Day 2:

I put in a lot of work yesterday getting all the weeds and grass out of the garden. I tilled a lot of the plant matter under the soil to recover some nutrients, but I tried to remove all of the weeds that were already gone to seed. I'm sure I will have lots of weeds popping back up anyway. My plan right now to control them is just to let the sprouts pop up and then till the soil to kill the weeds. I'm sure I will have to do this on a regular basis, but it sure beats putting poison(herbicide) in the garden where I grow my food. It took me quite a long time and it was pretty hard work, but it sure wasn't a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon. I brought my little record player outside and listened to some music while I worked. Friday's playlist: "The Hopeful and the Unafraid" by Jason Anderson (jasonandersonswebsite.com), and "Ladies of the Canyon" by Joni Mitchel. Singer/songwriter music helps me relax, maybe it will be good for the plants too.

Today I put some plants in the ground. I went to Shore Gardens in San Clemente and picked up some pre-started plants for an early harvest. I got a couple kinds of tomatoes, Japanese eggplant, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, and some squash. I also picked up a bag of organic compost to spread over the soil and a box of organic fertilizer (see pictures). I used this fertilizer last year and my garden exploded with growth, especially the tomatoes. Shore gardens is great because the owner is right there in the store most days and he can answer almost all your questions, unlike Lowes or Home Depot, they barely know where the potting soil is. On top of that the place smells amazing! I also got some PVC and sprinkler heads to make an irrigation system. I had to go to Denault's/True Value for this . Unfortunately there aren't any locally owned hardware stores in San Clemente.

So this afternoon I mixed the compost and fertilizer into the soil and built the sprinkler system. I had a brain fart at the hardware store and got a male threaded piece for the hose attachment instead of a female, so I cant test the sprinklers until I get an adapter. I'll show you how it all works when I get it set up. I put the plants I got into the ground and tried to space them out a bit more than I did last year, things got a little crowded. I also put up some cages for the tomatoes, I didn't do this last year and they took over. Saturday's playlist: James Taylor's self titled (I think), and "The Yes Album" by Yes.