Nobody's Mad

Mariposa lawn chemical soil test results:

Soil tests pH7.5 indicated by soil meter. We’re using this reading to calibrate our soil meter and to decide that the soil meter reads one pH too high.

For the small middle patch of lawn we’ll use 7ozs 22-3-4 for 100 sq ft.

For the lower triangle of lawn we’ll use 15ozs 22-3-4 for 220 sq ft.

We were unable to use the regular color pH tests on the potting soil as the liquid is very dark even when filtered. We therefore bought a pH (and moisture and light) meter from True Value for $13.29.

The pH meter seems to read 1 pH unit too high (alkaline), after comparing results with the color pH test on a different soil sample. Unless otherwise stated, all pH measurements in this blog will be of actual pH values, not indicated values.

Our potting soil indicated pH6.5, which means the pH is 5.5. We’ll need to add some lime or equivalent. We’ll also add some all-round fertilizer as we can’t measure N/P/K due to the dark color of the liquid.

I don’t remember such a tender, lovely spring in the six years I have lived in Mariposa. Friday afternoon and night we had a gorgeous, pouring rain. Saturday there were specks of rain; today there were broken clouds… It was a beautiful weekend for us personally, and we were quietly busy here at Bullion Street (while the whole town buzzed for the Butterfly Festival, which didn’t seem much affected by the showers). Michael worked at his gardening projects, while keeping up with updates and other work for his network. I worked at my desk this morning and then helped a bit with the garden plans. Part of this afternoon we spent looking for our soils-testing kit, which we finally found on a cupboard shelf. The best part of the search was the serendipity. In the course of looking for the kit, we also found a garden sieve and an air filter that we needed. And we uncovered a reel lawn mower that should be perfect for the lawn here at Bullion Street. A simple dinner of chicken curry pie was followed by tea and our version of Jaffa cakes. I also splurged and made a few sort-of “Jaffa tarts,” with short pastry, orange filling and chocolate. Mmmmmmmm. I spent the evening adding up some recent expenses, doing the washing up, and working at my desk once again.  –MJH.

Took some compost that’s about five years old and rather wet due to rain.  Baked in oven for two hours at 250F to sterilize then spread on table to cool and dry.  Ran through sieve.  Baked the remaining wet clods at 300F for one hour and then cooled and ran through sieve.  Just a few stones and twigs rejected.

Mixed two parts of sieved compost with one part perlite.  Perlite could have been finer! Made about 20 qts of potting soil.

Mixed up a soil sample for testing. Allowing it to settle now overnight.

Purchased 12qts perlite, 50 markers, and 4 72-bay potting trays from Mariposa Feed for about $31.

Seed purchased from Mariposa Feed.  Most of the packets have far more seed than we’ll need:

We also plan to buy corn, potatoes and a few tomatoes to plant for this year. And we’ll plant a rhubarb for later.

If permitted in Seattle we hope to put in a small numbers of red currant, black currant, and gooseberry bushes along the curve of the garden path.

We already have some rosemary that can survive Seattle winters. We’ll plant mint, sage, and thyme in appropriate spots.

A couple of thorn-less raspberry canes in a back corner, and some alpine strawberries edging a flower border are also planned. No need for blackberries in Seattle – they grow wild everywhere.

After a few days work we have a plan for a vegetable garden in Seattle.

We estimate that digging up half the lawn will give us about 22ft x 15ft, varying from mostly sunny to only a few hours sun per day.

We aim to start many of the plants in Mariposa at various times and take them on the thousand mile northward journey about mid-June.