Wow, has it been a while. The garden was going great last year until a herd of deer happened by one weekend while I was away and ate everything to the ground! I was, not unreasonably, disgusted with the whole thing and have left it until now. In the coming week I'll be clearing off the winter's debris and getting ready for spring planting.
Hopefully, I'll update here more often too.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Friday, July 11, 2008
The Grand Master Plan
Well, I found this really cool CAD package called SketchUp that Google gives away, and I drew up the layout for the garden. Anything in 2-D is in the plan, and the 3-D stuff is actually out there.
As you can see ... I've got a ways to go to get done yet. The green beds are planted. The two blue ones I might get done this week (a late corn planting and pumpkins), and the pink ones I hope to have available for fall crops. The blue area is a 2 foot wide planting area inside of a fence that will eventually encircle the entire thing, providing both critter protection and a trellising system all the way around for those narrow beds and for things like those giant sunflowers.
Gotta run for now though ... just thought I'd throw out a quickie.
As you can see ... I've got a ways to go to get done yet. The green beds are planted. The two blue ones I might get done this week (a late corn planting and pumpkins), and the pink ones I hope to have available for fall crops. The blue area is a 2 foot wide planting area inside of a fence that will eventually encircle the entire thing, providing both critter protection and a trellising system all the way around for those narrow beds and for things like those giant sunflowers.
Gotta run for now though ... just thought I'd throw out a quickie.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Eat more Squash
Well, the squash are definitely in. Wow, are we getting alot of squash right now, and unfortunately it's at a time where we're not really bumping into people to give away the extras to for some reason.
I love giving away veggies, it's a personal, unique gift, and something that most people seem to appreciate (though I guess I probably ought to rummage through their trash the next day to make sure).
You simply cannot beat a taste of a squash picked ten minutes ago. I cooked some squash last night for dinner, and waited until everything was ready before walking out to the garden to pick a few crooknecks for dinner. And I had at least a dozen sitting on the counter. Tomatoes too. And expecially corn when it comes in. Green beans are just fresher.
Just how long has it taken those foods to get from the vine to the store to your counter to your pot? Last night for the squash, less than ten minutes. Add some fresh basil from the garden, and freshness cannot be beat.
Gotta get out in the morning though ... the garden beckons. Definitely needs a good watering tomorrow, and I need to finally setup that corn grid to keep it from getting knocked down bu the next big storm. If I'm going to plant a pumpkin, tomorrow's the day for that too. And I've got a huge mess of bush beans to pick. And maybe a second 4x4 of corn. Maybe. It's 75 day corn, so would be ready by my birthday. Yum.
And for no particular reason other than it's the fourth of July and I'm so grateful to this country for all the freedoms that it as afforded me in life and in the garden, I just want to send out this electronic thank you to all who have sacrificed to make this possible.
Happy Fourth!
I love giving away veggies, it's a personal, unique gift, and something that most people seem to appreciate (though I guess I probably ought to rummage through their trash the next day to make sure).
You simply cannot beat a taste of a squash picked ten minutes ago. I cooked some squash last night for dinner, and waited until everything was ready before walking out to the garden to pick a few crooknecks for dinner. And I had at least a dozen sitting on the counter. Tomatoes too. And expecially corn when it comes in. Green beans are just fresher.
Just how long has it taken those foods to get from the vine to the store to your counter to your pot? Last night for the squash, less than ten minutes. Add some fresh basil from the garden, and freshness cannot be beat.
Gotta get out in the morning though ... the garden beckons. Definitely needs a good watering tomorrow, and I need to finally setup that corn grid to keep it from getting knocked down bu the next big storm. If I'm going to plant a pumpkin, tomorrow's the day for that too. And I've got a huge mess of bush beans to pick. And maybe a second 4x4 of corn. Maybe. It's 75 day corn, so would be ready by my birthday. Yum.
And for no particular reason other than it's the fourth of July and I'm so grateful to this country for all the freedoms that it as afforded me in life and in the garden, I just want to send out this electronic thank you to all who have sacrificed to make this possible.
Happy Fourth!
Monday, June 30, 2008
And one Peanut
My daughter Stephanie is eight, and she's been helping out around the garden. About the time we'd gotten the main beds in and planted, she comes over to me one afternoon dangling the most mangled thing you'd ever seen - - one peanut plant.
We'd been feeding some raw peanuts I had to the squirrels and I guess they buried one in the mulch pile. Stephanie had found it and, thinking it a weed or something, ripped it out of the mulch. And not too kindly at that. Most of the foliage was shredded, and the roots consisted of a single peanut in the shell with a few of the roots still intact. I'm not sure if I could have done that much damage to it with a weed whacker.
"Daddy, can we plant it?"
What could I say? "Of course dear, we'll put it in this special square right over here", and of course that's what we did. I gave it an hour in ICU before the peanut Gods came to take it away to that happy peanut heaven, but amazingly it survives.
We'll see what the yield is on "One Peanut".
The next day, Stephanie pops back up: "Daddy, look at these onions I found ...".
Tragically, they died a mysterious death and were later discarded.
We'd been feeding some raw peanuts I had to the squirrels and I guess they buried one in the mulch pile. Stephanie had found it and, thinking it a weed or something, ripped it out of the mulch. And not too kindly at that. Most of the foliage was shredded, and the roots consisted of a single peanut in the shell with a few of the roots still intact. I'm not sure if I could have done that much damage to it with a weed whacker.
"Daddy, can we plant it?"
What could I say? "Of course dear, we'll put it in this special square right over here", and of course that's what we did. I gave it an hour in ICU before the peanut Gods came to take it away to that happy peanut heaven, but amazingly it survives.
We'll see what the yield is on "One Peanut".
The next day, Stephanie pops back up: "Daddy, look at these onions I found ...".
Tragically, they died a mysterious death and were later discarded.
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