Crystal Madrilejos

It’s been an… interesting… year in the garden.

We’ve scaled back a bit and tried some new things this year with varying amounts of success. We only did 2.5 plots and we did them lasagna garden style. It started off well, though we were a bit late getting things in the ground considering the unseasonably warm spring we had. Actually, we planted on time for our growing season but we didn’t take advantage of that extra bit of time when it seemed that everyone and their mothers, due to the crazy warm weather, were getting things going in their gardens. Ah well, I’m pregnant. That’s my excuse.

In terms of successful growth, we were opposite from other years. Normally, our tomatoes are one of our lesser performers and we usually end up with more salad greens than any normal family would know what to do with. This year though, we didn’t get ANY salad greens! I believe rabbits were the culprits this time. They burrowed into the garden and ate themselves silly just like poor Peter Rabbit. I hope, just like Pater Rabbit, they tore their fancy jackets and lost their little shoes in the process too.

Same for our green beans and carrots. Eaten before they had a chance to produce anything.

Butternut squash…argh… I’m pretty sure chipmunks kept digging up the seeds and just eating those. I planted those suckers TWICE and every time I went out there, the seeds would be gone!

Basil – never recovered from one night of odd frost.

Strawberries, we had a couple. But at one point I found a freaking toad burrowing beneath one of the plants. Birds did their damn best to get through our netting that we draped over the row. One even died in the process, which is always pleasant trying to detangle a dead bird from netting. Thank goodness Andrew can stomach such things. The rest, I believe, fell victim to the chipmunks as well. They scoffed at our netting AND the bird tangled in it.

We bought our seed potatoes. Just never got around to planting them.

Don’t even ask about the blueberries. That is just straight depressing. There were so many! Birds ate them all before we could harvest even one.

Our tomatoes were the one promising and shining ray of light in the whole bunch. They were thriving and looking awesomely full (possibly due to the drier weather?) until some damn deer decided to just bust through our fence and take a siesta right in the middle of the tomato bed.

All in all, pretty dismal showings. The one thing that makes it somewhat bearable is the fact that we didn’t put too much effort into it. Yes, the lasagna beds took some time to build up. But we can still use them again next year. And there is always next year! This year isn’t over and I’m already scheming about next year’s garden, which may or may not involve a greenhouse and a front yard garden. One thing is for sure though, the one word that will describe our plans for 2013: Smarter!

-c.

Stuff like this makes my blood boil. I just have to vent here for a second because sometimes something happens that just makes you think “what is wrong with people?”

A few days ago, Andrew’s Mom took Q on a ride out to their pond (which is one of Q’s absolute favorite things to do) only to find the scene pictured below. Beer/alcohol cans littered everywhere, AND beach/lawn chairs, AND a boat!!!! Whaaat?!!! Someone had themselves a party. And it wasn’t anyone we know. The pictures really don’t do it justice.

As the title of this post implies, I’m going to assume that this was the work of some hooligan teenagers. But it’s also quite possible that they were adults that were acting like children.

Not only was there just a complete disregard for the fact that they were trespassing on someones property, but complete disrespect for said property as well as the environment and natural habitat of a lot of wildlife including fish, frogs, ducks (there were cans and bottles thrown into the lake), blue heron, and deer. Even despite my loathing of the deer, they don’t need to deal with Four Loko cans. That’s just rude!

Joking aside though, come ON people! Andrew’s parents have plenty of land. And in the past, they’ve let neighborhood kids play paintball in the woods just as long as they didn’t leave trash strewn about. They are very laid back, nice people and are always welcoming to guests in their home or people who want to come see their alpacas, etc. So it’s just sad that there are people who do things like this.

Also, lakes and excessive drinking in the middle of the night are just a bad combo. (I’m assuming this took place during the night because they would have to have some serious balls to pull a stunt like this in the daytime, right?) Not smart. Not smart at all.

And until someone comes to fess up, we at least got a boat and some lawn chairs out of it.

-c.

We’ve been busy! Andrew is pretty much done with his brick pizza oven. Just need to slap a coat of paint on the dome and we will be completely finished. Just in the nick of time. However this one detail hasn’t stopped us from enjoying some homemade pizza. More to come…

via UrbanHomestead

How awesome is that photo?!

The garden this year has officially gotten out of hand. Sad to say, but we just couldn’t keep up with the abundance of weeds. I don’t mind weeding, really. Andrew hates it which is completely understandable. The best way to keep them down is to make time every day to go out and pull those suckers out. And the one thing we are short on is time. And Quil isn’t quite at that point where he can run free in the garden. He’s as bad as the damn deer! He just walks all over everything and pulls unripened veggies off the vine, grabs lettuce greens by the handful. He also likes to put rocks in his mouth and eat dirt. Typical!

Both Andrew and I know that having a garden requires a lot of commitment and effort, especially if you want to do it right. My dad is a great example of this. He is out in his garden every single day, rain or shine. Right now, that just isn’t feasible for us. So, Andrew and I have decided that instead of spending our time fighting weeds and feeling bad about our neglected patch of earth, that we are going to be smart about this and create something that works for us and or current situation. I am still holding out hope of having a modern homestead someday with sprawling vegetable gardens, fruit orchards and chickens. But until then, we’ve decided to build a modest greenhouse where we can grow the stuff we eat all the time, all year round.

We’ve been doing research and I wanted to share some of the inspirational images I’ve found.

via CSGD

via HGTV

via Alm Farms

via SinaEnglish

via Pinkpollyanna

via Apartment Therapy

via FlipFlipMeHeidi

I realize most of these are completely unrealistic. Don’t judge! They are truly just inspirational. I like the idea of doing something different, smart, and efficient.

We also realize that a greenhouse isn’t like a rotisserie, you can’t just set it and forget it! It will also require work but hopefully not as much weeding. Soooo, once we can carve out some extra time to build this bad boy, then we’ll be good. Right? RIGHT? Wish us luck!

-c.

We’ve got veggies, people! Cucumbers and salad greens, to be specific.

I think growing food is one of those things in life that you can feel really good about and not have the time you’ve devoted to it weigh negatively on you. Unlike video games and reading gossip mags. Both of which, I’m known to indulge in. Super Mario is my jam!

Yum!
-c.

We recently cleaned off our side porch (finally!) because it was starting to look like Sanford & Son out there. During the cold season it sort of becomes a catch all for anything we can’t figure out what to do with. Recycling getting out of control? Throw it on the porch! Old busted laptop taking up space? Throw it on the porch! And it doesn’t help that you can see all this junk from the street! Ugh, what must the neighbors think? I’m sure they could care less, actually.

Baby boy is an outdoor baby and being outside soothes him. We decided to make a little haven for him to play and hang out. We swept and sprayed and scrubbed then put down an outdoor rug to cozy it up a bit. He loves it! Now we just need to get some compact space saving furniture (it’s only about 6 feet wide) and we can hang out there all summer long. I went looking for porch inspiration and found some real winners. Seriously. Our porch is not nearly as big and spacious as any of these, but a girl can dream right?

Porch images via Remodalista, Coastal Living, & Pintrest 

How awesome is that porch swing/bed thing? I would love that, but I would be scared of spiders spinning webs under the pillows and blankets and such.  And I just imagine it would feel… damp, no? Spiders in your damp porch bed = when reality meets fantasy.

-c.

A couple weekends ago, I decided to finally address this little miserable patch of yard that is next to our porch steps. I’ve been meaning to for awhile, but other projects always seemed more important. But we didn’t have any pressing issues to deal with (like the damn deer) so I figured it was time!

The main issue with this little spot is the lack of sun. Most of the day it’s in the shade of a huge maple tree. We went to a local nursery and got some great advice from their perennial plant expert, Henry. It was so hard to choose, but this is what we went with:

A fun little mix of Hostas, Coral Bells, Solomon’s Seal, and Ferns! They will probably get totally crazy and outgrow this little space but then I can transplant them to other areas. Also, baby boy had so much fun helping prepare the area. He probably ate 10 pounds of dirt, but it really was sweet seeing him get so excited about digging in the dirt!

Anyone else have any fun gardening projects in the works??
-c.

Hot damn! We finally got out to the garden to plant! This rain has been really been… raining on our parade (jeez, i’m dumb.)

We decided to scale things back a little bit this year. We’ve been overly ambitious the past couple years and while it’s been fun, it’s also gotten to be a headache at times. Plus, we have this tendency to just cram everything in. So this time, since we have a little more room to play with we’re giving everything room to breathe.

Yesterday (before it started pouring) we were able to get tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, and carrots in the ground. Unfortunately, we were so late that we missed our chance to do regular potatoes, which have been the most fun to grow in the past. All the seed potatoes were gone before we even could consider planting, and we didn’t have any left from last year. Boo hoo!

Hoping to get the salad greens in and the fence up very very soon. The damn deer have already destroyed any strawberry plants we had left. They are such jerks! Heard this story on NPR the other day and it confirms my suspicions that the deer are hating on us hard.

-c.

p.s. How awesome is that garden in the picture above? Found it while looking for garden inspiration!

This is what happens when it rains too much. Snapping turtles start hanging out on the driveway! Andrew’s mom found this beast lounging around. Scary, isn’t it? It’s prehistoric looking!

This weather is completely bipolar. It’s been raining non-stop for weeks, but finally today it’s all the sudden mid-summer. I guess we just sort of skipped Spring.

Finally got to clean up the garden area and till. It was starting to look like Grey Gardens out there, sheesh! Once it starts looking a little more garden-like and not just a huge patch or dirt, I’ll start posting some pictures.

-c.

(I posted this image of our garden last year, but I love it so I’m posting it again, deal with it!)

So all the signs are pointing to the beginning of our gardening season! Friends and colleagues have been talking about their plans and efforts for this year; and last night while browsing the latest issue of Organic Gardening, I got all giddy with ideas for our garden this year.

It’s still early for us to get anything in the ground. I know some people have already started planting but we live in a valley so we like to wait about a week after the last frost date before we get anything into the ground. Also, it’s been so wet lately that we haven’t been able to till the soil.

Our first year, we started most everything from seed. But for right now, buying starts is just easier. I think as Q gets a little older and can get excited about planting too (and not just eating anything he can grab and shove in his mouth), we will go back to starting seeds.

Overall, last year was pretty successful. And every year we learn new things and how to improve for next year. So, what did we learn?

1.) Deer fencing is awesome and worth investing in. There is nothing worse than waiting patiently for all the bounty of your efforts only to have it completely destroyed by some damn deer!

2.) Unless you absolutely LOVE zucchini and yellow squash, plant only one plant. These things produce like bunny rabbits and next thing you know, you will have more than you can handle. I mean, you gotta really love this stuff. Like, breakfast-lunch-and-dinner love.

• If you DO plant too much of anything, share the wealth and donate!
• When it comes to zucchini and yellow squash, check your plants for fruit often and pick often or else you will end up with only a couple gigantic ones that will scare you and your co-workers.

(Ok, I’ve posted this image before too. I’m lazy)

3.) Make sure trellis’ are securely anchored into the ground. Or you will be cursing the wind as well as the deer.

4.) We are not fans of the mixed salad green packets of seeds. There is always one thing in the mix that goes bitter before everything else and ruins your salad.

5.) Beetles will live just to annoy the hell out of you. To combat this annoyance, go out early in the morning and pick their sleepy asses off your plants and put them in a jar of soapy water. Then their corpses will annoy you with their god awful stink.

Those are just a couple things that I can think of off the top of my head. If I can think of more, I’ll be sure to post. A post on our plans for this year’s garden will be coming soon!

-c.