Some like it hot...

Have you ever thought,

 

"My cold frame is wicked-awesome, but I wish it was on Steroids... organic, non-GMO Steroids."

 

Well aren't you glad you're reading this...

 

I was in Williamsburg this past year with Hubby and the in-laws. We had such a blast wandering around aimlessly, oohing and awing and snacking. And I was on cloud nine. On every street there was a garden tucked behind each building. They were fenced in, lined in rows, edged with paths, floral, vegetable, decorative, colorful and wild, pristine and proper, shaded, sunny, and everything in between.

And there it was.

The official Williamsburg Garden.

Oh, I could have lived there. I wanted to take everything with me and drop it all on my property. Hubby had to chase me around and tell me no a lot.

But the most wonderful thing I wanted to take was also the largest and most improbable.

 

Hot Beds.

 

If done right, you can grow pineapple in a hot bed in a zone 5 or 6! (for you non-gardeners, that statement may seem a little lackluster, but it blew my mind)

 

So I cajoled poor Hubby in to letting me steal all of his supplies so that I could build my own.

This is not the complete project, but here's a preview of where it's going...

 

First I had to dig a big hole. Or Hubby brings over a machine and digs it for me because my little biceps are half the size of his. I mean, I'll wrap my hands around his bicep, but then he flexes and forget it... hands can't stay together and I'm just a melt-y puddle of amazement. (don't tell him I told you. He gets all eye-rolling when I swoon)

He started the boxes for me but left a nice pile o bricks for me to finish it up...

Then I backfilled the dirt around the boxes and packed it down...

And TADA! I know. Anticlimactic. I still have to build the cold frame styled boxes to go on top. But, this guy gets a hefty load of manure that's been made from horses that have eaten straw or grasses and a thin layer of compost and it can get upwards of 120 degrees. Then once the few inches of soil go on top, it settles down the 70-80's. Perfect for plants to begin growing in mid winter!

 

It's rather technical. From what I've read, the wrong levels can make the whole thing combust or explode. The wrong manure won't get it hot enough, and not enough soil can mean that you have cooked seeds.

 

Hopefully I'll have it ready to go soon. I'll post pictures of the completed project when it's finished.

From seed to Home

Birds.
Love - Hate.
The little sparrows and finches make me coo at my window with my face pressed up against the glass.

But my Robin...
It's an "Extra" reject from Hitchcock's bird movie.
Rejected because it scared all the other scary birds....

That thing will crawl through my window one day and pull out all my hair for it's nest.
Hateful thing.

So I made a home for the little birds!

Last year I planted bird house gourds, and TADA!

It's my first attempt, and the antique nail was perhaps not the greatest idea. This went to a relative as a Christmas gift. I added antique keys as a sort of chime. I'm not sure how it will actually do as a house, but hopefully something will be desperate enough to take up shelter!

These are my confessions

So it's beyond frigid in zone 6. Single digit danger out there.

Apparently Alaska is the place to be for warmth,

And, ever the optimistic gardener, of course I'm picturing everything on my garden wish list in full bloom, on my plate, and stored up in my pantry.

So somehow it seems apropos to curl up and draw it all out on paper during the most frigid day in twenty years. On a day where your breath is snatched right out of your lungs the moment you walk out the door. But sometimes the end results of gardening leave me breathless anyway...

And rebounding from the sentimentality, I thought I'd post a few gardening confessions.

It's good for the soul and may make YOU realize how little I know about gardening.

1. Sometimes I hate getting my shoes all mucky. So I garden in Hubby's shoes when he's not paying attention. (We'll keep this our secret) Because honestly, his shoes are WORN.

2. I did not weed AT ALL last year until the gardening season was over. And even then, it was only so I could find the tools I'd left under the thicket and brush. And somehow, my garden still produced an over abundance.

3. I dry herbs all the time, and I'm always trying something new. But sometimes I'm so worried I've messed up and I'll end up poisoning myself or my husband, that I never use it. And that's usually when I give things away. I know, it's awful. Like my yarrow and red raspberry leaves. They're supposed to be excellent in tea, but I'm so nervous to try them!

 

 

4. My grapes have been TERRIBLE! I've eaten a few frozen ones in champagne, and a dreadfully sour one outside, but they seem to suffer from a horrific blight problem I haven't solved. A friend told me it took three years to get a crop from his, so I'll cross my fingers and hope this is my year.

 

 

 

5. I'll buy things solely on how pretty they are. Like this squash.

 

6. I played with that squash on my floor in the kitchen for twenty minutes before I cooked it. It was a flying saucer about to crash into a burning black hole (my oven). I'm a hardcore child inside.

 

7.I built a towel fort for a baby bunny I found in my garden so that he would come back and play, even though he ate most of my tender kale plants and half my lettuce. He and his three sibling were to pathetic to chase away.

 

8. I buy a lot of seedlings. No matter how much attention I give to my own, I seem to half kill them in transition from my basement to the raised beds. I'm still getting the "weathering" thing down. I'd say maybe half of them survive and they fight for weeks to get to the stage the Amish grown seedlings seem to get to in a matter of days. Those Amish... talented and fierce.

 

9. I hate beets. I hate bugs. I hate grubs most of all. I'm learning not to squish spiders. I'm afraid of my Robin, and mangoes could kill me but I really just want to lick one. Just one more time. And maybe a bite or two. It's a sick version of Russian Roulette in my head.

 

10. When people ask me questions, I'm terrified to answer them. I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm sure half of what I say is wrong. I read as many books and blogs as I can on topics and then just try to regurgitate the general consensus.

 

But it's so exciting to learn through trial and error! What's the worst advice you've ever gotten?

Share, share, share!!!!







Let's be Best Friends... Maybe...But Probably Not

i LOVE birds.

I saw my first red something or the other woodpecker a few weeks ago and my yard is filled with those blue ones, and then there are the tiny cute ones and I'm not too keen on those large fluffy grey ones, but they have their place.


You can see, I'm practically an expert.

But I do know my Robins. And I love them.
But then there's MY Robin. She and I have an understanding. She rules my garden and I understand that I will stay away from her while she eats whatever she wants while she raises her babies in my Wisteria.

The Wisteria that needs constant pruning, that I can't prune because she'll cry murder from a tree and make me feel this overwhelming guilt that I've invaded HER territory.

I'd like her to contribute towards the mortgage, but I can never get her to sit still long enough.

So this morning, she decided to tear down my squash trellis. Really, why did I need a squash trellis when it would look so much better all balled up in pieces, tucked into the nether-reaches of an illusive wisteria branch?

So the pesky, lovable creature ignored my flailing and fluttering at the kitchen window, and my protests, and tried to pull it down one thread at a time.

And was she furious that I tied it so tightly....

So I decided to give her a peace offering.

 A wonderful and smart Lady told me to throw scraps of yarn out into my yard, and so I did...

And Just a few hours later, there in my Wisteria, without fail, just like last year, was The Nest. The one that will keep me from training my Wisteria across the arbor. The one that will leave Poor Hubby confused because I said I would keep it trimmed back, and out of the eaves, and from tearing down our house, one powerful branch at a time. The Nest that my head will pop up next to for the next few months until I see the little naked babies all curled up with their pathetic beaks trembling in the air for squishy worm guts... and probably these

My grapes. The ones I will never get to eat because I'm terrified of an animal smaller than my hand but with a shrill louder than when my mother sang "The Hills are Alive" at 5am to get us up for school when we were kids...

Sigh.

I can't believe I love birds.

Tra-la-la-la Trellises

It has been beautiful outside.

...Because winter is behind us and anything that's NOT winter is beautiful and lovely in Zone 6.

And I've had the week off.

So my legs are painfully sore from excessive frolicking.

All that prancing really works the calves.

 

And my garden gloves have become a lot more like wristlets or bracelets.

Which is pretty awesome for anything but my fingernails.

 

So I've been doing a bit of above the dirt action to keep them clean.

Trellis building!



 

 This is my squash trellis. I'm still not sure if it will hold up from the weight of winter squash, so it will be an interesting experience. I suppose by next year I'll have learned whether or not I should have used poultry fencing or construction fencing instead of nylon fencing.

But if nothing else, it was the perfect location to hang this UBER nifty gift I got from an uber special friend last year.

Building anything fun in your garden this year? Share, share!!!!
Please Share!!!!!!

Haute Potato Towers

This morning, after chasing around baby birds and throwing little sticks at Fat Tony, the mob boss squirrel of the pine tree grove, I finally got down to work in the garden. And I put in some serious elbow grease.

'Cause really, who gets a shower BEFORE they go out to garden.

But greasy elbows aside (and yuck factor firmly in your brain)

I finally got my potatoes planted.

I've recently discovered that there are about One Million ways to plant potatoes. And I've tried most of them.

Or two.

But I'm on to my third, so I'm a good way through that million.

There was the trash bag method that first year. I planted those potatoes in a big black trash bag, added more soil as I went, and kept pulling the bag up higher and higher as I filled it with dirt. And it went really well.

Until the tree fell on it and I had skewered baby potatoes.
Blame nature for that one,

In year two, I dug trenches and put them under just a bit of soil and added straw on top of them throughout the season until I assumed they were good and ready. And for small little creamer potatoes, I got some hefty baby elephant sized spuds.
But it took up a whole level of my tiered garden.
Eh...

So this year, it's towers.

I started with poultry fencing and twisted the ends together to form a circle.

 

\

I used dried grasses from our yard that we had trimmed back to line the metal frames.

 Then I filled the bottom with a few inches of dirt.

I put in my seed potatoes, making sure each spud had at least two eyes.

I pushed them into the dirt...

And put all ten in a layer. Then I covered them up with 2-3 inches of soil. I Think I'll add a few more layers of potatoes and try to get more out of my harvest.

I'll let you know how it goes. This idea is floating all over the Internet and I've seen some people say they've had a lot of success, and others say they didn't get anything at all.

How are you growing potatoes this year? What kinds are you growing? Share, Share!!!

In which I attempt to sing and frolick about in spring-ish weather glee...

In the first month of gardening the big box stores gave to me:
One whiskey barrel
Two hog fence panels
Three rosemary bushes
Four window boxes
Five bags of organic soil

and a few more things too, but none of them work as 6-10 and I don't think Hubby would appreciate me buying anything else in those numbers, just to finish off the song...

Today was gorgeous. And by gorgeous, I mean a bit chilly with mushy, wet, post-drizzle soil, and a slightly overcast "blah-ness" with an occasional glimpse of "oh hey there Mr. Sun".

Perfect weather for turning over the earth with nothing but a pitchfork, hoe and back muscle...

...For those of us who cannot convince our Hubbies that we need to have tillers. Because they point out how we manage to get it done every year without. To which we reply, "ow my back" and "look at my un-girly callouses". To which they again respond that we seem to have managed without. And we DO get it done, cause girly or not, Gardenistas are a fierce breed, and some Hubbies are just too tight-fisted (er um, frugal).

Okay, not that tight-fisted, because mine took me on a shopping spree.

And he's never going to let me go shopping on my own ever again.

Last year, I bought hog panels and bent them into arbors and grew squash over them. It worked out really well so I thought I'd get more. And Hubby went with me.

I don't know what he was or wasn't thinking last year. Maybe he thought I wriggled my nose and the hog panels just appeared in our yard. But when I tried to explain how we should load them into his truck this time around, he gave me this arched brow that almost disappeared up into his hairline and a loudly proclaimed "You did it HOW?"

So after much "debate", we loaded the panels 'his" way and got them home.
Just like I got mine home last year.
But let's not belabor the point because I got more panels and I'm glad for it.

And I plan on using them as Tomato Arbors!

I dug trenches at either end, filled in a mixture of compost, a bit of manure and organic soil and blended it all together.  My lower garden is slightly sloped and I'm hoping the trenches hold all the good soil in place. I'll plant the tomatoes in the rich beds of soil and let them grow up and over the arbors. Hopefully, I'll get a bunch of tomatoes hanging down for easy picking. The last few years, my tomato plants have grown so large, I'd run out of space to tie them back and ended up foraging about in thick walls of leaves and stems for hidden tomatoes.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

What are you doing with your tomatoes this year? Trying anything new? Using the same old time-tested tomato cages? Share, Share!!!