|
|
|
|
Garden
sun 3 apr 2011 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2011/110403.html |
|
SO and I visited the community garden plot for the first time this year... Let me tell you something... As a vegan, and an environmentalist, and an anarchist, and everything else that I am... I deeply believe that Personal Organic/Veganic Gardens are a major part of saving the world. But, me being me; I don't actually want to do it myself. But, me being the responsible vegan I am; I am going to do it anyway. heh. So, here's the deal. This will be our third year at the community garden. We are very lucky to have a plot! The past two years of gardening, we have not been "serious" and we are always on the verge of getting kicked out, because I think "weeds" are wildflowers. This year, I have decided to Pretend to be a "real" gardener. What that actually means? Yeah, not sure yet! :) |
|
garden
sun 24 apr 2011 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2011/110424.html |
|
Did get out to the community garden plot this morning. No pictures, tho: It's not a pretty sight! heh. The weeds are coming up between the boxes that SO laid down over the winter. And the boxes are starting to break down, which is a good thing, but we need to pick out all the packing tape. Today, SO and I worked on the weeds on the evil neighbor side. They are evil because they are real gardeners, with raised beds and a pissy-ness about our "weeds". But, we've got a really invasive and annoying weed on that side of our plot... and even I want to get rid of it! So, we turned over the plants with our forks. And then put some cardboard over them. The lack of sunshine... probably won't work on this particular batch of very tough weeds, so I'm planning to plant some Borage over there as well. I think (or hope) the borage will take over. Plus the bees will be really happy. They love borage! Planted some peas and a salad mix that I got from my seed trade over at the Vegan Fox Swap. Peas and lettuce are both cold happy plants. But I need to look up the "last frost date" for our area... because most of the vegetables I want say to plant after that date.
Here's a site... hmm. I see I am late already on many of my planned plantings. Typical. Still. I am going to try to be a semi-real gardener this year. My main goal is to visit the garden plot more than just once a week. I do depend on SO to do waterings through the week (it gets terribly dry here in the summer), but I should stop by and do some weeding. and stuff! *sighs again* I just don't have Gardening in my soul. Ya know? It's more like work to me. And I like to avoid work, when I can. Stay tuned! |
|
garden
sun 1 may 2011 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2011/110501.html |
|
ha. Yep, I got up. But to combat my malaise, I decided to do something NOT on my list of small things... Crochet. I had run into a little "motif" star pattern the other day. And I thought I could whip it up in an hour or so. haha, yeah right! I completely screwed it up, and now I'm going to have to pull out everything I did and start over! Oh well. Instead, SO and I went to the community garden!
Significant Other got to work on the invasive weed on the right side of our plot. And I hand-weeded our strawberry patch and some of our pea patch, and also broke up a section for planting... We got some carrot seeds down in the ground, some broccoli and some cilantro. With some salad mix seeds inbetween rows. Supposed to warm up, and not rain as much in the coming week... so I have hopes for this batch of seeds. Otherwise, there's always Saturday Market for buying transplants. We've relied on this method in the past... but now that I'm pretending to be a real gardener... *sighs* well. Those seeds better grow! |
|
my excuese
tue 3 may 2011 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2011/110503.html |
|
"But my back hurts," and I came home and stayed home. My back does ache... tweaked it somewhere between the bike ride and the gardening and the regular day job duties. But still, it sounds like a pathetic excuse. After all, I'm always going to be "achy" or "tired" or something after work, and not want to go to the garden. *sighs* and *laughs*... I'm going to be a complete failure on pretending to be a Real Gardener, aren't I??! |
|
eat more tofu
sun 15 may 2011 | ||
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2011/110515.html | ||
|
Both SO and I have been extremely grumpy about the gardening thing, lately. Pretending to be a real gardener... means... working thru the grumpiness, I suppose. bleh. We did make it out to the garden for a few minutes this weekend: It's a little bit hopeless out there, tho. The stuff we planted two weeks ago has not come up. The third planting of our pea patch, has finally emerged, but it's looking a bit moth-eaten. heh. (I don't mind the bugs! Just "paying rent" as Derrick Jensen says. and the pea plants will definitely survive!) (And the lack of growing is due to the weird, cool weather we've been stuck with, RE: La Nina. No one else is growing anything either, so I don't despair.) (yet.) But, with nothing really growing in the garden (except the "weeds"), I decided to plant some seeds in pots... The Cherry Tomatoes in the tofu container are now six weeks old... Thinking about planting them at the garden next weekend. (Last Frost date here is TODAY!)
So, the tofu container seems to work fine as a plant pot! *grins* Today I planted... Marigold and Sunflowers, Beans and Nasturtiums, Leeks and more Nasturtiums. yeah, I might be a little bit excitable about the Nasturtiums. And, yeah, I do have more seeds to plant, which is why I need to eat more tofu! *laughs* |
|
update
sun 12 june 2011 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2011/110612.html |
|
∞ Postcards June is going to be a postcard month! I sent out happy postcards, all through the first week of june. This weekend, I'm getting my "May postcard" organized. (I know, it's june!) (never mind!) It would be -nice- if the june postcards go out the door in -june-! And, I'm taking on some letter writing projects. And! Swap-bot seems to be going well, I've signed up for a second project there! ∞ Garden oh the stupid garden. *lemon face* I keep saying I'm going to Pretend to be a Real Gardener this year. yeah, right? when? Any time now! Seriously! *deep breath* Peas are growing, cherry tomato plants have survived the transplant, cabbage is good, nasturtium seems okay, and we'll have strawberries. Everything else died or never lived. And we have tamed just a tiny portion of our plot. So, I must do something! ∞ Photography I carry my camera everywhere. But do I ever get it out to take pictures?! No! *rolls eyes* Even when I see something, "oh, that would make a good picture," I just walk right on past. What is wrong with me?! You know what I'm thinking about doing? I usually carry my camera case in my backpack, along with my lunch... it's rather a tight fit. And it takes several minutes to get to my camera: open backpack, maneuver past insulated lunch bag, pull out camera case, open case and pull out camera. How about if I leave the case at home, throw the camera into the top portion of my backpack? The camera is a couple years old, and no longer precious. And I need to be able to whip it out. (but without it hanging on my neck all the time!) Surviving naked in my backpack might be tough, but I think that's what we need to do!
photo of poppies while Significant Other gets our take-out! |
|
garden
sun 19 june 2011 | |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2011/110619.html | |
|
The phone call that we get every year that says, Clean up your Community Garden Plot or we will kick you out! It just wouldn't be June without that phone call! heh. So! This past week, SO and I have spent some time at the garden. Him, clearing out some of the cardboard that we laid down over the winter to keep the weeds down. Me, forking out planting areas and picking out the grass roots. We keep planting seeds that don't grow. I planted the peas three times before we got a few plants. And today I planted carrots for the third time. I've mostly given up with the seed thing. My tofu pot plants are hit and miss. The cherry tomatoes are still alive, and the nasturtiums are actually growing! But the beans, marigolds, sunflowers, leeks, and whatever else it was that I attempted... are dead. But! I ate my first strawberry today! and there are loads more on the way. We planted our strawberry patch last autumn, starts from one of our garden neighbors. And SO has a good cabbage patch going. Free starts from a local shop.
A rain drenched trip to Saturday Market yesterday and today I planted two good cucumber plants and one zuchini. (Too bad I couldn't tell one plant from the other! tags on the plants were lacking, and the leaves are _exactly_ the same. huh?! ha!) And a pretty purple thing, also lacking a tag, that has a long unknown name to it! Later this week, we'll plant the rest: Basil, Dill and some kind of pepper that SO got. I really wanted some green beans this year... The "tofu pot" bean sprouts died right after transplanting, and the seeds I planted a couple times didn't grow. I'm procrastating, but I am going to start some more seeds in pots to be transplanted. again. And, in the meantime... I've got six tofu pots going with seedlings. Can't remember what!! haha... I know the two vigorous seedlings are a Salad Blend that I got on one of my seed trades this spring. I'm pretty sure I planted more Marigolds. But that leaves three other tofu pots, unaccounted for!! *grins* |
|
no garden time
thurs 8 sept 2011 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2011/110908.html |
|
This is our third year at our nearby community garden, and this was the year that I was going to Pretend to be a Real Gardener! It turns out I am a fair weather friend when it comes to the garden plot. I have learned how to kill the wildflowers (aka "weeds"). and I visited the garden several times a week when it was convenient. But then I stopped visiting in August, when I had to work overtime at the day job. And now it's just crazy hot! 90°+ days... No air conditioning at work... No air conditioning at home... and sitting in the garden to pull weeds under the blazing sun just isn't going to happen. sighs. Significant Other is awesome, going out there to water every day!! He brings home loads of zucchini, cucumbers and basil. |
|
garden
sat 10 sept 2011 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2011/110910.html |
|
I was surprised that our single surviving marigold was blooming!
I worked on the weeds for a little while. There's a new little pea plant, right in the middle of the trifecta of cucumber/zucchini/cucumber! Where did he come from?! Volunteer pea plant! The many tomato plants have all had fruits on them for weeks, but nothing's turning red. It's our crazy weather: a week of 90°, a week of 70°, another week of 90°. The tomatoes are confused. Maybe the coming week of more hot weather will put some colour on those poor plants. |
|
august postcard
wed 21 sept 2011 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2011/110921.html |
|
This was the photo I sent out as my august postcard. As I said on the pc, Borage (Starflower) grows wild in our community garden plot. It is a good companion plant to tomatoes because it attracts bees and repels horn worms. Significant Other mentioned today that he had discovered it's defense against animals. ha! He went to move one of the branches. "Do you know what I did wrong?" he asks me. I laugh and say, "you touched it!" You see all the little furry stuff around the buds? That furry stuff covers all the leaves and stems as well. It looks really soft and fluffy! But when you grab it, you definitely say "ow!" Or, in SO's case, you definitely curse loudly. |
|
You Are Here: |
|
|
|
