Recently in Quests Category

I had lots of things I wanted to achieve this month in the garden but reality strikes, we got sick with some stomach bug, one of the dogs had an allergic reaction to a bee sting, work and basically life got in the way. BUT (and there has to be a but right?) I did manage to sneak in some hard landscaping on the last day of the month! I got the slabs and stones down near the mailbox. I always tend to take the short cut on the soil rather than use the driveway so might as well make it a fixure, plus it adds interest right?

The big stones will get moved into permanent positions as soon as I add some more plants and bark chips mulch. The plants on the right are Agapanthus I believe, and have pretty much settled in nicely since I moved them, they get more sun there and don't need watering much which is good for me :)

I also have some flowering bulbs to put in which should provide some color as the seasons change, and I plan on maybe having some containers in groups (just dollar store terracotta pots just incase they get nabbed) which will have annuals. I would dearly love to have edibles in the sidewalk strip, but I'm going with low maintenance because every dog that gets walked up the street pretty much pees on the sidewalk strips so I guess this is my ornamental garden. If I get brave later I'll see about veggies/herbs in containers maybe or edible flowers. At least ornamental plants can be beneficial to the veggies!

For May I would dearly love to get the sidewalk strip finished completely, but the  landscaping plans are changing we'll see. In back garden goals I'd like to get a trellis on the remaining beds so I'm ready for summer! Oh and the ever perpetual goal of weeding *sigh*

1 - Sidewalk strip. Planned on having the hard landscaping done this month and that is still my plan. Though it's half way through the month and I have nothing done so far! I did buy some barrier retaining stripping. I said I'd share the plans so far and here is my rough sketch. The path will be gravel and paving stones, the plantings will be mulched with bark chips. In my head it looks ok, lol. 2 - Front garden.
a) finish weeding the main section - done! Whoohoo!
b) thin out the succulents on the right side of the steps. - in progress

3 - Irrigation. Haven't switched to drip irrigation yet, putting it onto this weeks to-do list

4 -start the allergy meds. I started them this month after a few miserable days of post nasal drip and coughing. Not good. I seem to be ok right now, with just one pill in the morning and one at night. Guess we'll see if I need to up the dosage as spring/summer progresses.

Half way through the month already! I need to get out in the garden and get busy!!!

As readers will know I'm all about the wildlife in the garden, I love it. Whether animals, reptiles, or insects everything gets a fair chance to grow here. Unless you've been living under a rock you'll know that bees are on the decline in recent years and as bees are responsible for every third bite of food we eat we owe it to them to get their numbers back up! That's where the Great Sunflower Project comes in:

Your home, school or community garden and those around the world produce roughly 15-20% of all the food we eat. And for the urban poor, who spend 50-70% of their income on food, these gardens are a real source of good nutrition and an essential route to food security. Whether your garden contains vegetables, fruit trees, flowers, or even medicinal plants, many of these plants must be pollinated before a fruit forms. And as the headlines for the last year have made clear, bees are under threat.

We know very little about bee activity in home and community gardens and their surrounding environments, but we are certain that they are a crucial link in the survival of native habitats and local produce, not to mention our beautiful urban gardens. Our local pollinator populations require our understanding & protection, and to answer that call we need to determine where and when they are at work. With enough citizen scientists collecting data, we can learn much more, much faster, about the current state of bee activity. We would love to have you join us; let's learn about pollinators together!

Visit their website, sign up, and you'll receive free sunflower seeds so that you can join in the study! I received my seeds last week along with an information sheet.

We've had a TON of bees in our garden buzzing around the citrus blossom so it'll be interesting to see how many we get in Summer, plus thanks to the Great Sunflower Project website I can now tell the difference between a few types of bee. My only problem is getting the sunflower plants growing, the critters loved em last year and ate every last one!!! Time for containers, and some cage/covers I think!

Remember as gardeners we NEED bees to pollinate our plants, especially for us veggie/fruit gardeners! Do your bit and provide some data! Plus you get some pretty sunflowers, and can either eat the seeds or leave them for the birds :)

Firstly I wanted to say "Hi" to all the blotanical readers!!! Signed up there this month and 'met' some great gardeners who made me feel at home immediately! So little update about the Quests: this is an ongoing feature on my blog. My monthly quests are goals I want to acheive, and I give updates throughout the month on my progress, including photo's where appropriate.

Research and try trench composting: I already mentioned that after some research this isn't for me. With 2 dogs, trusting them to not dig up food remnants is NOT gonna happen without some kind of enclosure and if I have an enclosure it's not really trench composting is it? What I AM thinking of doing is remodelling my existing compost area, trying to get a couple more pallets for a 2 bin system and maybe try vermicomposting?

Get raised beds ready for replanting: Done lots of work on the beds lately. Whether taking out plants, harvesting or planting new ones (spinach/arugula/kale/beets).

Keep working on the sidewalk strip: The hellstrip is weeded, dug over and ready for landscaping! It was finished off midmonth and I've spent the last couple of weeks  doing a little designing, figuring that I need a small path from sidewalk to mailbox, and at the opposite end for the wheelie bins to roll over. I think I've come up with a great interesting design, now I just need to do the work to put it in action! You can see the progress I made below, blank canvas indeed!


Trellis!: Picked up the wire from Lowes and we have a few 2x4's in the garage but we'll need more no doubt. I'd really hoped to get more of a start on this in March but I think I overestimated my workload this month, as usually happens! After the wind playing havoc with my existing "trellis" I knew I had to do something about this SOON! If I have learned anything from the weather this year it's that flimsy trellis does not do the job well! Definitely needs securing to the raised beds!

Research and try trench composting: After some consideration it's not going to work. Reason being I need something enclosed to stop my gardening buddies digging it up! I'm looking at eventually investing in or making some kind of open bottomed container for composting that I could move from area to area.

Get raised beds ready for replanting: Been working on this one! After deciding I have enough Mesclun seeds I ripped out the stuff that had bolted. That was a lot of flowers and growth! Harvested some onions and collards and saw I have other veggies waiting harvesting!

Keep working on the sidewalk strip: Oh yeah! Gimme a high 5! I spent 90 minutes out there yesterday finishing off the weeding/digging. Got the last stump/branch thing removed and did a little happy jig as I pulled the stump out and threw it in the yard trash! Now to work on making it look pretty! In the meantime I'll also be weeding the rest of the front garden. Working on a plan still for the front yard, need a couple of slabs (gonna see what I have in our stash), some pebbles and some bark mulch. Then I just need plants :)

Raise bed walkways: Decided for now to put down cardboard to at least work as a barrier against weeds while I work around the beds, plus it keeps my shoes mudfree in the rains. Hope to get some bark chips down slowly this month. Won't get finished, but WILL get started :)

Trellis!: Picked up the wire mesh from Lowes :) After some DH input I went with the 4"x2" holed mesh and we're making a frame from 2x4 wood. Not sure WHEN it'll get done but hopefully in the next week or two, once the peas are done and ready to get composted :)

Wow lots happening lately!

Each month I make goals that I want to achieve. February was a pretty productive month all things considered as it was pretty wet. March hopefully will be a drier month, with lots of time to get things done in the garden as it's the run up to the summer gardening season. For March I want to:

Research and try trench composting: The tiered section in the back garden isn't used so far and would be great to work on some composting there so I can 'cook' the stuff in my regular compost pile. Research it this month and try it!

Get raised beds ready for replanting: The winter season is coming to an end, spring is coming, ok it's kinda here already (I mentioned the weird weather right?)! Anyway I need to get harvesting the fall crops, and plan and make room for summer crops!

Keep working on the sidewalk strip: I got a fair bit of the sidewalk strip done in February but was stalled by rain for a big part of the beginning of the month, so March will see a continuation of the sidewalk strip project

Raise bed walkways: Get bark chips! I mentioned previously that though this was a goal for Feb the guy didn't call me back about the free chips till the 25th. He said and I quote "these are all leafy, they'd look like crap round raised beds", so needless to say not going with that option! I'll buy a few bags of bark  chips and go from there. Even if it takes a few months, I will get there!

Trellis!: Make trellis for raised beds for Summer tomatoes and cucumbers!!!

I think that's plenty to get going on don't you?

The final few hours of February are here so I figured it's time for an update on the goals for February. It's been a tough month really as the rains held things up quite a bit.

• Work on sidewalk strip: After postponing the east face strip renovation I moved onto the sidewalk strip. My goal was to get it weeded, de-rooted, palm tree free and basically dug over. It's a standard size strip but the sheer amount of trees, roots and growth was overwhelming! After the help of a neighbor to remove some of the old tree roots I knew it was a matter of digging the rest over, and basically keep chipping at it when I could. After hours of work I have this:

not perfect but not bad! Still needs work which will carry over into March. In March I should get it cleared then be able to start landscaping! Hurrah, something easy after all that digging!

• Plant seeds for Summer crops:  Done! More than done! I planted probably more than I need of some stuff, but plan on succession planting in another few weeks. Haven't started a lot of the tomatoes yet need to get on that! Waiting for Bob to make me a grow light shelving unit type thing :)
  

• Get ground cover between raised beds: Well I called about the ad in the paper for free tree chips. The guy called me back on the 25th and said "they are leafy and would look like crap around raised beds" so needless to say I hit plan B this month. Which is move this goal to March when I have some more money to invest in bark chips.
  

Other than the clearing of this plot on the "possible RV location" which has Day Lilies popping up everywhere! More and more each year. I need to transplant these into the main garden, they are pretty and so low maintenance! Other than ripping out the dead growth they require very little attention from me :)

Last year was my first foray into vegetable gardening and I didn't really know what I was doing. I think this was a bonus really as it allowed me to make mistakes, to try new things and learn. There were many experiments last year but the one that sticks in my mind as the most successful is the "Cherry Tomato Experiment". See I bought a pack of tomato plants from the garden center but I wanted cherry tomato too and couldn't find plants locally, only seeds. Now my budget was slim pickings last year so I figured why not try growing from grocery store produce? So I checked the fridge and had grape tomatoes in there, cut em up, squidged out the seeds, rinsed em, dried em then put them in potting soil.

This actually proved pretty successful with about 95% of the seeds germinating! I had some in eggcartons and some in plastic seedling starters and both germinated. Not knowing what I was doing I tried to save them ALL rather than pinching out to the strongest seedling in each cell and lost a few seedling that way. In all I think I ended up with 10 pretty strong small plants in the experiment.

All the containers were recycled from the kitchen or from other plants so nothing new was bought for this experiment, the only thing it cost was time, and a little potting soil.  I lost a few plants in the great heatwave of June 2008, when temperatures soared to 110 degrees for two weeks solid, but I still managed to keep about 6 alive. As the plants grew, when they got to around 8" I put them in their big containers or in the ground.

The plants in containers did better, cos frankly our soil is pathetic, which I had no clue back then. Basically horrid clay soil, very little nutrients and probably 1-2 worms for the whole back yard (this was the reason for the raised beds later in the year!). Still they produced flowers! Which pollinated! And produced baby fruits!

Now I still figured it all had time to go horribly wrong as if they were hybrid tomatoes that I bought well they wouldn't be true to seed. Even if they did continue to grow and ripen would they taste ok? That was my ONLY criteria. If they tasted ok, then they were worth it.

Happy to report they did grow, they did ripen, and they tasted just fine. A little sweeter than the originals but then they were homegrown and organically grown so no surprise. I'd estimate I harvested a couple of lbs of cherry grape tomatoes from those plants. Not bad for nothing!

I guess the lesson of this experiment is that even if you have NO money you can still garden, and produce edibles! If it doesn't turn out then so what? I had plenty of failed experiments last year! Most of the plants were lost during the aforementioned heatwave in June so I don't take credit for killing them, but I lost nothing by trying!

And you can bet your butt I'll be trying some experiments again this year so stay tuned!!!

Ok it's mid-month and probably a good time for an update on my goals for February.

• Work on East facing strip of front garden: This project is on hold right now. After working on the area for a few hours it occurred to me that 'if' we do get an RV or similar vehicle that we've discussed previously this is the area that it would be parked! I'd been told by a friend that it was against city ordinance to park the RV on the driveway so I called the city (and checked the site online) and nope it's perfectly fine. We just have to pave the area and we're golden. Needless to say that area is on hold till we decide what we're doing. I'll still work on the plot as we need to clear the area either way no matter what we do on it, but it's not a priority right now (not like the rest of the yard!) so I'm changing the goals to reflect this change of focus...

• Work on sidewalk strip: This was the area I started first but it was disheartening as there are palm trees that needed removing, juniper roots and a whole lot of stones and debris. I was lucky on Thursday that a neighbor saw me out and asked if I wanted help removing the palm trees! Naturally I accepted the offer and we made good headway in the 3 hours I was out there! Pretty much since then it's either been raining or soggy wet. The picture above is an old one from last year but you can see the highlighted area I'm talking about, and the arrows point to palms/trees we took out last week! I just need to dig over, remove weeds/grass and work my way down. Right now I have dug over from the driveway to about a foot past the mailbox. As you can see LOTS of work to do!!! I need to get out there and take some new pics really! Will do that this month for the month end round up!
  

• Plant seeds for Summer crops: Planted lots of seeds, but then we had a frost so hopefully they will be ok! Planted: tomato, eggplant, herbs, pumpkin, peppers and more. I need to get a better system for keeping track! I also need to find a good seed starter trays. The ones we saw at walmart looked ok but I prefer individual cells and theirs were ones that you had to buy the coir/peat pots each time which is not me at all. But then maybe I should try them? They did smaller ones so perhaps I will give them a go? Be nice to have something that lasts season after season.
  

• Get ground cover between raised beds: Not done yet. Honestly the weather has hindered this. Basically I need the ground cover cos when it rains it's muddy (plus it'll stop weeds) but it's too wet most days to get out there, or I can't rely on good weather for drop off and me hauling it round the back! *sigh* Someone tell mother nature to cooperate with my gardening schedule please!!!

As you can see the weather is hindering plans and gardening activities. What I am trying to do is get ahead with other tasks in the house/work so that once the weather dries up a little I can attack the garden with full force! At least that's the plan! The forecast so far is 2 days sun, 2 days rain followed by 3 days sun, 3 days rain, and temperatures between 55 - 70 degrees.

I already mentioned that my quests for Yardcraft would be monthly but I will break them down into manageable chunks. Otherwise I tend to get overwhelmed and give up. Besides continuing to grow all the fruit and veg I can (and extend my planting space) the BIG project for 2009 is the landscaping of the front garden into an edible oasis. I also want to eek out more planting space in the back garden, get more pots, get fruit canes and basically just grow more, more, more!

February quests:

• Work on East facing strip of front garden. This strip runs along the boundry of our neighbors and our driveway from the house to the sidewalk. It probably won't all get done in February but I hope to have at least the top 1/3 done. Using existing pile of rocks I am building a natural raised bed and retaining wall as the lot is sloped and I want it to retain water better. Eventually I'd like to plant the peach tree, and some veggies along here. Maybe grapes and some strawberry plants too! You can see the strip of garden on the pic below
  

• Plant seeds for Summer crops! I have TONS of seeds to sow this month to prepare for the Summer season. Hoping for a double crop so better get busy NOW and get planting!!!
• Get ground cover between raised beds. The back garden needs the bare soil covering between the beds so I plan on researching my options and getting those  covered up this month. Thinking tree chips, I saw a free ad in the local paper so may give them a call later this month.
  

As you can see I have my work cut out for me this month! Good job I committed to getting out in the garden DAILY when possible this month! Though impossible right now as it is raining in buckets right now! Which is good, we need rain!!! We we're headed for a drought, hopefully the rain and snow we're getting will help tremendously with that.

In the meantime I'll be planning the garden, and thinking about seed sowing whilst it's raining :)