guest blogger: the garden before the storm

From Boston:
My friend Erin and I officially began our outside veggie garden on Saturday. We used the raised bed that our friend Lauren had created last year and planted a variety of yum! Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, and sage. We got it in just in time to let mother nature give our garden a good shower. It will be so much fun to watch our little garden grow!

buongiorno ziggy zag

 According to Wikipedia, morning glory is a common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants. I was researching whether morning glories are native to New York because I see them everywhere. What I did find out about these Ipomoea purpurea (this might be what mine are, but there are numerous species) is that they reseed easily, so, although they are an annual they easily come back year after year.

This is my DIY planter box beautifier. Some zig-zaggy twines for my buongiorno glories to climb. You can easily make this yourself with some twine, wire nails, a hammer and scissors. Make fun shapes or spell a word... something creative. I think this will make my garden boxes pretty, but beware of the nail heads jutting out - I hammered mine flat against the wood but they are still a little dangerous. 

I just read a really intense thread on Morning Glories vs. Field Bindweed. Field bindweed is an invasive plant that hurts crops. "Biological controls" were used to combat this conceivably destructive plant, meaning a moth was imported and released to kill this invasive plant. What a horrible idea...We have a problem with a non-native plant so we bring in a non-native moth to make our problems down the road worse. Awesome planning guys.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that whatever is growing in my urban garden is a) not toxic to grazing animals (because I don't have any) and b) isn't affecting any farmers crops. Whew! So, I guess I don't have to worry too much. If you want to take a look at the thread, you can read it here.

herbal armor & dirt lines

I haven't been updating the urban garden blog as much as I would like, but it's growing like crazy! Ben (my neighbor) built 2 new boxes!! We are experimenting with sizes. The big one is split in half and really tall because I order sweet potato tubers and then like deep soil. We spit that in half to cut down the need for tons of dirt, but I think we are a little shallow on the non-potato planting side. Oh well, I threw in the "Husky Cherry Tomato" plant I picked up at Lowes and planted the parsley that I started indoors a couple weeks ago. The were living on the edge being outside while I was away camping over Memorial Day weekend. I'm glad they pulled through! 

Pictured above: My dirty-ass feet coming in from working in the garden - my all time FAVORITE thing about gardening is getting a little dirty!! Any excuse to get dirty is fine by me!; my best friend - bug repellent, this is not a sponsored post, but if you want to sponsor me I could buy this stuff by the gallon! We have an army of mosquitoes in the backyard; Shots of the garden from my porch.

square rectangle

I finally had some time to plant seeds in my raised bed today! I am attempting to use a method of gardening recommended to me by our friend Joey, who is an urban gardener in Los Angeles. I admit I didn't get the book, but if you go online to Square Foot Gardening Foundation they have a comprehensive tutorial right on their website. Joey uses this method and swears by it... I guessed on the planting by reading the back of the seed packets and using the online tutorial. I also used less seeds. Now that I am a graduated novice, I realize using 3-4 seeds in every hole is unnecessary. The Square Foot method says to use 1 seed... I used 1-2 seeds but should have to thin less with this method. As you can see, I also do not have a square box, but I like to break the rules a little.

I used twine to mark off my square feet, hammering nails in to tie the twine to the side. I hammered the nails in halfway and then hammered them up to bend the nail in half. This way, the twine shouldn't slid off the nail. 

Pictured above: Making measurements; tying off the twine; diy Garden Marker for Summerlong Basil; Sowing seeds; Atomic Red carrot seeds - you can see little flecks of pink on the seed.

Happy Birthday Mica!!

Mica is four years old today!! I adopted her when she was 4 months old from a foster/shelter in New Hampshire September 2006. Mica was born in the south and was in 3 different shelters in 3 different states before I brought her home. If you are thinking about getting a pet, check out Pet Finder first!

Mica and I spent time in the garden today filling up the first raised garden box. It took 8 bags of dirt! I put the planter box up on cement blocks to keep it off the ground, preventing leaching from toxic dirt. It also provides a way to reuse the slabs of cement I have been pulling out of the garden this spring! So far, all the materials we have used with the exception of the purchased dirt, have been reused and recycled materials. We even reused old rusty screws!

I also placed my new handy-dandy planter markers in their rightful home. See how to make some for your garden here.