dreaming of september

today i spruced up the soil in the old edition bed where the carrots were, and planted seminole pumpkin and malali watermelon. i also planted spitfire nasturtium seed in all the available cinder block holes.

i also took an old baby doll cradle i had altered while living in birmingham in my treehouse like apartment. i had the habit of putting soil in all sorts of things and planting in them....this contraption stayed with me. i had taken the "rocker" parts off and screwed them on the bottom to raise it up. it once held fancy perennials.....now it's a strawberry planter. i also snuck some nasturtium seeds in there. you can see it in the background of this picture, resting on a cinder block:

i've been cruising companionplants.com for a couple of weeks. they are a herb nursery out of Ohio, and man-on-man do they have some serious selection. i've been trying to get an order together that is under 40 bucks. it's hard because i keep finding new plants i want!

fi fi's tee pee

i've been wanting to make a garden tee pee for my daughter for some time. my husband recently gave me a home depot gift certificate for mother's day, so me and my fi fi headed to the "orange store" where we picked up a bag of peat moss, a bag of pine bark mulch and a few pieces of bamboo. the bamboo weren't as big as i had imagined, but they will work. fi fi got a big kick out of me "making her a bed" in the buggy. here we go..,..



i keep decade old horse manure dug from my parent's barn. that along with the two boxes of plastic edging i had gotten a few months ago, plus the loot from the orange store had me ready to go.


after clearing out the grass a bit (the area had been plowed a few months ago, so it was easy). the bamboo was pushed in it as far as it would go. The fact that the soil was loose added to the hard rain we had that morning allowed me to push it in the ground about three or four inches. i then dug a circular trench around the outside of the bamboo.



i placed cardboard inside. i'd love to, at some point, plant some thyme inside or at the entrance.

i tied the bamboo a few at a time, thoroughly, with kitchen twine. and then placed the edging in the ground.

i filled the trench with peat moss and aged horse manure. i also dumped a bag of pine bark mulch inside the tee pee. as the seedlings grow i'll push the mulch out over them and leave the rest inside. we were finally ready to plant....

fi fi and i planted kentucky wonder pole beans and mammoth sunflowers.....now we're willing them to grow!

i was putting off this project because i thought it would take a long, hard time. i had planned on harvesting branches from the woods. it might have been sturdy, but would have also rotted faster than this bamboo. this project turned out to be VERY easy and took up little space. it could easily be knocked out in one morning or afternoon.

poop amaranth and tomato

my first raised bed i call my "OG bed." it was started as a lasagna-style bed with peat moss, vermiculite, mushroom compost and black cow in the spring of 2009.

i have a second raised bed that was started the same way. this one i'm calling new edition because i've recently added a one tier cinderblock addition with a permanent trellis to it.

these raised beds are the first of many, hopefully. i did all the backbreaking work myself. my dad helped me transport the cinderblocks and my tall husband helped me hang the tall trellis, but other than that this is all me. so i'm taking it slow, one day at a time.........



i'm not sure why i only planted three tomato plants this year. i am kicking myself in the butt. but. one cherokee purple one two romas are all i planted. last year i grew all my tomatoes from seed and it was a huge success. this year i got seedlings from the nursery. next year i'll be more on top of the mater growing.

roma

cherokee purple

cilantro going to seed in the OG bed.

right now my tomatoes are on the east end, surrounded by basil and marigolds. there's cilantro growing behind the tomatoes that i'm torturing by pinching off the blooms. i've allowed two stow-away sunflowers to thrive and a Chinese cabbage plant to go to seed. in the north west corner are two baby okra plants (16 inch pod). today i put in some hartman's giant amaranth seed.....and some ten year old horse poop. there's a couple of peppers in there too. i'm hoping that the giant amaranth and okra will provide some shade for my tomatoes in the hot south louisiana months, so they will produce a little longer.

down the rabbit hole

my carrots (first ever) went into the ground Feb 20th. I pulled them up yesterday. I had planted three different heirloom varities: atomic red, lunar white and blanche a collet vert. while lunar white was reliable, atomic red turned out to be my favorite.

now i have space to plant. i've left two peppers in. there's also an atomic red carrot i'm letting to to seed. and i have a sugarcane clump in the corner. i wasn't sure if the sugarcane was going to come back so i left it alone. now after having it for a year, i've decided to dig it up this fall and put it in the ground to make more precious room in my raised beds. i've ordered seeds, last minute from baker creek. i'm awaiting seminole pumpkin, malali watermelon, and spitfire nasturtium.




for the past two mornings i've looked out my window and spotted what i assume is the same bunny rabbit. i've habitually grabbed my camera, shot photos through the window and headed outside in whatever i am (or am not) wearing. i'll end out way out in the garden with no shoes and my pjs on and well after the bunny has hopped back into the woods, i'm shooting pics of morning blossoms. just call me Alice.

squash flower

spring summer 2010

i decided to stop torturing my facebook friends with my garden updates and start a journal here. i won't try and catch up what i've been doing with the land for the past year and a half, okay, i won't try to do it in detail. so far, this is a list of what i have in the ground in terms of permanent status:

trees & woody perennials:

four blueberry bushes in their own bordered bed (planted spring of 2009)

two pineapple guava (five gallon nursery finds. spring 2010)

two cherry elaeagnus (sticks from ebay. spring 2010)

one bay tree (put in the ground spring 2010. have had in a pot since about 2000)

pink satin pomegranate (coveted variety i paid dearly for. spring 2010. )

another bay tree (i found at a nursery 2010)
t
exas white redbud (had in a pot since 2006. aquired in birmingham, al. put in the ground spring 2010)

dwarf pomegranante (same story as the white redbud)

dynamite crepe myrtle (the tree i got at the nursery i was employed at in birmingham while i
was pregnant with my daughter. it made it in the ground spring 2010)

brown turkey fig tree (spring 2009)

two paw paw trees (spring 2009)

lemon tree (spring 2010)

satsuma tree (spring 2009)

sweet kumquat tree (spring 2010)

loquat tree (spring 2010)


herbaceous perennials:
swamp lillies (dug up and planted and/or potted spring 2010)
red button ginger (spring 2010)
two banana trees (spring 2010)
cyperus (spring 2010)
LA iris (spring 2010)
white iris (spring 2010)
persian shield (spring 2010)
various salvias/sages (spring 2009 & 2010)
white echinacea
shrimp plant
bee balm
akebia
........*sigh*


i have two cinder block raised beds i plant herbs and veggies in. they went in spring 2009.
i put an addition in 2010.

i have trees i'm planning on putting in the ground this fall:

cinniman apple tree
strawberry apple tree
cherry tree
fig tree (LSU purple?)....

trying.....
to resist the mundaneness of this intro. perhaps i'll just stop here and let it be.