Michael and Jaspenelle

Garden Tour

Photo intensive garden update time. Enter at your own bandwidth’s risk!

Do you remember what bed A looked like just a month ago? Now look at it!

Carrots and onions and green beans, oh my! Ignore that empty square in the back left corner. My cilantro bolted while we were at the Pagan Campout (I still need to blog about that don’t I?) so I pulled it up. Never fear though, I have the new crop already sprouting in bed B (photo to the right.) But while we are on the topic of bed B…
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Spring Showers

I love living in the Inland Northwest. I love living in a place that has amazing seasons changes and where I can feel the wheel of the year in action. I love the general timing of these changes here and how just when I begin to tire of one, the wheel turns. Admittedly Spring has taken the most adaptation on my part. There can be thunder, hail and snow all at once and then five minutes later the sun emerges so full of energy that the temperature jumps 15°F in 10 minutes, only for there to be a hard frost that night.

The gardener in me cringes somewhat at spring in Spokane but the dirty worshipping witch in me dances in the rain, laughs into the wind and basks in the radiant sun (all in the space of an hour mind you.) Soon enough summer will be here and the gardener will be appeased with zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and more though.

This weekend we will be camping with friends, assuming all of the Stewart household are healthy (Damian just healed from a head cold and so far Michael and I seem to have been mostly spared.) The forecast for Utopialaughastan* is expected to be 80°F and sunny so hopefully that will banish any remaining vestiges of illness on our part. With fingers crossed for good health, I can’t wait!

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* Utopialaughastan, aka New Geyershire, is 40 acres out near Moses Lake that our friend recently purchases. This will be our first trip out there as a group and we will be clearing an area for camping and blessing the land. Oh yes, there will be photos.

Frost Warnings and Names

Got to love the mad dash to protect the seedlings when late season hard frosts threaten. Since I covered everything and the world revolves around me, it did not happen of course. Not that I am complaining, after all, how cool is it to have the world revolve around you?

I placed the boxes around each transplant and filled them loosely with shredded newspaper to keep my tender green babies insulated. I find this method works well, I can store the boxes the next morning and either spread the shreddings around like mulch (they break down very quickly) or toss them in the compost as brown material.

On a seperate matter I am still working on a name for our little rented homestead. I want it to be something simple that reflects our beliefs without being horribly cliche. The hard part is finding just the right combination of words that reflects our little family. Small Steps Stead was an early though (reflecting children as well as our small steps towards a more eco-conscious life as well as owning a some land outside the city) but I don’t know…

Does your home, farm, ranch or even apartment have a name? How did it come to be?

Transplants

This weekend my raised beds and I spent some quality time together.

I transplanted 3 black beauty zucchini because I am a sucker for punishment, 5 sugar pie pumpkins because I adore giant orange things, cilantro and red onions and yellow onions. I also have purple haze carrots and mammoth dill directly sown and hopefully working towards giving me an abundant crop.

On Friday we had some friends over, including the lovely Laurie and Ben. They brought us a couch and several transplants for us. I transplanted the chives, garlic chives, triple curled parsley and tarragon but am waiting another week before I transplant the tomatoes (Giant Valentine, Black Krim, Stupice) and ground cherries. Better safe then sorry, the lemon cucumbers and basil I started will be waiting another week before transplanting as well.

All the seeds I started this year were planted in cardboard egg cartons and so far it seems to have worked pretty well. The roots of the pumpkins were starting to grow through the cardboard, so I didn’t even both removing them from the cups when I transplanted them. I think that they will degraded just fine. If I wanted to grow larger transplants (like if I start my tomatoes indoors next year) they will need to move up to a larger container but for the small starts egg cartons seem to work great.

(Mmmmm tomatoes… Grow my pretties, grow!)

The hardest part about growing your own food is waiting for it to be ready I noticed a few flower buds on the ground cherry transplant this morning and I think that just heightens the anticipation. Come wild plant spirits of my garden, grow!

Garden Trellises

(This cute little pea plant is brought to you by Wishymom on Flickr. I love the Flickr creative commons search. I love Wishymom for allowing her work to be shared under it.)

Feeling under the weather today and Damian is napping so I figure this is as good of time as ever to pour some thoughts into a blog post.

I have been considered various options for supporting my climbing plants this summer. Vertical gardening lends itself well to raised beds as it is a fantastic space saver and keeps tender fruit (like tomatoes) from being attacked on the ground.

I have three crops which could use some kind of trellis, heirloom tomatoes (I do not want to stake them and can’t afford large cages), lemon cucumbers, and yard long beans. Initially I was just going to grow the tomatoes on a bamboo trellis (similar is design to this one), let the cucumbers meander across the ground and teepee the beans, but now I am reconsidering a potentially cheaper option that would allow me to grow them all vertically, nylon trellis netting. From the reviews I have read it is sturdy enough to support watermelon vines and it is reusable from year to year. My vertical wood supports to attach the netting would be the larger branches that fell from our Douglas Fir over the winter.) A 5′x60′ roll of netting runs about about $20. So I’m wondering, have any of my readers used the stuff and how? If not how have you managed your climbing veggies in small spaces?

In other garden news, both my raised beds are complete (except for the whole trellis issue) so now I just need to fill them. Hopefully I will be able to pick up a load of compost and soil this weekend and accomplish that, I have carrots to get in the ground afterall. Earlier this week my friend’s father was getting ride of some of his raspberries so am now the proud owner of a dozen or so beautiful raspberry canes which I planted them along the East chain link fence. I am also receiving some onions from my father-in-law this afternoon, I had not planned to grow onions this year but I can’t say no to free plants. Funny how the best laid garden plans are foiled by those last minute arrivals (I am not complaining!) They will just have to go outside the raised beds, along the back fence I think, which means more weeds and grass to demolish.

I have to admit some lesser known part of me relishes the destruction of grass, in some truly bizarre way it makes me feel like I am sticking it to the man… or something like that.

But first, to feel better. And make bread, because I haven’t made any in a week and I want a pbj. And pickles. Seriously, I have this fearsome craving for bread and butter pickles today that demands to be obeyed. Which is truly poor timing since we only have dill pickles (gross) and I am trying not to overspend the budget. Still… WANT!

On an birding side note, I think the ants the birds are eating in my yard are affecting them. Because after they peck some off the ground by the raised beds they jump in the beds and roll around in the dirt, raising quite the little dust cloud. Maybe the ants are biting them? I mean, whatever floats their little birdie boats but its pretty funny to watch.

Garden Plan

Since moving in to this house, I have know I would have a garden this summer and now I am in the home stretch to planting (our last frost date being around May 3rd.) I have started planting what is going where.

To venture for a moment into my natal chart, my sun and moon sign are in Capricorn. I don’t think you can be anymore of a planner then that, except if Mercury was in Capricorn… oh wait, mine is! The Chinese astrology equivalent to Capricorn is the year of the Ox, guess what year I am born in? I’m doomed to be a planner, I’m telling you.

So yes, I am planning my garden and loving it. I have all but busted out the colored pencils. N that planning is a bad thing when it comes to gardening. Planning insures that you get the most out of your space by finding the empty spaces and working out crop succession. My mother, grandmother and uncle sent me some seeds for Easter so my list of plants has expanded. Anything bold is going in the raised beds, italicized ones are going elsewhere.

• Basil, Genovese
• Carrots, Purple Haze
• Cilantro
• Cowpeas, Pink-Eyed Purple Hulled
• Cucumbers, True Lemon
• Ground Cherry transplant (1)
• Leaf Lettuce, mix (2pkg)
• Moonflowers
• Morning Glories
• Pole Beans, Yard Long
• Poppies, Oriental
• Pumpkins, Big Max
• Snap Beans, Empress
• Radicchio
• Sunflowers, Titan
• Tomato transplants (5)
• Violas, Helen Mount
• Zucchini, Black Beauty

This is the scaled chart of my two raised beds:

I decided on a modified square foot gardening system for the raised beds. I got the idea for the chart from the Kitchen Garden Planner on the Gardener’s Supply Company website. Each 4×4 square on my graph paper is 1sqft, as are all the loose pieces that list each of my crops and how many I can grow per square foot. I am not done yet, especially with bed B since I still need to build an A-frame trellis for my heirloom tomatoes, which will affect placement but I’m almost there.

How about you, do you plan your beds? What system do you use?

Flats and Mystery Plants

Look at the surprise Michael had waiting for him when outside today? Luckily the old spare was in good condition (and it actually a full sized tire too.) Still not fun of course, but he changed it and is at work now.

The weather is still beautiful, but today is probably the last day of that till the middle of next week. We need the rain though. I went ahead and planted some leaf lettuce outside. As long as we don’t go below 28F it should be okay, and if not, I still have a million little seeds. I also started some basil seeds inside.

Speaking of plants, these little things started sprouting by our garage a couple weeks ago. They are on the north side of the garage (shade) and have tuberous roots. I know it is a little early to identify plants, but do these look familiar? I am in zone 5a. I hope they are pretty, right now I am just happy to see something new and green!

Beautiful Days

It has been beautiful for several days now, mid 60s, sunny clear blue skies, bird singing (or whatever that ruckus the pine jays make is…) So naturally I have been spending very little time indoors. Damian is like me, he hates being cooped up when the Mother Nature rouses from her winter slumber and calls us out. We have been going on lots of walks since Windigo went missing and they have been wonderful in this weather. I have more or less stopped wearing Damian in a wrap since he has become too active to be tied up like that all the time. He loves riding in his red stroller now though, especially with a sippy full of water. He points it this way and that in a (successful) attempts to direct me. “I’ll drink, you drive!” Seems to be his motto as of late.

Beyond our walks, I have been working in the yard. I finished building the compost bin and the herb bed beside the deck (still have to buy the soil to fill it) and am currently working on raking up all the winter debris from the rest of the yard so that I can build a potager for my summer vegetable garden. I have resisted the urge to plant thus far, mostly. I know there will be another hard frost, no matter how beautiful is right now. I did cave and sow some mesclun mix inside in a cut off milk jug, and a bush variety snap bean in another container (both of which are out on the deck enjoying the warm sunshine today.)

Damian either stays on the deck or in his playpen when I am doing yard work. When his playpen is in the yard though, I am finding I need to put a blanket under it to keep him from eating too much dirt. When he becomes determined though, he can push the whole thing off the blanket (and all around the yard in fact) which while frustrating, is extremely cute. I could stake it down I suppose…

…but I would much rather take frequent breaks and sit in there too with a tall glass of lemonade. He even has a little lemonade from time to time. We discuss politics, religion and the flavors of dirt and weeds from around the yard. You know, the usual.

Speaking of weeds, he adores sautéed dandelion greens, and so do I! We made a potato frittata with some this morning, yummy! I will save edible weeds for another post though, the sun is calling and Damian just woke from his nap.

Lost and Found

I spent some time today working on what will be the herb garden beside the deck stairs (click here for a couple of before and after photos.) It is far from done, needing some more digging and weeding, and to be filled with compost and soil, and plants of course but I feel happy with the progress I made in the short time I was working. I eventually want to put some lattice up blocking the view to under the deck.

We knew when we chose to move here, that this property had been bought out of foreclosure. Until today, it never really dawned on me what it must feel like to loose your home. As I dug up that tiny area I found a handful of items (some of them in this picture) that the former owners had left behind. A little frog figurine, glass stones from a broken welcome tile, bits of children’s toys. I wonder what use to be in that hollow area of the butterfly? I suppose the swing set Damian plays on is the biggest reminder but that never really sank in as being “someone else’s”. To me, these things, these little treasures, give the current economic climate a very human face.

It reminds me of how much I have to be grateful for in my life. Michael’s stable and good job, a health happy child, a fantastic circle of friends and wonderful family, a food filled pantry, this house and all that it means for us.

I think that I will put a few of these found treasures throughout my garden in the spirit of recycling as well as to be little reminders of the importance of gratitude.

Earth Hour

It is estimated that globally 50 million people took part in Earth Hour last year, and we were among them. Another year has come and here we are again, ready to be one of the small drops in this movement.

Some people will argue that Earth Hour meaningless gesture full of media hype, but isn’t the goal of such a movement to be covered and spoken about in as many places as possible? They might also say that one a whole we are not saving any power at all, but I say that there will always be critics. If this event makes just a handful of people stop and make the steps to trim their own energy usage while still living their lives fully then I will consider it a success. I know it has touched me in such a way.

Almost every weekend my friends get together and do something fun. Tonight we still will, they are coming over to our home and we are going to have a candlelit party with raw foods. Living in an Earth conscious way doesn’t have to mean sacrifice, if anything it has lead me to find greater joy in the simplest things, and that is truly amazing.

So for an hour, starting at 20:30 local time, our power will be off and our friends near, and I know we will not be alone in our actions.

(On an unrelated side note, Windigo is still missing. We are still checking the shelters and canvasing the neighborhood, as well as our old one. I am hopefully he will turn up but it is still a huge heartache.)