Okay, so feeling better today. I decided it was a good day to really go and inspect the sproutlings to make sure they are actually what I planted and not invaders.
This is easier said than done since I don't know what any of the plants I started from seed are supposed to look like. I tried doing research on the Great Internets, but if I found any pictures at all they were of plants far older than my own. Before the next garden, I'm going to play a gardening book with pictures, lots and lots of pictures.
This year, I'm pretty much guessing. I figure if it's several plants that look alike growing in a row, then it's a very good chance it's something I planted. Of course, the other way to tell is to let it grow and see if it bears fruit I recognize, but that's a long wait.
The seed packets with their cheerful bits of information (when to plant, how far apart to plant, when to thin out, etc) seem to skip over the whole "oh by the way this is what they will look like when they grow so you don't weed them out accidentally" part. And, that's the other problem: I have to make damn sure I know what I'm looking at before I weed or I risk tossing a wanted plant into the compost pile. That would make me cry. A lot.
Of course, here's an endorsement for container gardening. You are less likely to get undesirable plants in your veggies and flowers, but I feel like there are more limitations to container gardening. Okay, I'm going by just a generalized view of it, which means I need to do research. So, I promise to do that and write up a comparison in the future.
But, for now, I've got the problem of leftover weed roots trying to sprout into new plants mixing in with my veggies and herbs, and some of them I can't tell the difference. I suppose it would've helped had I mulched, but it just wasn't feasible at the time. A client informed me that eventually, if I keep weeding and if I cover the ground during the winter, that eventually I will have a nice clean slate when I go to plant, but that takes time. An additional level to the problem is that with all the torrential rains and flooding, I'm not entirely sure some of tinier more shallow seeds just simply didn't wash away. Oh, sure, those tiny plants where the chard should be could be chard, or it could be just weeds teasing me. Without a solid reference there is no real way for me to tell right now.
Thankfully, the bigger, heartier sprouts are easy. You just can't miss the beans or the pumpkin. (Of course, the pumpkin is growing out of a great bloody mound, but that's beside the point.) I think next year, though, I'm going to buy more pre-started plants. I only have the ones I have because my local nursery just happened to carry them. I really didn't want to buy from one of the big chain stores. I would like to keep the local nurseries open. I did find out, however, there are a couple of larger ones a little more on the west end of town, so now I know I can most likely find all the seedlings I want.
Either way, I went into this with the understanding that there might be some casualties, and I may have just found a few among the bell pepper, chard, and onion.
That made me wonder how you have a funeral for a plant. I mean, considering you start off with a burial process... I guess I just hum a few bars of "Taps" over the rows.
Or I could just ignore the totally lack of sanity in that idea and find something else to plant there.
Ahem. Yeah.
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I think the reason I blog sometimes is because a lot of things seem like a fantastic idea until you write it down and you realize you're a few whores shy of a bordello.
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