Here's an update on the winery garden project....
The Powers That Be are not giving me the funds for fertilizer and soil amendments. They bought cheap plants that are faltering miserably in the soil. I cannot convince them to buy me better plants or, better yet, buy a cheap greenhouse and let me start our own seedlings.
They set me up to fail because the manager didn't want the project (the people above her wanted it, but she didn't want it, so I get very little of what I request in so far as supplies goes).
I am still trying to make it work because I still have a paid job to do. Think of a contractor who has to build a structure with nuts, bolts, and tools, but really isn't given any foundation materials. This is a high-end winery with very deep pockets & I have been begging for fertilizer for MONTHS. When I showed the manager side-by-side pictures of the raised tomato beds I have here at home versus the raised tomato beds at work (which look completely pathetic and sad), she actually had the balls to say to me, "Yeah, but every garden is different." While there is truth in that, I have never in my entire 30 years of gardening had a garden as pathetic and sad as the one at the winery. They have WAY deeper pockets than I do, so why do I not have the supplies I need? It took me almost 2 months to get them to buy the tomato cages that were needed and about 6 weeks to get them to give up trellises for the cucumbers and pumpkins (still got nothing for the melons to climb).
What's really frustrating is that I did not go to them with this project. They knew I was a gardener and came to ME and asked ME to do it. So, why do they choose to not follow my advice and choose to choke out any requests I make for supplies and fertilizers? I mean, come on, buy me some bags of steer manure if nothing else, for heaven's sake!