Friday, April 17, 2009

The Best Laid Plans...

So, I had all these previous posts with ambitious plans to plant by the moon phases, start this and that inside, blah blah blah. Well, most of it didn't happen. Haha I've just been too busy.

But tomorrow looks perfect. I'm just about to finish a project I've been writing so tomorrow will be clear for nothing but fun. The weather report is looking great- in the mid 70's and sunny. (despite what my weather widget says in the sidebar- apparently it is broken)

So tonight I want to get some seeds in water to soak them over night. I don't want to pre-soak too many, or else I'll end up like a few weeks ago planting 200 radish seeds for 2 hours straight. (good thing I like radishes!) So I'm trying to work out a good estimate here to get the right number for my space:

The measurements of the new bed these are going in: 39" x 94"

  • Beets: sow 1" apart, 1/2" deep, 12" rows, thin to 2 (babies) - 4" (storage) apart
  • Carrots: sow 1" apart, 1/2" deep, cover with soil lightly. keep moist. thin 10 1" apart when 1 to 2" high, then again later when they're bigger to 2" apart
  • Turnips: sow 1" apart, 1/4" deep. rows 6" apart for babies, 12" for bigger ones. When seedlings 3 - 5" high, thin to 3"apart

So wow, if the bed is 94" long and they all get sowed 1" apart, that means I have to sow nearly 300 seeds tomorrow! Oh my. Well, at least I'll be getting lots of exercise!

Note: I got the planting directions above from Barbara Damrosch's "The Garden Primer". She's the wife of Eliot Coleman who wrote "Four Season Harvest". They really seem to know their stuff so I'm going by what she says.

Also, my Agribon finally arrived today!! Now I just need to get wire and make the chenille row covers as described in Eliot's book. I have about a snowball's chance in hell of getting this all done tomorrow, but, at least it's finally here!

2 comments:

Jen Treehugger said...

The beds sound wonderful. I've almost finished moving into my new place and I'm just itching to start planting stuff. I've always been intrigued in moon planting but have never gotten round to doing it.

Ron said...

It's hard to plant according to plans - not just because of other things, but (at least for me here in Iowa) rainy days, mud and all the rest.
I've got a bed that's 4' by 23', and if I'm lucky I'll have at least 12 more of them by the end of the year... I'm trying to document the whole thing here: http://forcedsimplicity.com/growingfreedom/
I even linked to your site! :D

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