The Fruits of My Labor

I am a firm believer in working for one's rewards.  Fruit does taste better after you have worked and weeded, watered and sweat over the plants that produce them.  Nothing is sweeter than waking up on a cool summer morning, strolling out the garden and picking breakfast.  The only thing that beat me to the berries this morning was a bunny--trying to snatch a few blueberries from under the netting.  He quickly fled upon my arrival.

This is not the first year I have grown strawberries, but it is the first year I have gotten more than an handful of little berries for my efforts. But this year my efforts are indeed being rewarded.  I may have had to build raised beds to contain them, transplant them and weed them--and most importantly, construct a protective net covering for them to keep out the birds, bunnies, and deer--but it is all paying off.

Added to a little Greek style yogurt with a handful of granola, the fruits of my labor are indeed very sweet!

Forward Thinking Sedum

I have always been under the impression that sedum was a lover of heat and dry locations.

They are acclaimed for their drought tolerance. . .

I took that to mean that they would not do well in very wet weather. . .

I live in wet and cloudy Washington.

So when I made these hypertufa pots last year and planted sedum in them I thought they might drown over the winter.

Last month we got 200% of our average rainfall for the month.

Apparently these plants are storing up for the future.

Sowing and Sawing

In typical ADD fashion, we started the weekend with one project in mind, which we started, only to get sidetracked by another project or two.  But really, those other two projects were things we needed to wrap up.  The first was the never ending treehouse project, which we almost got done. I will post about that once it is entirely finished (Or read about our weekend working on it here).

After spending all day Friday working on the treehouse we decided to quickly plant the garden--after all, we had bought the plants and had some we'd been growing from seed all ready to be planted.  So as the sun was setting we ran around our now neat and tidy garden boxes tilling up the earth and planting lettuce and broccoli, spinach and cauliflower, tomatoes and peppers, basil and pumpkins--to add to the other herbs, potatoes, onions, strawberries and blueberries already planted.

There was only one thing left to plant, but it required a little construction.

So Saturday we woke up bright and early and started building the second tuteur (the first of which we built two weeks ago). Here's a quick snap shot procession of the process:

I had planned on planting beans on one and snap peas on the other but the family asked for just snap peas.  I obliged, but I kind of wish I had done beans on one.  Fresh beans from the garden are yummy--but I planted bush beans last year and they didn't eat them well (of course, I didn't often remember to pick them before they were too big!).

I can't wait for all those lovely vegies to grow in.  I am particularly excited to see the vines creeping up the tuteurs.

What are you planting in your garden this year?

The Garden Project: Update

This spring marks the third year of our efforts to turn our raised bed garden into a. . . raised bed garden.

Why all the time and effort to make something we already had? you might ask.  Because we are making it better, I tell you. Here is a reminder of our progress (this is as much for my benefit as for yours--we take so long to get things done that I sometimes forget where we started!)

When we moved in the side yard had three raised beds with roses and a few other various bulbs and bushes, and a tall fir tree that was sort of sickly.  This picture is the only picture I took with it in it. . .

And yes, it's there.  See that line along the left side of the picture? Not the best, I know.  I took this picture the day we looked at the house back in August of 2007.  We moved in a couple months later and before the end of the year the tree was gone.  (We took out a tree in the back yard that had put a hole in our roof and decided to take this one out too since the neighbors had expressed concern about the possibility of it coming down their direction).

Of course it fell on the only raised box that wasn't rotten. . . and smashed all the roses ( though I planted their remains elsewhere and they have since recovered).  So the following summer we had to start from scratch.  Here is a montage of our progress the first year:

And then we did nothing but let the weeds grow in.  We plunked a couple tomato plants amidst the weeds and called it a day, er year.


The following year required a lot of reclaiming efforts.  And we also had the stump ground out--and discovered a massive network of narly roots, including one the size of a tree trunk.  Our well equipped neighbor brought his truck and chains over to drag it out. Then we swore our way through five of the boxes before calling it good for a year.  We grew some from seed (most of which perished) and some from little plants we bought at the nursery.  Mostly it was a year of discovering what we would eat and what was fun to plant but which no one was interested in eating--oh, and we learned never to buy pumpkin plants called "trickster".  Unless of course you want 23 pumpkins that will fit in the palm of your hand!

AND, never wait too long to put your tomatoes in cages.  When they didn't have any at the first store I went to I put it off and had mass mountains of tomato plants.  Not good, I tell you. But the end of the season left me with a freezer full of tomato pepper soup and basil pesto and a cupboard full of dried herbs--YUM.

This year we got started early thanks to some very welcome early spring weather.  And I like to think our procrastination was actually brilliant planning on our part, because this year the roots were all decayed and pulled out like a dream.  The soil was all nice and rich and we whipped those last three boxes out in a couple weekends.  Of course, since the bed was mounded up in the middle it required us to dig down a foot to make the boxes level--which was surprisingly easy.  Then we covered the pathways with gravel to make it cleaner and help with weed prevention. I even got started planting already. So far the potatoes and onions are in, and my strawberries are all transplanted to their own little box.  Can't wait to plant more and to get my bean tuteurs up (they will go on each end of the row along the garage).  Maybe Saturday.

Now you are all up to speed.  Hopefully this year my garden will be prolific AND beautiful.

What are your garden plans this year?

Moon Garden

I'm dreaming of spring.  In my dream there are lots of flowers. . . white flowers.  I love white--white dishes, white decor, white tipped toe nails, white clothes, white sheets, and white flowers.

I have an area of dirt on the side of my house that is screaming for attention.  I have ignored it for the past two years because I had it in the back of my mind that we were going to put an addition there.  Maybe, maybe not.  Not soon by any means.  So I am making a plan.  A plan for a moon garden.

I did not know that is what all white gardens were called until I started googling white flowers.  I have a few in mind:  Hydrangeas, ranunculus, peonies, sweet woodruff, lily of the valley, delphinium, camellias, crocuses. . . all in white.  Great profusions of white.  I want enough that I can cut some and fill my house with white flowers in white pitchers.

And in my side garden I want a white picket fence with a little white gate that beckons to the back yard.

Doesn't that sound lovely.

Hypertufa Pots

I finally made the hypertufa pots (sometimes called troughs) I have been talking about for over a year. . . and I LOVE them.  I may make more at some point, but the ones I wanted first were to line my front walk.

First you need to decide what forms you will use for your pots.  You can use buckets or boxes or a cooler or whatever, you just need to cover them in plastic so the cement mixture does not stick to it.  I wanted two the same shape and size so I used some very large cardboard boxes to make four smaller boxes--two to fit inside the other two with a 2 inch gap.

Next you need to ingredients:

Peat Moss

Perlite

Portland Cement (pure portland cement)

Mix and a 1:1:1 ratio. 

Add water a little at a time until your mixture is at about cottage cheese consistency:

Pour into bottom of box or other form and then place the inside box onto it and fill the sides.  At this point you could make dowels the thickness you want your pot to be (mine is 2") and stick them in the bottom--this will also keep your upper box in the proper place so it doesn't get too close to the lower box.

My upper box keep wanting to lift up so I filled it with a enough bricks to keep the edges even and the bottoms two inches apart.  I also placed logs around the edges to keep the sides from bowing too much.  If you have a hard container this won't be much of a problem.

Then you cover it with plastic and let cure for 24 - 48 hours depending on the size.  Mine was rather large so I let it sit for two days.

Remove from form:

The edges will be crisp where they met box or plastic.  To make it look old, like the old animal trough it is trying to simulate, I roughed up the edges and sides with a wire brush--Rob got me started:

See! No more crisp edges.  Now it looks older. . . and better.

While it is still kind of soft (it is not totally dry at this point) drill a hole or two in the bottom for drainage (unless you went the dowel route).

Now let is cure for 3-5 days, keeping wet by spraying down with water a couple times a day to help it cure.  Portland cement actually become harder and more durable when exposed to water.

Then plant!  Here is mine in front of my house filled with two kinds of sedum:

I am all about symmetry so I placed one on each side of the walk. . . the very dirty walk.  (Next project: Clean up front walk!)

Living in Washington I probably don't need to bother doing anything to encourage moss to grow on my pots, but I may anyway.  To do that, mix in a blender a chunk of moss with either beer or yogurt and brush on the surface of the pot.  I will let you know if I try one of those and it works.  For now I like the way they look and may just let them age naturally.

While I was looking for succulents to plant in my pots I came across instructions on making a living succulent wreath. . . I have become intrigued. . . I think I have another project on my to do list. . . 

Let me know if you try a pot and tell my how it turns out!

A Vegetable Garden Journey Part 3

The beds have been filled with dirt.

My little seedlings were not 100% successful.  About a third died and many of the rest don't seem to be growing much.  I even broke down and bought a few replacement plants.  

I decided to plant everything I had left and see what happens.  I never claimed to be good at this!  What I lack in proficiency I make up for in enthusiasm. . . too bad you can't eat enthusiasm.

Obviously I have a lot of work to do to make my garden look lovely, but at least they are functional.  We plan on putting a couple more beds against the garage . . .as soon as Rob doesn't remember how much work the other five were! 

In the meantime, let's just hope my plants don't get eaten by the bunnies . . .and deer. . . and birds. . .and bugs. . .and moles.  

A Vegetable Garden Journey

First, how old am I?  Geez, one day working in the yard and I feel like I might be broken.  That is some sad commentary on my physical fitness of late.  I blame it on the homework.

Anyhow, in an effort to avoid said homework--and prepare a home for these:

We worked on our side yard trying to prepare for a raised bed garden.  When we moved in there was one tall spindly pine tree over there and three sad looking raised beds.  The tree came down on one and the other two were rotten--so we tore them all out.  Last year all we managed to do was throw a few vegetables in the dirt pile and call it quits.

This year I have bigger ambitions.  Here is where we were this morning:

Things were going fine until we ran into this:

We ground out most of the stump last year but apparently we missed this little lovely number.  Hours of shoveling and axing and digging and a little chainsawing. . .  and we had exposed a big chunk, but little else.  Our very nice neighbor came over and offered his assistance--and his truck. . . and chains.  (Note the rake for size reference--that bad boy was huge.)

Voila!  Out it came. Yeah!

Then we set to work putting in our first raised bed.  But everywhere we tried to dig for the corner posts we hit roots under the surface. 

 

FINALLY, a few feet farther forward than we intended, we have one bed.  

And we got a little eager so we transplanted our lonely blueberry bush into it.  We will buy it some friends.  For now I hope it lives through the traumatic five foot move.  If we had more lumber we would have built another one in like twenty minutes.  The area against the garage is all ready to go.  We started with the worst corner. . . I hope.

During our excavation we rescued a handful of chive plants, my garlic plants, and three mysterious bulbs that I will plant in a pot and see what comes out.  Whew!  

Now it is a race to see if the beds are ready before the 70 odd plants I have growing in little peat pots need to be planted.  I will be sure to post our progress.