E-I-E-I-O
I am feeling somewhat better today; not spectacular, but back to same-old same-old level. THANK YOU for your kindness and wishes and love. Today I'm up for going back and responding to your comments.
One of the things that has helped me immensely is my new garden. I haven't told you about my garden, have I? I've wanted to make a garden in a sunny spot in the Summanulla back yard since I moved in. I had to insist on creating it in the face of a year of bafflement from Boy and the Mad Engineer.
Summanulla sits on a granite outcrop in New England, which means I'm fighting against six inches of acid topsoil covered by more than a decade of oak leaves and pine needles sitting on top of pure rock. The solution? RAISED BEDS. I built up beds bordered by freecycled brick. I turned the soil with a pitchfork to loosen it and dug up rocks from the size of golf balls to the size of MY HEAD. I'm building better soil by tilling in humus, decomposed cow manure and specialty garden soil,and amending the soil with eggshells and fireplace ash to adjust the pH. The Mad Engineer keeps worms to manage our food waste. He's just been scattering the castings randomly in the yard, but worm castings are the best natural fertilizer besides cow shit, so I've told him he's giving them to me.
I'm planting oregano, basil, rosemary and sage. A bit later this season I'll plant spinach, salad greens and broccoli from seed. I also got a tomato plant from Home Depot, along with a tiny pathetic pot of pickling cumber vine that was the last one in the whole garden center. It looked like Charlie Brown's christmas tree and nobody wanted it, so I named it Charlie Brown. It died within two days, and my tomato has fungus. When I looked up the MA ag extension sites, it said the retail chains have crappy plants this year because of the weird weather patterns, and that if you want good transplants go with the expensive nurserys or plant from seed. Which, duh. I am never buying plants from Home Depot again.
So there you go. Ol' Arachnid has a ... well, not a farm; this year it's little more than an herb garden, but it's a start!
This entry was originally posted at http://spiderine.dreamwidth.org/537231.html. There are
comments over there. I've disabled LJ's Facebook and Twitter cross-posting idiocy as much as I can, but if you're especially concerned, feel free to comment there.
One of the things that has helped me immensely is my new garden. I haven't told you about my garden, have I? I've wanted to make a garden in a sunny spot in the Summanulla back yard since I moved in. I had to insist on creating it in the face of a year of bafflement from Boy and the Mad Engineer.
Summanulla sits on a granite outcrop in New England, which means I'm fighting against six inches of acid topsoil covered by more than a decade of oak leaves and pine needles sitting on top of pure rock. The solution? RAISED BEDS. I built up beds bordered by freecycled brick. I turned the soil with a pitchfork to loosen it and dug up rocks from the size of golf balls to the size of MY HEAD. I'm building better soil by tilling in humus, decomposed cow manure and specialty garden soil,and amending the soil with eggshells and fireplace ash to adjust the pH. The Mad Engineer keeps worms to manage our food waste. He's just been scattering the castings randomly in the yard, but worm castings are the best natural fertilizer besides cow shit, so I've told him he's giving them to me.
I'm planting oregano, basil, rosemary and sage. A bit later this season I'll plant spinach, salad greens and broccoli from seed. I also got a tomato plant from Home Depot, along with a tiny pathetic pot of pickling cumber vine that was the last one in the whole garden center. It looked like Charlie Brown's christmas tree and nobody wanted it, so I named it Charlie Brown. It died within two days, and my tomato has fungus. When I looked up the MA ag extension sites, it said the retail chains have crappy plants this year because of the weird weather patterns, and that if you want good transplants go with the expensive nurserys or plant from seed. Which, duh. I am never buying plants from Home Depot again.
So there you go. Ol' Arachnid has a ... well, not a farm; this year it's little more than an herb garden, but it's a start!
This entry was originally posted at http://spiderine.dreamwidth.org/537231.html. There are
comments over there. I've disabled LJ's Facebook and Twitter cross-posting idiocy as much as I can, but if you're especially concerned, feel free to comment there.