Minutes from the garden meeting at the Plot/the Esquire

After our assessment out at the garden plot and a quick weeding and watering, we retired to the Esquire for some refreshments and discussion. Here are things that are now settled:

• Watering schedule: we all agreed that we should each do a little weeding while we're out there. Everyone is on the calendar 5 times. here it is....
  
  June 2-SC
  June 4-DF
  June 6-MG
  June 8-TG
  June 10-SC
  June 12-RT
  June 14-AW
  June 16-DF
  June 18-TG
  June 20-MG
  June 22-RT
  June 24-AW
  June 26-SC
  June 28-TG
  June 30-DF
  July 2-TG
  July 4-SC
  July 6-RT
  July 8-AW
  July 10-DF
  July 12-AW
  July 14-MG
  July 16-RT
  July 18-MG
  July 20-RT
  July 22-MG
  July 24-SC
  July 26-DF
  July 28-TG
  July 30-AW
• tomato cages: we're just going with the old standbys. df and rj are going to borrow John's truck to go to Farm n' Fleet and other places to gather them up in the next week or so.
• staking the peas: hungrygirl and sc volunteered to stake the peas some time in the next week. there are directions on how to stake the peas using a kind of wigwam design in the organic gardening book or we can stake them like last year.
• hay(hey)/straw and plants: tfoster volunteered to pick up some straw, along with two tiger-striped tomato plants. since i have no task yet, i'm happy to volunteer to go and throw some hay around.
• hungrygirl has 4 tomato plants at home that can go in the front plot with the 4 peppers in it.

We also have some other issues that we'll need to figure out in the coming weeks:

• beans and eggplant, basil & soybeans: how long do we wait before we decide to pack it in with these? I think I said I'll try to look for baby eggplant pictures on the web so we can distinguish. In the meantime, i'm happy to take on the weeding responsiblities for that plot.
• if we do have a little more room, what do we want to plant? SC said he'll research radishes, I'm going to see if arugula is a possibility and we all seemed excited about cantaloupe.
• harvesting: we had questions about onions, shallots, broccoli, and spinach.

Is there anything else? Vegetables soon! yay!

Big Time Progress / Bear Wrastlin'

After several aborted attempts, Your Garden Friends succeeded today in securing a tiller and a truck in which to carry it. Big ups to John of famed Champaign band Shipwreck for the truck.

For those of you unfamiliar with the use of a tiller, it is sort of like a lawnmover with anger management issues. We are talking serious negative affect here. Sasha and I managed to bend the machine's animosity to our will, but to me it felt like wrastlin' with a bear. (Full disclosure: I have never actually wrastled with a bear of any kind, and hope to never be called upon to do so.)

Good news - we have progress. Below are some pictures and a link to a movie of an epic struggle between Sasha, the tiller, and a big weed. See how Sasha expertly forces the conflict between the tiller and the weed and escapes unharmed - sort of like being in a fight with a lion and then coming upon a shark and somehow convincing the lion to kill the shark for you. Ladies, Sasha also rides bikes, is in an excellent graduate studies program, and can cook well.

A small bit of bad news - I have killed a large number of beets through poor thinning technique. Rest assured that they have been replanted and five or ten of the original crop survived my wrath.

Enjoy!

For Weeds - The Movie go here and click on the '2006_05210022.avi' link.

Now, pictures:

Hungrygirl and RJ weeding the lettuce


Beautiful onions, shallots, and peas


The Bear


Tim vs. The Bear


Sasha vs. The Bear


Tilled dirt + Dead Weeds = VICTORY


Nature's glorious abundance