Friday, June 3, 2011

Nursery and planting

Went to the local greenhouse/nursery. I bought 6 different types

Pac Man broccoli
Early Dividend broccoli
Blue Wind broccoli
Cheddar cauliflower
some red cabbage i forgot the name of
and green cabbage who's name i already forgot. Rockhead or something.

i pounded in the sockets for the hoops and installed the hoops- i'm hoping the row cover will protect my veggies from both woodchucks and feral children.

its too windy out now to put the cover on by myself.  My oldest daughter is keeping an eye on my littlest while she sleeps.

i did get the apple tree sprayed though.

About 70% of what i had seeded last month did not come up. I don't know if it was the seeds or the weather, if something munched the seeds or the tiny sprouts....  but i used last year's plant labels so i won't accidentally weed out what did come up, then just planted the nursery seedlings in the gaps.  There were enough gaps to put all 6 containers of at least 8 plants each.
i didn't even bother to map what i planted, i just plunked it in.

Awesome possum

So...   i had set the Havahart trap the other evening after startling a woodchuck who was not 50 feet from my garden.  I used half a banana and a mushy kiwi, diced up and served on a paper plate. I just knew i was going to catch something.
I didn't have time to check the trap the next morning,  but later that afternoon i remembered to go look during nap time. I could see that the trap had been sprung but i couldn't see inside too well- but i knew it wasn't woodchuck colored!


It was, of course, playing dead...or napping.  But it ate all the bait and the paper plate it was served on.

I called my oldest daughter out to see it and help me set it free.  She thought it was pretty cool.

We released it and watched it scamper/waddle away.


Other than that, not much else going on.  I'm noticing that many of my cabbage & broccoli seeds are not coming up- though i planted 3 or 4 in each station.  Its disappointing and yet another example of why i should start the seeds in flats next year.  It makes me want to head to the greenhouse again.  At least i don't want big gaps.  There's a 90% chance of my doing just that today.

I need to get the corn planted. "Knee high by the 4th of July" is the adage and if i don't get to it soon, it will only be ankle high by then.

I've hardened-off the eggplant and peppers.  They will go in when i find a block of time. I should be able to do this on Saturday.