Gardening

I can't believe how long it has been since I last updated the girl. I've been trying to figure out exactly where I want to go with this since it seems that everything I write about has been done better somewhere else. Oh well, I'll keep writing until you guys tell me to stop.

Who is she kidding? She'll still blather on until you guys hold her down and gag her with a dirty gym sock.

First and foremost, the experiment from the last post with the spray mixture to keep the critters from eating our plants was a failure. Something in it burned the leaves of our plants and most did not survive the combination of the spray and weeks of no sun. Oh well, this is all a learning experience and can only make us better gardeners in the future. I never realized what an amazing skill agriculture is and how difficult it is to master. That being said, I still believe that it's something everyone who has the ability should try.

As for good news, the stick fence seems to be keeping the cats from using my freshly turned beds as a bathroom so I'll mark that down as a success. I've also started lining all of my beds with 4-7" spikes made of broken sticks which has also kept the cats out of my beds that couldn't easily be fenced. Eventually I hope the kitties will realize that my garden is not their bathroom and will try out their owners' beds for size.

I've had a request for pictures so I went out today and took some, enjoy!



This is my herb garden which is located right outside of my front door. Not many of my herb seeds took off so it's still a little small, but I'm learning what can be grown up here. You can also see the sticks I use to keep the cats from pooping in my beds.



Here is my zucchini/spinach/fennel garden with my improvised stick fence. Okay, if you're wondering about my obsession with sticks it's because my landlord went a little overboard with pruning our trees and shrubs but just left the branches laying around. I'm glad I didn't put them in the yard waste bin because they have been sooo useful.



These are 5 of my 7 tomato plants. Yes, I'm a little nuts over tomatoes. I'm sad that it didn't show up in the picture but one of these guys was a volunteer that I guess came up from a seed in our compost. How fun! Also, more sticks combined with hemp twine to make home made cages.



These are bush beans and further back are three pepper plants. I have a few more pepper starts that should be ready for transplanting soon.... as soon as I find more space. Also, more cat deterrent sticks. Did I mention that the cats used ALL of my beds as bathrooms? Grrrrr.



To the left are my squash plants and to the right are salad greens and overwintered onions. You can also see to the far left my wonderful lavender plant. I'm so happy with how well lavender grows up here. The space behind the squash are reserved for my runner beans since I can use the fence to help with my trellising.



Finally, we have started turning the patch of grass that was at the bottom of our yard. Currently we have hop rhizomes for John's brewing and will also be putting in some more salad greens. Eventually I want to cultivate this entire area but it's a lot of hard work and I don't have tons of time. Also in the background you can see our sunken trashcan compost bin which has been so nice for making the garden grow.