What am I DOING?!
Here's a copy of the post I just put up over at GardenWeb. I'll cut it for length, but it might be amusing. Perhaps. Maybe.
::headdesks::
So opening day at the community garden is tomorrow. I am full of anticipation. I'm excited. I've read a couple dozen gardening books, not to mention all the time I've spent hanging out at GW lately. I've plotted (no pun intended), I've planned, I've killed a couple pads of graph paper trying to work out how I'm going to do my square foot gardening experiment in a 10x40 foot space. I've thought about what to add to the soil, though in the absence of a pH test that's been challenging (and I'm still not quite sure what to do there). In fact, I've had my nose buried so far in research that I didn't even have a chance to go check out my assigned space at the garden. I got the letter last Saturday telling me which one it was, but couldn't find the time this week to go take a peek.
I went to take a look-see at my patch after work today.
And smacked hard up against the Wall of Complete and Utter Panic.
I'm a complete newbie to gardening. My nickname used to be the "Black Thumb of Death", earned when trying to take care of my brother's house plants when he was away on an extended assignment. Before I started reading, I couldn't have told you the difference between a rake and a hoe, and thought the term 'loamy' only applied to a fast track at the Kentucky Derby.
I don't know what I was expecting when they said they would finish tilling and marking the plots. Perhaps I had a picture in my head of perfectly light, fluffy, raked over and level soil that I could schmooze my way up to and dive headlong into planting. Instead, I find myself confronted with reality - some *very* dark soil that I can't really describe (is that loamy? clay? it sure isn't sandy!), enormous furrows that don't really jive with the way the plots are oriented, and actual green stuff on top.
I think I've encountered my first weeds!
I don't know what to do!
Now to my actual question - what do I need to do to get started? It's been pretty nice for the past couple of days, with no rain. In the Seattle area, this is great weather. I've read that you're not supposed to work with the soil when it's wet, but out here? Would that be when it's not actively raining? I only have a nifty little set of three hand tools to work with, and I don't that's going to cut it now. Should I get a rake? A hoe?
I'm baffled and feel like I might require smelling salts any moment now. *G* Please help with suggestions on how to get started? I have a pretty good idea where to go once the soil is ready to plant, but my brain has frozen, and I don't know how to get to that point.
Finding out reality bites theory hard in the bum,
smudgedpaws
*is still panicking*
::headdesks::
So opening day at the community garden is tomorrow. I am full of anticipation. I'm excited. I've read a couple dozen gardening books, not to mention all the time I've spent hanging out at GW lately. I've plotted (no pun intended), I've planned, I've killed a couple pads of graph paper trying to work out how I'm going to do my square foot gardening experiment in a 10x40 foot space. I've thought about what to add to the soil, though in the absence of a pH test that's been challenging (and I'm still not quite sure what to do there). In fact, I've had my nose buried so far in research that I didn't even have a chance to go check out my assigned space at the garden. I got the letter last Saturday telling me which one it was, but couldn't find the time this week to go take a peek.
I went to take a look-see at my patch after work today.
And smacked hard up against the Wall of Complete and Utter Panic.
I'm a complete newbie to gardening. My nickname used to be the "Black Thumb of Death", earned when trying to take care of my brother's house plants when he was away on an extended assignment. Before I started reading, I couldn't have told you the difference between a rake and a hoe, and thought the term 'loamy' only applied to a fast track at the Kentucky Derby.
I don't know what I was expecting when they said they would finish tilling and marking the plots. Perhaps I had a picture in my head of perfectly light, fluffy, raked over and level soil that I could schmooze my way up to and dive headlong into planting. Instead, I find myself confronted with reality - some *very* dark soil that I can't really describe (is that loamy? clay? it sure isn't sandy!), enormous furrows that don't really jive with the way the plots are oriented, and actual green stuff on top.
I think I've encountered my first weeds!
I don't know what to do!
Now to my actual question - what do I need to do to get started? It's been pretty nice for the past couple of days, with no rain. In the Seattle area, this is great weather. I've read that you're not supposed to work with the soil when it's wet, but out here? Would that be when it's not actively raining? I only have a nifty little set of three hand tools to work with, and I don't that's going to cut it now. Should I get a rake? A hoe?
I'm baffled and feel like I might require smelling salts any moment now. *G* Please help with suggestions on how to get started? I have a pretty good idea where to go once the soil is ready to plant, but my brain has frozen, and I don't know how to get to that point.
Finding out reality bites theory hard in the bum,
smudgedpaws
*is still panicking*