Tag: Garden

It’s Official! I Have a Garden!

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The closest I have ever come to having a garden, was once when we lived in a trailer park, I planted tomatoes in a raised concrete bed. It worked out well, but the internet was not as good as it is now for hobby information, so I had a few flyers, and my grandmothers garden wisdom. Spoilers: My grandmother was not exactly a successful gardener.

I think that beauty bark was the best, most economical idea. I don’t have any issues walking on it, and it’s protecting the landscaping fabric.

I really like the layout here, but I think I am going to buy some garden bags, and plant potatoes in them and put them down the center next year. I got some potato seeds, like honest to god seeds for potatoes from Botanical Interests, and I am going to try those, as well as normal potato slips.

So far the chicken wire cage has kept all manner of critters out of things. We have feral cats, possums, squirrels, and whatever else. I am pleased with how well this has worked. I was worried I’d overdone it, but so far so good.

Above I have 4 sunflowers growing on the left side, then dill, parsley, and basil. I am kind of hoping the birds don’t demolish the sunflowers, but they can get into the chicken wire pretty easily. Just a tiny sliver of the herbs are visible.

Above, the green onions that are biggest are actually grocery store green onions I planted after I used up all the green parts. I have this fodmap thing with garlic and onions, and green onions don’t seem to mess with my stomach, so I use them a lot. The Tokyo Whites in the squares closest to the straw are just not doing as well. I didn’t get as much germination as I was hoping. I will replant some of the areas that missed tomorrow.

The broccoli has really taken off. I had to replant one square, but the rest are huge. I don’t really know when you harvest broccoli? I guess I am hoping I see it and get it before it flowers.

These are 55 day tomatoes. I think I planted them a wee bit early, as the weather has been on and off. I have the tomato cage set up, and I will train them up on twine. I need to rewatch a Gardner Scott Youtube video on how to remove the suckers on them. That one time I grew tomatoes I planted half a billion seeds and just let it go wild.

Above is my red cabbage and my strawberries. I bought the strawberries from Scenic Hills Farms on Etsy. I am very pleased. I ordered 10, and they gave me 12, and they all survived beautifully so far.

Above here is my cucumbers. I have four sunflower on the far right, but the rest are cucumbers. I chose a version called Homemade Pickles. It’s a 55 day version. I wanted as short a growing cycle as possible.

Above is my rhubarb. I know normally you split a plant and do it that way, but I know nobody in my city. I just bought seeds off of Amazon, and planted them. The seed package was less than helpful. I planted four sets of seeds in the 2 foot circle planter. One set did not take. I will replant that. I can always thin them back. Rhubarb always grew like a weed in the rental houses from my teens so I have no idea how one optimizes the environment. I have googled, and it seems like most articles spend time on how long the plant lives not on planting from scratch.

This is the mint planter that the feral cat got into, before I had a chance to wrap them in chicken wire. There is the teeny tiniest bit of mint starting. I am not too worried about the mint, because as the tag says, it’s garden herpes. I have this planter on the far side, away from anything else, and near a gravel driveway, in a raised bed. Containment is hopeful secure.

I did switch from some pretty copper name plates to white plastic ones. I found after a month, the copper ones corroded and were illegible. I didn’t want to use plastic, but pragmatic needs such as readability trump pretty.

I am very much looking forward to cooking with my own vegetables. I am able to harvest the grocery green onions, but the rest are still growing.

Everything is Planted & I hurt

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My normal work schedule is Monday through Friday. I took off Thursday, and my wife and I made three trips to Lowes. We got 24 bags of dirt, 12 at a time, and 5 huge bags of beauty bark. As you can see in the pictures the beauty bark filled out the rest of the hoop house aka the Squirrel Interdiction cage.

The problem with having a physical disability is you like to forget and think you can do things you used to do 30 years ago. I am in rough shape. I not only filled the raised beds, added the bark, but I mowed the lawn.

My lawn mower saga is now over. I had ordered that lawn mower from Lowes, and they no-called, no-showed me three times, so I canceled and ordered a Makita battery mower from Amazon.

I was just going to test it to make sure it worked, so I could break down the box, but it was so cool, I mowed the back yard. My grass is only in tufts becuase they used nasty glass and garbage and rock filled dirt to level the lot, so it’s a bumpy nasty yard to mow.

We also have an issue with the driveway as they only put a bare inch or so of gravel over the crappy fill dirt, and it is growing so many weeds now. We are opting to use 2 cups of rock salt in 1 galloon of water to kill the weeds. I have sympathy at trying to get a house ready for sale, but a lot of corners were cut all over.

So anyways, I have things set up in the garden finally, and I was starting to wonder if I had committed a bit of overkill on the hoop house and chicken wire, until the day after I planted it all.

The damn cat, which is lovely and beautiful and feral, had dug up my mint bed to pee in it. I had to drag out the chicken wire and wrap each of those small round beds to keep him out.

All this is to say, I am dead up against a wall of sore and exhuastion today. I spent the day in bed and watched Good Eats on Discovery+ with the wife. She made game maps next to me while I dozed.

I have so much more to do, that it’s nuts. I have 9 more curtains for the house, a kitchen cabinet box, and a coffee table. I’d have been done with this in a few days when I was healthier. Not so much now. I have to take each item day by day.

Like for instance, today I was going to sew one set of curtains, but I just can’t. I hurt. It’s really hard to be able to work with your hands, and be prevented because of your body’s failings.

I am trying to be patient with myself and happy that at least the garden is planted. I will need to top the beds with dirt in winter, and maybe transplant the strawberries to a fuller raised bed, but it’s in its final form. Now, even when I am hurt and sore, I can still do the little planting things. As this condition progresses, I am set up to continue with my garden which brings me a lot or joy.

Lawn Terrorism & Other plant and food updates

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-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 Progress

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-Originally posted to Tumblr

I got the gate on, and dirt in three of the five beds. It started really raining, so I gave up and it’s been raining all day today. I need to put my tomato cage in the back bed. I am just going to put a PVC frame in there and use twine to train them up. I need to make two because I have cucumbers as well I am planting.

The dirt looks amazing in the beds.

(Spoiler from future me: It was not enough dirt and settled down pretty low. I will have to amend and add to it next spring.)

I get the rest of my dirt on Tuesday. I’ll hopefully have my beds planted by Wednesday. This year’s last frost was super late, and I am later still because I was building this out. However, I am happy! Next year will be pretty easy.

After putting the dirt in the beds, I found some big ‘ol worms, which I put in my tomato beds.

My wife wanted nothing to do with them! I am finding some great ones as I am slowly moving Mt. Garbage Dirt out.

I am pretty grateful to my wife for helping me move the dirt. I am not as physically able as I once was, so her help really is appreciated.

I think the last thing I will need is some bark to lay down on the ground between the beds. I also have some mushroom compost I need to lay in when I plant, and some straw to use as mulch.

I have never been this excited for dirt before. I never thought I would get a home, and be able to have a garden. It still feels unreal.

More Garden Work

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-Originally published on Tumblr

Slowly but surely, I am working in the garden. It is definitely a bit frustrating taking so long on things because my body can’t keep up. I miss my 20s and 30s where my joint issues and pain were not as severe, and I could do all this in probably a solid weekend.

Anyway, I am proud of what I have going on.

I got both walls up, and all the long beds in. I ran out of chicken wire though. I won’t have that until Monday. Which is annoying!

My plan is to get the last two circle planters done, and the PVC door frame. I can chicken wire the damn thing when the wire comes in.

I have some dirt, but I don’t think it’s enough. I probably need like another $300ish dollars worth. I wish I had good dirt here, but nope. I don’t even have tree branches or wood to put in the bottom of the raised beds.

But wait. . . Whats’ the pile of dirt in the below picture?

I can’t use that lump of dirt in my beds. I pulled that out of my lawn, and it’s sod, dirt, rocks, glass, plastic, roofing shingles, oyster shells, playing cards, beer cans, and god knows what else. I don’t feel it’s safe to have it in with my vegetables.

Instead, since I don’t have a truck, I have been packing it into amazon boxes, and putting it in the garbage one box at a time.

This is besides feeding an entire disassembled TV console into the garbage, one or two boards at a time.

Who knew homeownership would also include patiently disposing of items you had no ability to get rid of any other way because you drive a KIA, and do not have a truck.

As always, work is dependent on my body’s ability to keep up.

I guess it’s good that spring just sort of started up this week, and was so late, because I had nothing done in time anyway. However, at least it will all be set up for next year, and all I’ll have to do is to amend the soil and plant.

Garden Progress & Operation Squirrel Interdiction is a go

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Well, I got the chicken wire up on Operation Squirrel Interdiction.

I am going to use PVC pipes on the front there, and make a door that is all chicken wired.

I am thinking of covering the ground with gravel, but I can’t seem to figure out how much gravel I need, and I had sticker shock when I looked at Lowes.

It occurred to me my cat can come out with me to the garden when it’s done because it will be inclosed. She may like that.

I also used some of the surplus dirt to fill holes in my front yard. Oliver the big black main coon stray cat that was re-homed and his incredibly feral littermate were using my entire front yard like a free roaming litter box. I had thought it was a dog because the leavings were so damn big. These cats are bigger than some dogs.

The result is my lawn looking like it is going through chemo because of the tufts of grass and big dug out holes.

So with the holes filled, we seeded the lawn with clover seed. We prefer clover to grass. We will see how that works out.

What I have learned is the lawn looks like it was landscaped with some sort of garbage rock fill dirt. There is literally garbage all over. Glass, roofing shingles, plastic, kids toys, and so damn many rocks. It’s bad. I am glad I am going with raised beds and expensive new dirt.

I mean, the city I live in is notorious for superfund sites anyways, and you have to get the soil checked if you want to grow in the ground. I don’t even want to try, and now with all the rocks and crap? Yeah, no. I’m not in a specifically known site, but I’m not taking chances.

I had to order more T fittings for the PVC and it won’t get here until Thursday. That and a couple bails of straw are the last items I need to start an actual garden.

It may be late in the seasons, but honestly the last frost date just happened so we are all late this season.

Garden Plans

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-First published on Tumblr on 4/10/23 before I realized Tumblr has no real archival function.

For most people, they would probably have knocked out this garden on a weekend. I mean, I would have when I was in my 20s or 30s.

However, because I live with a degenerative physical disability, I take time. It took me about a week, working like an hour or two at a time to just dig out the sod, and it took me three different days to do the raised beds.

It’s very nice to see my work come to fruition, but it’s bittersweet because it’s a noticeable loss of ability to take this long to get it done, with recovery periods between each work period.

But, look at my soon to be garden. It’s a mess because it’s in progress. I am going to put chicken wire over the whole hoop house/greenhouse thing, and that way, the squirrels, cats, raccoons, and possums can’t get into my beds.

It’s a 10 foot by 20 foot hoop house frame for about $200 on amazon. The three blue beds are about $200 each on amazon as well.

I chose expensive metal raised beds because 1) I won’t have to redo them, as they won’t degrade like wood, and 2) my physical condition is worsening and raised beds are easier to work with for bending and mobility. I am looking to the future when my body is worse, so if I get it all in now, I will still have it then.

Ideally, I would have liked to get this all in before the last frost, but we own the house so I don’t have to rush. Everything I get to work on this year will be there for me next year.

I have to build in recovery days. Like I don’t have pictures, but I started the chicken wire, and I overdid it a little. It took me three days of soreness and exhaustion to recover. I will put up pictures when that phase is done.

It’s so weird owning a home, where I can do anything I want. I never thought I would own one. It’s like minecraft in real life. Each little project I get to keep, and my world is better for it.