The garden was dry and the soil workable so Saturday we planted the cool weather crops. I don’t mind saying it felt good to get my hands in the soil. Jeff and I found a comfortable rhythm and everything went amazing well and quickly. It never ceases to amaze me how much more efficient things get with practice, each year we find ways to improve the system and what took most of the day a few years ago only takes a couple of hours now.
In the morning when the air was still quite chilly, I took some time to create new row / plant markers. I simply re-use single-use canning lids. Using an awl, I punch two holes in the top and thread some twine through those holes, knotting the twine in the back and leaving long tails. With a good quality permanent marker (this is important if you want it to stand up to the elements) write the name of the plant in the white center. Tie the loose ends of the twine around your trellises, tomato cages, etc. I use bamboo sticks at the beginning of each row to delineate the different things that don’t need supports. Knot the twine really well around your twigs or supports, so that it stands up to the wind, etc. I generally knot and twist it around a few times, just to be extra safe and we have quite a bit wind, so I like to make sure everything is secure. I’ve done this the last few years and it works quite well, most of the markers will last more than one season if you keep it from sitting in the snow.
The pea trellises we built last year were unrolled and quickly put into service this year. We enjoy peas quite a bit around here. We planted snow peas and regular old shelling peas. This year we decided to plant seeds on both sides of the trellis. All the books say pea rows should be spaced further apart than that, but we’re giving it a try anyway and we’ll see what happens.
What’s happening in your garden?
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Not much going on here–the heat and bugs are rapidly ending the tomatos that we had managed to coddle along from our fall garden…the gentleman who owns the farm where we get eggs and some produce said we could try moving them into the shade to see if we can get one more blossom set out of them, and we may try that, but after that it’ll be pretty much done for the summer. In the fall we’ll plant again, but with a new baby arriving in October, what and how much we plant will be largely dependent on what my husband feels like doing.
I plant on both sides of my trelllis for peas, makes them nice and think and full of yummyness! What items have you already planted if I can ask, as I’m on the other end of the Valley from you…Thanks!
Melanie, everything that can take a frost can be in the ground right now. I’ve planted peas, radishes, greens (chard, lettuce, kale, etc.), beets, carrots, kohlrabi, rutabagas, turnips, breadseed poppies. Things like onions and potatoes could be in now too. Hope that helps.
Yes, Wonderful! Thank you!
I live in Northern California just SW of Sebastopol. Last week I started umi beans, wax beans, snap beans ( for Dilly Beans) Green Zucchini, Yellow Chard, Collards, Sugar peas, All the Herbs. Yesterday I designed the new small chicken coop, and then In Honor of Earth Day Today I started Red, Jalapeno, Padrone, Ancho, Pasilla, and Paprika Peppers. I also started Yellow, Chimchuri, Butternut, French Pumpkin as well as Cantolopes. But it is really Earth day here every day up country.
we string them up around the fig trees to scare the birds! works great
I have thought that lids would scare away birds too. We have two farm cats who do a pretty thorough job of that.
Right now my peas are under 8 inches of snow! Great idea for the jar lids, it always seems so wasteful to throw them out.
what kind of marker do you use? I have tried a few brands and they rarely hold up to the weather I’m finding…thanks!
Sharpies seem to always work for me. I’ve learned from experience that it has to be the black sharpie – the blue and red runs.
I used canning lids for labeling things in my garden last summer after seeing you do it, and it worked great! We garden in raised beds. The ones that are all wood, I just nailed the lids to the edge. And the beds fenced in with chicken wire, I used saved twist ties to attach them to the fence. And then I got lazy and left them out all winter. But guess what happened – that cleaned them all right off! So they’re ready for labeling now and many of them I can probably just leave right in the same spot.
Thanks so much for this idea!
Great idea for all those metal frozen concentrate juice lids I’ve been saving for decades:) Thanks!
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