Perfect Weather

Look at that forecast! Ten days of my favorite kind of summer weather!

I've been kind of quiet because, well, there isn't much to say. It rained a lot. We had at least 7 inches of rain in a 10 day period. It was too mucky to be in the garden and it didn't need to be watered.

When I put straw on the garden, it didn't go the way I'd hoped it would, but it's a lesson learned. I took the straw off of everything and I lost a few peppers.

I broke down and bought chicken wire to replace the floppy plastic fencing I was using. I thought I bought a roll 5 feet tall and 150 feet long. I took down all of the fence I had and hung overlapping sections of chicken wire. My plot is 60'x11'. After hanging all of the fence, I can barely tell I've taken any off of the roll. It's still to heavy to lift and carry. At least one neighbor is going to buy some from me. I told her I would sell her 15' for $1. She's got a long, outside plot like I do. I think others might be interested and I can get rid of most of what's left  and make back some of my money.

The brussel sprouts that I broadcast are doing well. Yesterday, I weeded the bed and spaced the plants more evenly.  Today, they are standing straight and it seems like they've grown a bit overnight. I'm really happy with them.

The rhubarb has kicked off. The carrots have begun to show themselves and I have planted two more rows. I have seeds enough to plant again later this sumer. The peas are finally coming up, and now they'll have a sturdy fence to grow on instead of being tugged on by the plastic fence in the wind. The tomatoes I bought are growing from their original awesome condition, and the tomatoes I started from seeds are really, truly growing!! I haven't killed them! And there are lots of them! If they all grow the 7 feet tall as the others have in the last few years, my tomato-house-arbor-thingy will really serve good purpose.

4 O'Clocks from Burpee

Now that I have so much more and sturdier fence space, I decided to take advantage of it. I've planted more peas. I've planted a whole packet of long beans. 4-O'Clocks are the evening version of Morning Glories - the open in the evening and stay open until daylight. They are trumpet-shaped flowers and should draw hummingbirds and  honeybees. Instead of a climbing vine, they are bushy and may grow to 30" tall. I've put them along the fence line on the southeast corner and I plan on adding more sunflowers in that corner. The flowers will do well in the sun, and the brussel sprouts and other cooler-loving veg might be better off because of the shade.

The lettuce I planted from seed survived the rain. I bought some more greens to put in the bed with them. I accidentally bought swiss chard - two kinds. I put all of it in last night. The 3" pots that I bought had 12+ seedlings in them, so I'm going to have a nice carpet of greens. I have more lettuce and greens seeds that I hope to cycle through for the rest of the summer. I don't know if that actually works in the hotter weather, but I'm going to try.

I do have some pretty big spaces that are un-planted and covered with straw. It will keep the straw there for now and keep out the weeds. I want to keep some ground-space aside for the butternut squash I've got going. Having enough room for them has been a big problem for the last 2 years.

I had to move the bird feeder. It hung over the work space I made for myself under the tomato-house-arbor-thingy and earlier this week, I stepped inside to a soft, bouncy carpet of sunflower sprouts. The mass of them was solid and about 6" deep. It's easy enough to kill off the sunflowers there, but the seeds have continued to spread all over my garden and the one next to me. The bird seed I bought this year is the problem, and I bought 35 pounds of it! I've filled the two big feeders with the trouble seeds and hung them on the tree near my plot. I bought some of the same seed that I bought last year and put that in a smaller feeder last night. It was nearly empty today. I will move it into the tomato-house-thingy tomorrow so all of the "good" seeds are in the garden and the big feeders can empty or spill without messing up the garden.

I can say I am really satisfied and pleased with the garden right now. It looks like it's going to be very successful, and I think it's going to be pretty too. It still hasn't been worth it to take pictures - everything is still small and they don't show well in pictures, but with this week's weather, things should be aces by next Sunday.

My hands and feet are covered with little cuts and scratches from the chicken wire, I have my first bug bite on my face, the mani/pedi I got last week is doing wonders for keeping my nails from looking gnarly and stained from all of the digging, and my hands have been swollen and sore for the last few nights because they haven't done any real hard work in years.

*happy dance*

A few days ago, I had a dream about creatures that look like meal worms being inside vegetables that were cut open.

Then I had a dream that my hands were cupped full of seeds and there were meal worms squirming around in the seeds.

This morning, I had a dream that a large part of my plastic mesh fence blew over onto the garden. I went to the garden and my neighbors laughed at me for my lousy fence and when I pulled up the fence to stake it in, all of the soil beneath was carpeted with seedlings. And they didn't have any.

I've had a lot of dreams about the garden, but I think this group means something special.

I haven't been able to work in the garden for days because of all of the rain, but I thought I'd check it. We had rain again today and we got another .25 inch. The bird feeder was completely empty and seeds were scattered everywhere.

I straightened up the fence with the longer poles I bought this weekend and filled the bird feeder.The brussel sprout seeds I scattered are sprouting! Delicate lines of sprouts show where the lettuce and carrots will grow and all of the alums are shooting up green stems!

I'm not sure I should be so giddy. Honestly, this isn't about the wonder of nature, it's about validation that I didn't screw up.

I can hear a lot of birds at the feeder - all kinds of song. I will gladly buy bird seed for having that sound in the evening.

Claim it. Own it.

I got a late start today. Copied the garden  plan I'd made into a notebook. I've spent so much time reading up on different combinations of plants and what additives each kind of plant needs when it's transplanted, that I can't remember it all.

Home Sweet Home
The Land is outlined in red, my plot is in white.

I hung fence around the perimeter of my plot. I put up the garden trellis, but I made it bigger and a slightly different shape, dug out about a foot of soil from inside the trellis to mound around the edges. Tomatoes will go on the mounds and be trained up (and over?) the trellis.

I flattened the soil inside and used boards to hold up the mounds from the inside so it wouldn't fall in. I laid some carpet strips on the inside to keep the packed dirt down, weed free, and not too mucky.

Mr Hu, Mr Tse, Mrs Lang, Mrs. Gao, Mr. Bu, and a few others were outside working in their plots. As I was working on the trellis, they asked if I was building a house. The carpet made it a done deal for them, they couldn't stop laughing.

I am often the recipient of shaking heads, chuckling, and outright laughter. Sometimes people just cruise by to watch me, some come right up to me and take tools (or whatever) out of my hands to try to stop what I'm doing because they think I am making some kind of monumental mistake. I don't mind being different, but interference or anything more than a casual suggestion just pisses me off. I rolled with it the first year and a half, but last summer, I lost my patience. There is no benefit in "being nice to old people" around here. The respect doesn't go both ways. I'm not used to this, but it's got to be a cultural thing I'm missing. I've decided it's better to stand my ground and cut off the pushy people. I'd rather be left alone because people think I'm crazy than be pestered and patronized by friends.

There trellis is open to the fence on the north side of my plot. I don't want to make too much shade for my neighbor without losing vertical space. I left an opening on the side so I can get inside the trellis area. I'm using it to store my water reservoir, tools, stakes, and other things I don't want stolen. It does look like a little house and by mid-summer, I hope it's covered in tomato plants, flowers and climbing vines, with a cool, shady place inside.

I laid in three rows of soybean seed, all of the yellow onions and garlic. I put in three rows of carrot seed, and I set in the reclaimed onions I took out last week. We still don't have access to water, so I didn't water anything in. The soil is really light and was pretty warm today. I hope the dry, cool conditions will keep the garlic and onion starts from rotting until I can water them. Tomorrow I hope.

I've set aside and "alum patch" for all of the onions, garlic, and carrots. They are supposed to play together nicely and they will be near-ish tomatoes, soybeans, brussel sprouts and peas, which is supposed to be OK. When I first drew the plan, I thought I might have planned too much space for them, but when I've put them in the ground, it looks like it will be OK.

The plot seemed to change shape as the day went along. First it looked so big, then too small, then bigger than the other plots that are still untouched. By the end of the day, I checked the fence line. I'm glad I put it in before I started. My plot looks so much bigger than the plot next to mine. I felt guilty, but everything checked out OK. I adjusted the hay bales so they didn't push the fence over the north boundary.

Dehydrated and worn out, I cleaned up my mess of twine and fence packaging and came in. I think I was outside for 4 or 5 hours. I finished a lot more than I thought I would. I'm going to try to get water to the garden tomorrow, put in the last of the onions, get the peas going, plant the rhubarb and chives I'd brought inside and water it all in. Tomorrow.

It's supposed to be in the 30's Thursday and Friday nights, so the live growing things will have to be kept inside until they are tougher, then cloched when outside.

My antsy self is satisfied. The plot is mine.

My garden plan today

News From The Trenches

Baby birds be damned, I ran errands today. I'm trying to feel empowered by being a 2 legged creature near the top of the food chain, but when I got home, a sparrow was on the ground next to my parking spot looking kind of pissed that I drove away with her babies and nest in my car. I feel so bad!

I decided to firm up the sides of the trenches I dug between the beds. I bought cedar fence pickets (on sale!). Voila! very pretty, tidy looking beds.
Beans: Green beans are putzy. Long beans are growing up and sending out shoots.
Carrots: Finally sprouted, but under 1 inch tall.
Cucumbers: Vines are showing promise. Slow to grow.
Flowers:  The purchased flowers have re-flowered. The sweet peas and other climbers have sprouted. Sunflowers are growing tall and fast.
Herbs: Cat mint is going crazy and is ready to flower. Cilantro and dill (volunteer) took some big hits when I dug out the trenches, but I'm sure they'll come back quick. Herbs in the baskets aren't growing. Lemon grass is fantastic. Chives are making slow progress. Leeks are doing nicely. The greens on the garlic lay flat to the ground as though broken, but they've stayed green - I'll replant.
Onions: Red and yellow onions are growing really well. The greens can be cut and the onions are ready to harvest as scallions.
Peas: Snow peas are in harvest and still flowering. Plants from seeds are growing nicely.
Peppers: Flowers and unripe babies.
Salad Greens: Contained have grown over 6" and are ready to eat. The 3" plants were totally flattened and destroyed by rain. One row that's a bit protected is growing well.
Tomatoes: Flowers and unripe babies.
Squash: HUGE blossoms. Butternut squash are slow. Yellow squash blossoms are almost too big to be yellow squash.

It rained again today, but just enough to wet the ground. I watered a bit to settle the soil into the new boxes. I'm still waiting for a long stretch of temps over 80F to get everything moving.

Rainy Soltice

I checked on things this morning before the rain. The small salad greens are matted to the soil - totally flattened. I'm going to start them (again). I'm not sure it's going to be OK for them until all of this rain stops. My carrots haven't sprouted at all and it's been weeks. I've still got soybean gaps.

Today was an ELL tutoring session with Zhenfang. She brought me seeds that are either coriander or a lettucy-green plant she gave me to try yesterday. I'm going to start these seeds indoors. It will help me figure out what they are, and I hope they'll last better than they might in the muck outside.


Happily, the tomato plants are still making babies. Anatoli is happy and has asked/hinted in his very broken English that he wants some because I have so many plants and they are already bearing fruit. I've also gotten requests for green tomatoes from two non-gardeners, I've promised some to Wyman (lives on my floor) and a new guy in the building named Ron.

The thunderstorm last night brought us more than an inch of rain according to my garden gauge.  It was overcast most of the day, and rained again at 2 p.m. Shortly after, we had severe weather and tornado warnings in this county (Hennepin) and the surround.

I fell asleep for a few hours (I sleep a lot), so I missed any excitement that may have happened. It's coming on 8:45p. The clouds are parting and rays of sunshine are beaming down between the gaps.

The parting of the clouds, and the sunbeams are more impressive than this. Cellphone
camera into the sunset does not a pretty picture make. Retail lights are coming on.
Ach, suburbs. I try to not look down at the shops. Sky only for me.

 I've just checked the forecast. We'll get more rain after midnight, showers and thunderstorms tomorrow, and some rain on Thursday. We won't have 80F temps until next week. I stopped by a hardware store today and came home with a shovel. I'm going to re-dig the trenches in the garden a little wider and a little deeper.

My apartment overlooks the garden (from the 12th floor) and though I'm too high to see the garden without a stretch, I can hear the neighbors working (hammering stakes today), wind chimes, and birds.

My view from above.

No still. No quiet.

The wind that started yesterday and turned into tornadoes last night raged on all day today. Everything that could bend, including people, were being whipped around by a heavy wind from the south and the sound was constant.

I had to do some gardening today. I didn't get to plant anything yesterday, it had to go in today to take advantage of the warmer weather and the lack of rain today.

When I got there, no one was in the garden. Apparently 2pm is the time to go to be alone.
The trellis/arbor thing I put up yesterday was still standing. I added a few zip ties here and there to tighten things that I couldn't get to last night.
I hoed up weeds from between plants and loosened the hard packed soil.
I planted soybeans, sweet peas, carrots, and muscaline salad mix.
I moved around some of the seedlings to better spots.
I planted climbing flower seeds next to the arbor uprights.
I had to cover plants that I had uncovered a few days ago, the wind had them laying almost flat. Only one small tomato plant was broken on the main stem, but I'm still hopeful it may still grow. Some of the very small plants were covered with upside down 20oz soda bottles with the tops cut off.  I can't leave those on if the weather gets too warm, so I've got to check them in the morning.
I was able to water everything really well before the rest of the gang turned up to use the hose.

As soon as I came inside, I fell asleep.  I'd been fighting the wind for 4 hours and I guess it just wore me out.

The temperature has dropped pretty fast and the wind is calm. It's in the 50F's tonight, but it's supposed to be warm and humid tomorrow. I'm really glad I was able to garden today. Grow, baby, grow.

I'm thinking of tornadoes tonight. I'm watching a documentary on the tornado clusters that have happened so far in 2011. I was just in the middle of a tornado-struck neighborhood last week, but the idea of it didn't reach me until tonight. Last year, some tornadoes went through the rural area where I grew up. Farms were flattened, and rescue teams had to go from farm to farm to check on people's welfare because telephone lines were down. Livestock were pulled up into the tornado and then were dropped in fields and on roads. I guess the idea of a tornado in the countryside scares me more than a tornado in the city.

P.S. I tutor Zhenfang in English on Mondays and Tuesdays. We're working on verbs, but took a little break to learn some more idioms today. Two idioms were covered today - "Shut up!" and "You're pissing me off." She's not a shy gal, but I was surprised at how quickly she picked up "Shut up!" and "You are making me very angry!" She really liked it. I guess learning how to tell people off would be more fun than conjugating regular and irregular verbs.

Growing Details May 10 Map

Facing East

Facing West

More stuff in the dirt

Yesterday I was in the garden after the rain. I planted the hanging baskets (herbs) and lemon grass (contained this year). Also squash and bean seedlings, peas, sunflower seeds, cucumber seeds, more carrots. I still have 3 3'x6' plots to plant and room for 2 more herb plants and I think I'm going to add some flowers. I don't think the neighbors are going to dog me for not growing enough stuff this year. It scares me to think about the output if all is successful.