To Quote Praxxus55712 "Today Is A Good Day"

Celosia and Gazania plants waiting patiently for me to love them!

Thanks Praxxus55712 for the quote and the inspiration to always find the good in life. Today was a good day all around. I was up at 10:30am. First time in a very, very long time (I suffer from insomnia, my son works nights and my daughter has been sick for over a month, so everyone's schedule is off) and despite being up "so early", I feel pretty good for it being almost 12 hours later, most of which I spent outdoors doing some type of gardening activity.

The morning found me emptying 2 30-gallon totes of municipal compost into my step beds to prepare for getting more compost and wood chips. Early afternoon found me (and my Son) filling said 30-gallon totes full of compost and wood chips. Hard to believe that 60 gallons of dirt and 30 gallons of wood chips is not enough!! (but I'd already made 3 trips back in May and we had a friend fill his pickup (twice) with the municipal compost when the beds were done to get us started!) I will be making another trip on Monday and probably several at that. That being said, I now have an 18'x6' bed in the back that wasn't there originally that needs to be filled as well as garden space behind the shed that was originally supposed to be a yard waste (aka long term slow) compost pile so there is more square footage to handle now.

Late afternoon found me putting wood chips around the "wild squash" bed (and the 2 plants that refused to be bedded and sprouted up outside the box). This also involved moving the concrete and large rock pile that was created from sifting all the dirt in the front beds way back in April when the weather finally broke long enough to get started on my gardening adventures and were carelessly tossed behind the shed without thoughts of future space use. All of the smaller rocks were actually spread out over the weeds where the compost originally was. The squash bed went on top of that but since it keeps getting overrun with weeds and may be valuable garden space at some point I figured I'd kill to birds (or weeds) with one stone (err, wood chip). Eventually when the chips break down and become some fertile soil I'll sift those rocks out again. For now they're creating some good drainage under the squash bed and  helping to somewhat control weeds.

After that I took the twigs I cut off the forsythia bushes behind the shed about a week ago (because they were slowly  making their way across the street and just generally getting in my way ) that were piled up next to my compost bin and began another compost pile with a bag of leaves I had stashed under said bush and weeds that I pulled from the front beds before filling. I haven't cut the lawn in a few weeks (not that there's much to cut and since it hasn't rained much, it hasn't grown much) so I didn't have grass clippings. Might do that and some weed whacking tomorrow just so I have more greens for the compost pile. I'm also probably going to look for a tarp as well but not sure if I can find a green one so that it blends in with the bush and existing compost bin. Been toying around with an organic version of "drunken composting" (thanks to Reaganite71). The principal is simple (layer grass clippings with food scraps and other browns and spray down after each sandwich section with a combination of beer, cola and ammonia = bacteria, sugar and nitrogen) and the method is supposed to yield you compost in about 10-14 days. Granted his method is mostly grass clippings, but there is no reason you couldn't use this method to accelerate the breakdown of more food scraps and leaves in the fall. This was my thinking. I have leaves, and I have food scraps. I just don't have a normally hot compost due to lack of grass clippings and other superheaters so the food usually ends up a big mushy layer among layers of leaves. Even if I'm turning it, it still takes way too long to break down. It's compost. I know it takes time, but I have beds to fill and plants to get ready for winter harvest planting so I'm kind of in a need for quality compost at the moment. Most of my current 3'x3' bin was a result of everything I ate all winter long plus a bunch of twigs and leaves that were collected earlier in the spring.

Here's the problem I have with Reaganite's formula. The ingredients are not organic. Even if you could find an organic beer, more than likely it was pasteurized so it's no longer alive defeating the purpose of adding the beer to the pile for enzymes and living bacteria. If you were of the type to brew your own then you have a great resource in the spent grains (thanks One Yard Revolution for the informative video) as well as a living beer to use in this recipe. Soda - well, the only thing I'd consider organic about soda is if you replaced it with a flavored water kefir or bubbly kombucha. This is actually a great substitute since you wouldn't need the beer! Ammonia - well, I have no idea how that is made but if it's man made for profit, I'm pretty sure it's not organic. That is a source of liquid nitrogen. Hmmmm wonder where else I could find that?? Ever go to the bathroom? In fact, I suppose you go quite often. I know I do!

Urine is a great source of liquid nitrogen as well as other vitamins and minerals that your body expels when it doesn't use them. It is also an excellent product for your garden and compost pile. Get over it! It's pee. We all do it. Little kids carry it around in a gel laden diaper. Guys do it when the opportunity (or excess beer) strikes. Heck even a few women have been known to let it out outdoors when the urge is too hard to resist and no WaWa's is in sight! (WaWa's, for all you southerners, is the north's version of Circle K) It's time we got back to our roots (quite literally) and started doing things that make sense to protect the environment before there is no safe place left on the planet. Why waste drinkable water to get rid of it and end up polluting some stream somewhere when you can keep it local and put it to excellent use? Think about it - if you have septic (which I do), you're kind of doing this anyway but it's mixed with solid waste (BTW, that's not cool to use in your garden!!). If the urine is separated and you're not sick or on any medications, there is no reason you can't do this. The trick for me is finding a way to store it and access it so that I don't want to vomit every time I open the container. I will have to look into a small storage container for under the house and a separating toilet. I'm also trying to figure out how to set up a grey water system as well so that I can use laundry, sink and shower water instead of letting it overflow my septic all the time.

Sorry about that. I totally went off on a tangent that was unplanned. Are tangents ever really planned?? Anyhow, oh, yeah. I made another compost pile and no, I haven't peed on it. BUT I did add some of my compost tea figuring it will have the beneficial organisms in my current bin to help speed it up a bit while I'm figuring out what to do with this recipe.

Ok, get compost/chips, chip squash bed, make compost, oh yeah! USE COMPOST. I was able to take out about 1/4 of my bin as mostly usable compost to add to the step beds that had been neglected since moving the plants in May. Even though they weren't walked on, they sure did compact and dry out. This is another reminder (thanks again Praxxus55712) that you should continue to water your fallow beds to keep the organisms and ecosystems going so that they're ready when you are to replant them. Lesson learned, the hard way (but, that's how I seem to learn most of my life lessons). So I added my compost and municipal compost (whatever that is made of) to 4 of the 8 step beds that need it. I would have done them all but darn if that old Sun didn't just up and split on me before I could get to them all. I tell you the work ethic these days of some people is just... (another day, another rant!)

I also planted 24 celosia plants in 2 of the beds and laid out plantings for tomorrow. I had purchased a couple of flats back in the end of May but then my daughter got sick so I never go to plant them. I've been (barely) maintaining them on the patio but they were really getting bad and starting to look like they weren't going to survive. I also have a flat of Gazanias that need to be planted in those beds too, or maybe I'll put them on the side of the house where the tomato plants were...but I'm hoping my cantaloupe plants will recover from the varmint buffet and sprawl across it. I don't think the Gazanias will get big enough to be taller than the leaves. I'll have to see. Might need to re-route the cantaloupe outside of the bed like originally planned.

I've eaten dinner, gotten plenty of hydration (added 1/2 litre of pedialyte to my water with a splash of kombucha today while outside so I didn't dehydrate - probably what kept me going so long!) and omg - I wrote a blog post and it's only 11:30 pm!!! Wow. I think it's time I went to bed, or at least lie down so my body can begin to recover from everything I did today and get ready for more tomorrow! It sure feels good (I'm tired and sore, don't get me wrong) to have a day like this. I feel like my gardening mojo is almost back. Which is a good thing because I have beds to prepare and plantings to organize before it's time to get going for the winter garden!

Yup, today was definitely a Good Day!

The Case of the Disappearing Leaves

It started with a couple of my green beans. Then it was a few of my sweet potatoes. Then ALL of the green beans, more of the sweet potatoes and a couple of cantaloupe and one branch on my strawberries. Yesterday when I went out to spray for powdery mildew I noticed some of the lower cucumber leaves were gone and ALL of the cantaloupe leaves and a couple more strawberry leaves!! I don't know if the cantaloupe plants will recover or if my sweet potatoes will regenerate and produce tubers. They're just the main stem with tiny branches off and pretty much no leaves at all. I cut a few of the Sweet potatoes back hoping to force new stems to come out but I don't know if that's going to work. My green beans seem to be trying to come back here and there but most of them were mowed down to only the center stem.

I still haven't figured this out but it's really making me frustrated. I would think bug damage wouldn't take the entire leaf off the stem and animal damage wouldn't be so neat. Caterpillars usually leave most of the leaf and just eat it's way around probably until it falls off or only has the veins left.

I did catch a little chipmunk over near my herb bed yesterday when I was spraying. He wasn't in the bed, he was hiding under the peppermint and ran across the yard to my broccoli plants when I moved around to his side. I don't know if he's the one who has been nibbling on my broccoli and lettuce. I know the neighbor said she lost all of her strawberries earlier in the spring and she did catch them in there. I don't know if the chipmunks could get to the cucumbers though, they were standing up kind of high.

I don't mind sharing but they have to give the plants a chance to produce first! I'm scared to go outside. But it's time to face the devil and let him know who's boss!

Garden Update (Late)

WARNING: HEAVY PHOTO POST - if you're on limited bandwidth or mobile, you might want to come back from a computer.

I went out 2 days ago to do a garden update and all I managed to do was take pictures. Never got around to writing the actual post about what's going on in my neck of the neighborhood. Things are going well overall I guess, just wish I could find my mojo again. Seems ever since I had to move all my plants from the front I've just lost that loving feeling. I still go out everyday and I'm producing, just more slowly than I need to eat it. Everything in life is a lesson right? Gardening is most certainly a lesson in patience. Well, I have a lot that needs to get done inside while it's hot and then I have to get out once the shade hits the side of the house to start treating my plants with NEEM OIL as it seems I am in the beginnings of a powdery white mildew outbreak that needs to be stopped before it decimates my crops. I'm already suffering from something eating my green beans and sweet potato leaves. I'm hoping the potatoes will recover and put up new leaves and still have harvest in the fall. As for the green beans? I'll just keep feeding them and hope they recover and plant more!

So to save myself a thousand or so words, I'm just going to put up some pictures of my gardens as a progress.

First, the pretties...just because!

Tiger Lilly

Gazanias


Rescued Geranium (50cents and looking soooo much better!)


Misc flowers




New Life in an old worm bin!


The Herbs


The Beds
  

The Bugs!


The Food!

Saturday Gardening for an Insomniac

or should I say WITH the Insomniac?

So I didn't sleep last night. Again. Not the first time, won't be the last time, I'm sure. This is one of the many problems I face living with chronic pain. And for the last month, living with a child who has been continually sick. But it's not all darkness and sleepless nights. There is gardening too.

I did manage to get outside today for about 2 hours, just as the Sun was rising. I  had forgotten how lovely sunrise could be. There's nothing quite like the still of the morning with the birds singing and the squirrels running around before the townsfolk have awakened. It was certainly a peaceful time. Just me, my thoughts, and nature.

So what did I manage to do today? I pulled a few weeds in the back bed, pruned pepperville in hopes of spurring new growth, thinned out some squash and cucumber leaves to allow more light and air to get to the smaller plants at their feet. I also played bee and attempted to pollinate a couple of butternut squash flowers. That is the only one of my squashes putting on female flowers so far. The pumpkin I had either wasn't fully pollinated or it got a disease shortly after and turned yellow and died off. I'm hoping to get some zucchini production this year since Kitty loves them with stewed tomatoes.

After that I checked the nightshades for harvestable goods but alas I left empty-handed with only the hope of harvests yet to come. From there I proceeded to pull out all the forsythia sticks my mom and I planted this spring that had not rooted and had finally did off. Then I pruned back the forsythia tree in my front yard that was encroaching on my front bed access and light and then the bushes at my compost bin behind the shed. What else... I deadheaded yellow dwarf marigolds at the steps, picked off the last few edible romaine leaves and some basil for Kitty. Then I located my misplaced coffee cup and headed inside where I found my son awake after only about 4 hours of sleep. Maybe it's genetic.

Other than that relatively productive morning after a long night I managed to get a 4 hour nap in and when i awoke, instead of working on my fall garden plan I played on G+ and watched far too many gardening videos on youtube.

So, here I lay with my swollen feet up, recording and sharing for all the earth to see what I will forget in just a few days.

But alas, before I can rest tonight, I must make an attempt to work on my garden plan.

Goodbye Arthur! Thanks for Dripping by!

Remnants of the 2014 season's first hurricane (Arthur) are moving along the #JerseyShore today bringing some much needed rain and cooler temperatures. Thankfully there was not much to the thunderstorms usually associated with hurricanes and summertime and it was mostly a rain event for us. So far we've not had any major downfalls causing flooding but then I'm probably a good 30 miles inland.

I remembered to open my old recycling pail to collect rain water this time and hopefully there will be enough caught in the bucket in it's current location. Ideally I'd like to hook up a barrel to my downspouts but my current setup doesn't allow enough space to put the barrel due to having multiple crank style windows on 3 sides of my patio which is the only place I have gutters other than the carport. Might have to think of something to do with the carport spouts since that is where one of my gardens is. That would be an ideal location for water storage.

So it's already July. Where is the time going? Weren't we just complaining about getting frost in May? Didn't we just recover from Spring Break? I can't believe I've been back in NJ now for 8 months!! I think the honeymoon phase is over and it's time to get serious about unpacking now lol.

My gardening kind of got derailed a little due to management making me move all of my food plants from the front beds and front side bed to a new bed in the back and the remaining space in my back side bed. That has resulted in overcrowding my hot pepper plants and squash/zucchini but has allowed my peppers and tomatoes to actually thrive given their new location.

The front side bed where tomatoes and peppers were originally.


Pepperville - I have 4 plants per square foot here only because I wasn't sure if I'd have enough room when I was forced to move them. Ideally they should be one per ft. Not sure how it will affect production, but I believe it has stunted growth. Cucumbers on left trellis and butternut squash on the right. Zucchini in between (also over crowded but my intent was to put them up a stake.


The new back bed thanks to management. Day one of back bed after moving tomatoes from front and front side bed. Kind of an experiment in #Hugelkultur since I took mostly the twigs and branches and uncomposted waste left over from my shed compost bin as the base and used very little soil except what came with root balls and a little more to fill between plants from existing front beds.


This is actually about a month old already and the tomato plants on the left end are grown to height of back and back is topping out of their stakes already.

Aside from being a bit overcrowded and shallow because the bed didn't have a designed plan and I just kind of made quick rows to get stuff back in the ground, things are doing well. I did get the frame up, although I will probably modify that and lift the posts out of the ground to make the walls a bit higher so the bed is deeper. I have since gotten 2- 30 gallon buckets of compost from the recycling center but since I don't have a truck, I need many more trips to completely refill the other beds and this one. Most of those holes are still there as I have not been up to finishing since my daughter got sick last month and the weather got incredibly hotter. In the words of Emperor Kuzco, "D'oh! You threw off my groove!"

So now that I find myself in July it's time to start planning for fall/winter crops and better use of the beds for next summer. I will need to come up with a plan since I don't do so well just throwing stuff in the ground. Also, given the recent local gossip about said events of management overstepping their duties in making me move my food plants, I will also be sending said plans to corporate office for confirmation that food plants (other than corn) can be planted anywhere in the yard so long as they are maintained. This will actually give me the advantage of now having and additional bed in the back that wouldn't have been there otherwise. Yay homesteading! Having that extra space will allow me to space out my plants and plan properly for size and harvesting rather than just putting stuff anywhere to keep it from dying. We might just be able to live off the land and have a reserve!! Now, if I could only get my berry plants resurrected from the dead, I'd be one happy camper resident.

So far, I've planted 2 types of lettuce in a plastic window box container and they're on my enclosed patio right now being protected from the squirrels who find my containers irresistible for rummaging through when I'm not looking. They were planted about 2 days ago and they've already sprouted! Talk about instant gratification!!

The romaine I planted earlier in the year has provided a few good meals as leaf lettuce but is starting to turn bitter and is probably getting ready to seed from the heat of late.

Unfortunately I didn't get any broccoli heads out of the 4 plants (left)that I bought in the spring. The last one that did start to head (right) unfortunately was hit by a heat wave while my daughter was in the hospital and I didn't get to pick it before it flowered (left). Luckily I like eating the flowers as does my Great-Neice who will be 1 in August. I'm just thrilled to have such a young open mind to share my gardening with. Now if I could just convince her mom that worms, dirt and germs are GOOD for your immune system!!

This little beauty has become one of my pride and joys despite not being much of a flower person. I rescued her from Lowes one day for 50 cents where she was tucked away on a shelf all alone, dry and getting crispier by the minute. Just goes to show you that plants, much like humans and other mammals, are social creatures and need interaction and to be cared for in order to reach their potential. What makes this all the more special is that the macrame hanger is one I made in 8th grade and gave to my Grandmother Lottie (who passed away in 2011). I guess that makes this a triple rescue - the plant, the planter and her memory.

Rescue plant cost only 50cents and was about the size of a tennis ball when I bought it.

I was thinking the other night (instead of sleeping) that I should be blogging more. Not so much because I have so many readers right now but more for me as a journal of how my garden is going, what's working, what's not.  I guess this is the first step on that journey. Now if it wouldn't take me all day to get things done, I might actually make some progress.