A Slave to Veggies.

5-25-11 VERMONT: I spent most of the day continuing to do the veggie garden prep. I decided to change location of corn and tomatoes this year. I use black plastic mulch to save water, warm the soil, keep weeds down, and protect any veggie lying on the ground. If it stays in place year after year, with the veggies in the same sites every year, it’s much easier to get started each spring, but plant pathogens in the soil see this as an invitation to a feast. I decided to pull up all the plastic and rotate everything 90° to change locations for corn and tomatoes.

Today I pulled out the thyme and oregano perennial plants out of the veggie bed and moved the oregano to the new herb bed and put some of the thyme there as well. The rest of the thyme, a lot of thyme, I scattered around the pasture in bare spots. Having started on the herb garden, I added more oregano, Origanum vulgare hirtum, rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis, sweet basil, Ocinium basilicum, and tarragon, Tagetes lucida.

Having gotten everything out of the veggie field, I weeded, added three wheelbarrows of soil/compost, raked it all flat, laid and tested the soaker hose, fertilized and raked it in, and finally relaid the plastic mulch in the new pattern. Maybe I’ll finish it tomorrow.

Today, BTW, was beautiful, especially so because Judy arrived in mid-afternoon from NJ.


Equisetum. I discussed this Paleozoic survivor a few months ago [2-11-11], and promised a picture when it woke up.

Star Flower, Trientalis borealis, is a spring ephemeral, four inches tall that favors moist, shady, mossy areas. It's a primrose relative, but I don't see any resemblance.