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Garden Friday
fri 16 apr 2010 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100416.html |
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This was intended as a scouting mission...
Yeah, okay, it looks like someone's over grown yard. But it's much better than the weeds we dealt with last year because it was May, last year, when we started weeding. Anyway. While SO and I were contemplating the plot, our volunteer garden lady starts telling us what we need to do. I finally look up at her, from my photographing, and she tells me, "I'm Ginny." This takes me a minute to process because I know Ginny from the Community Gardens website! Eventually I say "I'm Cheri" and she's all "I know!" *laughs* That was weird! and funny! Anyway, Ginny set us up with some black plastic tarps to kill our poor wildflowers. SO and I spread them out over most of our plot. I am a little bit sad. But, I guess we were going to kill them anyway.
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more garden
sat 17 apr 2010 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100417.html |
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These were making our plot delightfully cheerful! They were much bigger than regular buttercup flowers, probably about the size of a dollar coin or so? (3-4cm diameter) I think they are Marsh Marigolds? And then I discovered a little clump of these pink flowers! some pale pink, some dark pink... they are variations of the English Lawn Daisy.
Aren't they lovely? I can't believe we are killing them! |
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sunday
sun 2 may 2010 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100502.html |
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I'm glad we got more done out there. But my back is aching. And I'm a little bit grumpy about my weekend being mostly done. And there's still chores that'll have to wait for next weekend! ugh! heh. No rest for the weary, right? Our garden plot, as usual, is not the perfection illustrated by our plot neighbors, who have no weeds and straight rows of planted things and raised beds and such. Honestly? Straight rows annoy the heck out of me... how about some spirals, gardeners?? or some starburst shapes?? Parallel and straight rows are just so horrificly BORING! Okay. I suppose that is the artist in me. The artist who has not been drawing at all even tho we dedicated the month of may to drawing. *shakes head* Those artists, so undependable! |
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garden
sat 8 may 2010 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100508.html |
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At Saturday Market we stopped at Morning Sun Organics and bought our first plants of the season! We got a couple cherry tomatoes, "Sweetie" heirlooms. a Slicing Cucumber and a Japanese cucumber called Suyo Long. A baby eggplant. And SO got a couple of peppers: Jalapeno and Thai Dragon. Also got, but haven't planted yet, some basil and cilantro. And of course, I put some flower seeds into the front of our plot. Some Zinnias. Looking at the packet, I determined it was probably early to plant. So I saved a bunch of the seeds to plant later. Anyway, this variety is called "Giant Fantasy" which makes me smile. :) And, I can't remember if I've mentioned this, but in the back right corner of our garden... one of the strawberry plants from last year has returned! Just the lonely one, tho. We'll have to get more! I am happy with the plants we got today. But now I'm wishing I had gotten at least one pretty flower to display. The food plants are nice and all. But our garden plot is for enjoyment, first and foremost. And the things I enjoy are colours and art! And flowers... including and especially wild flowers... are that. |
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random garden things
sun 16 may 2010 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100516.html |
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But I signed up for their occasional newsletter, and it always has something interesting to say. The last one I got: Garden News, issue 32 mentioned frost dates and gave a link so you can figure your own frost dates: Freeze and Frost Data for the US The Average Last Frost date here is 22 April, and the Last Frost is 24 May. Which means it is probably mostly safe to put the bigger house plants outside. Kind of a big deal, since I have two "trees" taking up space in the porch room! darn it, I still haven't drawn a divider line. :/
The Basils and Cilantros we bought at Saturday Market last week have been hanging out in our tiny town house all week. Today, we took a bike ride to our community garden plot. The plants were shocked about the bike... I suppose any plants, without legs -- or wheels -- would be terrified at these motions and speeds! So, they were a bit droopy and depressed when we arrived at the garden. I hope they will perk up, now that they are in the ground. (But I fear I may have killed them.) (Which makes me sad.) Both the cherry tomato plants we planted last weekend, had lovely yellow blossoms. :) And the other plants; cucumbers, peppers and egg plant, seemed to be doing well. Perhaps three seedlings from the Zinnia seeds I planted last weekend? And I found a second Strawberry plant growing in amongst the yellow wild flower "weeds". There were a lot of people at the Community Garden today, but no one bothered us. This made for a much more enjoyable garden time today. I am just not a people-person, and I like quiet-time when I am at the garden. |
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flower
mon 17 may 2010 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100517.html |
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The spiral of the blossoms yet to bloom delight me! This is Comfrey, growing in our neighbor's plot at the community garden. Comfrey is a relative of the Borage we had growing in our plot last year... Borage has little blue star flowers hanging down. |
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Garden
sun 30 may 2010 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100530.html |
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The Significant Other found a couple more cherry tomato plants. and I found some watermelon plants!!! They are called "Sugar Baby Watermelons"... and if they live happily they will make little baby watermelons that are 8 to 12 pounds! Now, one of my friends at the day job had said that watermelons were hard to grow here. But I have a tiny light of hope in my soul! :) The hope is very tiny, especially taking into account that all the basils and cilantros I planted are dead and gone. *sighs* *big sighs* But the cherry tomato plants are happily blooming, and the strawberries are still alive under their pretty but weedly neighbors. And the cucumber plants are alive, even if they aren't really doing anything. And just imagine, that little watermelon plant growing bigger and bigger. Those lovely leaves! Aren't they great with all those long indentions... it looks like a doodle drawing came to life! And Then! When the plant is big and sprawling all over the place, it will have flowers and then make little watermelons! Little watermelons! Imagine that day! When you get to eat one! wow. :) |
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garden plot
sun 11 july 2010 | |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100711.html | |
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We got new plants at yesterday's Saturday Market and went down to plant them this morning. I was happy that there were a few survivors remaining in the garden... Two of our four cherry tomato plants lived... one had a tiny ripe tomato on it. Significant Other ate it happily! One of SO's pepper plants is still living. Not sure it it's a Jalapeno or a Cayenne Pepper, but it's not grown much at all since we planted it beginning of May.
And the two "mystery" plants have flourished. I suppose they are some kind of collard? I have no clue! The leaves seem pretty tough. Anyone able to enlighten me? Please? TIA! Okay. Today we planted two more cherry tomato plants, two new cucumber plants, one baby watermelon (reportedly tough to grow), and six new basil plants. I have high hopes for the cucumbers, since we got several cucumbers out of the garden plot last year. I don't really care about the watermelon plant... it'll die, but in the meantime, I just love the leaves on the plant! ha. And the basil? sighs *shaking head* Basil plants do not live in our plot. I've planted seeds and I've planted little plants. They all die immediately! And yet I keep trying. I have this love for fresh pesto. And hope springs eternal! :)
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Garden Flowers
sat 14 aug 2010 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100814.html |
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The vegetables are kind of um lacking. Spring was wet and mostly killed everything. So all the plants now living are late and confused. We've got 4 cherry tomato plants, 2 cucumber plants, 2 celery, a watermelon and a sweet potato. Also a chili pepper and some basils. I think Significant Other eats about one cherry tomato a week. And he did cut down the "mystery" cabbage the other day, but we've not eaten any of it yet. so anyway. I started planting flowers!
Planted this Aster in mid July. The little purple flowers delighted me. The flowers are lookin' kind of rough now, but that's okay... there is new growth and we were told it would come back next year. My hopeful desire is that the Aster will take over the entire garden plot!! :)
Dahlia hybrid, planted last weekend. It's got plenty of blossom buds, and the dark green leaves are lovely. sadly, our baby sunflowers got killed in a tragic mowing accident. Depressing. But I've already taken photos of other people's sunflowers. so that's okay. And there are a few other wildflowers growing in our plot. The wild makes me happy. |
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Garden Surprise
sun 22 aug 2010 | |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100822.html | |
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Yay! It's a little watermelon!! Currently approx 2 inch diameter (5cm), and there's a little marble sized watermelon on another branch to keep him company! These are "Sugar Baby" watermelons, only get about 8 to 12 pounds. I've been told by several people that watermelons are hard to grow. The first watermelon plant did die right away. And I've got all kinds of advice on this one! "Water it like crazy!" "Water it like crazy!" and "Put the watermelons up on straw." okay!
a neighbor's sunflowers. The sunflower plants growing in our plot got killed, but there are many other sunflowers in the community garden. |
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Garden, Recomitt
sun 12 sept 2010 | |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100912.html | |
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I have had a couple negative experiences at the Garden this year. Besides that, I hate to kill the "weeds", and also SO has done most of the work; this year and last year. I feel a little guilty about that. and. I have honestly thought about letting go of our Community Garden Plot. But it sounds like such a sacrilege...
Me as a vegan; I _should_ have a garden.
So. I've decided to pretend to be a Real gardener. I am going to kill some weeds. That is the start. Next, get educated. Apparently, there are these gardening "zone" things. There's this map on the back of seed packets that I totally ignore. I'm going to learn all about it. And I'm going to find a book about Veganic Gardening. And I'm going to find some seed catalogs. Apparently these still exist! |
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Booking Through... Currently
fri 24 sept 2010 | ||
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100924.html | ||
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Silent Spring by Rachel Carson 1962, the book that brought the insecticide DDT down. A very hard book to read, knowing how things have turned out: DDT may have been banned in the US, but it's still being made in other parts of the world. And thousands of other insecticides, herbicides, pesticides and other poisons are created and produced every year; by the tons. I've read to about page 100, and it's amazing anybody's still alive! All the "-icides" are seriously toxic to Every Living Being! When Silent Spring was written, insecticides had gotten everywhere... the loneliest mountain stream and every single person in the world contained (and still contain! and continue to acquire more! and new! and different!) traces of the poisons we have made. And these days, of course, frogs are going extinct, right after they grow three hands and no feet. It's just a matter of time before the humans follow suit. and it's our own damn fault. Cheerful reading, huh?! well, yeah, it's right up my Doomer alley! Anyway, it's classic Environmental reading, something everyone should read.
Yesterday, I received The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. It's my first gardening book and I started paging through it right away! It's not quite a "bible", but it does have a lot of good, basic information. (and pretty pictures!) And that's what I need. I'm going to inhale this book and try to figure out what my next gardening book needs to be!
(Veganic? ... Anyone? ... Anyone? ... ) Because I really am committed to pretending to be a real gardener! I killed some more "weeds" today. And I'm thinking about killing "weeds" tomorrow too. And I'm even thinking about mulch. Which doesn't even make sense to me, but I'm going to do it anyway because that's what real gardeners do!! :) |
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Veganic
sat 25 sept 2010 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/100925.html |
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∞
GoVeganic.net
∞
Vegan-Organic Growing
*deep breath* Looking though these websites makes me really
happy. Well, of course all things vegan make me happy.
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photo friday
fri 5 nov 2010 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2010/101105.html |
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So now the camera is with me, most of the time. Weird thing is, "oh that would make a brilliant photo" moments are not happening anymore. In fact, not only am I taking less pictures... I haven't taken Any pictures lately! So here is a completely non artistic picture of our community garden plot...
As you can see, we have started laying down cardboard to kill the Green Growing Things. Hope to get the entire plot covered. And then, if we get the chance, we will pile some leaves on top of that for perfect mulch over the winter. On the left side of the picture, down in front, the little splash of purple? That's a few remaining aster flowers! With mulch surrounding it, I'm confident it will come back next year. Which makes me happy. I bought a bunch of flower bulbs a while ago, too. I wonder when they will arrive. I can't even remember what all I bought! So that will be a delightful surprise when they get here. :) |
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