Monday I posted about Basil seeds I got free from TomatoHeirloom.com, Wednesday last week I got a parcel in the mail. The box said it was from tomatoheirloom.com, unfortunately I didn't remember ordering anything. I opened the box and found 6 tomato plants. Not sure whether it's a promotion, whether I signed up for free plants or something, which is possible. Anyway I now have 6 beautiful tomato plants!
It was actually my first time receiving plants in the mail but I would definitely do it again and I can definitely recommend tomatoheirlooms.com too as the plants arrived perfectly, well packaged, and very healthy!
I already posted about my freecycle haul of plant containers in March, and I touched on how gardening doesn't have to break the bank, but I thought I'd introduce another element today: dumpster diving :) Now I'm not saying go routing around in every dumpster, but just keep your eyes peeled! I mentioned I have dogs, and well that means walks, three times a day for our active little beasts, which means I get to see pretty quick whenever anyone throws anything out! Some neighbors up the street had a dumpster and sitting ontop were these beauties! Not sure you can tell but those are 15 gallon and 5 gallon containers. The black ones used to contain avocado trees!
Naturally I relieved them of their burden of throwing these out into the landfill, and the big ones now contain my loquat and peach trees :) Sure I looked funny walking down the street with 5 big containers and 2 dalmatians but the neighbors already think I'm a little crazy so whatever.
Last Fall some new folks moved into one of the colonial houses up the street and naturally they were sorting through the stuff left behind in the garden. These were put on the sidewalk with a free sign. Two long planters. Yep they came home with me too!
At the top of our street I rescued 3 tomato cages and 2 tomato towers from a dumpster (Ok DH had to get the tomato towers they were too far in I couldn't reach). All I am saying is be aware and what others are throwing out, keep a look out for gardening supplies everywhere! You just never know what you will find!!!
I've been a freecycle member for a while now and though most the emails that come through aren't on my watch list I do keep an eye out for gardening items :) Thursday afternoon I spotted an email come through for free 1 gallon and 5 gallon plant containers, naturally I jumped on it, and I was lucky! It turns out the person is literally round the corner! LITERALLY! If it wasn't for houses I'd could walk there in minutes, so I hopped in the car and drove the 1/2 mile round the street to find these:
What a score! Some container gardening in the future this year again! I already have a few big ones, but was looking for more medium sized ones and these are perfect! There are 7 of the 5 gallon size and about 15-20 of the smaller 1 gallon size. Got talking to the lady "Lois" and turns out she is into gardening and is a master gardener! Told me all about the program that runs from Jan - June in Ventura. I must do that next year!!!
Other scores on freecycle have included: gardening books, pots, containers, and fruit trees (yep the peach tree was a freebie!). I've also rescued items from dumpsters including: tomato towers, tomato cages, containers, and BIG plant pots. Just doing my part for the environment!
Oh and ignore the hole in the screen door, that was River thinking that the door was open and busting right through it! We just never bothered replacing it as we figured she'd just do it again! *sigh*
When you inherit plants either by buying a home, through friends, or self seeded plants you never know what you are getting. What variety is it? Is it edible? Is it poisonous? It is invasive? Is it a weed? Etc. Anyway since we've had our place this plant has popped up year after year. Having this new found love of gardening grow and grow over the last year or so I decided to get familiar with my plants on a name to name basis starting with the few I knew then trying to ID the few I don't. So I took some pics and posted them on GardenWeb (great resource) asking for ID help.
Help came in, saying it was a Solanum, nightshade family. Now I know that includes eggplants and tomatoes so the jury is still out on the variety. So I go looking online and it COULD be a wonderberry (edible when the berries are ripe) or it COULD be black nightshade which along with many other COULD be varieties is poisonous!!!
Long story short the day after I did the research I dug it out and disposed of it, too risky in my garden, not to mention a waste of edible space. The other thing that strikes me as a 'could be poisonous' plant is that River got sick 2 weeks ago. She's been sick same time every year for the last three years. The first year was worse at 10 days, then last year just 4 days, and this year was 2. I of course looked up the symptoms of thepoisoning and guess what? Yep matched Roo-Roo's symptoms!
Just incase you are wondering symptoms of black nightshade poisoning:
Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and throat
Enlarged (dilated) pupils
Gastrointestinal
Diarrhea
Stomach pain
Vomiting
Heart and blood
Pulse - slow or rapid
Shock
Lungs
Slowed breathing
Nervous system
Delirium
Hallucinations
Headache
Loss of sensation
Paralysis
Whole body
Fever
Lower than normal temperature
Sweating
Bolded the symptoms River had, though it's hard to say if your dog is delirious, has halucinations, headaches etc, so tough to call those. She was very fatigued and in obvious pain for 24 hours. She also was extremely thirsty during this time which can also be caused by this poisoning. Anyway needless to say the plant got dug up and trashed, and I'm not sorry to see it go.
The after dinner gardening book by Richard W. Langer
When I first started gardening last
year, I was on a budget and using all the frugal tips and tricks I
could find in my research online. One of the things that popped up
again and again during that research was this book. After trying to get
hold of a copy for a while, I finally found it available at our
library, put a hold on it and a few days later I picked it up.
The copy they had was well worn
which showed it had been read plenty and after spending two days
leisurely reading through it I can see why! After his accidental lemon
tree sparked the interest in gardening, this book goes in detail of
the adventures of Richard and his obsession with planting the
'throwaways' from everyday produce.
From lemon trees, avocado to papaya
Richard tried it all! Sure he had some failures but he also had
successes! I could totally relate to this book and the author! Heck I
have some of my own experiments going on now, and last year I had the tomato experiment from store produce. Just because some people tell you it can't be done, doesn't mean you shouldn't try!Definitely recommend it to all gardeners!
When I was planning my raised beds I took lots of time to measure the garden, at least the flat area of our back garden (I'll go into the slope in another post), and then mapped it out on graph paper and planned the beds again and again till I was happy. I decided on 5'x3' beds with 3' walkways (good for the width of the wheelie bin and wheelbarrow), but I wanted to eek out more growing space. When I started the garden last year the first spot I planted was this spot inground was this space between the Valencia Orange and the gate. It's a small area about 8'x3'.
So I figured make a narrow bed along the wall, but what materials to use? Well we have some spare cinderblocks that were left from the previous owners around the side near the shed. Some digging, some leveling and the project was underway. I didn't want to go right up to the path so I decided to just have a 2ft deep bed, plus there is a lump of concrete under the birdbath and didn't want to dig that out to level the area. Make do with what you have!
After a single row I called it done. The cinderblocks are 12" high so plenty high enough, fill in with compost and called it done. Until about a month later when I added another little bed to the left under the tree, where the plastic container is in the photo below. Couldn't do that at the same time as the carrots were growing there (which were rubbish as the soil is crap as mentioned before).
I do like the cinderblocks as a raised bed medium. They work well. The bed was pretty productive over the fall/winter and I look forward to including it in my upcoming seasons planting schedule.
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!!!
As a relatively new gardener, last year I was just flying by the seat of my pants, this year I am planning! I am learning! I am absorbing information like a sponge! After my post last week about the ladybugs I spent some times on the UC pest management site. They have lots of information about pests and predators. I figure learn about the predators as there are less of them! Anyway I took in some of the information, bookmarked the link and then quickly browsed the predator pages when I come across this, Mantid page.
We get quite a few Mantid in our garden of all sizes. One thing that REALLY struck me was the egg case. I've seen those in our garden! Thankfully I wasn't sure what they were and figured leave them be could be pest or predator? Happy to know that up to 200+ eggs could be in those casings depending on the type of Mantid :) Come on my gardening friends hatch!
As always when out in the garden I usually have my camera handy and here are a couple of pics I took last year of the mantid in our yard!
This one was a little teeny tiny baby mantid, resting in the groove of the watering can handle.
This one was in one of my containers on the back patio.
The Veggie Gardeners Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll
Ever Face Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask by Barbara W. Ellis
I
had this book on my 'list' at the library and whilst requesting a few
books decided to put this on on request. I try to get one gardening
book a month (along with one non fiction reading book, one fiction and
something crafty), if for nothing more than the pictures for when I
can't garden! Imagine my surprise to find the small size of this at
around 5"x7"! After the initial shock I have to say I LOVE LOVE LOVE
this size! This book is meant as a resource for use IN and around the
garden and the small size makes it perfect for this!
This book
is PACKED with information, definitely a go-to reference tool for any
gardener! It's obvious the author is an experienced gardener and she
provides a wealth of knowledge in a well thought out and structured
book. From information on getting started, encouraging organic
principles, composting and indepth details on veggies this book is
simply a must have.
Now the burning question: Will I buy a copy?
Maybe? Not 100% sure. If I didn't own the Sunset guide for our area
then perhaps. However with that guide I don't see the point as much of
the information is repeated (if a little harder to find in the sunset
guide!). Perhaps something to look out for on sale, or to put on the
gift list :)
Opening this gardening only blog was a real incentive to get the garden going, increase the growing space, take more pics but I thought today I'd share my incentive to start the edible garden in the first place.
Back around Spring last year I had started to get interested in the green movement, going back to basics and living more simply. I subscribed to a couple of blogs and one led me to Path to Freedom. If you've never seen the Dervaes video below I suggest you take the 10 minutes to view it. Totally inspiring and because they live just 45 miles away I figured if they could do it, then so could I!
The main differences is the Dervaes have 4 people to tend to their garden and there is just me, but with small steps anything is possible! The hardest part is the initial change, digging over, weeding and in our case removing plastic, nails, screws, glass, rebar, and stones! After the initial part the upkeep comes in, the sowing of seeds, maintenance, watering and harvesting.
We're vegetarian so we eat lots of vegetables, I've grown veggies before, albeit in a different country, so why not now? So last May I got some veggie starters and began my own Homegrown Revolution. I'll share some pics of my first growing season last year, the changes I made in the back garden lessons learned, and plans for the future.
The great part was when others were worried about ecoli in spinach and salmonella in tomatoes I had my own growing fresh in the garden! THAT alone was more than worth all the work! It hasn't been easy, it has been a lot of work, along with some initial expense, but I am trying to do everything as frugal and green as possible along the way. Some of those tips I will also be sharing :)
It has definitely changed my outlook on fresh fruits and vegetables just in one year. Store bought tomatoes are just not the same as homegrown fresh off the vine. Lettuce tastes better homegrown, and carrots are super sweet fresh out the ground!
I think the message that rung loud and clear on the Dervaes site is that with just a trowel and seeds you CAN grow food. Anyone, anywhere can do it. Why not you? Why not now?
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