Tags
Gardening
gardening excitement
Carl and I have been weeding the garden like mad the last few days. Out of the 500 square feet, a good 150 (if not more) of it had weeds. I assume it’s because we brought in a bunch of topsoil last year, but all the same, it’s quite annoying. I think most all of it is clear of weeds now, thank goodness. And we have vegetables growing! Some tomatoes on about half the plants, a few bell peppers on a couple of the plants, butternut squash, some melons (I don’t remember which kind I planted there, so we’ll just guess when they’re ripe), zucchini, cucumbers, and artichokes! One of the squash plants has started annexing the schoolyard behind our house, which is quite fun. Squash extended about ten feet into the schoolyard a couple years ago, causing the mowers to mow around it. The butternut squash plant in question is growing out of the compost, so it’s terrifically happy and producing lots of squash. The lettuce has just about gone to seed, as has the arugula. I don’t know what’s going on with the kale - it’s nearly inedible from being so tough, so if anyone has suggestions on what to do with it, let me know. I think that about covers what we are growing - a few more types of squash and melons, and then the asparagus is nice and bushy, so lots of nutrients are getting to the roots. And the potatoes and sweet potatoes are coming along nicely. Last night, we had lambchops from our meat CSA in a marinade of lemon juice, garlic, and oregano, and we had roasted beets. The beets are better when they’re wrapped in foil and roasted that way, but these were okay. It was our first time having lambchops - they were absolutely delicious, and I look forward to having them again. I made GF crepes for breakfast - also delicious. All in all, life is good, and I’m happy with how things are going. I haven’t done much sewing recently, but I’ll get back to that.
Jun 2012peppers
I fear I’ve killed off a lot of my pepper plants, both through pulling them up with weeds (we have weeds that look remarkably like pepper plants) and now through the cold. I’m quite disappointed. Maybe I’ll try putting some seeds straight in the ground later this weekend, once it has warmed up a little more. I’ve heard that peppers do better when started inside, but I can’t wait at this point. Also, I have SO MANY tomato plants. We’ll cage them in the next few days. Mmm.
May 2012Garden Excitement
Carl and I have been busy in the garden. It’s been lots of fun. I’ve planted: lots of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, melons, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, lettuce (which is bolting), rhubarb, amaranth, and, naturally, borage. My herbs are safely in their herb boxes, and Carl built me a box just for basil. Our artichokes from last year are coming back! And our strawberries are doing great. And our raspberries are coming in. I’ve taken some pictures of some plants in the yard, in our flowerbed, and my lavender bed. My lavender is blooming, and it’s awesome.
Apr 2012another long absence
I’m sure you’ve all been dying to know what I’ve been doing for the last six months, so here’s the update. I left my job and started my own firm, so that’s cool. I’m doing estate planning, though right now, I’m doing pretty much anything. In February, I started a bunch of seeds, and this year, I decided to do better than last year, where all my seedlings either died or ended up really leggy. I got a grow light and some heating pads, and we set up a table in the basement as my grow station. I know what it sounds like, but I promise it’s legit. I’ve planted 5 types of lettuce, spinach (which didn’t germinate, oddly), 5 types of carrots, kohlrabi, arugula, lots of different pepper, dill, parsley, cilantro, basil (a bunch of different kinds), mustard, chives, eggplant (including an African variety - yum), lots of tomatoes, thyme, little strawberries, cucumber, a few different squashes, and other things. I’m SO excited. Some of them have made it into the garden, but a lot of things are still waiting downstairs. I’ve been surprised at how much water they need, but considering the light and the heating pads, I guess I shouldn’t be. Outside, everything seems to be doing really well. Our grapes and (female) kiwi came back (we got a new male kiwi yesterday), the agastache is really happy, we’ve had asparagus, coming up, the raspberries and blueberries are turning into something recognizable, my herb boxes are doing well, and the strawberry patch is blooming. We built another raised bed and planted a bunch of flowers in it. I think Carl is going to build me a basil box to add on to the raised bed. That will be exciting. I’ve been baking quite a bit as well. I made eggplant parmesan a few weeks ago, which was delicious. And I still make my sourdough bread about once every other week. I’ve progressed to adding rosemary and olive oil or cheese to it. I want to try adding lemon thyme to it as well. I think I’m going to make a double chocolate crumb cake this week, so I’ll keep you all updated. I have the best husband ever, the dogs are great, and I have independence in my career. Things are going well!
Oct 2011Still harvesting!
This year has been really hard for our garden. We lost pretty much all our squash, cucumbers, zucchini, watermelons, cantaloupes, and cauliflower, and our tomatoes and peppers did not produce as much as they did last year. And our corn failed, and our broccoli never got off the ground… literally. It was a depressing summer garden-wise. However, this fall is apparently turning out great! Beans are coming in (I pulled one to see if they’re ready for harvesting), tomatillos are ripening, carrots are getting big, tomatoes are still happening, I found some red peppers today, and… we have HUGE sweet potatoes coming in. It’s quite exciting. I’m baking one right now, and I cut another one up to make chips. So here is a picture of my pride of the day - yay!
Oct 2011Bulb planting time
Last weekend, we planted a lot of bulbs on the side of our house. We are hoping to have bearded irises bloom in the spring and saffron in the fall. We are going to harvest our own saffron threads once they are ready. So excited. Daffodils also bloom over in that bed, and we will plant some allium bulbs and some other summer-blooming flowers so that we have blooms basically from March through October or November. Awesome, right? Once we get everything in the ground, I will post what exactly is in there and when it should (hopefully) bloom. We may need to supplement the late summer time period. I don’t think we have any bulbs coming for then. Any suggestions?