-Originally posted on Tumblr
My lawn was destroyed this winter. Part fo the reason is they used garbage fill dirt to level the yard, front and back. This means the dirt is filled with roofing shingles, plastic, metal nails, bear bottles, and ripped up beer cans.
Add to this, that we had a couple feral cats decide the front lawn was thier litter box, and I swear they dug up half the front lawn before I figured out what was up.
I love cats, so I just go out every time I see them in the lawns and since they are feral and the neighbors across the street are taking care of them, they have stuck to that side of the street lately.
To fix this, my wife and I bought 5 pounds of white clover seeds. I don’t like grass. It’s ecologically crappy, grows fast, and requires a lot of mowing. I hate mowing. Clover is also good for the soil, and returns nitrogen to it.
Planting clover is like ecological terrorism because I am sure my neighbors with nice manicured lawns are not going to be happy if it takes hold and spreads.
I am a shit neighbor, because I just planted it out. I have hated grass, to a weird spectrum-y level for as long as I remember. It’s creepy. It’s ecologically a poor idea. I am going to be shit neighbor and grow clover.
My raspberry jam worked out except for one 4 oz jar. We will just eat that first. I am on to strawberry jam today. I have to make some berry pancake syrup but I will plan that out and do that next time. Also, QFC did not have corn syrup which my recipe called for and I am not searching all over town for it.
I swear, I feel like I live in a 3rd world country. I can’t get tater tots or hash brown patties. Tahini is gone, and now corn syrup. I never know what product is going to be unavailable week to week. Hell, I have only seen oyster mushrooms in grocery stores once since the whole pandemic began.
Once my garden is established I should figure out mushrooms.
This is my broccoli. I planted it way too late in the season, but we will see how it goes!
My red cabbage is peaking out too. It was also planted way too late in the season, so I am watching it as well.
I bought some strawberry shoots off Etsy. I literally know nobody in my area, so I could not bum a shoot or two off of anyone. I bought 10, and they gave me 12, and they are already starting to perk up after 24 hours. Here’s hoping next year I have a good strawberry crop. I am glad I got the Etsy ones.
My green onions are not coming up yet, so I planted my grocery store green onions. I saw a video where someone did that and it worked out really well, so I am just going to do that with the last bunch I have in the fridge when I cut them down, and we will see how it goes.
Still no sign of life from my tomatoes. I am worried about them. If nothing happens in a week or so, I will buy some tomato starts from a nursery.
In all, this is going really really well. Buying a home has opened a whole world for me that I could not image being a part of. I am still angry that not everyone gets this chance.
Being able to garden, and having kitchen big enough to can? I think some folks don’t understand the incredible privilege it is to have that kind of space. I could not have done this in my last 564 square foot apartment. I couldn’t even afford to store canning materials I was only going to use once a year do to space constraints.
I am so grateful I can do this. I don’t think I will ever take this for granted.
Garden Rat 