Garden Victory

Sometimes the wins are small, but they are wins none the less.

 

End of July 2026 Garden Update

 End of July update of "How does my garden grow?"

Scattered among the leaves and sticks are (I hope) the small green starts of spinach:

Cherry tomatoes!  I now have more tomatoes on vines than I have had in total for the past 5 years:

The beans have done remarkably well. I thought I spaces them out enough; I need to go farther next year:

My onion seedlings are hanging in there:

Buckwheat.  I wish I had planted them with more sun; only a few have gotten tall:

Soybeans:

I have four patch of corn.  Interestingly, the one of the left was planted before the one on the right, yet has not done as well:

Another "planted later" patch that is by far the most advanced:

I am not sure what the plant with the white flowers is.  I have several; they were all volunteers.  My dearest hope is potatoes. It is kind of exciting to wait and see!

The beginnings of leeks:

I have already started planting and planning for Autumn and Winter.  I need to think about a better arrangement of things for Spring next year.  But for $45 a year and 8 hours of community service to the garden, this is one the best deals I have found in years.

Balcony Upgrade

As part of our "Year Two" experience in New Home 2.0, The Ravishing Mrs. TB wanted to upgrade our balcony experience.  Her largest complaint was that the planters I purchased were on the floor. The second complaint was they were in the crosshairs of A The Cat, who immediately would run out, try to eat them, and then throw up.  A corollary was that he would also stick his head out through the bars; between these two things, the door could not be open at all - not always an issue, but especially important when we want a cross breeze.

Also, some flowers instead of just grains and herbs would be nice.

The revisions:

Hanging planters via the InterWeb and the addition of decor.

I think I have the major herbs covered, or at least the ones we use regularly.

Beyond the sage is a Trailing Petunia.  The soil in the foreground now has Four O'Clock seeds.

More petunias and Four O'Clock seeds.

Final addition:  Netting.  It does not definitively prevent a paw from going out, but is enough of visual indicator that - with supervision - we can all be out on the balcony.

Down On The Allotment

One of the things I discovered in New Home 2.0 is that they have a community garden program. Turns out you can get on a wait list.  Turns out that, sometimes, your number gets called.

Welcome to The Allotment.

The allotment (M01) on your map as you follow along) is a 10' x 20'. For this section, I paid the princely sum of $45.00 a year.  I am required to provide 12 hours of volunteer labor.  The site will provide tools and mulch; supplements and plants are our own responsibility.  As a bonus, it is a five minute walk from our apartment.

What am I growing this year?  I have to do some garden design (still a bit early as our nights are coolish to plant).  I order (via the good folks at Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company) two varieties of corn, beans, and potatoes.  I have a Spring Barley I will try to get in the ground (so excited be able to run an actual plot of grains in the fall).  Likely some peppers and tomatoes and maybe one (and only one) squash plant.

I am genuinely excited about gardening for the first time a while - with the caveat, of course, that we really all know why I am doing this:

God’s Purposes

Or as C.S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity, "There are only two kinds of people in the end:  Those who say 'Thy will be done' and those who say 'Thy will be done'. "
 

Of Autumn And A Roof Update

 Autumn seems to have arrived with all the subtlety of a freight train.

Our days have noticeably cooled off - and more importantly, the humidity has dropped to levels manageable for human existence.  Some mornings earlier this week were - if you can believe it - actually  cold.  I may or may not have actually have actually used layers for the first time since February of this year.

The shocking thing to me is that this year's transition from Summer to Autumn seems abrupt.  No easing in to anything, no slow slide into another season.  It almost as quickly as the Christmas candies will be appearing in two weeks when we pass Halloween.

This sudden transition has left me in a bit of disarray.

I had not really thought or planned towards my Fall garden, and now I am scrambling to get something in the ground.  I say scrambling; likely we have at least another month of reasonable weather and part of the speed is self inflicted in that I will be at The Ranch next week (where there, it is already wood stove season).  And added to that is the fact that what is currently taking up the bulk of my garden - sweet potato vines - have not yet started to wither, so I am working around them. Still, I managed to clean up the garden this week and get garlic in.  It is something, anyway.

The other big issue is the roof, of course.

I heard back from the construction company.  Turns out things are somewhat as I had anticipated: they were more than happy to be my new best roofing friend with the prospect of an insurance billing paying for everything; with the much reduced amount of our payout, actual economics came into play.  They can only make money if we financed some portion of the roof with a 75% down payment.  I do not inherently mind the statement that they need to make money; I am firm believer we all should.  What I do mind is the illusion of enthusiasm right up to the point of finding out that I was much less of a viable prospect. The even more bothersome thing is that - not totally through their fault) - I have lost about two weeks waiting for all of this to get sorted out.

Another roofing person comes today to confirm the inspection.  I have been quite up front that the payment from insurance has been made and this will be an all cash transaction.  We will see what they come  back with.  I have a base price now for roof replacement, so that is what I will be planning for.  It is doable for us, but not an expense we needed at this time.

Sigh.  The simple joys of any season seem too often pushed out by the realities of life anymore.

2023 Gardening: A's Garden Update

 You may remember that earlier this Spring, I tried an experiment by planting a smaller space in front of our house.  I called A's Garden in hopes it would attract birds:

Almost two month in, we have progress!

The fact that the one side has grown much more than the other is surprising to me.  I am not sure if this is due to seed distribution, watering, or sunlight.

And, we even got some flowers!

I am so used to such things not working in my favor that I am genuinely surprised when they do.

2023 Gardening: A's Garden

(Apologies.  This would usually be a Collapse segment; my heart has just not been into writing it this week.  Seneca will return next Thursday)

The first small space for a garden I wanted to start with this year is the space right outside of our main living room window:

As perhaps can be gleaned from the pictures, originally this had more brush cover but much of it died over the last two years due to our cold snaps.  But my real reason for doing this is that the window makes this a ground level view, both for me from where I work and on the table, from where A the Cat often sits. I was suddenly struck as I was looking at it one day that, due to the hidden nature of the outer brush line, it would make a wonderful sort of "Secret Garden" for A the Cat to spend his time looking out the window at.

The rules that I have are simple:  I need to do something that will be as drought resistant as possible and will require minimal care.  Secondarily, something that will attract birds and insects for A to watch.

The first part was the removal of the dead bushes.  You can see them more clearly in the first picture. One - completely dead - was very easy to remove. The second, not quite dead was not nearly so easy.

After that, it was time for top soil.  I had originally only gone with two bags and raked it...

And then I went back and got another two bags as the first two were not really enough:

For seeds, I had made a purchase from Native American Seeds for the "Pocket Prairie" mix, a mixtures of grasses and wildflowers:

I scattered the seeds:

One thing that I wanted to try was a bird bath.  They are a bit much to buy, but I saw a great suggestion: use the base of a clay pot for one.

I laid down leftover hay from the rabbits to give the seeds a little cover:

That was about two weeks ago this.  This was taken yesterday:  seedlings are starting to pop up.

2023 Gardening: Buying Seeds

 Of course with getting ready for gardening and land re-design, one needs seeds to do it.

It would be fair to say that I have all the seeds I could possible need at this point from previous years of growing or previous purchases.  It would be fair.  But I think it is a form of (helpful) mental instability that almost every gardener I know always buy more seeds  anyway.  

Part of it is to try different or new plants we have not grown in the past

Part of it, I suspect, is also the fact that we like looking through seed catalogs and then ordering.  It combines garden therapy and retail therapy into a nice package - and hopefully, with crops at the end.

As longer term readers may recall, last year my previous long term seed supplier made a decision to be political about an issue they had no need to be political about.  I tend to be a lazy shopper, and the only thing that will encourage me to change vendors is either 1) Bad product and unsatisfactory service; or 2) Choosing sides on things you have not need to and so disrespecting your customer base.  Thankfully, I was able to find the good folks at Baker Creek Seeds:

I have made at least two orders with them to date (and the third one is on the way).  They are prompt, have a wonderful selection and great seed packets, and they send an extra packet of seeds.  They also do non-political sorts of profit sharing for things like agricultural improvements and programs, something I am 100% on board with.  They are good folks, well worth your time and money.

They do not not, however, really carry a large selection of grain or pasture grasses, two things I was also looking for.  Grain is just a habit that I enjoy; although I never really get a huge harvest, it makes me happy to grow it.  And with my work to develop/restore my lawn this year, I needed to find something that was bit more native than the usual Johnson Grass/Bermuda Grass and certainly more drouth resistant.

In the past I have received e-mails (and visited the sites) of Prairie Nursery  and Prairie Moon Nursery. They both have great websites and I would encourage you to go there and look around.  There is a lot in the alternate field/lawn covering and habitat restoration arena I had no idea was out there.  They seem like the sort of companies I need to order something from, if for no other reason than I support the sorts of things they are doing.

Unfortunately, for this initial effort, they do not have anything which seems to immediately fit my bill, as I am slightly outside of the growing zones they target.  So I had to keep looking.

Then, after a fair amount of slowly drifting on the ebbing tides of InterWeb searches, I found the good folks at Native American Seeds:

Also seem like fine folks:  same mission as the folks above, covering a set of different planting zones.  Turns out they did have some of what I needed (what I bought will have to wait for the first few restoration products [I am told this sort of thing is a useful device to build tension and lure readers back]).  They also - thankfully like everyone else - send you a catalog.  In this case, one with a pretty righteous pictures of a puma on the cover:

Because nothing says "I like gardening" like an apex predator on the cover!

This is not to rule out my local non-big box nurseries, and I do need to take some time next week (before Spring gets away from me) to stop by at least one of those as well (they need my support too).

I love this time of year, if for no other reason than the anticipation of growing things has not yet given way to the reality of trying to grow things.  

That, and not matter how much I fail, gardening fills some hole in my soul that nothing else will.

2023 Garden (And Others): Small Spaces

Much like Seneca in yesterday's post. the season for Spring planting is virtually upon us - for better or worse, Spring appears to have already sprung.  The best I can hope for at this point is that Summer does not start in April and extend through October.

As I think I have mentioned previously, between last year's Face Of The Sun event and this Winter's Arctic Blast From The (Glacial) Past, most of what we had as landscaping - to be fair, not much - is pretty much trashed.  On one hand, that is pretty depressing.  On the other hand, it is the opportunity to resign things.

The "redesign" has two elements.  The first is that whatever I do, it needs to be able to manage striking heat, Arctic cold, and periods of drouth.  The other is that rather than try to remake everything, I am going to try to do things in smaller chunks (simply put, I do better with smaller chunks).

What does that mean?

The garden area will be refocused into my two strips, the one that I typically use and the one along the house:

The strip along the house.  Long time readers will note that the lime trees have been pulled out - they did not make it this year, so I made the call.  Of note for both of these areas is that I intend to to use a small scale irrigation system this year - the cost is not much and it will undoubtedly cost me less overall than last year's hose and sprinkler system on a timer.

This stretch is is in front of our house at the front door - not as important to me, but it does matter to The Ravishing Mrs. TB, so I will need to figure out something within the confines of overall guidences.

This last area is directly outside our front window.  Originally there were bushes that grew in the open space there, but they died out in the storm two years ago - however, the outer hedge has maintained itself rather nicely, so it almost a sort of "hidden garden".

My current "office looks out it as well, so improving it will help me as well.

For the larger "lawn" spaces, I am working on locating a drouth-resistant grass that is relatively native that can make do with no formal irrigation system (the cost of installing one is probably daunting enough, but especially in this economy, probably unwise as I will likely not get the value out of it).