The benefits of having a tiny garden are many. This year I've set everything I am tending close together. Those trips for something I'd forgotten, that used to entail walking all the way around the house, now are just a dozen steps there and back. I am spending an average of one hour a day doing stuff for my veggie, and am all caught up, even finding time to write these journal entries.
I won't be growing any watermelon, or cabbages, or potatoes, among many other things. But if all goes well, my crops will include lettuce, radish, sweet peas, green beans, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes (three varieties), okra, onions, herbs and cucumbers. All in one 8 by 12 foot enclosure. We'll see.
I often hear folks suggest ways to increase the calcium in soil, so that tomatoes don't get blossom end rot. Last year I surrounded all my tomatoes (two plants!) with egg shells, and had no problems with that malady, but just to be sure this year, I decided not to rely only on all the egg shells and coffee grounds I produce, but to also supplement with a calcium powder. I spent an awful lot ($50) on soil, a calcium supplement, and a few pots, and felt a little silly as I left the Growing Room. But when I measured out the powder I would need for one gallon of soil, and I think I can get this all done with two gallons, I realized I'd bought a lifetime supply of the stuff. You can see my powder on the tip of that trowel, and the soil in the groovy stainless steel bucket on the floor.
As always, my photogenic pets are underfoot.
Today I repotted three tomatoes and two peppers, all supplemented with calcium/magnesium. They look so much happier!
Patches is looking on.
My cold frame is turning out to be too small both for the crops planted in there and for my seedlings as they grow. I still have three weeks before I can plant them out. I definitely could have started the cukes a couple of weeks later than the other seedlings to have more room. Next year!
There's a freeze possibly hitting us overnight tonight, snow and all. Far be it from me to look anything up, so, just to be safe, I piled some hay on top of my cold frame and secured that with a flannel sheet. I figure it will stay nice and warm in there overnight, hopefully not suffocating for my plants. An added bonus will be that the cold frame will also not heat up as quickly next morning when the sun hits it, so I can sleep in a bit. I've had to get up earlier than I would like, just to crack the lids, and am getting short on sleep.
Normally, or so I imagine (not having looked it up), a cold frame should be enough protection for a night such as this one coming. But this cold frame is a rickety, rinky dink, toy store variety. I think a bit of extra protection will help me sleep well.
Nothing brings fairies to my mind better than lamium, which runs so wild in my yard I have to contain it by pulling masses of it up by hand every spring. I'm including this photo for no other reason than it is pretty, and caught my eye on my very short walk from my garden gate to my front porch.
That's all folks!
Thanks for reading! All photos are mine.
cutest little page break ever by @thekittygirl
OMG that last photo- -lamium --I planted some 20 years ago. Now, like the vinca minor (one plant, to start with, just one), it is dominating every flower bed. All day yesterday I was pulling it away from the ostrich ferns, the bluebells, the anemones. Today I go back to pull some more, though the chiggers and poison ivy (invisible to me) are already on the warpath, trying to discourage me from establishing harmony in nature.
Balance, harmony... order, not so much, I'm not the orderly or organized kind ... I am weary already, and it's still only April. So many mistakes I've made. I'd blog about it, but I'd probably post from the "wrong" community again and get downvoted again, so I'm hesitant to share. Why bother. I'm glad you bother, Owasco. Thank you for the photos, stories, and inspiraton. All the things you fit into an 8x10 foot space - you're amazing!
You can't see poison ivy? It announces its presence to me from many feet away. I don't bother it, and have found that it stakes its claim and asks for no more. I freaked out when I found porcelain berry in my yard, but it didn't even reappear the next year. Japanese knotweed formed a nice clump and didn't take over my yard as people warned, so I learned to love my one large clump.
One good thing about lamium is that even garlic mustard can't get a foot hold where it grows.
It's a good thing I love the stuff though. Lamium is killing an enormous joe pye weed that I like, and I have to go out today and rip a bunch of it up.
But I am fed up with taking care of these seedlings (which are doing very well) and won't start them again until three weeks before they can go outside in the ground. Keeping the temp just right in the cold frame is too much work!!! I am enslaved to it! I finally figured out to put hay on top as the day cools off so that it doesn't heat up so quickly the next morning. But then they don't get enough sun...
Choosing the right community is so hard. They make me want to publish only to the communities that support me, which in turn dictates what I post about. The communities are more like ghettos. Methinks the witnesses think too much.
You're so sweet to compliment my feeble attempts to grow my own food.
Poison Ivy. Like 'Where's Waldo,' I can spot it among a thousand companion plants.
Trouble is, it hides. Under the leafy canopy of others. I'm pulling Dame's Rocket, and oops, hey, here's the dreaded three-leafer, and I've touched it. Into the house quick to wash it off. (Nope, no gloves. Hate 'em.)
This time of year, the vine hasn't leafed out yet, but as I'm pulling periwinkle and lamium, I'll hit a vine, and sure enough, despite the hand washing, I have the ivy blisters on my hands. Of course, no plantain to be found. Of all the things I have pulled up, why did I succeed at eradicating a GOOD weed...
"Are you a good weed or a bad weed?"
"But I'm not a weed at all! I'm broadleaf plantain, good for your poison ivy outbreak!"
I've committed so much malfeasance and mismanagement of the land, the garden.
My self-esteem has tanked this spring, seeing all my mistakes in landscaping over 21 years.
Love your comment on the ghetto mindset. :)
Forgive me for saying this, again, but your self esteem is much too low! You are a top notch human! It is not at all malfeasance or mismanagement. The earth needs no management. You love it as much as anyone else, and that is all it needs.
Jewelweed. or touch me not, is much better for poison ivy. Leaves help (smush them up until the juices ooze), but the juices at the base of the stem, the reddish part, are more potent. It's just starting to poke its way out of the ground here. Some folks use this prophylactically.
I wash with Dr Bronner's, oil based. If I have been exposed and I know it, a dose of Rhus Toxicodendron homeopathic remedy helps too. I haven't had a rash in years, and my property has poison ivy in a lot of places, which I also inadvertently touch, but boy I see my mistake immediately. It's like a cat that does not like to be touched. I wash it off right away, just like you do. Also hate gloves, although I've started wearing them sprayed with bug spray to try to cut down on the ticks I pull off my body. ugh. Those are much worse then pretty poison ivy.
Lamium has its medicinal uses. Ok. So does periwinkle. I still have wheelbarrows full of it.
Looking for the lamium with the yellow blossom (gotta be good for something, right?) I found this first:
Another member of the mint family, the common henbit (Lamium amplexicaule)
Creeping Charlie
Aha. The culprit!
Yellow archangel identification and control
Foolish me, 20 years ago. If I'd only known then what I know now.
No shortcuts! No planting something to choke out the poison ivy.
Or the garlic mustard.
I traded one devil for another.
And yeah, I should write a post about it, but my time might be better spent undoing the damage I have done to my own yard. The nurseries that sell this stuff deserve a good portion of the blame. I'm not one for government oversight and I don't trust all the FDA regulations, but this is a case where there should be laws against selling invasive, non-native species to ignorant consumers.
HELP!!!!
HAHAHA! I got a good chuckle out of this comment!
I did not know this is henbit! I've been wondering what henbit is. My chickens did not have anything to do with it though, so not sure about that part. Love the name "archangel". There is something very fitting about that.
Man has made quite a mess of things on the ground. We dig it up, tear it down, clear it and try to tame it to our specifications. Then nature send us garlic mustard and hogweed in penance. It's a losing fight. Maybe you need a smaller garden? dig up some of the stuff you love, start anew in a tiny area and let Tim mow the rest? You'd both be happy?
This might explain why so many yards are all grass - less work, and what there is to do is highly effective and mindless.
Oh, you nailed it: this is why almost all American homes are boring masses of lawn with boring shrubberies around the foundation of the boring house. We have a new neighbor, new house, and I offered to help her "Grow Wild" (and bought her a copy of the book as inspiration), but she has a grass lawn, and rocks around the foundation, and the usual, ubiquitous shrubberies. I feel I've been fighting a losing battle.
After 21+ years of work, I could ****Let it go**** - the woods, the weeds, the grass. There would still be a few smaller flower beds and a few trees that were not massive mistakes.
The Man of the House can keep spreading chemicals on the lawn... I can abandon all hope being in tune with nature and restoring the land and creating a wholesome, healthful environment. Just Say No. Just Walk Away. I can do that, right?
Sure. But you wouldn't be happy. What is this book?
You know I'll mail you a copy if you want... if I can find more copies...I keep buying and giving away this book and yet not one single recipient has become a convert.
Odd, I never noticed the "In Canada" part - my book is full of the Midwest prairie.
I would love that! Does it show you how to convert?
Aha! My book has a different title (same cover photo and layout, though)
Grow Wild!: Low-Maintenance, Sure-Success, Distinctive Gardening with Native Plants
I wrote that comment without reading your links, which are great!!! How do you do that?
I have creeping charlie everywhere, and it sounds like a very valuable plant! Gonna have to dry me some of that now.
So the yellow stuff is NOT henbit, which I also have in my yard. That, ground ivy, and dead nettle all grow together in a sweet patch in my front yard, along with chickweed, ajuga, and wintercress. It's very pretty.
Yay for gardens. Bigger yay for pets in the garden. Although in my life pets in the gardens is usually a crisis in the form of naughty goats or escaped chickens. I often think that smaller gardens is much better. Easier to manage and the yield is surprisingly high. Well done on your patch of patch of green @owasco
Thank you buckaroobaby! I love your name. I already love you!!!
We are sure that all these little seedlings will grow very well with all your care, even with the cold nights.
I hope you're right! The good news is that I can buy what I need if they don't survive. Thank you for the compliment!
I live in a tropical country, which is why I do not know the difficulties that arise when frost and snow fall; what I do know is the struggle I sometimes have to have to provide calcium to tomato and papay crops, so I have chosen to dilute a little milk in the irrigation water, in addition to pulverizing the egg shells. Your little garden is very beautiful, I hope to see it already productive. All the best.
Vivo en un país tropical, por eso desconozco las dificultades que surgen cuando caen las heladas y la nieve; lo que sí sé es la lucha que a veces tengo que tener para aportar calcio a los cultivos de tomate y papaya, por eso he optado por diluir un poco de leche en el agua de riego, además de pulverizar las cáscaras de huevo. Tu pequeño jardín es muy hermoso, espero verlo ya productivo. Un gran saludo.
As it turns out, we didn't even get a frost! lol. Now I have to go out and get all that stuff off of there. Live and learn. I have a bunch of milk that will sour soon. Can I just dump it in my garden patch? Should I dilute it?
Thanks for your visit!
I love your photogenic helpers. :)
Isn't it nice when you think, "Oof, this product is expensive" only to discover you've bought a massive supply so it's not really so bad? LOL. I've been an eggshells-and-coffee-grounds person so far, so I'm curious to hear if you think the bought supplement really helped more in the end!
I just dumped some milk out where I'll be planting the tomatoes. I hope I'm not overdoing it!
I've had plants in the cold frame for 10 days now and not opened it. I will have to open it on Saturday as it's to get into the 70's. Last night we had a hard freeze and snow flurries in bright sun most of the day today.
I think of you so often now, keeping thousands of seedlings alive instead of my teensy couple dozens. So I could have done nothing, right? I covered again for tonight. After tomorrow, cold shouldn't be a problem.
With the more delicate ones out there (I would not have put mine out there until May 15) it's a good thing you did what you did. They need all the protection they could get. Most of the sprawly things (pumpkins, squash, cukes) and nightshades HATE being below 50F. Sets them back.
Oh thank you for that information. I'm sure it's gone lower than 50 in there. Hopefully going forward it won't get that cold again.
You wouldn't have put your sprawly things into a cold frame until May 15? I expect to put them in the ground around then...
I am Zone 4a here and last frost is May 31.... I actually don't even start sprawly things until May 15 because in 2 weeks they get so big they are hard to transplant. It's the other delicate things that go out by May 15.
Thanks! I now know I started my sprawly things, and nightshades, way too soon. I'm 6b. Last frost was supposed to be a couple days ago.