peas and friends in the June rain
Terry and Yoko, who are spending the summer here and are completely delightful people, arranged for an agricultural volunteer to come work on the farm with us over the past four days. Reaia, Terry’s daughter-in-law from East Vancouver, was the perfect guest worker. She planted, weeded, mulched, made a huge quantity of compost, thinned, and put up pea supports. She approached all the tasks with good humour and a positive attitude, even the fiddly, annoying jobs, of which there always seems to be a never-ending supply. She didn’t even lose hope while planting thousands of green onions in perfect little clumps of three, a task that often drives me to despair. Hopefully she’ll come back soon, for a couple of weeks this time.
Tagged: Volunteer
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2 Comments
Ryan—why do you plant your onions in groups of three?
Pep pep –
I plant them in groups of three for a few reasons. The main reason is that I find little green onion transplants really fiddly and delicate, and it’s a bit easier to line them up in little clumps for planting than planting each one individually. I also find that I can use our really sharp 3″ colinear how more easily around clumps spaced five or six inches apart than around individual onions spaced one or two inches apart. The final reason I plant them in groups of three is that I read in a book that it is a common technique in Chinese vegetable gardens, and I thought it would be worth a try. This is our first year using this technique (and also our first year growing a lot of green onions), so I’m sure I’ll modify the system somewhat in the seasons to come.