The Weekly Digs #151

I breathed a big sigh of relief this week because we got some compost for the garden. Over the last couple of years it’s been difficult to source it anywhere because of the pandemic. We make our own compost too, but it hasn’t been enough to supply our whole garden.

A friend of mine that is a market gardener told me he got his compost from a mushroom farm locally. The compost is still a little unfinished so we will need to turn it and let it sit for a bit before we can use it in the garden.

I did use the rough unfinished compost for my potting up my Meyer lemon tree. It was past time for it to be done and was suffering in it’s little pot. But they are such resilient plants, thank goodness, that it survives even with my neglect. 

Out in the garden, I also planted the rest of the directly sown onions. I did four kinds: gladstone, patterson, australian brown, and rossa di milano. I’m really hoping for larger onions this year with the directly sown batch. 

Everything in the garden is still very much in winter mode where it is not growing, or growing so slowly. I think it will be a while before my onions start to germinate. 

The kids and I took a day to pick out tall weeds from our new area of garden. We are going to lay tarps over it for this upcoming season in hopes of killing off the bermuda grass before planting in that area next year.

I took the rest of this week to prepare for starting seeds in soil blocks. As part of the preparations, I laid down some ground cover in the back of my caterpillar tunnel. I’m not a fan of permanent ground cover but I needed an area that I could put tables over and not have to worry about weeding coming up underneath. 

Since the caterpillar tunnel isn’t heated, I’ll need to be careful about what seeds I start and when. This will be my first year starting seeds outdoors in soil blocks, albeit in a somewhat protected environment. It will be a learning experience but I am definitely ready to do it this way.

Starting a ton of seeds indoors became too much of a time consuming process when it came down to hardening off plants. Last year I had 120 tomatoes, 40 peppers, and a plethora of other plants that for two weeks I moved into and back out of our house. It took me an hour a day to bring them in and out because by then I had them all in individual pots.

Needless to say, I’m grateful we have a different option this year.

Last but not least for this week, our generator got delivered. It will be a little while before we get it hooked up and ready. It will be nice to have it for peace of mind.