May 26th: The Planting

It’s hard work living up to my moniker; The Lazy Gardener. 

Setting up the planting beds involved far more physical labour than I usually attempt. All items hauled up three flights of stairs to the back deck in hopes of avoiding nibbling critters, and to give the little green things the full sun they apparently need. 

Here’s the step-by-step process:

Step One: Find two of each plant that are relatively equal in size and quality 

(not as easy as it sounds).

Step Two: Too lazy to build planting beds, I’ll just recycle these old recycling bins. They come with built-in drainage holes and handles; perfect!  Add two inches of gravel for improved drainage. 

Step Three: Add a layer of landscaping mesh. I dunno why. I’m just following the advice of Eric Rosenkrantz of Matchboxgarden.ca , a really helpful, intelligent guy and a great source of organic herbs and veggies. BTW: I didn’t buy my plants at Matchbox only because, for this test, I wanted “working-class plants,” the kind you’ll find in any garden centre. The plants at Matchbox look too good! They’ve been started on Better World Plant Food, so this wouldn’t be a fair test if I used his plants. 

Step Four: Two identical bins, filled with Triple Mix and Black Earth Top Soil.

Step Five: Yikes! These bins hold a lot of dirt! 50 L of soil in each bin. 

Step Six: There! It’s looking pretty good. The planting instructions say the tomatoes should be 24 inches apart. Well, too bad for them! I haven’t got that sort of space. So this will be a test not only of the two plant foods, but also of what can be grown within a confined space. 

Step Seven: Here it is, MiracleGro on the left, Better World Plant Food on the right. Note that the raspberry plant on the left is about 4 inches taller than the one on the right. (There were only two raspberry plants left at the garden centre.)  Otherwise, all the other plants are of equal height.  

Okay, we’re set to grow. I mean, go. Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the feeding process.