Day 14 - Holding Pattern

2020 March 31

Tuesday

9:30pm:

Today was a day full of “more of the same”.

I made bread — white with sprouted wheat and millet flour. I made lunch for the kids — pasta and sauce. I made supper — a 10” x 16” chicken pot pie, with leftovers for the adult lunches tomorrow. I did dishes, nursed the baby, coaxed kids into nap time, picked things up, put things away, and all the other little things that happen every day.

I spent more time working out our garden plan, and started figuring out a list of what we will need to construct it. Part of the trickiness for us is that the best spot in out yard is where there is already a network of sumac roots just below the surface of the lawn. Digging there will be pointless if not impossible, and piling dirt on top to do a traditional raised bed will simply give the sumac a new place to try and grow. We’re going to put in a raised container bed instead, with a combination of stand-alone buckets for the vining plants and potatoes, and a larger C-shaped bed for everything smaller. Tomorrow I need to keep looking for containers for the main bed, but my husband has already sourced some large barrels to use for the squash and zucchini.

I’m also making a list of the seeds we’re missing — we have a good selection, but there were already some that were hard to find, like peas, spinach, and lettuce. I’m hoping we will be able to find tomato and pepper plants, as it is already too late to start them from seed. Tomorrow, I’m going to see if my Jacob’s Cattle Beans will sprout — if so, we’ll plant some of those, too.

I didn’t want to rush into a big garden when we moved here, and our plans are already far more expansive than I had intended for this year. We may take some shortcuts (like plant in the containers for the C-shaped garden, but build the wooden “walls” that hide them later) starting out, but I’m trying my best to start out as I mean to go on because it’s easier than having to clean up what we did this year in order to do it “right” next year.

The garden planning and elaborate pot pie were a welcome distraction from the news. Our health unit reported 29 cases today — 9 more than yesterday. I wonder how many more tomorrow will bring? We’re about a week out from our next grocery run — will I feel as much anxiety as the last time? I wonder if there will be any garden centres selling plants this year — are they “essential”? So many people rely on them for their vegetable seedlings. And where does one find big, deep, heavy plastic, rectangular containers suitable for planting in when everything no-essential is closed?

I’m ending my day with as many questions as I started.