The Path Less Traveled

 Well, in our case, this is becoming the path more easily traveled.  We struggled last year to get around to our beautiful veggies.  To the point where we didn’t harvest the way that we wanted because we couldn’t get to the good stuff.  Thus, I said a sad farewell to my birthday lilac bushes and we rebuilt boxes leaving a 2 ½ to 3-foot path around each box.

 

Not that you can tell from these pictures, we are going for an English garden look (not that I’ve ever stepped foot in an English garden).  We took the flat stone from our now vanquished, mosquito-breeding pond to become our path.  The task was not bad. We’d dig a little impression in the ground and set the stone in, making sure dirt was surrounding it.  We were able to complete the laying of stone in a nap time (3 hours:  I know mother’s everywhere are jealous).  Tomorrow, as my main man has promised, is when we will lay seed so that grass grows between the stone.  I’m a little nervous about this as grass when weed wacked and cut can lead to clippings in my garden boxes and more weeding work.  Sadly, I’m willing to risk it as I feel like the rock only path isn’t as cozy.  Maybe someone out there will prove me wrong.

So after tomorrow, we’ll sit back, have a spot of tea and watch the grass grow.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

**Stay tuned gardening geeks, May 5^th is the Sheep and Wool Festival in Howard County Maryland.  Unsuspecting friends will be hijacked to go with us to get the most beautiful tomato plants EVER.

 

May The Odds Ever Be In Your Favor

So I have 500 pounds hanging over my head and what do I do for the last two weeks?  I read the Hunger Games Trilogy.  I act like a 41 year old teenager.  So goodbye Peeta, hello tiny garden plot.  I will be going from boy with bread to family with peas.

I know you’ve been waiting desperately for my explanation of square foot gardening.  In the 1970’s a cool dude, Mel Bartholemew (http://www.squarefootgardening.org/), developed a system where you don’t grow in rows you grow in squares.  You mark off your garden in to square foot increments.  

 With each square you sow between 1 to 32 seeds.  No thinning.  For instance, we planted four pea plants in a square foot.  We could have done more if they were trellising but I got bush.  My bad.

Notice the unofficial, "use what you've got" square foot gardening materials.  Sorry, Mel, we were in a hurry to get these seeds in the ground.  

So two weeks ago we planted a cold crop.  Our first.  Usually we wait around from the safety of May when any chance of frost is over.  We feel like proud parents.  We’ve planted vegetables that can withstand a possible freeze.  

Beets:  which I’m skeptical about-what the heck are we going to make with those.

Shelling peas:  gick, but Barry and Gabriel love them.

Snow peas:  which I’m  so excited about, Barry makes a peanut butter cold pasta salad that is delish and I will post at a later date, collard greens:  which we plan to freeze.

Carrots.  Now remember I told you about the no thinning, well those daggone carrot seeds were so tiny, I had to spread them everywhere.  Some are going to have to get the boot and if you’ve read older posts you know how I feel about that archaic proceeding.

Now we wait patiently for them to sprout.  It has been a dry spring for us so we are watering every night, which just isn’t the same as a good ole spring shower.  Keep your fingers crossed!

It's Been Awhile

We're Back!!!!

Well, I think it has been two years since my last post. Wow, having a baby will do that to you. As I looked through my old posts, I realized that my last post was about a week before morning sickness set in. Said morning sickness lasted SIX MONTHS. I wish I were kidding. So now our "baby" is over a year old and we are ready to get back to the business of sharing our successes and failures in gardening. We hope you'll join us.

Last year we did do a garden which was pretty successful. Even with a baby on board we were able to can tomatoes, have a nice batch of string beans, experiment with tomatillos, and mourn over a horrible cucumber year.

Since we are feeling feisty since we are getting full nights of sleep, my husband says to me, "I think we could grow 500 pounds of vegetable in the back yard." Ummm... I'm not sure about all this. I mean that sounds like an awful lot of produce for a 10x20 space. But Barry is always about "Bigger is Better" and if he thinks we can do it then who am I do be Debbie Downer?

Our first job was to reorganize our space. It was not feng shui. We were growing but we weren't always harvesting with ultimate success since it was a pain in the tooshie to get around. And who am I kidding, I was a little nervous about what might be lurking down there on the vermin/reptile front. So we finally took a look at Square Foot Gardening, which my father had mentioned. I had originally put it from my mind as "old school" (sorry Dad) but after taking a look at it that dude might be on to something. So what the heck! We are giving it a try.

So I'll leave you today with what our old space looked like and what we've made it into so far.
We had to take out my beloved birthday lilac bushes for more spaces. Don't worry they were adopted by friendly neighbors. The hole where the lilac bush was. As you can see below, it was tricky getting around that joint.The next picture is of the new layout.


One 3X8 box. Two 4x4 boxes and one 3 X6 box. We have already gone a little rogue from Square Foot Gardening. Next post you'll see how we put the boxes together and cool weather crops we planted.