As previously mentioned in my posts, I have no expectation of anything I plant, "fix" "prune" or touch in the garden, or in my yard, for that matter, actually surviving or (gasp!) thriving. Not only am I an inconsistent and sporadically passionately gardener (and blogger), there are many things out of my control that effect the outcome of my garden. Weather, soil, sunlight (I'm in Seattle), slugs and other pests, disease and mold, children, wild animals, domesticated animals, semi-domesticated animals (chickens), irrigation and summer vacation all play an important part. Spring & Summer of 2013 was a huge step forward for my personal fulfillment in the garden.
Even if nothing bloomed in the beds, I'd still be winning. It's amazing to watch these huge, orange pumpkins support their own weight on their vines. We have about 6 pumokins hanging from or sitting on the arch. It's fun to walk under and through. All summer long, we had nice, big snap peas and now, tomorrow is September, the tomatoes have been exploding for a month. I don't even know what to do with all my tomatoes!! They're sweet and small and they make great bruschetta. Due to my love of pumpkins, I planted a lot. They took over my potager. With their broad leaves shading the direct-sow basil, garlic, onions, carrots, pickling cucumbers and leeks, I haven't gotten much else out of the garden. Somehow , I planted a ton of radishes and while they went bonkers, they took up a lot of space and they are disgusting. I tried them over and over throughout the summer and they never got any better. Next year, no radishes. We had friends over and one pointed out my beets. "Your beets are ready. You should pull them before they get too big." I have beets? Huh. Turns out I bought a "salad mix" seed packet and the beets actually grew. Who knew? Another total WIN, my ginormous sunflowers. I don't know how they got so tall, but they're about 12 feet! They make me happy. So yellow and flowry. I don't know what to do with them except love them. I put some corn in. It grew to about 4 feet tall max. I think it had to compete with the sunflowers and pumpkins too much. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised in October? I'm thinking about next year... plotting my garden. I'd like to turn a corner of my "landscaped" yard into an orchard. I'm a kid on Christmas at the moment, because the new deck is being installed. It's doubled in size, has manufactured wood (no maintenance!!) and will have a metal railing (again, no maintenance.) My back yard is where I can put all my crazy energy. It's fun and it teaches my kids a lot about food, hard work and how sometimes working looks a lot like playing.
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I intentionally didn't sign up for a local CSA farm box delivery for several reasons. The most important reason was my envy of the farmers who, through my rose-colored glasses, were able to spend their days working in the garden. There they were, sipping lemonade in the sunshine, pulling the perfect pickling cucumbers from their perfectly mixed soil. Sick bastards. The second reason is my universal envy/awe/adoration of and for anyone who has a greener thumb than I do. This pretty much covers everyone, but then, when I'm learning something, it always feel like I'm the last person on earth who doesn't know how to do it. Sometimes, I'm able to take a CSA box home from work when the original purchaser is out of town. It's then that I look deep into the wax-coated, brown paper box and wonder why they grew weird-shaped onions, one pepper in each color, exactly five potatoes, a melon (I think), a head of cabbage and some mystery greens. I look at that stuff and I think, "chicken food!" They're gonna love it! Reason #3 I didn't want to pay for a CSA box is that I don't eat those veggies (there. I said it.) and I don't know what to do with them then they're sitting, limply in a dirty box on my kitchen floor. However, none of this means that I don't want to, and will not try to grow and eat some of the CSA box veggies next year. And I'm giddy to try different types of tomatoes and potatoes and carrots.
My carrots are tiny. They hate me. But they're so cute! I ate them. My kid smothered them with non-organic Ranch dressing and devoured them. So, in a reverse kinda way, the CSA box did what it's supposed to. Someone paid the farmers for the box. It wasn't me. Many people ate from the weekly deliveries and if I learned a lot from the two boxes I've brought home, then I can only assume that anyone else who has received a box has been forever changed. CSA farmers are sneaky that way. In mid May one afternoon, I was knee-deep in the garden, wearing my ultra-buff-woman Carharts, pulling up some possibly dead tall grass shrub thingy. I equally cursed the previous owners of my landscape while realizing that another grassy plant nearby would make a perfect border. Thank you Pinterest for identifying the fabulous border plant as a Daylily. I hacked some huge Daylillies apart and made a border for a future, blueberry patch. Flash-forward to August 31st; the transplants took well and even flowered a month later. I'll definitely be dividing more this fall. They make great borders because they grow thickly and their root system rises a little out of the ground, which keeps mulch in nicely.
Do me a favor and hum "Eye of the Tiger" while you read this post.
Usually, I get amped before I play soccer. I listen to whatever cliche, over-played song is on the radio and by the time I get to the field, I'm ready to go kick some ass! That's how I feel about my new, raised garden beds right now. My contractor hacked some beefy lumber together and my irrigation guys will be moving my existing sprinkler system to serve the purpose of my raised beds. My landscape maintenance guys are dumping growing mix over my "cooked" chicken compost, which I painstakingly removed from the run this weekend. I'm mapping out my veggies and I'm very excited at the prospect of incorporating an arched trellis with pumpkins, squash, hops, tomatoes and peas. Sometimes these weekend warrior projects feel like they took a few hours, when in fact, they have been a year in the making. Last year, I was raising chicks for the first time. Now, I have an abundance of fresh, organic eggs and a load of well-processed compost. At the garden store today, I stocked up on herbs to bolster my existing herb garden. Over the winter, my rosemary took a dive, so I had to replace almost off of them. Last year, my Cilantro made a fine feast for one lucky wild animal, so I replaced it, finally. I also added some Basil that I'm hoping will be okay outside. Last year, the Basil I grew from seed fared best in the kitchen window. Once the raised beds are in, I'll put some photos up. For now, I'm keeping my Eye (of the Tiger) on the Prize... I'm anticipating using a cattle fencing panel as a trellis in my garden. While researching this, I tripped and fell in love with these fences, which use cattle fence panels in a traditional fence. I could see using either of these styles with a 3 foot tall fence.
At just two weeks old, the peas and pumpkins seeds were dwarfing the sleepy cucumbers. The basil is coming up nicely and the cilantro is popping out. At least 20 sprouts were all ready to be transplanted into biodegradable pots, so my indoor garden took over the back deck this weekend.
Now that I'm a weekend warrior in the garden, I look forward to getting my hands dirty all week long. I couldn't wait any longer, so I rigged up the indoor, grow lights and had the kids "help" me put a few seeds in a pre-fab starter kit. Of course, I over-bought seeds. At only $1 a packet, it's hard to figure out how much is enough, and more is better, right? This is only my second year germinating indoors, so after a "good enough" success rate with the herbs and lavender last year, I added a few, new seeds to the kit. I started:
I learned a lot about basil last year and I'll be keeping it indoors throughout the summer. Almost everything germinates in 7-14 days, so it will be interesting to see what pops up. Also, since I have so many seeds left to plant, I'll probably buy another starter kit and do it all again next week. I look forward to the NW Flower & Garden Show all year. I like to see what's new and this year I was looking for information on locally owned garden shops. I took a few photos. Hover over the pic for a caption. I walked away from the garden show with a lot of business cards from metal designers.
I also fell in love a couple times; once with a large, old window that was freakishly overpriced and would not ever fit in my car, and again, with a picnic table made from Western Red Cedar, that folds up for winter storage. www.bestshinglesales.com Fortunately, I didn't have much spending money, so I was mostly browsing the garden show, like a good girl on a budget. It's February 10th. If you're a garden nerd, like me, you're:
When the neighbor kids come over, they skip the doorbell and head right to the back yard. Sometimes, the kids want to work in the yard for payment of one chicken egg. Today, we watched a chicken lay and immediately went to pull the golden egg from the nesting box. It was so warm! What an amazing experience to share with a kid. Food. It comes from farms and animals... and sometimes chicken butts.
This weekend was awesome. I know this because my kids went to bed a half hour early and immediately fell asleep. We ended up with a birdhouse made from wood scraps, a new floor in the chicken coop, a better system for watering the birds, a tidier back yard and sore muscles. My raised bed installation is on the schedule for March 1st. As mentioned above, I'm intimidated by my own grandiose veggie garden plans. I have a back-up plan though. If I can manage, I'll take a "back yard farming" course, taught by a University of Washington professor. Plans. I have lots of them. Anthropologie. I don't go in there because my money just falls out of my pocket and I walk out of the store elated, clutching things like dishcloths, ceramic egg crates and dreaming about dinner plates. There are very few places that make me feel materialistic. This lovely-smelling, intoxicating store, is one of them. The last time I was in there, I walked out with Farm Anatomy, the Curious Parts & Pieces of Country Life by, Julia Rothman. Julia is an artist, who married a guy who grew up on a farm. A city girl, she learned about the farm through creating this book. Instead of writing about it, I'll put some of her art below. This book is informative and just plain awesome.
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