Garden is planted!!

Mostly.....
Anne I went to Heemans last Saturday (May 12) and I bought a bunch of plants for the garden.  Mom gave me three of her Brianna heirloom tomatoes (an amazing beefsteak style tomato), so I had those already.  I bought a mix of heirloom tomatoes (4 plants), 4 pie pumpkins, 4 sugar baby watermelons, 4 sweet yellow peppers, 4 red peppers, 3 pickling cucumbers and green and yellow bean seeds.  It cost less than $20!

I had already been over to Dad's and planted the peas and nasturtiums, and I had a bunch of marigolds left to plant.  I planted the pumpkin and melons on four mounds, two plants to each mound.  I think I probably did not need to mound them, but we'll see how it works and make adjustments next year.  I planted the cucumbers in a triangle to the side of the melons and pumpkins and put large tomato cages around them to grow up.  I planted the peppers behind the mounds and the cucumbers... they will get afternoon shade from the fence, which should prevent them from scorching.  I planted the tomatoes here and there; same with the marigolds.  Anne planted some herb seeds I had in the front corner of the garden in front of the peas and the nasturtiums, and I planted the beans in front of the potatoes.  There are still some empty spaces where I might plant some mixed pole bean seeds that Stacy recently gave me.  I also need to plant beets throughout the garden... beet tops and roots are so good.

watering the garden after planting everything

marigolds, sugar baby melons, pie pumpkins and tomatoes

rows of peas, peppers, tomatoes ... grow my little darlings!

Compost and potatoes!

Last weekend I got up early and called Dad ... it's compost time!!

We went to Try Recycling (awesome place!!) and bought 2 yards of compost for $40!  Not bad!  2 yards was 2 big scoops from the front loader and filled the entire back of the pickup... so much lovely, lovely compost.  As the fellow was scooping the compost into the truck, it was steaming and hot.  Excellent!  The compost is a deep dark brown/black and had pockets of ash in it... I assume because it was catching fire a little bit due to heat?

It took about 1 1/2 hours for Dad and I to unload the compost into the garden.  Wheel barrows really are a wonderful invention.  The weather was absolutely lovely and we could not have asked for a better day.  There was enough compost to give a good 6 inch layer all over the garden.

go potatoes!

The potatoes were starting to pop up, so I piled the compost around them.  Some lettuce was also coming up, but I just chucked the compost on top of it.  It should grow through the compost, and if it doesn't, oh well.  I have LOTS of lettuce seeds.  I also gave the rhubarb some nice compost to feed it.

Woo hoo!!1  Go compost!   Things should really get growing now!

Next post: potatoes, peas, nasturtiums

Metal

Since there was so much metal in the back corner of the garden, I am concerned about soil contamination.  (It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get the soil tested ... I'll have to look into that.)  I have a largish square planter and there are a bunch of cinder blocks at Dad's, so I am thinking of filling the hole with compost, and sticking the planter on top.  I will put a potato in the planter and maybe a marigold or two.  I want to surround the planter with some of the cinder blocks.  I'm going to get landscaping material and line the bottom of the cinder blocks with it.  I'll fill the holes in the cinder blocks with soil and grow onions and/or garlic in them, maybe a herb or two as well.

I've been absolutely itching to get some plants in the ground since mid-March when we had a crazy hot week... so, I decided to take a chance and planted some potatoes, lettuce and onions.  I had a couple of organic potatoes from a few weeks ago that I didn't eat and they started to sprout.  I cut them up and put them in the north corner of the garden.  I think I planted about 6-8 sprouted potato bits.  If they grow, great.  It not, no big deal... it is totally an experiment to see what will happen.  There are a lot of squirrels in the neighbourhood, so I planted onions around the potatoes to try to deter the squirrels from digging and rearranging as they are fond of doing.  And for good measure, I scattered some lettuce seeds around the front corner of the garden.

Saturday is compost day, so Dad and I are going to get a truckload of compost.  Stacy also needs compost, so we'll get some for her too.  Wooo!  Teamwork!  After I get the compost turned into the garden, I will do a better plan of what is going where.  I have some onions and seeds to plant, but I will probably wait until Monday (depending on the weather) to plant anything.  Let the compost and soil get settled a little.  And the next weekend will be major gardening day.  I want to get most of the plants put in ... I better get a hat and some sunscreen.  Lots of outdoor time in my future!!!

Preparation

This year, I am putting a garden in my Dad's backyard (he lives on Highbury Ave, London) and am growing some plants on the balcony.  I had a lot of problems with spidermites on the balcony last year (I guess the wind blows them onto the balcony), so I am going to try to mesh off areas to try to minimize the mites.

 this is where the potatoes will go

the backyard before - turns out there was a bunch of metal buried here

The garden at Dad's is a pretty decent size.  He fixed a rototiller for a friend of his and used it to till the backyard up...

You know what's fun?  When someone decides that burying a bunch of scrap metal in the backyard where you want your garden to be is a good idea ... and then you have to dig it all up.  Ugh!
It took Colin and I about an hour to free all the metal.  Dad thought it was just a little bit of metal... how wrong he was.

Not only was there a bunch of metal buried, but also some cinder blocks, bricks, glass bottles and 2 toys.  Thanks previous homeowner!  That was such a nice thing for you to leave behind!

I'm a little nervous to plant any vegetables in the spot where all the metal was.  I have no idea what kind of metal it is or if it was coated with anything, and I don't want to eat contaminated veg.  I have a planter that I might stick in that corner for now... or I might just plant marigolds there...

The soil is very sandy.  May 5 is Compost Day in London, so I am going to get a truckload of compost and add that to the soil.  Dad will then till it all in and hopefully that should bulk up the soil.  I'm also starting a compost at Dad's.  I also got a box of bloodmeal that I scattered all over the soil... to try to prevent squirrels.  I may have to get more.