Monday, June 9, 2008

To-Do List Update

Things are on hold until this heatwave breaks Tuesday night, but then we have things to do in our yard:

- replant fish boxes with broccoli and lettuce
- start cowpeas to replace peas
- harvest remaining peas and compost vines
- harvest dill, bee balm, and mint
- pot up coleus and plant marigold starts
- water everything with epsom salts - 1 Tbl to 2 gallons
- shear the grass again later this week
- root cuttings of salvia, sedum, baptisia
- expand veggie bed for cabbage plants
- find source for food-grade 5-gallon buckets
- figure out peony problem - Phytophthora?
- move - bee balm, salvias, sedums, small peony, iris

And in Mom's yard:

- sort pots
- plant parsnips & sweet potatoes
- plant something new in fish boxes
- borrow pick-up truck to haul brush and scrap

3 comments:

Marie said...

What is a fish box?

I am enjoying your blog. Thanks.

Matriarchy said...

Hi, Marie! A fish box is a big styrofoam box that fish is shipped in. I get them for free from a local fish market. I rinse them out, punch holes in the bottom, and fill them with potting soil. It lets me raise some crops WAY off the ground. I stock milk crates as a platform. It has completely eliminated my issues with critters eating my lettuce - I didn't even see a slug hole! So far, I have used them for lettuce, spinach, and mustard greens. I am about to start a second round of more heat-tolerant greens - trying romaine and a broccoli from purchased starts. If you click "fish box" in my topic list, there is more discussion of them. I am planning to cover the boxes with a clear plastic lid this fall, to try them out as little coldframes. Some people harvest spinach, kale, and chard all winter, I hear.

Marie said...

Thank you.

I will read the other posts on "fish box".

Sounds like a great idea!