Pilot

The greenhouse hosted it's seedling sale last week, and we ended up donating the leftover seedlings to a local soup kitchen, so that has me feeling good. I picked up a few seedlings to round out my crop a bit more. We moved some of them from SGW campus to the field at Loyola today. R picked up a trailer and we biked them across town (just like Coop Cultivaction used to do). We also spent a few hours ripping up weeds, the plot needs more work than I originally thought. But it's ok, I think it will level out over the next week. A few friends have said they will drop by when they can to help. I have a meeting with the Creative Arts Therapy Department to see if we can work together in the future. Over all it is a pretty good start to a project that took a left turn out of the gate.

Everything! I dug the gutters for my rows. I built a rickety florida weave trellis for the tomatoes, in the rain, by myself. I set up and planted most of the seedlings (except the onions), again, in the rain.

Proud! All of the seedlings have survived -- even though a few of the leafy greens got chewed up by ants. I restrung the florida weave on the tomatoes so that they are more stable. One pumpkin ate it, but I knew that was going to happen, it was pretty rough looking after the bike ride across town. I planted two new seeds and hopefully at least one takes. I got around to planting the onions and chamomile seedlings, and sprinkled the ground with some lettuce, arugula, and nasturtium seeds.

This patch of dirt is so dry and full of clay that it is thirsty non-stop. I am going to leave a hose on drip in one of the gutters so that the new roots of the seedlings don't get too dehydrated. There is this hot pink seedling/weed* that is taking over. I need to ask Nico at Coop about it - is it invasive or is it indigenous to Turtle Island? ... cause I think the garden needs less of it... it is really taking over.
* turns out it was false amaranth and it was fine to rip out 

It is no secret that I hate marigolds with a seething passion. So then, why did I just purchase 18 cells of marigold seedlings you ask? I am asking myself the same question. But unfortunately for me they make a great companion plant. Apparently pests hate them just as much as I do. Go figure. I hope these work.
-- buy "African" marigold seeds before next season, I can harvest this years marigolds seeds and start them next year.

I've worked with dirt for most of my life. But the dirt in this garden reminds me of the clay silt from Pugwash, Nova Scotia. It is very easy to slip on when it is wet... which is most of the time. Digging it up is quite gritty - almost sandy. But now that I have most of the companion plants in the ground it is retaining water and it isnt so difficult to work with.

There has been a heat wave this week and it has been hard to motivate myself to go out to the field. I also noticed an aphid infestation on the burdock weeds, so I will need to spend a whole day removing those before I can weed properly. R helped me install the wire frame for the pumpkins and that felt pretty great, now they wont rot on the ground if there is a heavy rain.

The nasturtium seeds have started to sprout - despite my disbelief. I thought that they weren't good any more and just chucked them in the ground because "why not". The sprouts are spindling upwards on one skinny stalk sit two perfectly silly little leaves that always remind me of cartoon frog flippers. They are a soft minty or sage green. When they mature they can turn a vibrant deep blue-ish green if they are grown in the shade.