Projects/The Garden Post
I'm so behind on updates...
We hired a contractor to fix the garage. The roof shingles were blowing off in every storm, the paint had all peeled off due to the dumb primer/paint mistake the previous owners made, and the particle-board doors had rotted out.
So, nearly $7K later (tax refund), it has a roof and siding and new doors (this last we bought on Craigslist and installed ourselves; really not that bad). It only took us 6 years to do it. Back finally doesn't look like a dump; this is excellent.
I started a composter last year. We've put everything in it from kitchen waste to grass clippings and it's "eaten" it all despite rather infrequent turning. It could use more leaves now, I think, but on the whole it's been an amazing success.
We decided last year that we were tired of trying to grow grass in the front yard. We've started from scratch twice, we've watered, we've put down weed and grub suppressors - every year we wind up with mostly crab grass and a lot of bare spots. It doesn't make any damn sense, because you can't eat grass, and nothing else we grow needs that much damned babying. It's easier to grow tomatoes than grass. So, we're ripping out the grass and installing a cottage garden. I'm doing it mostly from seed/bulb to be more cost effective, so right now it looks like a half ripped up moon-scape, but I think it will look nice in the end.
I've put in liatris and tritoma bulbs, and I have hollyhocks started inside. I'm planning on putting mostly rudbeckia (black eyed susan) and painted daisies in the very front, because I think they'll take the abuse of people stepping on them, driving over them etc once established, and gaillardia and echinacea behind those. There are also some peonies (those were already there, but too close to the front so they got smashed before they could make any progress every year), and my lupine went to seed last year so I have 200 baby lupines in the back that can be moved around. I've stared some delphinium...not sure if they'll come up. Anyway, it'll be fun to have some room for flowers because the back has been devoted to vegetables - which I love, but I like flowers too.
Now that the siding is on the garage, I can turn over the bed closest to it and plant the fig tree we started from a cutting (about 18 inches high now) and some grapes I bought yesterday. I've already planted out my snow peas (started indoors) and there are some other seedlings ready to go out today as well. Tomatoes and lettuce we'll get at Alstede though. They have the best lettuce starts, and I think they have heirloom tomato starts as well. Tomatoes don't start strong from seed for me - it's hard to start them as early as the greenhouses do and still get enough light on them to get fat little plants instead of spindly ones, so those we'll just buy.
I also started two blueberry bushes. I thought about a self pollinator dwarf like TopHat, but the reviews I read weren't very good, so I wound up with a Bluecrop and a Jersey.
I love gardening.
We hired a contractor to fix the garage. The roof shingles were blowing off in every storm, the paint had all peeled off due to the dumb primer/paint mistake the previous owners made, and the particle-board doors had rotted out.
So, nearly $7K later (tax refund), it has a roof and siding and new doors (this last we bought on Craigslist and installed ourselves; really not that bad). It only took us 6 years to do it. Back finally doesn't look like a dump; this is excellent.
I started a composter last year. We've put everything in it from kitchen waste to grass clippings and it's "eaten" it all despite rather infrequent turning. It could use more leaves now, I think, but on the whole it's been an amazing success.
We decided last year that we were tired of trying to grow grass in the front yard. We've started from scratch twice, we've watered, we've put down weed and grub suppressors - every year we wind up with mostly crab grass and a lot of bare spots. It doesn't make any damn sense, because you can't eat grass, and nothing else we grow needs that much damned babying. It's easier to grow tomatoes than grass. So, we're ripping out the grass and installing a cottage garden. I'm doing it mostly from seed/bulb to be more cost effective, so right now it looks like a half ripped up moon-scape, but I think it will look nice in the end.
I've put in liatris and tritoma bulbs, and I have hollyhocks started inside. I'm planning on putting mostly rudbeckia (black eyed susan) and painted daisies in the very front, because I think they'll take the abuse of people stepping on them, driving over them etc once established, and gaillardia and echinacea behind those. There are also some peonies (those were already there, but too close to the front so they got smashed before they could make any progress every year), and my lupine went to seed last year so I have 200 baby lupines in the back that can be moved around. I've stared some delphinium...not sure if they'll come up. Anyway, it'll be fun to have some room for flowers because the back has been devoted to vegetables - which I love, but I like flowers too.
Now that the siding is on the garage, I can turn over the bed closest to it and plant the fig tree we started from a cutting (about 18 inches high now) and some grapes I bought yesterday. I've already planted out my snow peas (started indoors) and there are some other seedlings ready to go out today as well. Tomatoes and lettuce we'll get at Alstede though. They have the best lettuce starts, and I think they have heirloom tomato starts as well. Tomatoes don't start strong from seed for me - it's hard to start them as early as the greenhouses do and still get enough light on them to get fat little plants instead of spindly ones, so those we'll just buy.
I also started two blueberry bushes. I thought about a self pollinator dwarf like TopHat, but the reviews I read weren't very good, so I wound up with a Bluecrop and a Jersey.
I love gardening.