Just an update

I've been in the garden doing something everyday for a while and it's been great. Even the days that are just watering days make for good times. I am more and more like my parents all the time and I am not even feeling the need for therapy as I realize this! I love walking around and seeing what's growing and what needs some loving and where new seeds have sprouted. I get sad when things aren't doing so well and I get excited when something is going better than expected.

Today I planted a majority of the balance of broccoli, pepper, and eggplant seedlings that were left. I am still looking for more places to put tomato plants. I only have 4 in the ground and would like 3 or 4 more in the yard somewhere. The yarrow and valerian finally found homes this morning as well. Based on their roots when I pulled them out of the packages, they will be very excited with more space and fertile soil.

What is really excited is that some newly germinated seeds are finally poking through the herb garden. I think I wasn't keeping it wet enough for the plants to germinate. I've corrected that problem and some new growth is the awesome result! What is sad is that the tobacco seeds have not been as easy to germinate as the youtube video made it seem. I've put fresh seeds in my little pots in hopes that they will go. I might not have had them warm enough to start so we'll see.

Fingers crossed that everything continues growing. We've put strategies in place to defend against seedling stealing birds, leaf eating slugs, and a few other threats to our food supply.

How's your garden growing? We want to know!

Murder...

Snails have entered the garden. If a bug is in the house, I tend to take a capture & release approach save for ants. You can never catch them, so we are just trying to make it less attractive to come in. (I may have secretly place a food source just outside the door so they don't have to work so hard and can stay outside.)

Snails, though, are ravaging the leaves of the plants in the garden. They seem to love the turnip greens and I simply can't have it. So, the interwebs has made it quite clear that there are lots of ways to battle the little heshes (they are hermaphroditic and I want them to feel respected.) Today I put a bottle of beer in a small bowl buried to the rim near the plants they are eating. I've a feeling that it's a precarious line between drawing them off the plants and into the garden. So, I'm hoping the current residents will all go the way of idiots with booze and that the ones who have yet to be in the garden won't notice the party that's happening, for their own sakes.

For the new raised bed, I am looking at preventative measures. Copper wire, salt, coffee... these are things we have come to love but that snails can't abide. I shall employ them as best I can. Sorry, snails, you'll have to eat from food I don't want.

In other news, read this article. It will let you know what kind of impact we can make if we continue spreading the word. What we're doing here in Little Flower isn't just for fun, it's for the future. This is how we grow.

Bedtime

Well, we finally constructed our beds and filled them with our super-fantastic-growing-medium. The free pavers that we got from the lovely lady on Craigslist made the garden bed just fine. The tiles I got from the other lovely lady on Craigslist seem to be holding in the soil for what will become the herb garden just fine as well. I am very excited about this whole endeavor. It is hard for me, though, because I like instant gratification and, well, after all that work there wasn't a tomato or pepper to be picked.

Below are the pics of the first two beds. These will hold most of the veggies, minus tomatoes, and the herbs. Tomatoes will go in food-safe buckets along the fence. There will be other little areas as well, no doubt, where we squeeze in more.

One of the most interesting things about this project is how nervous I get that we are doing something wrong and how anxious I get about talking to people who are experienced because they all have advice and it never matches but they really seem to want me to do what they say. Frank keeps reminding me that it is our first time and it doesn't have to be perfect. I'm trusting him on that one.

The Midwest...

I keep reading all kinds of garden blogs on the interwebs in hopes of finding good inspiration and information. My hopes are often fulfilled. The thing that gets to me is that nearly all of them are on the west coast. The growing season is clearly different and the issues they deal with are not the same either. What I am left with is a wondering. Why do Midwest (Firefox says it's capitalized) gardeners not blog about their work?

Outside of one blog, everything is from elsewhere. Are you blogging from nearby? Am I missing it? Let's get to work sharing our labors!