by Fran Wade
This is an followup to my earlier post, Gardening at Senior Housing.
Used straw for layering material
Had a little trouble rounding up my layering material for my lasagna garden plot, but 5/22, I finished it and planted my seedlings. Back 20 years ago when I had stock, it seemed there were always a few rotten bales laying around to use on a garden, but I hunted high and low before I located some. For reference, anyone looking for “used straw”, North Valley Ag, out on Hwy 2, beyond the airport, has a big stack of loose straw for the taking.
Raised bed plantings
So I built up my 5’X5′ bed, about 15″ high. Would have liked to make it bigger, but ran out of materials. I think this Fall, I may add some more layers and let it cook over the winter. I made a small trellis for the snow peas, put in the kale and bush beans, and scattered some seeds for chard and salad greens.
Anne Guerrant, bless her industrious soul, and her green house, has some extra cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower starts she graciously shared. She also gave me a couple of heirloom tomato plants, I am going to put into a hanging planter. After everything was in the bed, I sprayed the leaves with some of that critter repellant made from habanera peppers. So far, so good, but I’ll cry “Success” at the end of the season if I have a garden to harvest. My okra plants are growing slowly and I’m still babying them, taking them in on cool nights.
The Senior Complex has sprouted about 4 more tomato planters. If they all bear well, everyone should get their lycopene this year.