Veggie Garden Update

Here’s an update on my veggie garden. As you may know, this is my first attempt to grow veggies, so I am probably making every mistake in the book, but that’s how one learns, right? That and many YouTube videos. In my case, I usually have to make mistakes twice before I get it, so who knows what next year’s garden will look like.

Here’s a tally of what I did and what I got:

• Peas – Purchased starts from Flower World in Maltby. They were labled “sugar or snap” peas, so I’m not really sure what I got. They did quite well and were the first things ready. They’re all done now and I pulled them.
• Lettuce – Also from Flower World. Butter Crunch grew quite tall. Great Lakes Head not so much. Both varieties were somewhat bitter so I am going to go with Romaine next year.
• Pole Beans – Also from Flower World and transplanted on the same day. It’s early September and I finally have beans!! Picked my first handful a couple of days ago. Not many beans on such a large plant, but perhaps it is too dense?

• Tomatoes – Purchased Brandywine starts from Molbaks. as well as Green Zebra and Yellow Pear starts from the local PCC. I finally have three ripe Yellow Pear tomatoes. I am still waiting for everything else.

• Cucumbers – Purchased starts from PCC. They have gotten quite huge but have yet to turn green. A few have turned gold and I finally picked one yesterday. They taste pretty good but are still a bit underripe.

• Carrots and Beets – Both planted from seed. These have grown very slowly and I lost most of them. Perhaps it’s the soil. Or maybe when in full sun they got too hot?

• Zucchini – Planted from seed. I planted these pretty late; the plants are steadily growing but have yet to flower.

Spring Again in Our Front Yard

After another long cold winter here in the Pacific Northwest, and an especially rainy March, April has been spectacular in comparison. Here are some pictures from our front yard taken the last few days. Simply inspirational. I am very thankful for seasons. Spring is my favorite as it invokes a sense of renewal and regrowth. Enjoy the pictures!!

The Garden Project – April 15 Update

If you recall from my last status report, I had made no progress on my garden the first month. Why? Well, I have a strong dislike for rain and March was one of the rainiest on record. One could insert here a question, “then why do you live in the Northwest?”, which would require a long answer about our families and community of friends and addiction to mossy and moldy substances, not to mention those magic mushrooms (oh, I just did!)(just kidding about the mushrooms), but enough of my jibber jabber and long run-on sentences! April has sported something quite unusual–some sunshine–so progress is made. Here are some pics:

At the start:

Last week, being the first full week of April, I moved all of the wood out and cleaned the area as best as I could. It wound up displacing this not-so-little fellow:

Then I went to Home Depot and found some 5′ cedar pickets and it turned out that four of them end-to-end fit exactly in the space. So the framing design became obvious:

So then I decided to put up 2×4 risers at the point across from where each board will meet. I used Liquid Nails to glue them to the foundation wall so I wouldn’t have to screw into the wall:

Then I placed 4×4 posts next to the sidewalk and connected them to the wall risers with 2x4s, along with the top boards of the cedar siding:

The sidewalk curves in at the east end, so I’m not sure if I’m going to leave this last piece angled (less work since it’s already in place) or keep it straight and staggered (appealing to my perfectionism/anal-retentiveness).

During the project I have been provided moral support from my mascot, Jake:

My Garden Project vs. The Hunger Games

I just wanted to update everybody on my garden project. As you may recall, I proudly posted a few weeks ago my grand intentions to start my first ever vegetable garden. I have this little strip of wall on the south side of our house that (if we’re lucky, read below) may get about eight hours of sunshine during the height of the season. So here is what my garden area now looks like:

You will notice that I have made great progress from what it looked like three weeks ago:

Now if you have had at least a nominal amount of morning caffeine to be alert and observant today, you will have come to the conclusion that I have in fact made absolutely no progress on my garden.

Oh that’s funny, coincidentally a few seconds ago a commercial for the news came on in which the anchor said “When will winter finally let up? Get Jeff’s forecast tonight at 11.” That is too crazy since I was just ready to insert this next picture:

I kid you not! I was about to post this picture (which I just did, in case you were paying attention) and say something like the following, which is almost like a confessional, so imagine I am at one of those 12-step meetings where I say:

“Hi, I’m Kelly, and I’m a Californian” at which point everyone says “Hi, Kelly” to be supportive. And then I say “I haven’t had the sun for 10 days” at which point I hope they have something like a 10-day coin to hand me for my sufferance, along with a tube of tanning paint. For you see, my friends, when it comes to weather, I am a total wuss.

Never you mind that I have lived up here in this substance we call “Seattle Sunshine” for most of the last 30+ years. (By the way, that is slang for any of the following: “rain”, “spotty rain”, “increasing rain”, “showers”, “mixed showers”, “partial showers”, “partial sun”, “cats and dogs living together” and combinations thereof.) You would think that I would be “acclimated” to this miserable weather, but if anything, I have become less tolerant.

Meanwhile, there have still been plenty of indoor projects to occupy me. Primarily, a DVR full of shows to watch like “The Voice”, “Alcatraz”, “CSI”, “Person of Interest”, “New Girl”, etc. Also, watching really cool movies that just hit the theatre is, by their very nature, an indoor activity. (Not many drive-in theatres up in these parts.) By “really cool movies” of course I am referring to “The Hunger Games”. And since I’m not outside gardening, I felt the little ecard above was priceless. (Really, it didn’t cost me anything.)

I will say that I have made some slight progress on the garden project: The Methodist church at the bottom of our little hill had a vegetable gardening workshop this evening which I attended. It was conducted by the owner of Gardens Alive Design, Kirsten Lints. She provided a lot of useful information, especially with regard to local resources, such as the local master gardener’s association website and a place to get soil tested. Thanks Kirsten!

I learned that at the very least I can start some seeds inside, so that is going to be my next step. I will keep you all posted. Meanwhile, happy Hunger Games!!