March 23, 2010

    Planted the gourd seeds under the bean trellis.  After doing some internet browsing, and looking at pictures of gourd vines and trellises, I decided that the vines would need some horizontal structure to grow over.  So I designed a simple trellis add-on to support the gourd vines.  I’m going to make a bridge-like structure with a ladder and two 2x4s.  The ladder will be horizontal and make a seven foot high bridge, and will sit supported on one end by the bean trellis tower, and be held level on the other end by a couple of 2x4s standing upright. 
    Planted two rows of Swiss chard.  One pack of Lake Valley brand seed was enough for two rows, eight feet long. 
    Pulled out the stinging nettles from the north side of the side vegetable garden.  Luckily, the soil in the side garden is excellent, so loose and crumbly, the deep and spreading roots of the nettles were relatively easy to (mostly) pull out.  Total eradication of the species is my goal. 
    Three years ago, I launched a successful campaign of genocide against the weed Celandine.  Chelidonium majus has the common name greater celandine.  It has deep running, easy breaking orange roots.  I have seen but one since those days, and I quickly pulled it and left it upside down to dry.  I’ve almost forgotten what they look like.  The war with the dreaded Bitter Dock has also been won just recently.  These plants have deep tap roots, and I needed a shovel to dig and loosen a lot of soil around them to pull up the root.  Sometimes I was pulling up twelve to fifteen inch long roots.  Some books I have read say that the leaves and root of bitter dock are edible, but bitter of course.  No thank you.  I honestly think that they are all gone now. 

    Placed both of the cucumber trellises.  They are wooden 4’x4’A-frames made from 1x1s, with hinges at the top to adjust the angle or fold them up.  This year, the frames are set up so they make angles of greater than 90 degrees, which is more spread out (shallower and lower) than the frames have been set up the last couple of years.  I want the angles to be low to the ground so that the cucumber vines have an easy time climbing up and over;  with the frames set up tall at severe, more vertical angles, the vines just couldn’t get started up.  The A-frame cucumber trellis is designed to have the vines grow up and over, and have the cucumbers hang down under the trellis, off the ground,  for easy harvesting. 
    Plotted the corn section; there will be five rows of corn, each row planted a week or two apart.  I want to have both corn and watermelon for July 4th this summer, so I’ll wait just a couple of weeks before planting both of those.
    Watered the cosmos patch.