Ride or Walk?

That is the question. Whatever work we need to do, George wants to find a machine to do the work. Whatever the machine is, I often believe it is easier just to bypass the machine and do the work by hand.

We put the first seeds in the garden yesterday. Earlier in the week, I found George hooking the big tiller up to the tractor. I told him it was too wet to till. Tilling the garden would damage the soil instead of helping. George agreed and proceeded to till anyway. The ground was too wet. He had already tilled the garden this spring and the soil was ready for planting. Today it is less ready.

Just the same, we planted yesterday. George always wants really straight rows in the garden. I like straight rows, but I do not see straight lines in the garden as a necessity. Left to my eye, garden rows, as well as many other things including my mind, tend to meander from one point to another in more of a dog leg fashion. George and neighbor Frank think alike. Frank has purchased a machine to make straight rows in the garden, as seen in the photo. Before we could plant, George insisted we should use this machine to make perfect rows in our less than perfect soil.

When I got home about 1:30 yesterday, they had the machine setting by the garden. They had already tired it on Franks garden, where it broke down in several places. They repaired and brought the wonder machine to our garden where it promptly broke again. After a couple of more trips to town for parts, they got it going. In the mean time, I started cutting the potatoes for planting. George could not help cut potatoes because it seems to use this machine, they need two operators. One to drive and a spotter to indicated exactly when to lower or lift the machine. If it was allowed to travel into soil that was not really loose, the machine rebelled and fell apart. After marking about 4 rows, a pin fell from the machine in the middle of the garden. George worked for several minutes, got the machine back together and away they went again. After a couple of minutes, I looked up and saw the machine at a standstill with George standing beside it holding a part that looked suspiciously like a tiller rod and tine. With that, they gave up and hauled the machine back to neighbor Frank's house.

George planted Kennebec and Yukon Gold potatoes. I planted three types of radishes including white icicles,Butter crunch and black seeded simpson lettuce and some mustard. I planted Texas Sweet onion plants and white unnamed onion sets from Bonham's hardware. But first, I planted an entire row of sunflowers and marigolds in the first row. I planted enough of these for me and the crows. I had plenty as they were seeds saved from last year's crop.

Yesterday, I stopped in at the Mennonite's green house on Douglas Road to see what their plants were like. They had nice looking tomatoes and bedding plants for $1.69 a 4 pack. Their plants looked much better than what most places sell. I am going back next weekend to buy tomatoes, peppers and flowers. I remember Daddy used to buy his plants at Buckeye green house at Berryville. They have been out of business for years. Now, most places that sell plants here get them all from the same wholesaler. There is one road side garden business at Harrison that I think run their own green house. This year, I am going to try the Germans' greenhouse and see if their plants are not a little better.