I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world.	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he's experimenting with federated platforms . He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance, and can found on the PlusPora diaspora pod. He hates cell-phones.

Previous Entry First Entry

Gardening for Sanity Since the last post, on 22 March, a lot has changed. Working from home continues, and my usual weekend activities have been curtailed both by common sense and government order. The combination means that there is more time available for gardening. As a plus, getting outside, even in the garden makes the 'lockdown' much more pleasant. The keyhole raised bed has been completed and the herbs from the bed which lay against the now ruined wall have been transplanted. The chives are doing gangbusters; the spearmint, thyme, and rosemary are doing alright; but the poor basil mint is struggling a bit. However, it's mint. I expect it will get itself sorted out. There was one casualty, though - the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow had come with the property and was not in great shape. I'd replaced the tire on it which worked ... adequately. We weren't doing much with it, so adequacy was adequate. With the surge in activity, adequacy was inadequate. One handle broke off. It made the last few bits of bed completion a little more annoying that they neeeded to be. I made a run to our local garden store to get a new wheelbarrow. It was then I discovered that our local garden store has meerkats! I had no cameara, so I did not get any pictures, but I did get a new wheelbarrow. A little later, I went back to get seeds and compost, and took a camera, but the meerkats were inside, so still no pictures. The next day, the government required them to close, so still no pictures. I did, however, have seeds and compost, and so the bed could be completed. Some twigs and wall rubble went in the bottom for drainage, then I unloaded the entire contents of our compost bin from the bottom of the yard into the new bed. Then I transfered the herbs with some new compost, leaving gaps between them for the new plantings. Now, let me make this clear at the outset. I am a lazy gardener, and do not expect to be working from home forever. So, not for me is this process of starting seeds in a greenhouse or potting shed and then carefully moving them outside after analyzing the weather and all that. I have a more Darwinian attitude. The seeds will go into the ground, and we shall see what happens. I am willing to read the packet and try to do what it suggests with respect to planting depth, but ... really? Everything is supposed to be 1/2" under the soil? I'll scrape a thin layer on it and hope for the best. I apologize to those of you for whom this cavalier attitude is sacrilege. I planted rocket, kale, brussels sprouts, leeks, onions, onions, and onions. (That's red, yellow, and spring - we like our aliums.) We shall see how they get on ... We still have a lot of lumber from the wooden fence that came down, so I decided to bang out a small bed to fill out another space in the garden. It went together quickly, and got plopped into position. The rest of compost went into it and most of the rest of the leek seed tape. As with the keyhole, exposed areas were covered with a lattice of sticks, in an effort to deter a neighborhood tortoiseshell cat from turning them into a litterbox. This brought us to a crisis point. We were out of compost and nearly out of things to plant. And I had had a cunning idea which would require both ... Luddite'sLog, 11 April 2020 © 2020 Jeff Berry

Next Entry Last Entry