August 22

 Let's talk a bit about this garden I found.

1) I have no idea if I'm allowed to actually be in this garden.  I could ask, but where would the fun be in that?  Also I wouldn't really know who to ask, and also they might say no, which would be awful, and ALSO ALSO it SAYS 'Community Garden' RIGHT THERE on the sign.  I'm community, ain't I?

2) Whoever planted this garden subscribed to the 'scatter wide and deep' philosophy of plant management.  There are lovely, deep garden boxes filled with soil and....plants.  I'm not a horticulturist but my best guess is several packages of seeds marked 'salad mix' liberally spread amongst the tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and such, and a healthy dose of "Wait!  Doesn't Susan have a herb garden?  Ask her if she'd donate anything!"  Nothing has been watered much at all this summer, or possibly ever; you can tell from the lack of plant growth and the paltry returns.  The sage seems happy, mind you.  You know you're a negligent gardener when the sage is insane.

3) I'm not harvesting anything, because again...not my garden.  But I am making some executive decisions - y'all can't tell me you want to eat lettuce that flowered, went to seed, and then partially died.  I'm pullin' it.

4) I noticed tonight that some of the plants are trees with tags on them.  The tags read 'Serviceberry', and I happen to know those are edible.  The trees are too young to produce fruit, mind you, but they seem pretty healthy and are about 5' tall - so perhaps next year?

5) The children have taken to calling it 'The Secret Garden'.  It is, isn't it?  It will stay a secret, because we can only go in the evenings once the temperature has cooled enough to be outside, and by that point no one seems to be around.

Image by @leafoureaux via Unsplash

Thoughts About The Garden.

It was a warm day today, and the sun is now up when we have supper, and therefore I'm straining towards spring and trying not to be disappointed that, in fact, it is still very much the middle of January.

Still, let's talk about gardens.  Because it is warm. 

For the past five years that we've been here I've planted a vegetable patch and every year I am pretty disappointed in it.  I'm not much of a vegetable gardener; my talents (such as they are) lie in the realm of flowers.  Last year I extended the linear bed in the back garden and started another bed around the rock wall and one in the front garden as well.  I filled the front garden plot with a bright green vine called Creeping Jenny, and some big annuals and some smaller annuals and also a bunch of Lily of the Valley that I dug up from under the spruces.  I think my goal is to focus on those beds and really try and fill them up with colour, and also to take out the 4x4 wooden raised beds and give them to my parents, who enjoy vegetable gardening.  I will plant a bunch of scarlet runner beans, though, because they bring me bees and hummingbirds.  And also I will keep my garlic in, if only because I must have 100 bulbs in the ground right now.  The rest will go.

So what flowers to plant!?  How exciting.  I have very bad luck with bulbs, except for oxalis, which the chipmunk won't eat.  So plenty of that around!  But last year the dahlias did well, and the sedum went crazy to the point where I split one big clump into four plants.  The ground sedum spread fantastically.

I think I'll branch out into hardy plants that will withstand our sporadic attendance on them.  The issue is that we have so much travel to do in the summer, and our garden suffers.  In the fall I transplanted a lot of daylilies, and that should withstand whatever I can throw at it, and of course the sedum and other drought-tolerant plants are fine, but generally speaking the garden sags a lot when we are gone.  This might be part of the problem with me growing vegetables, but it isn't a problem I can fix.

It's hard to believe that in six months the sun will be nowhere near setting right now but will have hours left in the sky.  The children will play outside after supper, and I will be watering the gardens in the evening with the cat beside me, watching to make certain I do a good job, and the chipmunk who is fast asleep at this moment, surrounded by his or her seeds, will be on the big flat rock, trying to eat my tulips.

Gardens

Yesterday we started raking the lawns around the parsonage, working first on the front, which looks amazing, and while we worked we, or at least I, thought about the improvements we'd like to do to the outside 'landscaping' (put in quotations there for very good reasons).  I would like to dig up the rocks and moss in the little north-facing nook and put in some ferns and maybe lily-of-the-valley, if it will grow there, and then I would like to clean out all the rubble from under the front porch, a holdover from some previous resident, and I would like a new garbage box that the raccoons can't get into.  I know, I have big and glorious plans.  I even thought about re-seeding the lawn, which would be a Project, but probably also something the older children could help with and maybe even more likely than my sudden acquisition of a power saw and the ability to turn wood into a garbage box.

Today I'm going to start raking the side, and thinking about what I'd like to do there.  I have a friend with teenage sons (imagine the luxury, for a moment, of teenage sons) who are sweet and pleasant to be around and also very smart with hand tools and one of them built me two raised beds for my vegetable gardens last year, and is building me a third this year, and also a raised bed with stone around the side of the house, which I will fill with flowers.  What sorts of flowers remains to be seen; I think I will buy a whole bunch of wildflower type seeds and scatter them to their respective destinies and then try and keep the cats away.

Some complaining and lots of pictures from my garden.

Even though it was rainy as all get out today - damp, gross and cloudy, I still pulled out the MMM card (Mean Mother Moment) and forced everyone outside for 30 minutes, during which time C soaked herself thoroughly and acquired suspicious dirt marks around her mouth, and S learned how to use the dandelion puller.



Dandelion puller extraordinaire.

Proof that I do wear shoes and am not just a crazy hippy.

My hostas are growing at a furious pace.

It's been a rougher-than-usual week, and I'm a firm believer in the power of fresh air.  Fortunately, no one is physically sick right now, but so many many things have been going on around here recently that I just feel overwhelmed.

Today, for example, has brought with it the challenge of a difficult conversation.  My very worst kind of conversation - one that is going to result in someone being disappointed in me.  Whenever these come up, and they do with some frequency because I'm a sensitive person, I've always tended to leap before I look in terms of talking.  I freak out.  I panic.  I am overwhelmed with the smallest thing on my plate.  I forget to make meals.  I cry a lot.  I fall to pieces.  I think we can all agree that God knew what he was doing when he didn't make me a fighter pilot.  But today, before the conversation occurred, I happened to read Jen's piece on handling that kind of crazy and making a good decision.  And as I made my way down her list it occured to me that nope, I hadn't prayed about it.  So I did right then.  And nope, I hadn't spoken to my husband about this stressor, and so I immediately called him at work and quickly gave him the low-down.  I felt better just doing those things, and I also felt that, although my decision was going to remain the same, I was now not spiraling out of control.

Of course, then I promptly lost the opportunity to actually HAVE said conversation, which means I have to wait until tomorrow, which gives me an entire evening to worry.

The list of things around the house that are going to require money to fix is growing.  Way too fast.  It's like broken stuff is sprouting as quickly as the weeds on my lawn.  Remember the "phone situation"?  Several months ago one of our cordless phones bit the dust, but we kept it around because the answering machine part still worked.  Then the second phone started dying, but the call display on that one still worked so we kept it as well.  Then the answering machine died.  Then the caller display died and I had to drag out the 'don't use it until we really have to' corded phone.  Yeah - we're still using that.  Our stroller woes are also still not resolved.  We have four strollers - all of which are steadily becoming unusable for a variety of reasons that are all too boring even for me to type out.  Add a stroller to the list.  We had to buy C a new carseat because she outgrew her bucket seat.  One of the blinds on our bedroom windows has broken, and the other one isn't far behind; I'd like to switch to curtains anyway, but now we can add two curtain rods to the list.  It goes on and on ad nauseum.

The cats.  The cats are still passing a bit of blood.  I've tried switching them to soft food, which seemed to make a little bit of difference, but not enough.  We've dewormed them twice, just in case it was that - it isn't.  Our next step is to switch to a digestive health type food and hope that helps.  I'd also like to start adding a hairball medication to their regime.  I can't even handle the thought that they will need to visit a vet - we can't afford a vet.  They seem to be eating and drinking, playing and using the litter box fine.  They aren't crying or acting at all strange or losing weight...so I'm telling myself that they have something mild like a scratch, because if it's anything more than that, well, there's almost nothing we can do about it.

Left to right:  lettuce, spinach, kale, brussels sprouts

Left to right:  beets, kale.

Our computer is reaching the end of its life as well.  Bits of it keep malfunctioning and we keep patching it up.  The monitor died about six months ago and we bought a refurbished one, and now that one is dying as well.  The mouse died, and a friend gave me another to replace it, and that one is now reaching the end of its life.  We have already replaced the dvd player, which S broke, and then had a friend of ours clean up the hard drive to make the old machine faster.  I think we've done what we can - our next step is probably saving everything to a thumb drive and wiping the hard drive clean, reloading the programs we use, and seeing if that will last us another couple of years.

TWO major kitchen appliances (for me, at least) are starting to go awry - the bread machine and the slow cooker.  Now, the bread machine I could take or leave, but the slow cooker...I can't live without the slow cooker.  So far the dial has snapped off the front (you can still turn it on, it just takes a lot more determination) and the actual cooker portion, not the ceramic insert, is starting to look worn.  There are stains inside I can't clean anymore, the handles are getting loose, that sort of thing.  I hope we have a little while left with it.


Technically the first meal made with garden ingredients - sprinkled chives.

The list goes on and on and on.  It's a season of life, I know, but it's a really crummy season.

Wednesday

You know, I really wish that I could have had two children before I'd had only one, except that that would have been impossible.  But if I had managed it, I would have saved myself a lot of worry over my first child.  All the thoughts I had of S being crazy since he wouldn't stop hitting the cat after I had specifically told him to stop hitting the cat...well, those worries would be gone.

Because C is now acting in precisely the same way that S did, and now I can recognize it to be normal one-year old behaviour and not the result of my below-average parenting abilities.

Terribly awkward park moment today when S accidentally kicked another child in the jaw when they were climbing up the slide ladder too close together.  The other mom and I just tried not to look at each other, both yelling encouragement at our offspring.  I just know we were having the same thought "Sheesh, SAY something to your kid, won't you?"

They were fine, by the way.  And were soon happily building a giant pile of sand at the bottom of the slide.

Lentils for supper.  I saute them with onion, basil and chicken stock.  And then I add tomato paste and some tumeric.  If you're smart, you'll top the whole mess with sour cream or yogurt, but the children will eat it either way.

S: (after having eaten 3/4 of his plate) "Mama, I no LIKE this."
C just shrieked her disapproval at seeing any area of blank high chair tray.  All areas must be covered by food at all times.  She's like the cats - they don't agree that sometimes it's okay if the bottom of the bowl is showing a bit, either.

I am so behind on every chore in this house it's almost funny.  Except for the dishes, they're done.  But several plants need repotting, the laundry needs to be caught up, the bathroom (ohmyheavens) needs to be cleaned, everything.  Just, everything.

I recently lost some friends to a move, and it's hard for me.  They didn't move terribly far away, and I will probably see them once or twice a month for at least the next few months, but they were wonderful people to have around, and I'm feeling the loss.  One of their daughters, especially, really connected with me - she is exactly as I was at her age:  precocious, bossy, brilliant, a leader and terribly emotional.  I can't help laughing at her; she's just so...me!  But who I really miss is my friend - we knew each other for much too short a time, and their family will be heading off to Bolivia as long-term missionaries soon.  Two parents and six (!) children.  They'll be living in the remote mountain areas of the country amongst very untouched people.  It's so exciting for them, but I'm a little sad.

The flower beds are turned.

Cold, chilly, crazy barefoot lady weather?  Why yes, yes it is.

Grass was raked, gardens cleaned out, multiple piles stacked and ready to be dumped into the trailer and hauled off into the bush.

I'm determined to get the garden up and running this year.  For years I've pined for a garden that reminded me of the one my parents created.  They took the backyard of a rental townhouse and designed a raised bed square foot garden that produced an admirable amount of produce every year, and a great deal of joy and beauty.   The mental pictures I have of my childhood backyard are some of the most treasured images I can recall.

I'm sure my parents appreciated the help with the grocery budget, too!  And frankly, that's one of my main reasons for working so hard at a garden this year.  I have lofty goals of a bushy, full, beautiful and productive cacophany of plant life, just bursting with vegetables, and being able to eat lavishly all summer and go crazy with canning and freezing the excess.  I dream of opening a jar of my very own summer tomatoes next January.

I don't have a lot of gardening experience, but I have a lot of seeds, and a lot of memories of what the finished product should look like.  And really, everyone needs a first garden.

First Sowing

After buying all of our seeds about two weeks ago...my garden planning was put on hold for yet another late snow storm.



But today was the first planting day!  I planted kale, spinach, lettuce, radishes and two types of tomatoes.  I haven't got the greenhouse set up yet, so I'm using plastic strawberry containers.

Pizza, Gardens...I'm all about productivity.

Miss mischievious with a) a glass bottle and b) a huge piece of pizza.

Thin crust, cheese, tomato sauce and capers.  Oh, the capers made this pizza.

Am I getting ready to anticipate a huge harvest?  Absolutely.

*David is on the last night of his week of shifts.  Tomorrow, if all goes well, we're actually going to go see a play together, with the children.  For realsies.  I'm terrified.

*Grocery shopping madness ensued last night!  There was much sale-ing.  This lady right here probably snagged herself close to two weeks worth of groceries for the price of one week.  I mean, there will have to be a little pick me up in terms of produce at the end of the week, and of course I forgot butter, but yeah, pretty much two weeks.

*I had a friend over tonight who specifically wanted to help out, just lend an extra pair of hands.  So she played with S while I a) bathed C, b) hung up or folded or put on the line about 50% of the laundry, c) used CLR to get a rust stain off the linoleum, d) changed the garbages, e) ate something, f) put the little miss to bed.  And then my friend vacuumed my livingroom and re-hung my weirdly sagging livingroom curtain for me.  So. Incredibly. Helpful.

Small Scale Composting

We're planning a garden this year, and I'm just so excited.  This is our very first attempt at keeping plants alive outside to any great extent and I have high hopes.

But everything I've read about growing big, healthy, amazing vegetables seems to suggest that the way to dinner plate sized tomatoes and green peppers as large as a baby's head is compost.  As in rotted vegetation.

Like most children of former hippies and back-to-the-landers, I grew up with a composter in the backyard.  It was a big, black heavy plastic monstrosity and we fed it our kitchen scraps as though sacrificing to some sort of pagan God.

photo source

There were very specific rules governing what could and could not be given to the composter.  Meat was a big no-no.  Potato peels were okay.  There was a debate raging about eggshells and teabags.  Once a year my parents spread a tarp on the lawn and emptied the composter.  Dirt went on the garden, large pieces of stuff that hadn't rotted got chopped up smaller, worms were added to the resulting debris and it went into the composter again until next year.

Now that our own garden is going to require the same delicious dirt I want to get started on my composter - but a big black plastic box is not in our budget.  What to do, what to do?

I decided to try a 72 L heavy plastic storage tote.  I had one where the nice snapping handles had snapped off, making the tote very much not handy for carrying around anything, but the tote itself still just fine.  Reading up on the the composting world (there's a composting WORLD out there, my friends.  People whose hobby it is to rot vegetables on their back porch.  I will never feel weird again.) I figured out that the process I was going to use was called Cold Composting, that it would produce useable soil in 6-12 months (please let it be closer to 6), that I needed to turn the stuff over every week, keep it warm and moist but not wet, and alternate layers of kitchen scraps with 'brown matter', also known as leaves and shredded paper.

Well, I am up for the challenge.  Behold our composter: