Tiny farmers

The plants I gave the preschool are doing better than the ones we still have at home. Show offs.

High Maintenance Friends

What, you want me to grow you plants from seed AND label them? Got this email tonight:

My plants now reside in four states, and it's not even April.



Square-ish Foot-ish Garden

This is a square foot gardening grid at its cheapest. Instead of building a frame, I used about 50 cents worth of materials I picked up at Home Depot - twine and some eye hooks.

28 squares just in that one bed. What to plant first?

Next, to build another climbing trellis. I may actually do 2 - one along the long, back side and one on the short end.

Help

I am trying to maximize the few sunny areas of our yard. The first 2 feet under the deck does get a decent amount of light. Thoughts on how I can use the space, particularly between the pillars that are close together? Trellis? Hang plants on the deck posts or off the side of the deck?

The big dark area of dirt is one spot I planted grass today. Tilled down 6", put in gypsum, peat moss, hummus and new topsoil. I dumped 750 sq feet worth of seed there and in front of the stairs and now I'm just holding my breath that I remember to water and some of it takes.

Too many ideas in my head right now--considering covering the deck in pots or window boxes and doing reverse vertical gardening - pole beans and other vine like veggies. Maybe then it will be less obvious that my deck still isn't done?

Looking Up

Hit up Home Depot for $10 worth of conduit pipe, pipe connectors, re-bar and netting, and ended up with this vertical gardening support. Pretty much followed the directions from "All New Square Foot Gardening," as best as I could remember them.

Everytime I hit that re-bar another inch into the ground, I held my breath hoping not to hit any utilities. Victory!

I'll be interested to see if it can hold up under the weight of my melons.

I just got supplies for one since I was sure to screw up the first one in one way or another. More to come though -- we are out of horizontal space so at this point the only way to go is up.

Don't really have a great before pic. This is the closest I can get:

The frame is now in the bed on the right. Previous frame was made of old tomato stakes, which is also what my square foot grid is at this point. That's next on the list. Well, maybe not next but it is on the list.

Like my current organic grass/weed killer? I'm planning to put the world's skinniest raised bed there and going to try to grow something using the fence as support. Sunflowers, maybe, though they might get so tall they shade the beds. Perhaps Zinnia or cucumber?

Sunny with a chance of bad decisions

The weather forecast all week calls for May like temps. Which obvious means I will jump the gun and plant a lot of things that will die in the next month when normal temperatures return.

Today I forced myself to stick to things that were somewhat seasonably appropriate like beans, radishes, beets, lettuce. The rest of my time was spent prepping beds, cleaning the yard, trying to figure out what the hell I planted a month ago as I was rushing out of town and swearing to myself I'd write it down later...of course I did not.

In other idiotic moves - I also have a flat of seedling with mystery peppers. I know which ones are different, but until we have actual peppers they will forever be referred to as mystery peppers 1-6. Who wants some!?

Tomorrow's high is 79. I think you can guess just how much work I'll be getting done at my actual job, and just how much time I'll be spending outside. (None. All.)

Overcrowding

The shower filled up, so we moved half the plants upstairs.

I know what you're thinking: if I've got seedlings in the shower AND the bath, then where in the world am I storing my vacuum cleaners? In the middle of the living room, of course!

Conquering the land

Though the HOA says I can't plant veggies on the side of my house, I plan to any way. Any ideas for a nice design? This is the only area left that gets any sun at all.

Would like something that looks a little nicer than my typical not-quite-a-rectangle raised bed. Something that can hold a LOT of stuff.

I plan to think about this for months, then throw together something using scraps of wood and nails I find on the ground. But in my imagination it's going to be gorgeous.

Sunny days

These oats were grown as a cover crop. All planted at the same time, but some more shaded. What a difference a little sun makes:

Freak

I went to one of the world's nicest spas...and spent my time touring their gardens, learning about composting, and swapping tips about cover crops.

(Just HAD to take a picture of the people who couldn't be bothered to dress themselves before coming.)

Already?

Microgreens!!

Incoming

No sooner had we packaged up hundreds of extra seeds to distribute to others did I hit the internet and order more.


Soon arriving in my mailbox from rareseeds.com:

• Dragon's Egg Cucumber
• Green Doctors Tomato
• Black Cherry Tomato
• Golden Midget Watermelon
• Orange Flesh Tendersweet
• Jack Be Little Pumpkin
• Chioggia (Bassano) Beet
• Cockscomb - Dwarf Coral Garden Mix
• Kiwano - African Horned Cucumber
• Mountain Princess
• Tess's Land Race Currant
• Snow White
• Dr. Carolyn
• Chinese Red Noodle Bean
• Romanesco Italia Broccoli

Time to build some more raised beds!

I learned it by watching you!

Anxious

Brussel sprouts (child's request. Gross.)
Broccoli
Mesclun mix
Red onion
Lilac hybrid peppers
Snap peas

I have a dream this year that I'm going to build a trellis that allows peas, etc to grow from my raised beds up to the bottom of my deck. If it works, it will provide a nice screen to hide all the crap I store under the deck. Going to work more on growing up this year, as there's not much more sun to be had in my yard and we're running out of space to grow out. Then again, I did just get a new chainsaw, and some of those trees are looking past their prime...

Recycling

Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow!?

Ceased work on my deck to work on a raised bed. Took my old one which never was tall enough, added a second story plus a 2x6 trim to the top. All was done using scraps from deck construction.

Before (front):

Is it Spring yet?

Last year I wasn't terribly inspired to garden, but for some reason this week's arrival of the Tomato Growers' seed catalog has awakened the beast within. I cannot wait to get started!! Must resist. In the meantime, I'll be plotting my next project destined for disaster--I want to put in a raised bed on the side of our house. It will technically be in the front yard which is against the great leader's HOA's rules, so I need to make it look all fancy like and pretty. This is the only spot left in our entire yard that has even a bit of sun. Unless I figure out how to plant things on my roof. Don't underestimate the power of crazy.

Accidental fertilizer

Growing lettuce for the first time and it's doing really well. Only now it's coated in sawdust from pressure treated wood. Hmm. Wonder if that's problematic.

The small green stuff in front is my cover crop. (I think this bed is red crimson clover.) First time I've tried cover crops--it's nice to have some green around as everything else is turning brown.

Award winning

The snow white tomatoes were actually not too good to eat. In fact, after picking up my ribbons, I ate them while walking to my car. 

Loved the comments! 'Tis never too late to live life. Or be the freaky old lady entering the 4H fair with a bunch of 4 year olds. Same difference.

Health Kick VFFA Hybrid. Way more delicious and beautiful than I remember from 2010. Definitely going to plant more of these next year; they make a great salsa.

Teeny tiny tomatoes

The sweet pea currant tomatoes are about the size of raisins. They grow faster than one can pick them. Which is why I invited a friend over to do it for me.

After she had several hundred (pretty sure I'm not exaggerating) we let our girls make our dinner cook. Those tiny tomatoes go a long way when smothered in cheese and other nacho fixings. Mmm, good!

Look away!

 

(Salsa not properly canned, merely stored to be consumed over the next few days. Or hours. Whatever.)