State of the garden

While the garden does not look as lush as it once did, I'm still enjoying its vegetables—chard, carrots, and cherry tomatoes. The yellow wax beans are producing a few beans as a second crop, and the green pole beans look like they might produce a second crop, too. I don't spend much energy or time "tending" the garden. I water it in the evening, and that's it.


I have learned that chard keeps producing. I cut off leaves as I want to eat them, and more grow in their place.

The tomato plant is sickly looking, and something appears to have eaten the top of it. However, it is still producing tomatoes quite abundantly.

Backyard improvements

This morning I took advantage of the day off work mid-week and, before it got too hot, transported a pile of medium-sized chunks of junk concrete and broken bricks and lined them up alongside the house. I didn't know what else to do with them as they are not supposed to be disposed of in the regular trash. And it's not as though this side of the house is very pretty to begin with....

Because there is only a one-foot pathway between my garden plot and the retaining wall, and because I don't have a wheelbarrow anyway, I made numerous trips from the back to the side of the house carrying concrete in a strong cloth bag.


Next, I put all the little concrete pieces in two garbage sacks one inside the other and stored the sack in my garage.

Now I had space to assemble and display a new fire pit. This is not something I probably would have purchased, but a few months ago, I got an offer of a gift from my company for working there ten years. Now, I have worked on and off for ten years, and although I don't have seniority when it comes to extra vacation time, I guess the ten years count for something.

There were a number of items from which I could choose—watches, jewelry, electronics, silverware sets, and an outdoor fire pit. Having recently enjoyed an outdoor fire in the evenings at PTF and inspired by my boarding school "big sister's" outdoor fire at her chai parties, I selected the Coleman 30-inch round copper fire pit.


It was easy to assemble, and the clothes drying on the lines shaded me as the morning sun grew hotter.

Now I need to start collecting wood. Because I don't have a drivable car or a bicycle trailer, I've had to ride by wood pallets free for the taking alongside the road.

A couple weeks ago, I finally planted my bougainvillea vine. It had lost most of its leaves/flowers, but already is looking better for being directly in the ground. As I was digging, I came upon another huge rock (see foreground of fire pit picture), which I dug out. I used a few other large rocks to make a simple border around the bed.

Tomato red

Lunch from the garden

Garden Plot June 9, 2006

The first tomatoes, which were lurking in the center of the rather large plant.


The second blueberry—I ate the first one a couple days ago.


The pole bean vines, which have climbed the seven-foot poles, curled around the clothes lines, and turned the corner of the house.

Nasturtiums planted

I finally got nasturtiums planted in the planter boxes that fit between the retaining wall and the neighbors' fence. I am hoping they will cascade over the retaining wall to disguise it.



The top of the fence is quite lovely, with the neighbors' roses peeking through.

Bush beans

Some of these Beurre de Roquencourt Wax Bush Beans ended up in the pot for part of my supper tonight. Yum!

Rain bonus

Last night and today it rained, a very happy and unusual event for this time of year. The garden is growing right along. The few radishes left are way over size.


The Tom Thumb lettuce is deliciously soft and fascinating just to look at. One head makes a nice size meal.

Expert help

On Friday my sister helped me with ideas for my backyard and garden. First, the pole beans desperately needed place to climb—they had commandeered the tomato plant, which also needed staking. I had thought I would try construct a vertical structure out of pipe, as illustrated in Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening book. But my sister suggested the simpler method of four bamboo poles placed in a pyramid-shaped structure. I already had a tomato cage on hand.

Also, my sister suggested fitting planter boxes between the fence and the ugly two-foot high concrete retaining wall and growing some kind of cascading plant to cover the concrete.

I decided, too, I wanted to try cover the side of the hot water heater shed and fix the chicken wire fence.

So we drove to San Gabriel Nursery to get supplies. We found bamboo poles and narrow plastic planter boxes for the retaining wall. We also bought four-foot high metal poles to stake the fence around the garden more securely.

We looked at all kinds of climbing plants and planters for the side of the shed, but I needed more time to decide how I want it to look. (It is occurring to me as I'm typing to see if maybe I can use the excavated concrete pieces to build a planter against the shed.) Thanks to the influence of the Path to Freedom folk, I'm looking for something edible to cover shed—and am now thinking I'll re-use the concrete pieces, too.

Then we hunted for cascading plants, including jasmine and ivy geraniums, until I saw the nasturtiums, which are edible, and again thought of the PTF homestead. So I will double-check the nasturtium seeds I have on hand to see if they are a trailing variety and prepare the soil for the planter boxes. I hope the location against the solid fence will get enough sun. If not, I'll plant something else.

Lastly, my sister had an idea for providing shade now that the tree is gone. I can simply drape a colorful cloth over the clotheslines when I want to read and relax in my backyard.

Later Friday afternoon, we staked up the plants and fixed the fence. On Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market, I bought a bougainvillea plant for instant color by the shed. I'll still plant something edible, but could not resist at least a narrow column of a flowering vine.

Thank you to my sister for the help and inspiration!

Good bug

Tonight as I was watering, I saw a ladybug on the radishes. I hope it found a tasty meal.

Harvest!

The radishes and lettuce with the carrots on the left.


And here's the first radish from the garden!

Progress report 4-10

Here are the radishes with four lettuce plants in the square above them. You can also see some transplanted radish plants to the left—except for the bean seeds, I planted at least two seeds in each hole hardly believing they would actually sprout.


Here are bush beans, with cucumbers to the far left.

New perspective

I'm amazed at how differently I interpret things after only a few weeks of gardening. The topic of seeds is particularly at front of mind right now. My seeds have actually sprouted! I am just amazed. Many before me have been amazed and have written eloquently about that amazement. And I've been amazed before, but I am amazed all over again.

I've read Genesis 1:11-12 many times. But I had never particularly delved into the importance placed on seed. It's the vegetation's ability to yield seed that is emphasized through repetition. It's not just "plants and trees" but "plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed."

In contrast, today's WSJ "The Evening Wrap," (paid subscription required) by Mark Gongloff (whose clever presentation of the day's business news I've come to enjoy, not least of which is because its arrival in my e-mail inbox signals that it is soon time to leave work for home), gave this news about Monsanto:

Monsanto said it earned $440 million in its fiscal second quarter, up 18% from a year ago. The maker of seeds, Roundup herbicide and other farm products said its sales rose 15% to $2.2 billion.

However one might interpret Genesis chapter one, calling Monsanto a "maker of seeds" struck me as just wrong! Plants yield their seed, not Monsanto!

I probably would have just skimmed over the mention of seeds had I read these two items without the experience of watching my seeds sprout during these past days.

Chard

I now have little sprouts of chard, carrots, lettuce, beans, and peas. Not many, but some. The radishes are one and a half to two inches high. It rained earlier this week and last night into this morning. The sun is coming and going right now.

You can already see the hint of red in the chard. Hopefully, one day these tiny plants will look like this gorgeous picture taken by Kerstin.

The radishes are up

Radish sprouts:

In the package by the back door

A new reprint from Dover Publications of Old-Time Farm and Garden Devices and How to Make Them by Rolfe Cobleigh.

[Update 4/11/06: Here's a link to the online version of the book. Via Beth at Loxosceles, via Beth's pattern for knitted nautiloids.]

And tonight

Yet more rain this evening.

Rain tonight

Well, the rain did come, shortly after 8:00 p.m. The shower lasted around half an hour. I hope my seeds are happy!

Seeds

Rain was expected today, but although it did get cloudy, no rain came, and there were periods of sun.

First thing this morning, I laid out the grid pattern of one-foot squares. Then later today I planted some of the squares. Along the back row, which is the sunniest and for which I hope to construct a trellis, I planted Satsuki Madori Cucumbers and Black Seeded Blue Lake Snap Pole Beans. There is one empty square next to the tomato plant.

Next row, with one empty square left: Beurre de Roquencourt Wax Bush Beans; Red Core Chantenay Carrots; and Ruby Swiss Chard.

Next row, with two empty squares left: Tom Thumb Lettuce and French Breakfast Radishes.

Last row (most shaded from fence shadow), with three empty squares left: Ruby Swiss Chard.


I'm feeling very doubtful that I did anything right! But I'm trying to give myself a lot of slack. It seems overwhelming to keep everything you're supposed to do, in what order, straight. But I'm already thinking next year I'll know how to plan and think ahead better.

In the midst of my uncertainty—as I held the seeds wondering if I planted them too deep or too early or in not the right spot or without soaking some of them or without soaking them long enough—I was thinking what a gift seeds, and the food they produce, are.

Wandering around the Farmer's Market this morning was sheer delight as I looked at all the beautiful produce heaped on tables and thought of my little square-foot soil patches and how, maybe, someday, they might grow vegetables, too.

Above all, I was grateful that I was able to buy fresh oranges and cabbage and chard and radishes and speckled lima beans while waiting for my seeds to sprout, yet appreciating the food that much more.

Cat guard

Today at lunch I stopped by the hardware/lumber store near work and picked up some chicken wire for a temporary, cheap fence to keep the cats out of the garden plot.

I need to figure out either how to make a nicer fence out of the chicken wire or another solution to keep the cats away.

But now I can start planting without worrying about the cats. So far I have one tomato plant, which I transplanted last Thursday evening (3/9). You can barely see it in the far corner.

The Sunshine Blue blueberry bush I bought at the Farmer's Market on Saturday is visible in the lower left of the picture. I need to decide where and how to plant it.

Also, today the crew came by and dug the stump down and cut around the main roots. Then they filled in the hole with the dirt I had dug out of the garden area. Hopefully, the stump will just rot away under the soil.