A Garden Green

Last weekend we dined on carnival carrots, bell peppers, and eggplant from the garden. I am looking forward to a large crop of carrots and parsnips. So, now is the time for us to consider sharing our bounty with those in need. Carrots keep for a while, are easy to prepare, and can be snacked on fresh or cooked into stew.

Also growing quite well are beets, peas, lettuce, and maybe even a few tiny tomatoes. Finally, tomatoes are fruiting! I never thought I would see the day.

I find myself thinking about building more beds with paving stones. It would be nice to build a little 2x4 foot bed for each of the little kids to grow a salad! The eggplant is still growing, flowering, and producing fruit. It has become a bit skinny and lost leaves with this recent chill and lack of rain. It did not occur to me when I planted it (novice!) that it was a perennial plant in this climate, but it sure is! The bed we have is really not designed for a large, long-lived plant. I've decided to try moving it at the end of the month. That means I will need a large, deep bed to plant it in.

Water is a continuing issue that is being discussed in the official meetings and such. Yes, there is a pond, pump, and whole setup back there. I tried priming and running the pump this week, and got no suction. I pulled the end of the pipe out of the pond and found the filter was fairly clear. I am clearly no expert, but I think the pump isn't working. Meanwhile, one of the watering cans gave out this week, so we are down to one. I enjoy the brute, earthy carrying of water buckets to the garden, but I am obviously the only one :)

I took the big little step, and signed the UUCB membership book today. I know! I've been here a nearly year and felt welcome from day one, but it just didn't seem necessary to make it official until recently.

What did we plant today?

Actually, that is a really good question. As you know, we are using the Square Foot Gardening technique (loosely). The fire ants colonized the bamboo we were using to partition off the squares, so we tossed those aside for everyone's safety. The beds are still planted in a square foot pattern, and as of now there are no empty squares. I didn't write down what we planted as we went, so from my poor memory... it might go like this:

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Green Bean	Bell Pepper
Celery (10/23)	???
Eggplant	Onion
Bell Pepper	Parsley
Leeks	Peas
Basil	Beets (10/23)
Carrots (10/23)	Green Bean
Raised Stone Bed (10/23)
Carrots (10/23)	Beets (10/23)
???	Kale (10/23)
???	Green Bean (10/23)
Lettuce (10/23)	Beets (10/23)
Bell Pepper (10/23)	Kale (10/23)
Parsnips (10/23)	???
Carrots (10/23)	Peas (10/23)

I admit, in the ??? spaces I can't even guess what we planed there. But there is, really, some seed there! There are only two spots labelled Empty/Available in the image above. If you have a hankering to plant something, tell me which of those two you want.

The Thank You Post

Today was the day I've been waiting months for... the compost is finally ready!

BIG THANKS to...

Richard, who rolled the heavy compost barrel all the way out to the garden and helped empty it into the second stone bed.

John, who mixed the compost into planting soil, leveled it all out, and put seeds in the ground.

Helen, who provided some tomato plants that will "grow like a tree." We planted them today as well.

Lisa, Stacy, and Max, Dan... everyone who has assisted with various odds and ends and advice.

Everyone else who brought matter for the compost bin. Without your rotting vegetables, our garden would not be possible!

Sunday Construction

Big thanks to Richard, John, and Lisa for deciding to move stones today. We managed to move 30 or so more paving stones to expand the garden bed. More of the same next week, and then we can fill it up with soil and plant some more stuff.

I set some more peas into the ground, hopefully these will do alright. We didn't harvest any eggplant today, even though 3 or 4 are growing now. Next week we should have a nice big eggplant dish. I'll go water tonight if it doesn't look like it will rain.

There were bees on the cantaloupe (muskmelon!) flowers today, so maybe things will be okay there after all. Flowers on the bell peppers are pretty little white/cream ones.

Our Garden Grows!

The weather cooperated again today, and I moved two loads of patio stones. I was sore and tired of dodging mosquitos to get the stones, so then I did some other work in the garden. I will get one more load of stones tomorrow, to give us a final 5-stone deep (about a foot) raised bed. I want it deep enough for carrots, and tall enough for people to sit on it and garden.

I went to dig up the compost heap and pile some nutrient-rich awesomeness into the nearly complete bed. Lo and behold, the compost was in use! Some of our stray cantaloupe seeds from the last couple weeks decided to sprout up and take residence. They were clustered in the center of the heap, where all the good stuff is. Well I decided to respect the interdependent web of existence, value the inherent worth and dignity of the melon vines, and envision a future with free cantaloupe every Sunday.

I cleared the covering leaves from the heap and carefully dug up 2 wheelbarrows of pretty good compost from around the plants. Then I transplanted the smaller plants a little further from the center to give them all plenty of room, and put back the covering leaves. I marked a larger area with some bamboo poles and added more leaves to compost for future melon plantings. The entire area is now our Melon Patch! I hope all the gardening will be this effortless.

Besides the cantaloupes, there are a few things that were already growing in the garden.

The mulberry tree.

This sad little banana plant.

Whatever this and this are. (Someone told me, and I forgot)

A whole bed of something that appeared with the rain. Possibly a weed, but maybe an herb? (I decided it was a weed, and pulled most of them)

Aspirations and Inspirations

I started going to the local Unitarian Universalist church earlier this year, and found a really nice community. The large community garden, however, had fallen into disuse. So I've spent the last few months formulating a plan and creating compost. I am, by no means, a skilled gardener, so this is all a huge learning experience for me.

There are large patio stones that were left in a pile when the stones were replaced with a recycled wood patio (or so I am told by reliable sources). The sandy soil here is (apparently) awful for gardening, with lots of parasitic nematodes and burrowing critters of all sorts. Today I started to build the raised bed out of those patio stones. It may not do my stone mason heritage proud, but I am pleased with the progress.

First I laid down some old chicken wire, and then a weed cloth over top. I made sure the patio stones covered at least 2 inches of the wire and cloth and held it down well. I'd say the stones are about 2 inches thick, and I plan to stack them 5 high. This way, those of us with bad knees or backs can sit and help plant, weed, and harvest if we would like.

first layer of stones

Next, I plan to utilize Square Foot Gardening techniques. I will need to get seeds, peat moss, and coarse vermiculite. Planting will start soon, and following these guidelines. I plan to start from seeds directly in the bed, because I have no idea where I would store seedlings in the meantime.

There are many challenges ahead, which I will detail in later posts, but I am up for it.