Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Gardening Keeps the Post Office Busy

The people at the post office know us by name and at least one of them knows our box number by memory after putting so many parcel notices in our box. "I know you", he says, "you've got box xxxx!".

Other than the hot deals on ebay, our box gets some business from the fall gardening-related mail orders. Okay, I guess some of the ebay stuff is garden-related too. I get sucked in by novelty vegetables -- who can't resist an impulse purchase of purple carrots (seed, of course)!
The bulbs and fall plants haven't started arriving yet, but I did just get some red cozy coats and a large capillary mat from Lee Valley. The cozy coats are water-containing plastic frost shields for the tomato plants. I will try these after experiencing year THREE of tomato failure. I have eaten 5 cherry tomatoes from my 3 plants so far! Last year, I ending up picking all the tomatoes green just before frost and ripened them in my kitchen cabinets. You successful tomato growers should feel special! If I only had a greenhouse...

The capillary mat is a new addition to the indoor light garden. I have purchased new trays and plan to make the system self-watering, with a capillary mat wicking water from a reservoir (a shallow bucket or something) into the trays. Plastic pots sitting in the trays can soak up water through their drainage holes. This may make going away for short holidays an easier proposition. I'll try it out and let you know how it works.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Have you heard of Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes? They're a variety bred to grow properly in cold, short summers.

Gardenista said...

Yeah, I grew those 2 years ago. I started them early in a container then moved them out to the patio. Still, I picked them green! Also, they were small and didn't taste good. I will tray again though!

quu said...

I had to comment on this: I work at the post office, and that's why this is so funny. I work in small p-o, where we have customers few hundreds, but I remember who ordered what. :D Specially if someone order something to do with plants..

I packaged 3 plant parcels today. It is so fun to swap seeds, plants.. usually those plants will grow better than bought ones..