sb158′s Valley Garden

sb158 | March 24, 2011

So we have been house-hunting, and even put an offer on a place. Don’t think we got it, though…there was a previous offer, and we really didn’t want to get into a bidding war and pay a price we’d regret down the line. Liked the house and yard, but there’ll be another down the road. We just have to keep looking.

We really are looking, though, because the grandsons keep getting weird symptoms and nobody really feels well. We’ve been doing some research; it seems like formaldehyde could be causing all of the weird stuff. I still don’t know what to do about the garden, because I have no idea how long it will take to find a house.

Meanwhile, between all the real-life distractions, I’ve been planting the lasagna bed in bits and pieces. So far I’ve got 3 tomato plants, some Genovese Basil, parsley, chamomile, marjoram, and 2 bell peppers. I’ve planted black-eyed pea, lima bean, and peanut seeds. They are partly for eating, but also for nitrogen fixing. Why not let some plants fertilize other plants? And I’ve always wondered how peanuts grow. Still have more to plant in there, and I’m getting to it as I can.

Took a couple pics today; pardon the paper sticking out from under the mulch. After the seeds sprout and grow a bit, I’ll cover it all over with more bark mulch so it’s pretty again. Pine mulch has the unfortunate habit of falling down and covering the spots where the seeds are planted.

My sister-in-law wanted some details, so…
I started by marking a 5′ diameter circle where I wanted the bed. That’s enough room for a bunch of plants, but not too big to reach the middle. After I wet the ground, I stuck a digging fork every few inches to crack the concrete. Then I put down a bit of organic fertilizer and covered the circle with cardboard. Soaked the cardboard real well, then put on a thin layer of dirt to hold it down. After that, I started layering. First layer was some of my unfinished compost, about 1.5″, topped by another 1.5″ of composted manure. Covered that with a layer of shredded paper and soil conditioner, then a 2″ layer of topsoil. Sprinkled some fertilizer on that and soaked all the layers thoroughly. Then I repeated the layers until the whole mess was about a foot deep. After that I made sure to soak it all thoroughly using the milk jugs to be sure it moistened all the way through. Waited a few days to let it all settle, then started planting. To plant in it, I mix up a good potting-type mix with some fertilizer, then dig a hole bigger than I need. Fill that around the plant and water in well, and you’re good to go. To plant seeds, I basically stick the trowel in and rock it back and forth to make a hole, fill that with the potting mix, and plant the seeds in that. So far it’s working.

Category: Sheet Mulch/Lasagna Garden, Veggies | No Comments »
Tags: basil, Green Beans, sheet mulch/lasagna gardening, Tomatoes, Veggies

sb158 | March 18, 2011

Tired, really need to go to bed, so briefly…

got the tomato lasagna bed done a few days ago, but am letting it sit and settle a few days before I actually pull the tomatoes out of their pots and plant them. The milk jugs have pinholes in the side, and I keep filling them with water and letting it soak in. These beds take alot of water to get moist enough at first, but hold the water quite well once they do. The slow drip from the milk jugs gives the water time to soak in, instead of running off and getting wasted…
May plant tomorrow, we’ll see.

As for the indecision, Hubby has decided to go house-hunting again, so, again, I don’t know whether to proceed with the garden plans or hold off in case he actually does decide to buy a house. Sigh…getting tired of this. Need him to make up his mind once an for all!

Category: design/build, Veggies | 2 Comments »
Tags: design/build, sheet mulch/lasagna gardening, Tomatoes, Veggies

sb158 | March 15, 2011

Over at May Dreams Gardens, the 15th of the month is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Here’s what’s blooming in my garden today…

Don’t you just love the pretty blue color of this ageratum? I know the beneficial insects do. Planted this way last summer in a container, but it didn’t do much in the heat. Come fall, I cut it back real hard and fed it real well. Saved it from a few freezes, too; I had no idea if it would work or not. Apparently it did, as it’s been blooming for a long time already.

Love nasturtiums; unfortunately, they don’t love it down here too much once it really warms up. They usually fry and die in a month or so. This one is an Alaska nasturtium.

The gazania I divided from a container and planted in this bed is already blooming again. Love these guys; they take pretty much whatever you throw at them and just keep blooming.

Repotted pink jasmine vine I bought a week or so ago. Looks like it’s doing fine; has a few new buds on it. This smells so yummy when it’s blooming!

Another nasturtium. This one is “Moonlight,” I think.

Of course the Laura Bush petunias are blooming. Once they start, they really don’t stop for a very long time. Even in mid-summer, all you have to do is cut them back, feed them, then wait a few days for more blooms. And they smell wonderful!

Mums bloom twice a year down here; in spring and then again in the fall. These two are planted in the whiskey barrel with the night-blooming jasmine. It started getting windy again as I was taking pics; sorry about the blurriness.

Don’t know if the next few pictures exactly qualify, but here they are anyway. The night-blooming jasmine isn’t blooming yet, but is does have buds and will bloom soon. Ditto the zinnia.

And this is, of course, a tomato plant. This one volunteered in my compost pile way back in late January; I’ve babied it along all this time. It even has a baby tomato – looks like a Roma.

Phew! I think that’s finally it. I was going to post a pic of my new “lasagna” tomato bed, but that can wait till next time. I think enough is enough, already…

Category: Garden Blog Bloom Day | No Comments »
Tags: containers, flowers, Garden Bloom Day, sheet mulch/lasagna gardening

sb158 | March 14, 2011

as quickly as I would like. The monstrous earthquake and tsunami in Japan has had me glued to the TV when I should be outside working. I’ve never seen anything like that, and can’t imagine experiencing such a thing. My prayers go out for those people; it isn’t going to be easy recovering from something like that.

On the garden front, between 35 mph winds, migraines, and life in general, I’m still not even done with my first tomato lasagna bed. Got more tomatoes to plant, as well as lots of peppers, so I really have to get my butt in gear.

I did pot up all my tomato seedlings into gallon pots today, as well as repotting a bunch of other stuff. I guess I am accomplishing something, just not enough and definitely not fast enough!!! Got my sweet potato slips pulled off the potato and planted in seed mix to grow some roots while I build the bed for them…took them long enough to grow, but they did grow.

I hope things go better tomorrow…

Category: containers, design/build | 2 Comments »
Tags: containers, design/build, sheet mulch/lasagna gardening

sb158 | March 8, 2011

The high temperature here today was 88! Way too hot to be outside doing garden stuff, but better than still be buried in snow, I guess. I watered and took some pictures of blooming things, instead. I know, should’ve been working on my tomato lasagna bed, but it was just too hot…

Yellow mums in the whiskey barrel

Love the bright blue ageratum blooms

Pink Laura Bush Petunia. Wish you could smell it…

Blue Moon Rose – another one I wish you could smell! Yummy!

Aren’t these pretty? Taste good, too! This is a Pinetree Seed lettuce mix.

Heritage Lettuce Mix from Renee’s Garden. Have already harvested about 2 gallon baggies from this container, but forgot to weigh them.

Yesterday, I started the lasagna bed for the volunteer tomato, and made a “tomato teepee” from PVC pipe painted green. Here’s a pic of the bed and teepee:

The beginnings of a lasagna bed and a tomato teepee.

I had no idea how to tie the poles together, but I found a handy link about lashing poles to make your own trellises and teepees. Very helpful, with good illustrations. Maybe it’ll help you, too.

And that’s all she wrote for tonight…

Category: design/build, flowers, Harvest, Veggies | No Comments »
Tags: design/build, flowers, harvest, Veggies, weather

sb158 | March 8, 2011

Isn’t that amazing? Seriously, we haven’t had any significant rain in months, but a cool front came through Saturday morning. We got a good downpour, and things are looking much better for it. With this clay muck, it was too muddy after the rain to do anything garden – related.

Sunday I went to the local big blue box store, and bought some more “dirt” and stuff. Also bought a pink jasmine vine, but that was my daughter’s fault. She said it smelled really good and was really pretty. Then she said, and I quote, “You need this plant!” Who was I to argue with that? LOL…

I needed the dirt and stuff to start building a new bed. The “volunteer” tomato that sprouted ages ago in the compost is blossoming already; it’s ready for a permanent home! I looked at tomato stakes, but couldn’t believe the price they were charging! Why in the world do they think I’d be willing to pay $32.00 just to hold up a tomato plant? Was going to build a 4-sided cage, but changed my mind real fast! I have the PVC pipe from my arbor thingy, so I spray-painted 3 pieces green, and made a “tomato teepee” instead. Forgot to take pics today, but will try to remember tomorrow.

After I made the teepee, I marked out a 5′ circle, then dug a nice big 2′ wide and deep hole where I want to put the tomato. To fill it, I used the same 3″ alternating layers of greens, browns, and soil with which I make the lasagna beds. I’ll plant the tomato in the lasagna bed; the good stuff in the hole should give the tomato plenty to grow on!

I poked a bunch of holes in the circle with my digging fork, sprinkled on some organic amendments, then covered the circle with cardboard. I soaked it real well; tomorrow I can start building the “lasagna bed” around the tomato plant. I’m thinking the best way to go is to leave the tomato in its pot right where I’m going to plant it, then build the bed around it. Once the bed is done and settled a day or two, I’ll unpot the tomato and plop it right in it’s custom-fitted hole!

In keeping with the permaculture concept of diversifying plantings, and supplying a plant with what it needs, I’ll plant some flowers to attract beneficial insects, some nutrient accumulators and nitrogen-fixers to feed it, and something to act as a windbreak to keep that south wind from sucking the life out of the poor thing. Not entirely sure what will be the final bed configuration, but I hope I plant the right stuff to help the tomatoes grow!

For right now, tired from a long day in the garden, and planning another one tomorrow, so….

Gnite, y’all!

Category: design/build, Experimental, Garden Supplies, Veggies | No Comments »
Tags: design/build, digging, Experimental, garden, sheet mulch/lasagna gardening, Tomatoes, Veggies

sb158 | March 4, 2011

I started transplanting things into the little bed I made yesterday, but before I was done, the water in the park went off. This happens with disturbing frequency; I have no idea why. In the interim, I decided to take a few pics to show the “Before and After” so far.

I did the Tipsy Pot thing this year with a chile pequin in a 5 gallon bucket on the bottom. The second container has sage, with some nasturtium that will most likely die when it gets really hot. The next container up has marjoram and more nasturtiums. The top container has thyme. Other containers hold cleome, rosemary, ageratum, and other things.

Container Garden

My hanging baskets this year have Laura Bush Petunias (love the fragrance), more nasturtiums with some sweet alyssum and thunbergia to take over when the nasturtium fries in the heat, and one with Blue Daze evolvulus and a few left-over strawberry plants that didn’t fit in the other bed.

Hanging Baskets

In this area, I built a bed between the two windows, mostly for the Blue Moon Rose I found at Lowe’s while shopping for potting soil and stuff. I had a Blue Moon Rose years ago, and one bloom would scent the entire yard with the most delicious spicy fragrance…

Blue Moon Rose Bed “Before”

In this bed, I also put parsley, Swiss Chard, chamomile, blue salvia, red sage(the native perennial, not the bright red annual), strawberries around the edge, and some salad crops. I tried Ten Week Stock for the first time this year; they are a cool-weather annual that are supposed to have a lovely fragrance. Hope they actually manage to bloom! And, no, I’m not trying to grow bamboo skewers; they’re my attempt to keep the herd of feral cats in the park from using my beds as a litter box. So far, it seems to be working.

Blue Moon Rose Bed
Oh yeah, I also repotted my night-blooming jasmine into the bigger barrel, along with some mums that have managed to survive thus far.

This is my “Baby Nursery.” All my seedlings are hanging out here, where they get afternoon shade, until I have their new homes ready for occupancy. I really do need to hurry up and do that…

Baby Nursery

This is as far as I’ve gotten so far; got to keep on keepin’ on to get the rest done in a timely fashion. Especially in this climate, it’s best to take advantage of the “cooler” weather before the heat kills the garden – and the gardener!

Category: containers, design/build, flowers, herbs, Veggies | 3 Comments »
Tags: basil, flowers, garden, herbs, Veggies

sb158 | March 2, 2011

Got a new yard, just as tiny and uninspiring as the old yard. Concrete clay, no lawn…just dried out and ugly clay with lots of weeds. Here’s a stitched-together view of the yard right after we moved in. Ugly.

Since it pains me greatly to see my little piece of God’s wonderful Creation so sadly neglected and abused, I had to fix it. How could I not? I firmly believe it is every person’s responsibility to practice good stewardship of their own little piece of Planet Earth. I’m convinced that sustainable, organic, earth-friendly practices are the only way to heal the ecological disaster that “Better Living Through Chemistry” has caused since WWII. The possibility of Ecological Apocalypse seems all the more likely the longer we maintain the status quo. I’ll have mercy and hop down off my soapbox, but I do plan to create a page with links for your own research, if you’re interested.

Research and past failures gave me some idea of how to proceed. First I took a good look at the soil, sun, and climate, then set about finding a way to fix the bad and take advantage of the good. My goal is to combine the best features of wildlife gardens, edible landscaping, and conventional ornamental and vegetable gardens into a working sustainable ecosystem specifically designed for this place and our needs. I’m sure I’ll screw up more than once; we all know gardening is a long process of trial and error.

I started by trying to deal with the realities and limitations of the god-awful climate down here. Hot, humid, rainless, windy hell about sums it up perfectly.

Fortunately, the house runs north and south, so the afternoon sun casts a nice shady shadow over most of the yard later in the day. The garden-and gardener-will appreciate that as it gets hotter. The plants will get at least 6 – 8 hrs of full sun; that much Texas sun is more than enough! More sun-tolerant plants will be planted on the east side of the yard, while those that appreciate it can go on the shady side. I’m hoping windbreak plants, either vines on trellises or shrubs I’m growing from seeds/cuttings, will moderate the 20+ mph hot, dry, plant-murdering south winds that blow 95% of the time, and provide more shade. I’d plant some fruit trees for shade and to break the wind if this were my own yard; don’t think I want to spend all that money or effort on a yard we’ll be leaving soon as we find a house to buy. I hope I learned something from the past couple years’ fiascoes; can’t control Mother Nature, but you can try to reduce the effects of her temper tantrums if you learn from your mistakes!

I decided to go with building my beds by sheet mulching, aka “lasagna gardening“. After laying out the bed, scalp the grass/weeds/whatever as close to the ground as possible; just leave them lay. Since I’m dealing with concrete clay, I soak the area and let it sit overnight. To crack the concrete and allow for drainage, stick a digging fork in as far as it will go and just rock it back and forth every few inches across the whole bed. Then add a light layer of soil amendments, like organic fertilizer, lime, or sulfur. After that, lay sheets of cardboard (saved from moving boxes and household goods) over the area, making sure to overlap by at least 6″ to leave no slivers of light for the weeds to find. Thoroughly soak the cardboard, too. On top of that, make alternating 3″ layers with whatever “greens” and “browns” you happen to have handy. Cover this 6″ layer with a 2″ layer of your own or purchased soil. Sprinkle with a light dusting of organic fertilizer, then soak all the layers thoroughly. Repeat the alternating layers of greens, browns, soil, and fertilizer until the pile is a foot or so deep. To finish the bed, add at least 2″ of a “pretty” mulch, so the neighbors don’t complain.

Though it’s best to let the layers rest and cook for a while, I don’t have time for that. We just moved here, after all, and good growing time is slipping away! To plant seedlings, dig out a hole about 2 – 3 times as deep and wide as the root ball; fill it with compost or good potting soil. This helps the babies get established. For seeds, move the mulch aside and dig a little furrow about 3″ deep, which is filled with compost/seed starting mix. If you’d rather, you can add a deeper layer of topsoil or compost into which you can plant before adding the final mulch layer.

I used some of my compost, bagged composted manure, shredded newspaper/junk mail/ phone books, bagged soil conditioner/landscapers’ mix, sifted soil from a hole I dug, and bagged topsoil.

So far, it’s working. I’ve got one bed finished and almost completely planted. Nothing’s died yet, so I must be doing something right. I did another small bed today, which I hope to plant tomorrow.

I intended to take pics today, but by the time I was done, it was time to cook dinner. Those teen-aged boys do love to eat!!!

Category: design/build, Permaculture, Planning, Sheet Mulch/Lasagna Garden | No Comments »
Tags: design/build, garden, Planning, sheet mulch/lasagna gardening

sb158 | March 1, 2011

So much has changed in my life since then, it’s no wonder I haven’t blogged. I see that the last I wrote, Alex was threatening. Fortunately, He went south, but did dump a bunch of rain west of us. Mexico and parts of the Valley got badly flooded. We got some rain, and then more rain from assorted other storm systems, but it really hasn’t rained much at all since then. We need some, but I’m afraid if I did the rain dance, we’d end up with a hurricane (or a blizzard), as crazy as the weather has been. I did plant a fall garden, though not much of one. We’d been house-hunting, and I didn’t know if we’d be moving, so took it easy.

As it turns out, that was a good thing. My daughter in Colorado had been having serious car issues, and in October, her 12 year old Passport just totally died. We started looking for a used vehicle down here, as Hubby wanted to be sure she got something safe. My son, who worked briefly at a car dealership a few years ago, came with us to prevent rip-offs. He saved us at least 10 grand; we ended up buying a new Chevy Silverado and giving the Dodge to my daughter. This meant, of course, that someone (yea, that’d be me) had to drive it all the way from south TX to Colorado, so off I went to stay until just after Thanksgiving.

Things didn’t quite work out that way. My other daughter decided she’d had enough after her son and husband nearly came to blows. I flew home to rearrange my house to fit 3 extra people – no easy task in a mobile home, let me tell you! Hubby and son went to FL the weekend before Thanksgiving, loaded the truck, and turned right around and drove all the way back to TX that same weekend. Then we had to cram a bunch more stuff in an already jam-packed house.

We immediately started looking for a bigger place, but ended up just moving to a bigger mobile home in the same park in mid-December. We’re still house-hunting; this place is better, but still way too small. The kitchen drives me to distraction, and occasionally to drink…

In between moving and rediscovering the “joys” of teenagers – 2 grandsons – all over again, I did a bunch of garden reading. Paul James, the used-to-be Gardener Guy on HGTV (before they went all “landscaping” and “curb appeal”) mentioned a book called “The One Straw Revolution” written more than 50 years ago by a Japanese farmer named Masanobu Fukuoka. Paul said it changed his perspective completely; he might even go so far as to call the book life-changing. Of course I had to read the book after a recommendation like that! And he was right; it did change my perspective completely, and set me off on a research binge that has been most enlightening, and maybe even life-changing.

I read a gazillion web articles, watched Youtube videos, and Googled any number of gardening things. The most useful book I found is called “Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture (Second Edition)“, written by Toby Hemenway. Found it as a pdf on the web, and was so impressed I spent the money to buy it from Amazon. IMHO, every gardener should read this book. In fact, it ought to be required reading in every high school biology class. Also found Rosalind Creasy’s “Edible Landscaping (Second Edition)” to be very helpful. I’m going to be adding pages about these books, and the garden ideas that result, as I have time.

After we were more-or-less settled and Christmas was gone, it was time to translate all the new garden ideas from abstract to stuff we can eat! Though my plans keep changing (a gardener’s prerogative, of course), I started a ton of seeds and started making garden beds. Had a bit of a setback when we had a 3-day freeze, and even some (very little, actually) snow, but Hubby’s brilliant idea saved all my container plants. He told me to move them all to the picnic table, then he hung two big high-intensity work lights in the roof. Wrapped it all up in a big ole tarp and turned on the lights. Even when the power went out, it was warm enough in there (though NOT so much in the house) to keep the plants all above freezing. After it finally warmed back up, we unwrapped it all, only to have to wrap them all back up again a week later when we had yet another deep freeze. Never in the almost 40 yrs. since I first heard of the Valley have I ever heard of weather like that down here.

So, to make a very long story much shorter, I’ve got some garden beds started, more in the planning stages, and a gazillion baby plants growing bigger every day while they wait for me to get my tush in gear and make them a home…

I’m about out of steam for tonight, so I’ll quit for now and continue this novel another day.

Category: Garden Stuff, Personal Stuff, Planning | 2 Comments »
Tags: Colorado, garden, Permaculture, personal, Planning, seeds