A Work in Progress

I worked in the garden some more today. It's not exactly the same idea I learned from my library video, but it's similar and does the some job.


I got some black stuff to cover the ground with also. It will help keep weeks out, keep the soil from eroding or crusting over when it's watered, and it helps the soil warm up faster. It was kind of tricking putting it down and cutting holes in the right places for it to go over things like the fire hydrant and the pipes sticking out of the ground. Hopefully you don't have a fire hydrant in the middle of your garden.

I left part of the garden uncovered and then planted onions, garlic, and carrots there. Next week I will plant all my little seedlings that I started in the house down in the garden. I've never done this before with the black stuff, but I assume it will work out to just cut slits/holes where I'm going to plant each plant. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm excited to get my 60 pepper plants in the ground! They are devoted to summer time salsa.



It doesn't show in this picture, but I went back with string and wrapped it between the ribs (like it showed in my previous post) to support the plastic. I made one panel of plastic with a long skinny board on each end and it worked really well to put over the top of those ribs and string. The wind blows so hard though that it's almost impossible to set up with one person. It's like a big sail, and then wind kept blowing it out of my hands. I'll have to wait until Greg can help me with that part.



This is to show how the pipes are staying in place. We got pvc pipe a little big bigger than the pipe that makes the ribs. We cut two foot sections, and then put a screw through it about 8 inches down from the edge. Then we pounded the two foot sections down into the ground with the screw closer to the top side. That way when we put the "rib pipe" into the "foundation pipe" the rib didn't fall all the way down. We wanted the ribs to stay tall enough to allow for the tomatillos to grow inside too. They will take about a quarter of the green house on the far left side, and then the pepper plants will take up the rest of the space on the right.
(You may notice how nicely the black cover fits with the pipe sticking out of the ground...I just wanted to point that out because it was hard to do and I'm proud of it. Heheh!)


It's exciting to see this all starting to come together and look like something. Sometimes I talk to the mail man and he comments on the garden (since the mail box is right next to it.) Last summer I would pick some tomatoes for him if I was there when he came. It's fun to share your vegetables from the garden in the summer. There's something special about being able to say, "I grew that tomato all by myself!"