Batter batter swing!

In the past two days I've been to tried to go to three four five places looking for compost. 

Yesterday after work:

1.  Meadows Farms Nursery.  It's big and appears to be strongly oriented to landscaping.  They had Black Kow in 50 pound bags for $10 each.  Definite Maybe, but yikes on the price!

2.  Manassas Topsoil.  I tried to find them on the way back from the first place, and my GPS apparently lies, as I don't think there is a topsoil company in the middle of a ball park or the Manassas Museum.  I was unable to find a street address via their website, so I may try the phone number, as they supposedly have leaf/grass compost.

Today at lunch:

3.  Missed my intended target and wound up at a land development company.  They scratched their heads when I asked for compost, then kindly directed me next door, to....

4.  Shemin Nurseries, which looked wonderful.  The employees were very nice, and broke the news to me gently that they (sob!) only sell wholesale to businesses.  But they kindly referred me to....
 
Today after work:

5.  Neff Brothers.  Easy to find, but by the time I managed to get there, they were closed.  I'm going to call them tomorrow.

The sad part is this:  There are any number of places on Craigslist offering free, well-aged horse compost, just come and haul it away.  I have the truck....contractor bags would be the easiest means of transporting the stuff, I think.  But those locations are a good distance from here, and given gas prices and the terrible mileage the truck gets, it may make more sense to buy compost than pick some really good stuff for free.


Anyone got some nice compost?  Hmmm??  I need 10 cubic feet more!

Strawberry pallet

Here is how I built my first strawberry pallet.  It's not quite complete yet, as I didn't have quite enough soil (Mel's Mix plus straw, leftover from my potato high-rise last year) to completely fill it, but I'm very pleased with it nonetheless.

Backstory:  This all began with planning for my compost bins.  I don't like my plastic compost bin.  It's big, but very difficult to turn the compost since it's basically a huge bucket with a lid.  I'd much rather have something I can pitchfork into from the side.  Also, I want a "double-wide" bin so I can have compost finishing on one side, and filling in on the other side with fresh material.  And I also wanted it as close to free as possible.  The trick, though, was to make something fairly presentable looking.

I was at a complete loss on how to do "presentable" AND "nearly free", and had almost given up on the "nearly free" part, when I stumbled across a website that showed compost bins built with pallets.  That is nothing new of course... but what they'd done was to stuff the pallets with straw books and planted the tops with flowers.  Brilliant!  I likey!

So, I set out to improve on the original.

I got a number of free pallets from the business next to mine.  They aren't all the same size, but hopefully "close" will be good enough.  I started with the smallest one, which was 2nd best in terms of overall condition.  I sanded it down and rasped off the worst wood splinters (mental note: belt sander does nothing to remove huge wood splinters), then stained it to match the lumber for my (soon-to-be-built) raised beds, some of which you can see in the background here.

I stapled a double thickness of landscaping fabric onto the back and bottom, and wrapping it around the sides as well.

 From there, flip over, fill lightly but firmly with soil, and plant away.....then water lightly.
 

These are Ozark Beauty ever-bearing strawberries.  From what I read on the package I have actually over-planted.  The spacing is supposed to be 24"... but I'd left the 15-pack languishing indoors for too long, so I'll move some later if need be.  To help it settle, the pallet will lie flat a while.

This pallet is much heavier than the straw-filled ones I'm planning for the compost bin--for those, I hope to use plastic planting bag for the berries and/or flowers I'll be using--so it will either become a fixed side  of the bin, or it may find another home.  Yay for more strawberries!

I'm back!

I must apologize.  I found out last year that blogging took more time than I thought it would.  I'm going to try again, though, so if you are still reading after such a long hiatus, thank you kindly for checking back!

My garden from last year ended up doing very well.  I got a huge harvest, and with help from some dear net-friends, learned how to do water-bath canning, too.  My HOA was displeased with my front gardening adventures, but they were nice enough to let me finish out the season.  This year, the front yard will be flowers and herbs as always, along with some greens.  The "big stuff" is moving to the backyard, and expanding quite a bit in scope.

Up until now I had thought it would be impossible to garden successfully in the back.  It's the south side of the house, but just too dark.  That has changed, though, due to the removal of some huge trees earlier this spring.  I'm not keen at all on tree killing, but these had to come out.  The biggest one was diseased and was dropping big, dangerous branches, and the other one was knocking down a privacy fence.

Since then, I've done several full days worth of work back there.  Cleared 11 lawn/leaf bags, 3 contractor bags, have brought in lumber, most of my new Mel's Mix materials (some left to go) and have the boxes planned, stained and pre-drilled.  The biggest wrench in the works has been the weather.  We are into the rainy season here and tough to get 2 clear, warm days in a row.

I am working on a strawberry pallet that I'm eager to share with you, and if it works out I am hoping to extend the idea to my new compost bins.

Hail scare and, finally, sprouts!

This past Friday I had quite the scare.  I knew there was a chance of thunderstorms.  Shortly after I got home from work I was out puttering, intending to harden my sprouts off and do some watering.  One look at the sky told me no watering on my part would be needed.  A few minutes later, I got a county emergency alert on my phone with a severe thunderstorm warning... potential for winds in excess of 60 mph and hail the size of ping pong balls.

I LOVE thunderstorms.  Love them.  (If I grew up in tornado alley, I would probably feel differently.)  But at the thought of what hail that size would do to my garden, I panicked and ended up racing around to cover my plants with whatever I could.  Partway through, I snapped this picture.

We did get an intense downpour, but thank goodness, no hail.  Hail was in the area, though -- my husband and two friends all reported hail golf-ball size or bigger on their commutes home.

We are really blessed with the location of our house... the worst of the bad weather almost always passes us by.  In ten years we have had only one really hellish bash of rain which I think was a severe microburst.  I was certain the back side of the house was going to blow in.  Our neighbors ended up replacing siding from that one, but we were screened by the mature trees on that side.  (And given that, I try not to complain too loudly about having no decent growing area on the south side of the house.)

In other news, things are finally coming up!  Nasturtiums, both kinds of pole beans (Christmas pole lima and Cherokee Trail of Tears), cukes, and I am going to take a chance and say I saw a pepper sprout.  The Cherokee beans and the cukes were just up today.  I transplanted my cabbage and basil, even though they only have seed leaves.  I don't have much hope for the cabbage, but I can try again in the fall.

Wish I had a better camera for this Cherokee bean.  It is quite beautiful, half the outer hull and half a delicate ruffle just trying to unfurl.  When I checked it this morning, the hull was barely visible above the soil, and here it is this afternoon, trying to pop up.

Here are the potatoes after their second 5-gallon covering.  I am now certain that I didn't reserve enough backfill for them, but wise folks at SFG have suggested straw, so I'll try that.

Radishes are getting big, as is the rapini.  The lettuce is doing well, too, though no where near ready to start cutting yet.  Can't wait!

Lettuces (and onions):

Left to right:  Carrots & onions in the high rise, radishes, Rapini, and Kohlrabi

My lonely corn plant:

Nasturtium:

Tomato plant direct-seeded into my SFG.  I can't focus in on it closely enough, but it is MUCH sturdier than the ones I started indoors!

How does my garden grow?

It has been quite chilly lately.  I have gotten in second and third outdoor plantings, though, and the seeds do seem to be coming up quite quickly.  This would be comforting, except I still have a bad case of Plant Envy for those great big Home Depot plants!

Here are some "What's up?" pictures taken today.  Sorry about the light, it has been raining all day.  The biggest news is that I think I am seeing some tomatoes sprouting from directly sown seed, and my potatoes are ready for their first ground of cover-and-grow, and if I squint hard enough, I think my strawberries might just be sprouting.

Here are the Kennebec potato plants.  They seem very happy in their new bed.  I will be covering them with more soil in the next few days.

These just might be are strawberry plants.  So very tiny!

Mixed lettuces.  So far nothing has been eating them, don't know if it is the coffee ground or the shed cat fur.  Top square was planted first, middle square second.  The bottom square is transplanted thinnings from the top square.  They are not quite as strong but seem to be doing okay.

Tomato sprouts!  There are two (I think) showing their faces.  This one is Cherokee Purple.  Trying to protect them a bit with cut-apart water bottles.

Swiss Chard:

Pak Choi, both squares (the left a later planting):

Rapini Broccoli:

Front to back:  Radish, Rapini, and Kohlrabi.

Carrots, plus some onion sets interplanted:

Summer Savory:

Kohlrabi:

My one lonely garden pea sprout.  I planted more, honest! 

This may be Amaranth.  I sure hope so!

My one lonely corn sprout.  I need more!  Hard to see, but the true leaves are just starting to show.

Indoor sprouts, plus some gorgeous heirloom tomatoes that were gifted to me.  Why are the indoor sprouts so leggy?

The sprouts are backup tomatoes, peppers, basil, cabbage, catnip, and marigolds.  The peppers were extremely slow to germinate, but they did, finally.  Out of all of them it is the heirloom marigolds that are doing the worst, just one sprout from 4 pucks.  I thought marigolds were supposed to be easy?! 

I still need to lay down more mulch around the SFGs, get the trellises up, and think about an outdoor watering system (the hose is very unwieldy!) but given all the rain lately, I am going to wait on those projects for now.

Happy Gardening!

My garden smells like an espresso!

It's sad that I'm so congested from all the pollen in the air right now, because my garden smells just like an espresso.  Yep, I scored at Starbuck's!

All I had to do was ask for used coffee grounds and they got the bag right away, good wishes for my garden, plus emptied all the machines currently in use and looked in back for more.  There's filters mixed in, but I picked around them.  I put a light scattering across the beds, plus a couple handfuls in the watering bucket to make a tea for other plants.  (Yes, I clogged the watering can head.  Easy enough to unclog, though!)  So now the soil has a black-brown glow to it and the smell is incredible.  I tried to keep it to a light scattering so as to avoid nitrogen burn.
 
More plants are up!

Taters....hard to see, but they are up.  Finally!

Kohlrabi.  (Lots of brassicas are up.  So are the carrots, I think, but I forgot to get a shot of those.)

Lettuce...

Indoor seedlings, getting their first (very brief) taste of sun.

Pea shoot!  And my attempt to protect it from hungry things... plus maybe some mini greenhouse help?

I was going to wait to post this until the grass was cut and general cleanup, but, here you go.

 

Here's a picture of blossoms on whatever-it-is in the perimeter bed.  The leaves are pulled back to show the tiny blooms. 

Mulch Day

Happy May Day!

Eight bags of mulch down on the perimeter beds, two held in reserve.  Got another few compliments from the neighbors today as well, always a nice thing to hear.  I am still debating how to handle narrow strips of grass between the perimeter and the SFG's; I am tempted to rip out the grass there entirely.

Several more SFG squares are showing seed leaves -- radishes and some of the brassicas.  Tomorrow I want to start Round Two of planting -- carrots, rapini, pak choi, chard, and lettuce.  A one-week stagger may be too tight but I am anxious about the growing season.  I would rather get too much too soon than have an entire crop bolt on me later.  It's all about the learning curve, right? :)

Our cats are shedding, so I put down shed fur all around the lettuce square.  I read somewhere that it helps against slugs, no idea if that really works but I really don't want to lose my first crop.  I've picked one slug off the timbers already, and given a caterpillar an invitation to the neighbor's yard.  Next week I want to hit the Starbucks near my office.  Wish me luck on scoring used coffee grounds!

Signs of life

The seeds, both inside and out, are showing signs of life today!  Indoors (if I haven't messed up my seed-tracking) the basil and catnip are sprouting.  Apparently leaving the seed tray over the pilot light for my range is working well.  Outside, my first lettuce square has sprouted lots of little seed-leaves that weren't there this morning.  Hurray!!!  First plants from seeds in Virginia, ever!

I also consolidated my thyme into a single, new container, much nicer than the old two plastic ones, which will be banished to the backyard for catnip plantings.  Here is the new one.  There is plenty of room left for additional herbs or maybe strawberries.

I read an interesting post on the SFG forum tonight about homemade plant markers.  I couldn't make the photo show up properly there, but here's my idea:  Use old, dead hydrangea wood!  I used a permanent Sharpie, but no idea if it will last through sun and rain.  Worth a shot, though, if it works it's free!

Tomorrow is Mulch Day for the perimeter beds and the walk between the SFGs.  We've been using chunk cedar mulch for years, but the Orange Store doesn't seem to be offering it anymore... so we got shredded hardwood.  I hope it works out okay.

Hubby and I are also discussing irrigation.  I have stubbornly NOT watered, for years, and it's worked out fine for the most part, but now it's going to be important.  I am reluctant to saddle ourselves with a drip system.  They seem to be like pagers: Once you get one, then you have to fuss with it.  When I lived out west, I often used half-buried milk jug or 2-liter soda bottles with holes poked in the bottom for slow-drip watering, but given it's our front yard I'm not sure that would fly well, plus I'd need many many jugs to make it work.  So, the idea right now is some sort of sprinkler.  For the moment, I am watering with an old-fashioned watering can.  I fill it up whenever I am done, in hopes of warming the water and maybe let off some of the town water fluorine treatment.  That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.

Please meet the rest of my yard

First off, my garden plan is fixed and should be legible now.

Nothing doing in my SFGs so far, so I thought you might like to see other parts of my (unmowed!) yard. 

The first denizen is the Sage Tree.  It's all budded out and just about to bloom.  It grows huge every year, and as big as it looks below, it is only about half the size it can actually reach -- I gifted a friend with several armfuls of boughs last year, so to my eyes it's looking a bit puny.

Just to the right of the sage is a plant I was given a few years ago.  It is hiding under the day lilies.  I planted it there between the sage and the lilies because I was told it prefers shade.  I can't remember what it is called, but I think it is at least semi-rare; the person who gave it to me was trying to spread it around to increase its chances of survival.  I think it might be wild ginger?  I'll try to find out. It spreads very slowly underground, and has an easily overlooked but beautiful purple-brown flower (thimble-shaped and -sized) which seems to come up straight from the ground by the central stem.  Really neat.


Here's a closer shot of whatever-it-is:

This is Kaleidoscope (R) hydrangea 'Homigo' (H. macrophylla 'Homigo'), mail ordered from Spring Hill in 2004.  I don't think they offer it anymore.  Its flowers start out blue, then go green, then red.  The foliage and stems turn mostly rust-colored in the late summer/fall, too.  The catalog says it often displays all three colors at once but to date I've not seen that happen.

It should be much bigger but it has had some bad years of burst-stem.  I also transplanted it from its original location (between Jeff and the Sage Tree) as it seemed to be getting too much sun and crowded.  It is much happier by the front step.

The chives in their prevent-the-chive-invasion container.  They are in a brand new location by the gas meter, replacing a shrub (sweet broom) which didn't survive winter.  I have been trying to cover that meter for years now and still no luck, but the chives' spilling-over-mess seems at home there.

Below are Mutt and Jeff, my roses, named after the cartoon characters.  Mutt ('Brandy') is there on the left.  Jeff is a single-petal white rose (name, I can't remember, something-Spice??  The tag is gone.)  Both J&P and planted in 2001.  Jeff is extremely robust and regularly whups the sage tree for size and breadth if I let him.  Mutt is more delicate; slender and tall.  I think they suffered from the deep snow this year... both are trying to bloom already. 

Off by the front is my bee garden.  I am very leery / anxious about bees, but I've also always felt it important to plant for them.  There is purple salvia, just starting to bloom, and Bee Balm, as well as some Siberian iris, an errant crocus, and Mutt off there to the right.  The Bee Balm didn't do well last year and has never bloomed, but this spring it's already bigger than ever before.  I have hopes!

Bed construction complete!

I was so worn out from the past few days that blogging went by the wayside I'm afraid.  But, the beds are finally done!

The upper bed needed another landscape timber; it just didn't look right without it.  To dig it in so it would be reasonably level -- and keep the bed at about 36" wide -- meant ripping out a big 8' strip of sod.  (More sod.  It figures. ;-) )

Then there was the matter of the sod the other timbers are resting on.  Hubby assured me the timbers would kill the sod, but I was dubious about that in a few places, so I ripped it out.  I have lost count of the number of green buckets of sod that have been pulled out of the tilled soil or shoveled/cut out.  Ten?  More? 

After pulling out the sod, though, there were holes in both beds.  (Wish I could figure out how to post pictures side-by-side.)

Here it is.... holes patched, grid set up, and SEEDS PLANTED!  (Most of them, anyway.)  What I find ironic is that it doesn't look all that different, despite all the hours of work involved.

 

Here's the strawberry jar... with a few onions planted at the top.  Supposedly onions and strawberries are companion plants?  I want to try planting onions (bulb or spring) in with my carrots and lettuce... and just tonight I read something about them helping against squash bugs, too.  I cannot find garlic starts anywhere!

Immediate to-do:

• tonight -- plant more seeds indoors (slightly sunny anti-cat window?) as back-up for the tomatoes, peppers and basil, maybe a few other things?  Cabbage -- probably too late, but I'll try.  Marigolds, for the little girls next door.  And catnip.  Must please the kitties!  DONE

This week, weather allowing:

• mulch the new landscaping fabric and existing beds
• general yard clean up / mowing
• transplant thyme and marjoram / consolidate (and replace?) herb planters
• sow onion seed

Longer term:

• build trellises

Still no signs of life other than two onions in the strawberry jar, but those were sprouted already.  It's going to get cold tonight, too.  Shouldn't freeze but it will be down in the mid-30's.  Brr!