Day 14 - Hoses hoses & more hoses + plantings & replantings!

... as a preface to the day, I got some very fine sand-sized mesembryanthemum seeds and a lesson from Barry about their relationship to these very 'cool' livingstones he's also been growing in that great little greenhouse at the side of his house since last Christmas.  I planted half the seeds in the bottomless birdbath with the hens & chickens that's situated in front of the wonderful self-pollinating female miniature kiwi fruit vine David found during his landscaping adventures and gifted ME with (heheh ... a female self-pollinating mini fruit bearing metaphor for me & the garden ... I sit in a big chair between all this and the rebuilt monkey-torn apart hut that Helen helped me put back up to house my tools)  Oh no now - you can't touch that! 

I'm not sure how long I will need to wait before seeing my new little fushia purpley colourful feathery daisy-like flowers.  I can't remember their nicknames ... hmmmph

Not to be outdone - Helen brought a dozen or more mini pickling cucumber plants that she put in along the hut-side of the plot which will climb up and create a living wall along my side of the fence blocking my view of the neighbour's garlic shield.

So at the end of the day - eight hours gardening!!!  There was a little trip to the hardware store and out for lunch but the rest of the time was 27C working in the dirt.  It did cool down substantially around 6pm - we left at 8:30pm.  [Helen was within just a few minutes of guessing the time correctly - I used her guess as a guide and was within about a half hour but had she not said what time she thought it was I'd have guessed late afternoon because I thought the darkening sky was all about gathering rain clouds (it's rained that much lately and I didn't feel tired ... maybe Helen did all the work - heheh)].  

The Potato Pumpkin Patch ... I yanked a volunteer potato plant out of the middle of the carrots and planted along the entrance fence.  I'm not sure if it's really called a volunteer if Joe planted it last year ... or forgot to take it out on purpose, etc.

It's certainly organic organic gardening I'm doing.  There is no real rhyme nor reason to my plantings and Julie certainly came in and criticized all my gardening efforts.  I helf myself back. I didn't throw her down in the dirt and rub her face in the mud of my many new transplantings (and not just because there was an investigating detective out & about either - see below). I took a thorough scolding for the bushy basils not having been planted singly even after I told her I purposefully planted them that way ... at this point I did raise my hands to gesture for her to move along because I was coming through and continuing what I was doing ... she laughed so that was good ... a sense of humour will get you everywhere with me ... 

The garden has the look of a  'jungle' about it -  I'm no longer thinking about what I'm doing - I'm just doing it. Some decisions are obviously better than others.  I was planting two plants together (thinking they'd like a friend; but Julie told me 'two together will not weather' ... so I replanted all the twosies and created a little periphery around the tomatoes of parsley, peppers, eggplant and And again for another example, finding potatoes planted right beside the kiwi vine was a surprise - especially when there was a potatoe also found in with the carrots.  I later remembered making a tired decision to plant the potato next to the kiwi on Day 13 (bad decision since I'd have had to disturb the vine to dig up the loot later) ... and no I didn't plant the potato in the middle of the carrot patch - it must have just come up by itself from something Joe left in the ground last year (yippee another surprise gift) ...  I dug up both potato patches and resituated them elsewhere so they'd have more room - did I set them back ... probably & will they live ... I sure hope so.  Julie was all over me about the bushy batch of basil I put in ('you can't do that' ... I told her I'd been advised by someone else to do it and I wanted to follow their advice - yes I yelled it at her ... like I said I didn't throw her down and push her yap into the dirt ... mostly because I mainly like her and her advice - she's got a good heart and knows a lot and I like her ... criticism & nagging I won't have - this is supposed to be fun ... and it's not like I've killed a racoon with antifreeze or anything so leave me alone.  

There was a female detective who began asking Helen questions while I was playing with the hoses on the other side of the gate so I came back into the plot because it looked like she might give Helen a hard time for having said it wasnt her garden.  It ended up that she was taking one of the dog owners whose dog had been poisoned back to the scene of where they'd found the antifreeze-soaked bread.  The detective came back about 3-4 times with different dog owners but we were no longer interrogated.   ... supposedly a racoon or two were positioned holding flowers, etc.  It was ominous there yesterday and I'm glad Helen was with me ... we both found the police tape confusing - were we allowed in, and if so, should I really be carrying this many water bottles in ... I wanted them so I could keep my lunch cool - and to drink ... what could I say ... it was only cold water and I didn't want to poison myself with mayonaise in my sandwich if it went rancid in the heat before I ate it ...

7 December 08 - I just revisted YGG and decided it was safe to do a 'cut & paste' of what I wrote on their website about the incident - forgive me if it's just alot more of the same but I'd like it for the archives here now ...

"I spent the day in my garden on Wednesday. I was told that Joe was seen back in the allotment checking things out - I wonder what he thinks of what I've done (and more to the point - what he thinks of what I've not gotten around to doing yet) ... woops ... I wish he'd come after I was finished what I got done on Wednesday but I suppose he was as interested as all of us about the recent dog poisonings reported in the news ...

It was an eerie day - one without dogs and dog owners anywhere around and my friend & I had to begin the day by ducking under police tape to get to the gardens ... there were police investigating the scene of the racoon & dog poisoning(s) ... on the news a statement has now been released that it was probably an angry gardener who was responsible for putting out antifreeze soaked bread to get rid of racoons ...

My friend and I were interrogated to see if I'd had problems with animals in the garden ... Rosemary & Thyme (those two British gardening detective women on the tele) we were not - I said I wouldn't really know because it was my first time gardening but I pointed to a hole where I thought an animal might pop it's head out of and my friend chirped in, 'I think you just took a plant out of there' ... in other words, in her estimation, it obviously wasn't an animal hole - I just put my head down and dig really and when I come up for air I don't really remember where I've been nor do I know where I'm going to next I've discovered. All my plans are out the window - as are most of my notes since I keep going back and changing things. It's an organic 'organic' garden. I could have sworn that hole had a neverending bottom to it last time I looked ... and I'd decided to go to the other side of the garden in case a snake or at least a large earthworm came out ...

... my friend and I spent the entire day weeding and replanting many of my mistakes (I'd put two plants together in most places - thinking they'd each like a friend but I was told 'two together will not weather' ... so I had to separate my twins - good thing they were only about a week old and hadn't gotten too used to having one another by each of their sides) ... and we laid garden hoses along the edges of gardens down from the taps tucking grasses around them so they were invisible and out of the way of tripping feet ... what must those investigators thought I was up to will remain a mystery to me ... I kind of thought they should really have asked me about that ... can you believe I have not needed to water with a hose yet due to all the rain we've gotten this spring! I've gotten away with a few buckets of water drizzled over newly transplanted seedlings going in and nature has more than taken care of the rest.

I'm still recuperating ... and another friend has called to say he needs to get rid of some more of his tomatoes ... I said I'd find a spot for some cherry tomatoes and a black krim ... even though there are no spots ... well maybe that hole where I dug something up that wasn't a flower in Joe's perrenial flower garden ... the black krim can go there ... tomatoes are flowers - right!"