Sunshine Saturday

It has been such a rainy spring that we have not been able to till and plant the summer garden until today.  We were going to try and get it done May 7th, the day before Mother's Day, but Mike went to go get a truckload of compost at the green waste facility where we usually get it and they were sold out.  I guess we weren't the only ones tilling the garden that day.  We weren't ever able to coordinate Dad's truck use with sunny days so, sadly, I did not put any compost into the garden this year.  It did get plenty of leaves early this spring though so that will help.  Mike got the garden tilled and it rested for about a week before we started getting ready to plant.

Today, being May 21st, we finally got our garden mostly planted. I started the day running to Cooks Nursery in Orem to buy plants and seeds.  The place was a mad house.  I got home around noon and started digging furrows.  I totally believe in digging furrows between rows of vegetables for two reasons.  One, for the irrigation water to go down.  And, two, for people to walk in.  I try to keep the soil as light and fluffy as possible by not walking on it.  Mike helped me to dig most of the furrows.  Then the kids and I planted tomatoes, beans, yellow squash, cucumbers, and corn.

Finally by eight o'clock tonight, we went in to eat dinner. (Mike grilled pork chops and bought macaroni salad from the store.)  I had four more half rows still to plant, but from sheer exhaustion, and also because I still had to bathe the kids for church tomorrow, I called it quits.  It will have to wait for the next sunny day.

It is supposed to rain the next couple of days, which is ok now since I have to water the seeds to get them up anyway.  At least if its going to rain, it might as well be for some good.  We have had so much water this year.  I think the snow pack in the mountains this year is 300% of what is normally is.  But for the days that it doesn't rain, I will water the baby seeds and seedlings with my oscillating sprinkler, better known as my rainbow sprinkler.  Until the plants are up and well established, I will continue to water them every day.  Then, gradually, I will reduce the frequency of waterings to about once a week.  I assume the irrigation water will be coming by then.

I should note that I double planted all of the bean rows and corn rows, and I even stagger planted the tomatoes all in an effort to try and get the most use of the space.  I tried to make the rows wider so that there was more room for more plants.  So really in each row of beans and corn is two rows worth of seeds.  This is an experiment I am trying, adapting it from the square foot gardening method to plant things more compactly.  I still need to finish planting the peppers and I will wait another week or so to plant the rest of the corn so that it doesn't all come on at the same time.

I love the way the garden looks now, with a few little plants and softly raked rows of soil.  Soon little baby seedlings will poke their way through the soil to see the sun.  Planting and taking care of a garden is a very spiritual experience for me.  It is like a partnership with God.  He creates the seeds, the sun, and the earth, and when I bring all of those things together, life begins.