Patience
Well, construction of The Pantry Garden has begun. The contractor was pleased with all the preparations we had done. Apparently our stakes & lines were straight so he didn’t have to do alot to square it off. The week before construction, he told us the the fencing only comes in 50 ft. increments. “Would we be OK with extending the garden to 48 ft. long vs. 40 ft. long? ” he asked. Heck yes — go for it! The extra 8 feet had an extra bonus. We would reposition the gate in the new center and so I wouldn’t have to move my peonies. These peonies are special to me. I acquired them about 15 years ago when Brookfield Zoo Members were allowed to help split perennials in The Roosevelt Fountain. We were each allowed to take two plants and so my heirloom white peonies are a beautiful reminder of my weekly visits to Brookfield Zoo with my children (before naptime of course).
The weather was perfect not only to build the actual garden, but to also harden off my kohlrabi & beets to plant 3 days later. Last year, I wrote several posts of the importance and instructions of hardening off plants grown inside from seed.
First the auger to drill the holes. Then the post digger to place the poles. Then concrete to set the poles. Then water added to help set the concrete inside the dirt. Then while placing the fencing and gate we ran into some issues. The contractor had to buy some unexpected items and then it was supposed to rain next week. So building The Pantry Garden was put on hold for at least a week. But I “needed” to plant my root vegetables!
I am planting the beets in The Victory Garden, but planting the kohlrabi only in The Pantry Garden. Last year critters snuck into The Victory Garden and ate the kohlrabi despite chicken wire on the bottom of the fence! We searched for holes but couldn’t find any. So planting the kohlrabi would have to wait a little longer. Since I have alot of compost to harvest, I decided to prepare The Victory Garden to prepare the beets. Drumroll please…time to harvest the compost! And you know how much I love my “gardening gold”.
This is the 2nd bin of my 3-bin open air compost system that I started in the fall. I spaded it, threw away sticks that were accidentally put into the pile, and put vegetation that wasn’t quite decomposed into the 1st bin to continue decomposing. This picture is what is left - perfect compost!
This is some of the compost in my tumbler that was wasn’t fully decomposed. During the fall & winter I added about half of all our vegetable & produce scraps in the tumbler. I put the other half into the 1st bin of the wooden system. This sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. This is what happens when you are a composting nut. Most of the kitchen waste had already decomposed.
This picture is the perfectly composted matter from the compost tumbler. I added it to the compost from the bin and took it to use in The Victory Garden. Hoorah!
This is the 1st bin which has been composting since the fall. It looks pretty good and I think it will be ready to harvest in the fall. Maybe some from the tumbler will be ready too. In the fall I will till the compost into the garden so that the soil has time to “mix & mingle” with it during the fall & winter while my garden is sleeping.
Enough about me. What are you doing in your garden right now? Are you weeding? Are you spading? I hope you are not only doing this “work”. I hope you are also planting your flowers, seedlings and seeds, and of course trying to figure out how to put more stuff in the garden (always a problem for gardeners). The work will always be there! So do some more of the fun stuff and don’t forget to take your coffee with you in the morning so you can enjoy the sunshine and peace & quiet that only a garden can give you! Hope to see you soon!