[Webstral]

It makes good sense to recycle the fish waste. What are the fish eating?

My sunflowers have sprouted. I now see the virtue of starting them in those little planters. I planted them in groups of three, and in most cases three seedlings came up. My 4 year-old and I carefully dug up about half of them and redistributed them across the plot. We also seeded clover, which has sprouted very unevenly. I can see that I'm going to have to reseed regularly if I'm to get a halfway decent coverage of the soil.

I still want to plant an heirloom variety of corn, plus beans and pumpkins in one plot. If I really get my act together, I'll put onions and a companion something-or-other in the third plot once I get it cleared. We eat lots of garlic and scallions in this house, followed by red onions. I'd like to try tomatoes again, but I'll wait another year, I think. We eat a lot more garlic and onions than tomatoes.

I can see the value of having some good compost ready to spread on the soil. Clover is supposed to get raked into the soil so that it has a modest covering. I don't have the right rake for that job, and I'm not willing to put down $30 for a new rake until I prove to myself that I have some staying power with this project. I recycled the soil from a houseplant that didn't make it so I could cover some of the fresh clover seed in a shallow layer. My son was very helpful in getting the soil out of the old pot, but once he discovered the yellow beads in the bottom of the pot he turned all his attention to digging "treasure" out of the bottom of the pot. I'll provide some feedback on whether a modest covering improves the sprouting of the clover. Since it's a nitrogen fixer, I'd like to grow it as densely as possible so that next year I can grow tomatoes and basil in that area.