Weeding and ...

It rained a lot over night at the Fermilab garden. Yesterday was fairly dry, but this morning was too wet to till effectively. I tilled anyway (and made a bit of a mess of the dirt, the tiller and my boots) in order to try again to knock out the grass in the new plot. By the time I left at Noon, it was almost dry enough to till, so I tilled between several of the rows. It looks good!

I planted the last tiny bit of the garden: eight Chinese cabbages in the row with the collards.

I hoed all the tomatoes, peppers and beans. There were teeny-tiny weeds starting to show. One good thing about soil that is too wet too till is that weeding is very easy.

Securing Tomato Cages?

How do we fully secure all the tomato cages so they don't fall over from the weight and the wind-resistance of the tomato plants? We have cages that are about 19 inches in diameter, made from 6x6 inch remesh, which is normally used for reinforcing poured concrete, like for a floor.

I made a bunch more tomato cages from the roll of remesh. I estimate there are about 5 more cages in the roll, so I have made about 30 (in addition to the 30 I made back in 1989). I also drove in a few stakes at the tomato cages and tied these cages to their stakes with twine. This afternoon, I made six more wooden stakes for securing the tomato cages.

Rototiller Problem

The problem with the rototiller, which makes it hard to un-engage the tines from the engine, got worse today: I could not get it out of gear. Not good. I was able to modify it quickly so I can get it in reverse (with the tines engaged--yikes!).

I'm going to have to fix this, eventually. I found what I think is the schematic for my tiller, here.

This is not a pleasant prospect: Take apart the transmission of my excellent tiller to try to figure out what went wrong. Knowing me, I'll plan this for about 6 weeks, then it will take all day to get it apart, then 6 weeks to get the right replacement part, then procrastinate for another 6 weeks (!!) and then all day to put it back together.

I should have it repaired by 2018, hopefully sooner.

Of course, if the world actually ends in December, I won't have to finish this job.

All planted!

I planted the rest of the garden: Two more rows of bean (4 total), two rows of okra, a full row of leeks and 2/3 row of collards. The last 1/3 row will contain cabbage.

The weeding begins

Oy!

Lots of rain and some hot weather, combined with a strain of grass that is particulary well rooted and hearty, means that weeding is going to be EXTRA fun this year. This is our pumpkin patch:

Oy!

Update (July 7, 2011): This new plot continues to be a problem! The grass just won't stop sprouting. I've tilled some areas three separate times, and the grass keeps on a-comin'.