Trying to Summon Plants
Today was less about planting things and more about removing things that had absolutely no invitation to be here in the first place. Along the fence line, I have a collection of volunteer bushes, vines, little trees, and assorted greenery that has basically been allowed to do whatever it wanted for years. Most of it doesn’t flower, doesn’t produce… Continue reading Making Room for the Fruit Trees
The skirret has arrived. This is probably the point where I have to admit that the garden has officially gotten weird. I ordered skirret roots, an old vegetable that was once commonly grown in Europe and has mostly disappeared from modern gardens. You eat the clusters of sweet roots, and unlike most of the root vegetables I’m growing, skirret… Continue reading Skirret and Chives
The main garden bed is getting a grid system. Since I’m trying to keep track of exactly what I plant, where I plant it, and when, dividing the bed into one-foot squares makes a lot more sense than my previous gardening method of put it somewhere over there and hope I remember later. The grid will let me use… Continue reading Grid System
The next garden bed is going in. This one is a 4×2 raised bed that I’m setting up specifically for root vegetables. The plan is carrots, beets, parsnips, radishes, turnips, and some of the stranger old vegetables I’ve somehow accumulated since this whole thing started. Most importantly, this is where the skirret is going. Skirret is an old root vegetable… Continue reading Root Bed Set Up
I installed both Vego worm composters directly into the bed, positioned so I can easily reach the handles from the outside. They’ll eventually be filled with bedding, kitchen scraps, and worms, who will hopefully ignore the fact that I have now assigned them full-time employment in the garden. I also planted six Brussels sprouts. They came as a six-pack,… Continue reading Composters Installed
The main garden bed needed a cover because apparently everything in my yard would also like to participate in the garden. I have raccoons, skunks, opossums, cats, and other wildlife around that I’d like to keep out. I bought the Vego mesh cover, which seemed like a great idea right up until I discovered one small problem: the cover… Continue reading Main Bed Covered
I found this thornless blackberry bush at Home Depot for $14.99 in the ‘last chance’ section and obviously it had to come home with me. I wasn’t actually at Home Depot looking for a blackberry bush, but that really doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Apparently I just go to the garden center now and plants follow me home. It’s… Continue reading Thornless Blackberry
What started as a plan to grow some greens for the fall and winter officially became a construction project.. The first big garden bed went in beside the shed, in a spot that gets morning sun and bright shade through much of the rest of the day. Rather than simply filling the entire thing with bags of expensive soil, I… Continue reading Setting it all up
For years I treated grey skies as a cancelled plan. If the forecast promised cloud, the camera stayed in its bag and I told myself I would go out when the light was better. It took an embarrassingly long time to notice that the light was never going to apologise for showing up soft instead of golden. Overcast days, it… Continue reading Learning to Love Overcast Days
For years I treated grey skies as a cancelled plan. If the forecast promised cloud, the camera stayed in its bag and I told myself I would go out when the light was better. It took an embarrassingly long time to notice that the light was never going to apologise for showing up soft instead of golden. Overcast days, it… Continue reading We stopped at a farm
