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.

Twelfth Floor Greenhouse

This is what the shelves look like loaded with plants and seed starts and wrapped in plastic. It's about 3p, and the sun has moved far enough west that I'm getting full light. I hope the inside will heat up, so I'll check it closer to sunset.

My apartment building has a greenhouse attached on the south side of the building, but the ventilation to help control the temperature doesn't work. We can really only use it in spring and fall and only on the west side. There is a maple tree near the greenhouse that keeps it in shade. Summer is too hot and winter is too cold. Also, we have a really bad problem with theft. If something is left unattached to something else, it might get lifted. We have a specific area to put things you're giving away. One day I put my lunch on that table while I bought a soda from the machine, and two people wanted to take it.

We have a bigger problem with theft outside. The land next to our garden is considered park, but the land isn't flat, so walking by our garden is the shortest, smoothest route between the strip mall to the north, and the neighborhood/bus stop on the south.

We do what we can to keep wildlife out of the garden with 3' fences, but we also have to be careful to disguise anything that looks appealing so it won't get nipped overnight. We have a garden shed, but I've had things taken from there. I don't know if it was a neighbor or a passerby. Outside is not safe.
I have such a small plot, that I only have flowers on my exposed edge so folks can reach over my fencing to take vegetables. Outside is not safe.

I haven't been down to The Land (that's what I call the garden) yet today. I imagine the folk are out there working away. I'm sore from turning all of that soil 2 days ago, so I should probably do some more work to keep moving.

Go seeds go.

Pictures of The Land

Everything in the garden is coming along beautifully. Most of the hard work is done. Gardens are planted, fences and climbing structures are assembled and most plants have stakes. Now it's time to watch everything grow.  We'll have our evening watering sessions, and our sit-around-and-swat-bugs sessions, and our strolls around The Land to see who is growing what and how it's coming along.

Right now there is a lot of wood and yarn on The Land. Every tomato and pepper plant will be staked, either on its own, or staked with the plant next to it. We get at least 1000 staked plants each summer. Once things grow up, the wood won't even be visible.

Gregori and Sofia are the only ones who still have a lot of covers in use. They have a hard time getting around, but I think the covers are part of their secret. Sofia is the garden president. She's in charge of collecting the money, assigning plots, and getting the garden tilled. She is also a very good gardener.

Last year, Gregori told me when he picked his 602nd cucumber. He keeps notes on his calendar to record how much he's harvested. On the building side of their garden, they have herbs and plants they will use on a daily basis, but most of their garden is a "canning" garden. Sofia will preserve the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and beets and they will live it up on goodies all winter. The European folks tend to have canning gardens.

We also have  "kitchen" gardens. Kitchen gardens produce is eaten throughout the season. Anatoli calls my garden a kitchen garden, but since the only thing ready to eat right now is onion tops, I don't think it's quite there yet.
<<< Now this is a kitchen garden. My Asian neighbors have kitchen gardens, and they are already harvesting. Also, their gardens are just beautiful. The plants never get big because they are harvested when they are what we might call "baby". Every plot has what I call a "nursery garden" where they start seeds.  Every couple of weeks, seedlings are moved from the nursery to a plot that has already been harvested and everything stays in rotation. The seedlings are replanted with a handful of manure, and everything stays healthy and growing. With all of the baby plants, most of the watering is done by hand instead of hose.

The color is a little wonky, but between these climbers
are a baby red leafed lettuce-like crop. Strings will be
dropped from the upper support for the climbers to use
and the salad greens will grow in rotation.

Even the space between the plants get used. Since everything is planted in stages, little plants are planted between small plants and they rotate in harvest. Or climbers are planted first, so they can get some good roots going, then the daily harvest stuff gets tucked in between.  I'm really impressed, and I'm learning loads, but my reality is:
1. I don't eat much and a large portion of that is supposed to be protein (I take vitamins for "nutrition."
2. A high rotation kitchen garden sustains 2 harvests of delicate, "baby" produce, that should be eaten soon after harvest. Can't do it, hard to transport it to share.
3. Since these are greens that are Asian varieties, non-Asian folks in my building won't take them if offered so spares can't be shared.I've already got people lined up for my tomatoes - slicers especially.

So I'll learn and watch the growing art whether is heavy, sturdy, thick-stemmed fruit bearers or in delicate rows of super-nutritious greens. And I'll take pictures. And I'll show them to you.

How long was I out there?

Last night, I didn't sleep well and woke up with a lot of disturbances. I got to bed around 5a, so getting up  only a few hours later was a bad sign for the day. I went to the garden straight away to take pictures. Then I did one little thing, and another, and just kept going. I stared to correct a failed project from a few days ago and couldn't stop.
When I walked in, the clock said 3:33p. I thought the clock was wrong and had to check the cable box and my computer. How the hell did that happen? I thought I'd gotten up around 10a.  Five hours in the garden? It couldn't be.
I had to grab my camera and check the time stamp on the pictures. 12:55p. So actually, I was only there for a couple of hours. *phew* I'm not losing my mind (or have been abducted by aliens causing the time loss).
 I slept until almost 1p! Yay! Much less to worry about.
So here are the pictures of Then Land.

There isn't much to see in my garden. Since the soil is very sandy, any rain or watering brings the sand to the top, it dries and turns to hard, grey, crust.  The seedletts are struggling a bit and still aren't more than an inch tall.  All of the plants I bought are doing famously. Climbers are definitely looking up, so I gave them some yarn to follow to the fence. Go peas! So no pictures of my spot now. I'll do some after watering so the little plants actually show.

The Land May 10

South end facing northwest

South end facing west

Middle end facing northwest

My plot is right in the middle

Middle facing southwest

North end facing southwest.

The Land May 6

This is the shed where everyone shares all of their structure bits and tools over the winter. It's packed back to front, floor to ceiling.

 

My Plot