News from the jungle

I've decided that this spring the garden is shiny so I can quit quilting to go play in it.  But I'm not quite ready to include postings for the yard/garden/jungle planning that I'm starting this weekend so thought I'd add a page to jot notes and what not.

3/28/10 - Started today by whacking some weeds . . . . and some grass.  Whatever my parents planted on the one side of the yard is tenacious.  It's a nice dark green grass, not a bermuda but it grows fast and really tall.  We've had some rain so it's taken off like mad.  While I was chopping off heads, I thought of a conversation with a friend recently and concocted an evil plan.  Well just a plan but I really like to call all my plans evil.  I'm starting a work sharing group.  Just with my friend Bean, she's the guinea pig for this plan.  We're going to start off by swapping an hour.  Bwah hahahahahahahaha.


3/30/10 - The digging continues. I think the dirt in my yard is best for making impermeable clay pots and it's not so good for, you know, growing live things. So I'm digging the whole yard out. It may take 10 years but here we go. I've figured out that I can put about 4 buckets of dirt in the garbage bin each week and still have them pick it up. Let's not talk about the week there was too much. I do a lot of digging, filling the hole with water, digging, filling the hole with water, digging, filling the hole with water, etc before I get a deep enough hole. I'm refilling it with a mix of the yard dirt, compost, garden soil, manure and anything else I can find. Also I save my veggie/fruit peels in the freezer in a plastic shoebox. When it's full and I have an empty hole, I bury it. Slowly but surely I shall have some really nice dirt.

4/6/10 - Still digging today. 3 buckets out this morning but I also planted some radishes and weeded around the lantana that's trying to come back from a rough first year. Did you know I learned how to weed whack from my Dad? But he doesn't bother to only whack weeds. So the lantana took a few hits too. Also found a new plant growing and suspect that it is something my Mom planted a few years ago that's been hibernating. This afternoon I cut a few flowers; yellow rose, hot pink rose (another of Mom's ideas), the last of the wild fresia in a pot and a hunk of lavender. The lavender came with the house and it couldn't care less what I do, it's going to grow like mad.



My bouquet, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

4/10/10 - More digging but just me. The evil plan doesn't seem to be moving forward. Too many people were talking about the eggplants they were growing though so I caved and put in a little planter for some veggies. Just 1 eggplant, 1 pepper, 9 onions and a spot for 1 japanese eggplant I'm starting from seed.


IMG_2067
Originally uploaded by shanleytulip



And a few flowers over the top of my composting trench.  That's some tall snapdragons, zinnias and a yellow crookneck squash.  Yeah, I know it's not a flower and probably won't like the spot for too long but stranger things have happened.


IMG_2066
Originally uploaded by shanleytulip

And at least I didn't plant 12 zucchini, right?

4/17/10 - I'm busy this week trying to acquire some property, sounds fancy, right?  But not too busy to check a couple of times a day to see if any eggplants are ripe yet.  None so far and my friend Luc says I have to wait until summer (he's almost 5 so quite smart).  But there is a new leaf on the eggplant and the radishes have sprouted finally.  According to the seed package, I'll have full size radishes in just 22 days.   That should work out perfectly for my sister's visit since I'm giving them to her fiance.

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