Tag: Garden 2009

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090404.html
Entry #1 of x on this page (tagged: garden, april)

Loads of errands today. I am a homebody and I hate errands. My only consolation was the fact that I got to wear my Peaceful Prairie sweater all over town. heh.

The one place that I actually wanted to go... to check out our new garden plot at the community garden. It's a bit over a mile away, but I had to drive because Significant Other is sporting crutches these days.

And unfortunately, he wasn't able to get out to the plot because it had rained and the ground was too soft for the crutches.

And unfortunately, I wasn't able to figure out which plot was ours. laughs. I had forgotten the map of where our plot is supposed to be and the actual plots aren't numbered or marked in any way. So I had to guess which way to point my camera. And I guessed wrong.

So, yeah. I'm not going to show the photo of our neighbor's garden plot. It was mostly just mulched down, a few "weeds" growing at the edges. Not very exciting, after all.

Seeing people out at their own plots, the dogs waiting for them at the sidelines, that was nice. I suppose I'll have to go out and buy some seeds or something soon...

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090425.html
Entry #2 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, april)

Managed to get out to our Community Garden plot today... Here's what the big pile of wild plants looks like:

All of the neighboring plots are all nice brown dirt with nice rows of little growing things.

Our plot is all over grown, with trash and rock piles and stupid bamboo sticks laying about. sighs. Should have started earlier, thats for sure, the "weeds" would not have been so bad. The trash and junk was left by the former occupant, and I don't know what we're supposed to do with it!

Oh well. Significant Other "broke ground" and started digging up the plants in one corner. And I mostly just watched him. It's hard work! And I didn't feel the need to exert myself since I have a day job that requires the use of my hands and heavy lifting! heh.

Anyway. The plot is 20x30 feet, and SO dug up about a 10x10 section. We brought a few seeds to plant, but we hadn't removed any of the weeds. And I wanted to leave before either of us hurt ourselves!!

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090501.html
Entry #3 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, may)

Wow, what a great day!

At the day job, they had a pizza party for lunch. And they ordered me a vege pizza with no cheese! :) The day was nice enough that we got to eat outside. And a good, happy time was had by all!

After work, Significant Other met me at our community garden plot (him driving from home and me biking from work). I was there for moral support, mostly just watching SO take out weeds. :)

Next time we do that, tho, I'll be sure to bring a Clif bar or something to munch on. I usually get dinner right after work, and it's surprising how quickly I get grumpy when I'm starving to death! ;|

Anyway, SO got a lot done in the garden...

And I am very pleased about that! We have a good collection of stuff to plant, if we ever actually get to that point! ha.

And now it's the weekend. I brought home a good handful of new markers from the day job! I am terribly excited about playing with them!

And my crochet project is slowly but surely getting bigger. A couple new books to read. Some photography to play with. My April paper journal to finish and bind up.

And the continuing blogging, of course. I don't know: I feel a little bit crazy to do two months in a row of daily blogging. But I've really been enjoying typing here, most days. So I'm going to keep going.

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090508.html
Entry #4 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, may)

Ah, weekend! Much to do! Fortunately it's mostly fun stuff!

And we started with the garden, this afternoon. Significant Other seemed a bit grumpy about killing the weeds (hard work) so we planted some stuff instead! Yay, plantings!

My Mom had sent some green onions. And I got some baby garlics from my day job. All planted. And then we sprinkled some wildflower seeds, "Beneficial Bug Mix".

I must admit, planting things is much more fun than killing weeds! *laughs*

And I'm excited to see what will come up with the Bug Mix... The mix has 18 plants in it, including Black-Eyed Susan, Forget-Me-Not, Cilantro, Dill, Daisy, Poppy, a few that I won't recognize and a few I've never heard of before! It will be a learning experience, and that makes me happy.

Also, I'm thinking about starting a Garden Journal. To show the "before" photos and diagrams of what is planted where and the lists of our wildflowers and the empty seed packets.

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090515.html
Entry #5 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, may)

oof. I went to work. And then I went to the garden. And Significant Other was chopping down weeds. And I was raking them up.

And then, all of a sudden, I didn't want to work anymore! I'm tired! Very Very tired.

eh, I can barely type I'm so tired!

Anyway. The garlic starts that we planted last friday are wilted. So I stole our neighbor's garden hose and gave them some water. It doesn't look like any of the Beneficial Bug Mix have come up either.

I guess I need to buy a hose. And start visiting the garden more than once a week. I got some peas for my birthday, and I've not even planted them yet! And I can't wait to gather up peas from the garden!! ha!

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090524.html
Entry #6 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, may)

Significant Other and I biked over to the garden yesterday. SO just recently acquired his bike and it was his first ride over there!

It ended up that we did not have to go to the mediation... the problem that our plot neighbors had was corrected. I'm glad everything got worked out. And I'm also glad that I did not have to witness any angry gardeners...

Gardening is a stress reliever, right? But maybe the hard core gardeners get kind of rabid! *wink*

Anyway. SO is still working hard to clear out our weeds. We're down to a patch about 10x12 feet, maybe. The weeds are Very established at this point so it's seriously hard work to take them out of the ground!

And I worked on the weeds that were coming back in the areas SO had already cleared. Much easier work when they're little like that. (Lesson learned for next year!)

And we planted a few rows of peas. The other things we planted -- garlic starts, green onion bulbs, and a Beneficial Bug Seed Mix -- are not really doing anything. It's stopped raining, so we'll have to start watering if anything's going to grow. Besides the weeds that is! :)

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090607.html
Entry #7 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, june)

Tiger Eye. Purple verbena in the back, and peach verbena just barely visible in top left corner.

We also got two tomato plants: an Oregon Spring tomato and a Brandywine tomato. Two butternut squash starts. and two strawberry plants.

Hopefully the big wildflower patch in the front of the garden will grow into something beautiful.

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090621.html
Entry #8 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, june)

Yesterday, in my postcard excitement, I thought I would start with a list of all the postcards I needed to make and send out. And the list grew to 26. And all of a sudden, I was not excited about making postcards: now it seems more like work!

ha. Instead, I relaxed most of the saturday... reading magazines, doing backend web site stuff, and napping. And today has gone about the same!

This is the tiger eye flower that we got at Saturday Market on 6 june... I just love how happy it is!

My mom bought this flower for me at Saturday Market. It's a Chinese Balsam with camelia flowers. (There was a Chinese Balsam with snap dragon type flowers, too.) I hope it lives!

We are now up to six different kinds of tomato plants in the garden. *rolls eyes* I don't even like tomatoes that much, but Significant Other just wanted to plant them! ;)

Some of our new plants were donated to our community garden by a local wholesale nursery, Log House Plants. Yay: thank you for the free tomato plants! Also got a cucumber and a cilantro. :) Check out their newsletter... colourful and informative, I've already learned things. Like you can eat kale flower buds like broccoli!

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090706.html
Entry #9 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, july)

Significant Other and I went down to the garden yesterday, but I forgot to bring my camera. So you'll just have to believe me when I say my Tiger Eye flower looks incredible, with five or six blooms. heck, maybe more.

SO is very good about going down to the garden every day to water the plants. Except over the weekend, we got lazy and didn't go on friday or saturday. With the stupid heat wave we were in (93°F / 34°C, bleh!) I was worried that all the plants would be droopy and dying.

But they were all perfectly fine. Either they have good roots or all the weeds protected them from the evil sun. :) ha.

One of our tomato plants has died: the Oregon Spring tomato we got at Saturday Market. But still there are five others, and the Cherry tomato plant has several tiny tomatoes growing on it. Yay.

Each of the two strawberry plants has a single blossom. :) The Cilantro is blooming, so hopefully we will have loads of little cilantros next year. Four cucumber plants and two butternut squashes are still small but busy growing.

None of the broccolis came up, neither did the green onions, and the garlic starts have withered away. But my wild flowers are looking lovely... all kinds of flowers and I don't even know what they are!

I do think we have several (volunteer) sunflowers growing. This makes me very happy, but SO wonders why he has to water "weeds". ha, I think our weeds are the best.

Nobody has weeds like we do, that's for sure. laughs.

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090710.html
Entry #10 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, july)

I wandered down to our community garden plot today after work, and Significant Other met me there with my camera!

Oh sweet weeds. laugh. Yeah, okay, I love the weeds. The day job wore me out today, so I was too tired to even pull up the ones that might strangle the "real" plants. eh. maybe later this weekend.

The Tiger Eye is so lovely and happy. I'm glad we planted it in the front of the garden so everyone who walks by can see it!

One of the strawberry plants. Both of the strawberry plants have a couple tiny strawberries growing! Oh, yay!

And a random wildflower growing on the left side wildflower patch. Don't know what he is.

On the right side wildflower patch there is some kind of daisy plant which has taken over where the garlic and green onions used to be. And I think there was a Poppy in there as well.

I should look at the list of species in the wildflower seeds I threw down and figure out what everything is!

∞  Current Email Total: 146

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090717.html
Entry #11 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, july)

Yay, Significant Other and I ate our first crops today, grown in our very own community garden plot! Two pea pods and they were sweet and tasty!!

The five tomato plants all seem to be doing okay. Except the cherry tomato that we got from Saturday Market, which is doing wonderfully, with little green tomatoes all over the place!

The two strawberry plants we got are getting ever more busy with blooms. The cilantro is starting to make seeds I think. The volunteer sunflowers are about waist high or more. And all of the flowers we bought are still blooming.

But they are all becoming overwhelmed by the weeds. Guess I'll have to do some killing this weekend, darn it.

∞  Current Email Total: 98

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090720.html
Entry #12 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, july)

Dang. I just can't figure out what to type about today! I think the heat fried my brains today at the day job. oh well.

Do I at least have a photo to show you? hm, okay.

It's the purple verbena flowers, with water drops. I had to peel back the weeds to find them! :)

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090802.html
Entry #13 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, august)

Our first sunflower! oh, it makes me incredibly happy... we didn't plant any sunflowers, but a few of them came up. and they are so cheerful.

The weeds have totally taken over. I killed a few this morning so that we could find the strawberry plants again.

Our dirt is so soft that the weeds pull out without any trouble at all. Unfortunately, when SO was pulling weeds around the tomato plants, he accidently pulled up one of our butternut squash plants. :( I felt so bad for him.

There were still some roots on the plant tho, plus some new roots growing out of the first node up. We re-planted it and I have high hopes that it will live. We might not get any butternuts from it, but you never know...

The bees are buzzing constantly around our weeds. :) And some of the wildflowers in the left side patch are blooming. Some California Poppies... love the bright, fluorescent orange. And a Corn Poppy... the petals remind me of crumpled paper.

And in other exciting news, our community gardens now have a social network. Unfortunately it's completely private, which is a shame because there are already loads of wonderful photos.

But I'm glad to have another website where I can spread my cyber self.

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090904.html
Entry #14 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, september)

So. The story of the garden. The "weeds" may have taken over in August. I think I mentioned that I cleared out the weeds to find the strawberry plants. And then I had to clear out the weeds to find the cucumber plant. And then I may have kind of given up.

And then we got a notice...

"This garden plot is posted for pending abatement action because it contains weeds or grass over 18 inches tall..." blah, blah, blah.

I'm not exactly sure what "abatement" is, but it sounded bad. So Significant Other and I spent the weekend clearing out the ... wildflowers.

It made me and the bees sad. But I planted some marigolds and lavender. We kept our sunflowers because they were so happy and I just couldn't bear to live without them.

But Then: three of our sunflower plants, the great big huge ones, were destroyed this week. By management, I suppose, since they were right next to the fence.

I was upset when SO told me... And I'm still terribly sad about the precious sunflowers. I was so fond of them. We still have the three shorter sunflowers. Plus the new flowers we planted.

I guess I'll live.

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090908.html
Entry #15 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, september)

I took this photo of our happy cucumber plant at the end of august. This is the cucumber plant I found when I started clearing out the weeds... since it had grown UP, and the weeds were actually holding it up, I decided to put it in our extra tomato cage. And it has done really well, as you can see.

I did find two more cucumber plants in the weeds... but they are a little bit sad that they have to live on the ground.

I very much like cucumbers... but there are only so many cucumber sandwiches you can eat, to be honest. :) So I'm glad we only have a couple plants growing.

While I was taking pictures of the water on Significant Other's green tomatoes... I had an epiphany: I suddenly realized that I really, really loved taking photos of green tomatoes.

I was thinking about how the shadowed leaves looked so interesting, and about the knobby stems, and the water drops were catching bits of the blue sky.

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/archive2009/090911.html
Entry #16 of 16 on this page (tagged: garden, september)

I was late getting out of work today. Crisis right at the time I was leaving. of course, "crisis" was noticed by me, therefore "crisis" had to be taken care of by me.

And, yes, I saved the warehouse from being blown up.

Literally!

So everyone in North America who likes Copic markers better be thanking me!

Late getting to the garden for the rendezvous with Significant Other, he met me at the gate with bad news. the Chinese Balsam, which has been blooming wonderfully since we got it at Saturday Market in June, is going to perish. The weeds had been holding it up, and it's been droopy since we cleared them out. It was crazy top heavy with blooms. And finally the stem just broke.

oh well. I'm wondering about the seed pods. And I'm definitely going to buy another next year, if I see it again at the Market.

In the meanwhile, the cosmos are blooming. (That's the photo above.) And SO's cherry tomato plant has millions of little tomatoes. They are about the size of big marbles, and they are so yummy.

Static8 > Journal > 2009 Archive > Tag: Garden