Story of a Garden

Excuses, excuses

2008-07-09T18:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize it has been almost two months. I do have an excuse, though. Here it is, the excuse you've all been waiting for...My garden is wimpy. Yes, it is. And I have an excuse for that one, too: It's not my fault. Really. It is too shady. If you don't believe me, take a look at this monster.

The cottonwood. Because of it, ninety percent of my yard is shaded ninety percent of the time. The other ten percent is the rose garden which is doing quite well now that the dandelions died. I put my tomatoes there. See?

So, I just have pictures today, no well-meant "advice". But hey, I made a friend! And she has real garden know-how.

Feels Like Walking on Broken Glass

2008-05-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Warning: Do not put broken glass in your garden!

I am reminded of the song by the title above every time I crush eggshells. Yes, I do crush them often, thank you for asking. I read in a book last year (The Farmer's Wife Guide to growing a great garden--and eating from it, too! by Barbara Doyen) that crushed eggshells are very nutritional and useful for your soil. Because we go through eggs fast, I thought I'd see. The Farmer's Wife advises you to rinse them and store them in a bucket under the sink until you have a few and then crush and sprinkle them in your garden. Wikipedia says that bird eggshells are about 95% calcium held together by a protein. The crushed shells keep slugs and snails away like pellets do, but for free. They also provide these nutrients for your soil as they break down. Some people use a food processor, I just dump them in a bucket and crunch with a hand rake. I also think it makes my dirt look pretty. Don't you?

(Last year, I bought two strawberry plants on clearance because the season was over. I didn't get any berries, but they spread like mad. After I dug and transplanted, I have 30 plants from two!)

Fun for the kids: start seeds in an eggshell.

Mother's Day and the backbreakers

2008-05-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

I love dirt. Good clean dirt. It looks deliciously enticing in a run-your-fingers-through-my-hair sort of way. Soft, crumbly and moist. So, naturally, I pull weeds. I don't love it, but I do it for the end result. I know very well that they will come back and I will have to do it again (next year..heeheehee) but for a brief moment I can see the lovely brownness and place desirable seeds in a good clean spot. That's why I kept the backbreakers.

This is my backbreaker. One of them. I have two. You push it into the dirt and turn and presto! the weed comes up. I'm sure this is one of the lines they use on their infomercials, and it is true, that is just exactly how it works. What they don't say is that after 4 or 5 turns, the twisting motion begins to take it's toll on your back. I do admit that it is a bit faster than doing it completely by hand, but it deserves some complaints, too. So why do I have two of them? How I acquired the first one: it was left in the garage of the first home we bought. How I acquired the second one: it was left in the garage of the second home we bought. I think I am seeing a pattern here. Someone must have discovered before me that these tools aren't all they cracked up to be.

And now for my Mother's Day gift: a tiller attachment for the weed whacker. WOOHOO!

Lean on Me

2008-05-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

The package the peas came in read, "No support needed", so I put them in the ground with no support. Some of them died. The others sort of swam unhappily in their daily watering and turned brown and dry. I have therefore decided that everyone can use a little support whether they ask for it or not and gave them a lovely fence to grow up. It was leftover from fencing my parents' yard, so I took it and cut it and bent it for a trellis. I used this last year also, and the problem I found was that I have to bend down inside to get out some of the peas. So, I welcome your ideas. How do you support your peas? Also on my to-try list: growing cucumbers and zucchinis up a trellis. Has anyone tried this?

Scenic Outlook Ahead

2008-05-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

My back deck can be a lovely place for picture taking. There are a great many things to see from up there and I have a guilty habit of spending much too much time just standing and seeing. I have learned something: My eyes see much better than my camera. There is probably a camera somewhere that takes pictures as well as the eye does, but I don't have it. This is a full moon through my cottonwood (which happens to be the tallest, hugest, ugliest tree for 3 blocks around). I am told that the man who planted it bought it because it was "cottonless". This was either a lie, or they magically change into "cottonful" once they hit 75 feet. Either way, toward the end of this month, our home and yard, as well as those of our neighbors, will be showered with cotton puffs deep enough to resemble snowbanks.

My camera can zoom pretty good. This is the tree in my neighbors' yard, and in the distance, the Draper temple. Again, my eyes see it better. It is about 15 miles away? This got me wondering, so Husband and I climbed onto the roof. There are two more temples visible from up there, and if it weren't for the other tallest, hugest, ugliest cottonwoods (on the next 3 blocks), I'd have fuzzy pictures of them, too.

I looked out the window and what did I see?

2008-05-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree! Okay, this is not the clearest picture. Those branches are out of reach without a ladder, and it was windy, so my zoom was not helpful.

More popcorn, with the dead/dying pine tree in the background--notice how the everGREEN is nice and BROWN? I hope for a boatload of apricots this year. I had that and more last year, but they ripened the week before the baby came and I didn't get more than a few quarts canned. Then, we sadly ran out of the previous year's jam in October and I swore I would preserve no less than 20 pints of it this year. I had to buy jam for the first time in...3 years? It is expensive! Also, I discovered how yummy puree can be. My two year old and I use it in place of syrup on our pancakes. The other child claims it is "Yucka" but I find it to be very nice and not overly sweet.

This "rose garden" was recently a sea of yellow dandelions. I am not kidding. There was little green visible. I decided that it is the only place in my yard that gets enough sunshine to keep my tomatoes happy and despite the crying and protesting from my four year old ("But Mommy, I LOVE the beautiful flowers! No, no don't hurt them, I promise to water them every day!"), I poisoned them. I poisoned them good and drippy. I had to explain how we need food more than flowers and how this kind of flower won't let anything else grow. Husband decided that it would be best to weed-whack the heads off of them (didn't go over well with said four year old) also to keep them from going to seed. Six days later, we have our next picture.

What will it take?

Making a comeback

2008-04-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hooray for Parsley! I did not know this was a perennial. Apparently, my huge bush of it is growing back big and healthy. It took off last year and I loved it. I put it in everything I cooked and even dried it from my window when the season was over. That got used up quickly, too.
This one is rhubard. I like how the leaves are all crinkled up into balls and they slowly unfold into enormous poisonous leaves...It's pretty, anyway. I dug these crowns up from a valley behind my mom's house last year and stuck them into my own ground, so they are wild and we'll see how they taste this summer. I actually tried to buy them from an online catalog, but for some reason, no one will ship rhubarb to Utah. Any ideas?

Perennials, anyone?

2008-04-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

This is about to be an advertisement. No, I don't work for these people, I'm just passing along a "good deal" notice. Henry Field's is offering free shipping on tons of perennials until April 15. No minimum purchase required! I think I may grab myself a Russian Sage for the front garden. They've also got ground covers, tulips, hyacinths, astilbes, mums, sweetpeas, daffodils, poppies...knock yourself out! Click here for a long list of their top perennials and plant something pretty this spring.

Out like a lamb?

2008-03-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

March did indeed come in like a lion. It snowed on the 1st and a few times after. I thought on Saturday I might put my pea seedlings in the ground. Then husband reminded me that last year I made him promise to not let me plant too early. I am a little eager. So he wouldn't let me. Then it snowed today. I guess they'll stay in my kitchen window until mid-April, when my seed starting guide says it alright to put them out. In the meantime, I patiently listen for the sound of bleating sheep.

My kitchen window. Mostly peas. See how professionally I use plastic cups?
Two types of peas. I had them labeled at first because they were both sugar snaps. The difference is obvious now that they are 10-12 inches, so I took off the labels. The two on the left are super sugar snaps and the two on the right are called sugar lace II (see all the lacey tendrils?) I've also planted Maestro, a garden pea. Here is the difference: Sugar snaps are fat and puffy and you eat the shell as well as the pea. Garden peas have a tough shell, and the peas inside get scraped out for green peas (the little round kind your kids pick out of their dinner). Snow peas, which I have not tried to grow, are the ones that are flat and barely have any pea at all inside, so it's mostly the shell you eat.

Seed Obsession

2008-03-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

I ordered seeds from catalogs this year for the first time. I had two good reasons: there were more types to choose from, and they sent me $25 coupons. I ordered from Gurney's, Henry Field's and Burpee. It seems to me (after extensive studying of catalogs) that Gurney's and Henry Fields are either secretly the same company, or they share their pictures and prices which are exactly the same. Burpee is more of a flowers site, but has some veggies, too. I gazed at the pages longingly for quite some time before I made my informed and overzealous decisions. Then, I called my sister to share in the fun. This turned out nicely because there was no way I could plant 180 sets of onions by myself, but I couldn't choose between red, yellow and white, and had to get them all.

The seeds come in lovely white envelopes with instructions and info, but no picture, so I cut the pics out of the catalogs and tape them to the envelope as shown.

Next, I slip the seeds/envelope into a snack size zipper bag and label the top edge. I place my bags in a kid's shoe box and now I have a lovely "file folder" for seeds!
As you can see, my collection is large and happy and I have only tried planting half of them. Some are four years old, but grow nicely every year, and some (like brussel sprouts) I may never try. If however, I had more bare ground than my two flower gardens, I could feed my family and the neighbors quite well.

Seed Starting Guides

2008-03-02T16:46:00.000-08:00

Friday morning was beautiful. The sun was shining and the snow had melted (mostly). Friday afternoon came and left us with another inch and a half of snow. What gives? I think I am getting a bit ahead of myself. It is barely March and I want to put in all my vegetables...now let's see what I can do. This is where a seed starting guide comes in handy. I have found two different ones on http://www.yougrowgirl.com that are helpful. Neither of them have everything I want to plant, but both of them have most. First one is a print-it-out and fill-it-in, using your calendar. Second is a type-in-a-date and it fills out for you (needs to be downloaded). These are weekly guides for starting seeds indoors or out and when they can safely be transplanted to your garden. For both, you will need to know your frost free date. Here in zone 5, northern Utah, it is May 8, with a 156 day season(before the first frost in fall).
Once I've done all my date-making, I have a weekly list of the veggies I can plant and--hooray--it's time for starting my peas indoors! Okay, I admit, I put them in 10 days ago.

Sunrise

2008-02-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

The other morning was so pretty, I just had to take a few more. This is the sunrise from my back door. Isn't it beautiful?

And this is the glacial overhang that threatens to fall on my kitty (yes, I keep him outside). Don't worry, he moves quickly.

This one is dedicated to Toni and Sara, who might have snow where they live, but probably not. That is my deck under a three-foot ridge of snow. You miss Utah, don't you?

Snowfall

2008-02-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, I realize that February is not the time to post gardening pictures. I couldn't wait. This is the snow that has blessed our yard in the last few weeks. It floated down so slowly, I thought I could capture it in a picture, but my camera must be a little slow, it is still blurry. I love to look at snow--from inside the window!