tomato planting day

It is time for serious gardening now. Yesterday I worked up the four beds that will hold the tomatoes. The beds are 4 by 8 and I divided them into two 2 by 8 beds.

Some years ago I picked up a couple rolls of concrete reinforcing wire, cut them 6’ sections and then tied the ends together to make a wire cylinder about 2’ in diameter and 5 feet high.

With the center divider in the beds, I can screw clips on to cages in place (along with well placed steel posts). That gives the tomatoes a LOT of growing room, yet makes picking easy, and is compact.

So, today is tomato planting day. Our “last frost date” is three weeks away, so I am only a few weeks before that.

I will also plant the pepper plants today, then make a tent to cover them until it warms up.

Terry, my super neighbor, will make sure things are watered while I am gone. And marvel of marvels we have not had frost since the apricots bloomed. We may get a fruit crop again!

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I read the other day of a woman who told her husband that she finally got what she wanted for Christmas: April!

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We never could grow a garden here without adding a lot of water. I pay for water out of the canals, whether I use it or not. Last year I used that system to water the garden. Not bad, but not perfect either.

Perfect is drip irrigation, which puts the water right where it is needed, and does it gently.

Some years ago I went to the work and expense (I had a job then) of putting in a drip system. Yesterday, after a lot of thinking, I decided to go ahead and get the impulse sprinkler ready to go, but also reinstall the faithful drip system -- in all of the beds.

Even if I use city water, a drip system is so efficient that it is “on budget.” The potatoes and corn/beans/squash will still be watered with canal water.

If I choose I can use a hand sprinkler attached to a hose to water. Or use my wonderful Haws sprinkling can.

And all of this work clears my head.