Progress

Since I last posted, the warm weather and oodles of rain we've had have helped the garden quite a bit. The peas are starting to come up. Almost all of the first row made it out of the ground and much of the second one did, too, so we should be in good shape come trellising time.

It sounds nerdy and lame, but we're really getting into the simple physicality of these plants. They really do change overnight, and the biochemical things going on that allow a plant to add so much mass so quickly are really interesting to imagine -- imagine, because I really can't recall much of my high school biology any more. These beginnings of leaves seriously weren't there two days before I shot this.

Very cool.

The hay was something of an adventure. We bought a bale out in Merrifield, VA (coinciding with a bahn mi run) and it barely fit in the trunk of the car. We had more than enough to cover the boxes to keep them from leeching out nutrients and to deter weeds. It's also useful for killing grass/weeds that need to die.

One of our big questions going into this project was how our dog would react to the changes in his yard. We took away one of his favorite pee spots to plant bulbs and after being yelled at a few times he now just pees on its periphery. And if he pees on the hay, fine. But the organic fertilizer we're using is going to be an issue. The organic guides Christine read suggested a combination of blood meal and bone meal for nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization. They're pretty much what they sound like -- ground up bone, and ground up dried blood. Mac obviously can tell because he's started licking the dirt when we're not looking. This is not ok.

Fun fact - apparently there's a slight risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy being spread through bone meal. Yeah, Mad Cow Disease. But not as a fertilizer - just in feed. Still, don't lick the dirt yourself.