Thrice As Long

Everything I plan takes three times as long as I think it's going to. No matter what it is.

The vegetables are in. They look really lovely, but like everything else, it took at least three times longer than I thought it would. I worked for hours and hours this weekend.

Since last posting, I went out yesterday to rake and clean up the plot. I got it all looking really nice, brought my vegetables over and realized that I have 48 plants. Figuring I should plant them all a foot apart, I started doing basic math and realized my 5- by 6-foot plot was simply not going to cut it.

So, I got the shovel back out and started digging again. I was just eyeballing it, but I dug about 2 more feet out from one side and another foot from the front and it looked like it was about 6-by-8. Just perfect for six rows of eight plants. (I love when math is THAT simple. Someday, I'll tell you about the more complex math that the router required.)

It's amazing how short a sentence can look -- oh, I just dug out a couple more feet here and a couple more feet there. But my back is telling me today exactly what hard work it is. I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures how much bigger it got ...

So, once I got the extra footage cleared out, I set to planting. Here's how it goes:

First Row: 8 tomatoes
Second Row: 8 green beans
Third Row: 4 green peppers, 4 eggplants

Fourth Row: 4 yellow medium/hot peppers, 4 jalapenos
Fifth Row: 4 broccoli, 4 cauliflower
Sixth Row: 4 fancy lettuce, 4 buttercrunch lettuce.

I figured something out after rows 1 and 2: If you know how many rows you want, and you know how far apart, measure first. I don't mean with a yard stick, you can just eyeball it, but plot it out.

I didn't do this. My first two rows are very close together, and I'm nervous that they will crowd each other, but my garden guru friend D6 told me that those do well next to each other. She also gave me a bunch of new tips today:

• BROCCOLI: When the florets are ready, you can cut them off and the plant will continue to produce more. (I'm not entirely sure how this works, but I will ask more questions and document more as I go.)
• CAULIFLOWER: When the heads are grown, pull the leaves up around them and tie them off. This will keep them white and keep the bugs out.
• GREEN BEANS: NEVER PICK WHEN THEY ARE WET! She said they will rust, and the ones that you don't pick will rust, too.
• ONIONS AND CARROTS: D said to never plant these next to each other because the carrots will pick up the flavor of the onion.

You can probably guess why she's my gardening guru. She's full of helpful tips like this. There is a very neat surprise from D coming in an upcoming blog, but it's so very cool, I want to do the story justice and I am just far too tired tonight to tell it.

Again, because of the tiredness, I hope I got these tips right. I'll double check with her tomorrow and post any corrections I may find out then.

Though I said I was going to have the planting done yesterday, it's of course not. It's not even done today. I've got my full-sun perennials still, and not much full sun to put them in. However, I am clearing out a spot next to my house and I'll be putting those in tomorrow. Like everything else, it's taken me even more than thrice as long as I thought.

I have to admit, I thought I'd be able to do all this planting in a day. A long day, but a day nonetheless. It was a week today since I bought the plants, so I guess you could figure it actually -- given I finish tomorrow -- will have taken me EIGHT times as long. But, they've been an incredibly fun eight days.