What have you done today in the Garden?

Dear me, Carolyn. What now?

Today we headed out early because we were part of a group of folks that volunteered to work on the path.
What had to be done: the paving slabs had to be removed, a gully had to be dug, the rubber tube had to go in the gully...then re-buried and the slabs replaced. There was a distance of about 150 - 200 meters / yards.

There were about twelve or so persons working. We fell in at the head of the line. We began removing spabs out in front of the diggers and pipe layers. Me on my knees and the Bride lifting an edge of the slabs for me to lift and set aside.

After a while my knee pass were shifting about and getting flat, so I put on a second pair of knee pads on top of the other ones. You see, I was working backwards which meant that I was always kneeling on the stone slabs, so there was no give. I can tell you, my knees now are really aching. We are not through, so the Bride is talking about going tomorrow and finishing the job...or at least a bit of the job because the water group still has to make the faucets, drive in poles and hook - up the water tubes.

Here are a couple of pics to show our work, they were taken after everyone had gone home. This first one is taken just outside our garden looking further eastwards.


Then this foto, which faces westwards. I pivoted 180 degrees. It is where we worked from to get to this end.


You can see that the two hundred meters is a long distance to go on one’s knees. It was like a Buddhist’s pilgrimage.

I see that I have neglected to tell you what all this work was about. It is true that we have city water on our complex; however, people have been wasting it and so the admin came up with this solution whereby we pump water out of the canals to water some of our veggies with. Of course we will not water veggies that we eat raw like parsley, chives, lettuce and strawberries— those sorts of plants we will use city water for, as well as to make tea. It is an enormous project, as our complex is quite large. This length of path is in fact only a small portion of the total meters that must be done. Do you see all those paving stones standing on end? My Bride levered each one of them up and I lifted each one and placed them against the hedges. Just to give you an idea of of the level of graft we carried out today.

At the end of today’s ache- inducing work, I contemplated the merits of hiring a crew to carry out the labour of this odious project.

 

Oh my stars! What you went through to get that much done, and there is still more path to do!
Definitely look into getting a crew to finish up the job. Money can be replaced, knees and backs can't.

 

Odif, if my sweet potatoes produce I will try the leaves.
Carolyn, if I remember correctly, you create and sell hanging baskets?

 

@Growingpains mine are starting to grow in their glasses of water. I will be trying out eating day Lily buds this year.

 

@Growingpains. yes, I make and sell hanging baskets along with vegetable plants. I normally plant up at least 400 hanging baskets. this is the first year I literally have started no seeds for hanging basket materials. I had a Winter project we were doing and I knew it was just simply more logical to order my plants instead of trying to grow them out... every Winter I may have such a project going on ...

Sjoerd! that is hard work.. tedious too. glad to hear you have a clean water source for the raw eaten plants. that would be sketchy... we may never hear from you again.. we use pond water for our corn. it smells like fish down there when the field has just been watered. blech!

at the community garden our city brings water 3 times a week and puts it in a big plastic tote with a water spigot at the bottom where we attach a 10' hose to the spigot just to keep all the spilled water away from the spigot itself so we don't have mud. maybe some day we will have a frost hydrant to make it easier. some might get wasted but it isn't much compared to forgetting to turn off the water.

 

We went back to the lottie to finish our job with the paving tiles. What a job. The Bride reckons that we took up and placed back down eighty-eight of those big boys in front of our gardens, I wish she hadn’tve said that, I feel tireder having heard it, because we took up many more counting the ones further up the path.
Now we are only waiting for the water group to come and do their bit...then the job will be done.
We had to vhuckle when we went there today because no one was working. We knew exactly why.

 

Odif, are you serious about eating Day Lily buds? Is that a wise?

Carolyn, I suppose planting seeds for hanging baskets means more profit,
but also more work, right?

Sjoerd, having all your lottie work done is great. Now tell me why nobody else being there was a chuckle. Was it because you two did their work for them?
P.S. I did nothing in the garden plots.

 

GP—it was a chuckle because I knew how sore and stiff they all must have been after all that heavy work.I’m moaning now even.

 

Oh boy Sjoerd What A Job!!! It looks exhausting. I can appreciate your poor knees must be very sore. I hope the project works well and that it lowers the allotment's water bills.

Kudos to all of you.

 

Thanks mate. Fingers crossed for success.
As for those knees, muscles and joints— I’m going to give myself a couple of days off. Haha.

 

Good idea Dj.

Yesterday I started 3 different kind of leek seeds, cardoons & parsley.

Our community garden received a donation of seeds & I spent some time repackaging them for other gardeners.



Does anyone use a heat mat when starting seeds? Do you recommend it?

 

Over the weekend planted Basil Marjoram and Tarragon seed. Also started Broccoli along with Black Krim and Kellogg's Breakfast Tomatoes

 

Sjoerd, soaking in a hot bath should relieve the ache in your muscles.

Cayuga, oh what a blessing, all those beautiful seeds.

Clay, we grow Black Krim tomatoes. Now Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes are new to me. I am planting some Mortgage Lifters this spring. If today is an indication Spring may be in the air.

 

Ahh, Sjoerd... thats a lot of work. epsoms salt bath. thats always a good muscle soothing soak.

Growingpains, starting from seed is really more profitable BUT there are so many new plants that we can't start from seed for the hanging baskets. like the surfina petunias or the beautiful bacopa varieties... they just aren't available from seed and the hanging baskets look so much better with the varieties that we can't start from seed. all the vegetable plants I do start from seed. and really sometimes its not much of a cost difference from buying something started as opposed to starting the seeds taking into account the cost of heating and lighting a structure. a flat of 350 plants from seed or the cost of 500 seeds is about the same.

 

Oh Cayu, I see what you were saying now. Chuckle.
Man, that is a pile of seeds! Are you going to be able and get all of those in your plot? You have a tasty array, that’s for sure.
No, I was just teasing, I know that you were repackaging them for other members. But seriously, that looks like a balanced variety. You guys are going to eat well.


Carolyn and GP— a hot bath would be good, but two years ago I had the tub removed and an easy shower installed. Ironic isn’t it. Well, showering does help for awhile though. Ach, it’s just a question of time for muscles to return to normal.