Planting in the dark

I planted green beans in the dark last night.
For fervent gardeners like me, it was a no-brainer.

I had already uncovered one of my raised beds (yes, yes, I know I shouldn't use black plastic in my organic veggies but I hate weeds), started to turn over the dirt, got distracted and never quite made it back to the garden to plant that silly bed.

Then, late in the day, it rained. Rained on my open bed, soaking the soil, turning it into muddy clay that will turn to clay bricks when it dries out. Ack.

I agonized for a few minutes, then ran out to the garden without my shoes (barefoot gardening is the best, don't you think?) and started turning the soggy soil.

Turns out I have done a pretty good job of amending the dirt in that bed so it wasn't quite as mucky as I feared. In fact it was pretty light and sandy. Cool.

I found my new garden scissors laying beside the lettuce bed (still wet from the rain), cut open a bag of Black Hen (ah the smell of chicken poop at dusk!) and sprinkled the whole bag on the bed. A fat momma spider jumped out of the bed, scaring the bejeebers out of me (I think her egg sac was buried in the dirt) but I ignored her and raked the chicken poop into the bed.

Since I was barefoot, I was digging, raking and fertilizing while standing on the edge of the bed - not great for my center of gravity. Mrs. Spider and I had a couple of close calls when I lost my balance and stepped down on to the garden path. Ouch. She survived. My tender feet hurt.

Finally, I grabbed the hoe and tried to draw four semi-straight rows. Uh, not so straight I'm afraid. Let's just say that when the beans come up we'll call this the "creative" bean bed. Abstract. Wavy.

I'm glad I had white bean seeds -- I could see them in the row! I thought that visual cue would help when I sprinkled the bean inoculant into the row, but I couldn't see the dark powder and it dumped out in one spot. That will be a VERY productive corner, I expect.

By the time I'd planted, inoculated and replaced the tools, it was pitch black. No moon (too cloudy) and no light from the garden shed (it's aimed in the other direction).

This morning, I visited the garden and voila! The bed looks pretty good. A couple of white seeds peeking out, but otherwise the bed looks....well, planted! A good thing, too, since it rained again overnight.

Perfect for my new bean bed --- three cheers for planting in the dark!

Greenhouse in 2009!

I can barely contain myself -- I ordered a greenhouse that will be delivered after the first of the year!

A GREENHOUSE!

I have yearned for a greenhouse since I was a sophomore at Michigan State taking "Horticulture for Non-majors" and fell in love with that loamy, fresh smell inside the glass houses. Even though I have had gardens and more gardens since then, I have always pooh-poohed the idea of buying a greenhouse a being 1) too extravagant 2) unnecessary 3) undeserved.

Well prompted by a Costco sale email, I did some (more) research and found that the greenhouse they had on sale was indeed a good one. But I found it cheaper at another site with free shipping!

Details tomorrow, but I can tell you this: I WILL be teaching organic veggie gardening this year at GardenSpirit...and I am SO excited!