Just workin'

We are busy!  Here's what we have been doing this week: 1) I went to a fun meet and greet CSA event at Wild Goose last night.  Farmers from 2 Silos, Bridgman, Elizabeth Telling, Toad Hill, and Wayward Seed were there, all with spaces in their veggie/egg/meat CSAs still available.

2) We received a new rain barrel from the Rain Brothers today.  It's already installed because it was just replacing the broken one.  And after tonight's storm, it might be full.  Yeah for rain catching!

3) We keep watering our seedlings.  They are starting to look great!  We need to thin some already.

4) I spent a half hour or so removing honeysuckle and english ivy vines from the fence between our house and our neighbor's.  Jan was out weeding from her side too.  We both realize these voracious growers will be a constant battle, but it is such a pleasure to work alongside a neighbor.  I am so grateful to have another gardener next door.  :)

5) I have taken pictures for posts about making butter and the usefulness of glass jars.  Still working on the editing and writing, but good stuff is coming soon.

6)I'm hearing the grumbling about no finished kitchen pictures.  That's because it isn't done yet!  Another post is slated for the little things we have yet to finish...

Our babies

"Wanna see our babies?" Alex asked Lil this afternoon. "What?" Lil was genuinely confused.

"Our green babies!  Come see!"

We piled into the tiny second floor sun room where our seeds are starting.

The tomatos have sprouted their second and third sets of leaves.  We just began the tomato pilates suggested by Plangarden.

Peppers, broccoli and herbs are also up.  Spring is here!!

Playhouse in the Garden

Our yard is tiny but we have long wanted a playspace for Lil.  A few weeks ago we started seeing playhouses available for sale.  We knew better than to look at swing sets - they would shade our garden. We researched options online and found a cedar playhouse that fit our size specifications at Sam's Club for $300.  A friend picked one up for us.

We finally had a good weather day with plenty of free time, so we put the house together.

The house assembled in about 5 hours with two adults, two neighborhood preteen girls, and Lil. Lil and the girls mostly played, but they worked too.

Note the mailbox and curtains created by the neighborhood girls.

The house is adorably cute.  The materials and design are solid.  Plus it is Forest Stewardship Council certified to ensure the materials are sustainably harvested.  We purchased 100% recycled rubber mulch as flooring which we will install tomorrow.  I hope that with the quality of materials and our craftsmanship Lil can enjoy this house for many years to come.

White House Kitchen Garden

Writing a local food and garden blog, I feel obligated to write about the White House Garden ground broken today.  It is a great hope and example to the nation.  So many others have written their kudos and I also am thrilled we have a first family that understands local foods. So rather than repeat what's been said, here's a new idea that struck me: Man, I am glad no one photographs me when I'm gardening.

Unlike the beautiful and poised Michelle Obama, I almost never shower before a day of work in the garden and am wearing my scruffiest work clothes.  I consider gardening a form of exercise, so I'm usually huffing and puffing.  My face is dirt streaked and fingernails blackened by soil.  Hair is pulled back or under a hat.

While I am not embarrassed by my disheveled appearance (gardening is hard work, after all!) I do feel for the first family in that nearly everything they do is public.   Michelle looked a little uncomfortable gardening today, as well would I if I were trying to dig in the dirt without getting dirty.   She managed to pose for photographs with a shovel without exposing herself, whereas I know I would manage to flash someone somehow.

Tomorrow when I take to the building of our backyard playhouse, I will look like a mess and be happy no one is there to record it.

Rain Barrels!

We spent a lot of time outside today.  18 mile bike ride, chalk on the sidewalk, cleaning up the garden. I brought out my camera to have a record of this

and realized that right around the corner was our beautiful blue rain barrel.

Ours is a standard barrel from Rain Brothers.  If you live in Columbus, seek out these cool dudes.  They have a store with limited hours on Arcadia and Calumet and you can order by phone or email.

We have our barrel mounted on a stand made from wood scraps we had.  The stand allows the water to develop a little head so it will better flow out of the hose at the bottom.  A few plastic elbows later and it was attached to our downspout.  The black tube is a runoff so any excess water flows into the existing drain.

We had another rain barrel out back purchased from that big online gardening shop for almost twice what the rain bros barrel cost.  It cracked all around the bottom this winter, so we will be replacing it soon with another baby blue.

Amazingly, our two rain barrels kept the gardens watered all summer last year.  We only turned on the city water hose to fill up a swimming pool a few times for the girl and wash the dogs.  We saved the energy used in city water treatment and also the cash we pay for water with these simple cisterns.  If you garden, rain barrels are definitely the way to go.

Grow your own Lettuce for free!

Well, maybe. 1) Order a packet of organic salad mix seeds from Earth Bound farms:

2) Get a pot or bucket, bigger is better.

3) Fill it with dirt.

4) Plant after first frost and put in sunny spot outside.

5) Water, harvest, and enjoy!

First Gardening of 2009!

The weather was springlike today!   We took a trip to Oakland Park nursery to buy seeds.   (They are 33% off right now, local friends!)  By afternoon we had gardening fever and just couldn't wait to get our hands in the dirt. Alex dug out some compost from the bottom of our bin to mix with potting soil so we could start our tomato, pepper, and herb seeds.  He decided that maybe we should move the compost bin today, since the weather was nice and there wasn't much else to do.

The rest of the good compost was dumped into a bed.  Lil and I mixed it around some while Alex moved the compost bin to the other side of the beech tree beyond our back fence.

Here's the new view of the compost bin.

I'm thrilled that the dogs won't be able to get in the bin.  Better yet, we won't smell it during the dog days of summer.

We confirmed in the moving of the bin that we aren't very efficient composters.  We don't really pay attention to layering or cutting things in small pieces.  But it is good enough for us.  We are satisfied knowing that our yard waste and food scraps are not going into a landfill and we can occaisionally get good soil from the bottom.

Garden Goals for 2009

Last year we made five raised beds in our tiny urban backyard.  We had success growing green beans, peas, carrots, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, broccoli, and greens. We want to maintain these beds and do the following in 2009:

1) Move compost bin outside fence so dogs can't dig in it Alex did this today today!

2) Put two dwarf fruit trees or berries where compost bin was located

3) Add 2x5 raised bed for tomatoes

4) Rip out daylilies and plant squash next to garage

5) Start seeds indoors (which means we need to get on this now!)

6) Seed shade grass where dogs have torn up grass

7) Plant hops on trellis or sunflowers around air conditioner to shade deck and screen ugly AC unit

8) Replace rain barrel on back of house

9) Add playhouse for Lil (not exactly garden plan, but I really want one!!)

10) Share tools/ideas and help our new neighbor establish her garden

11) Continue adding perennials to the front yard until we have no more grass on the hill

12) Build a handrail (due March 31 so my mother with recently replaced knee can safely walk up the steps!)

13) Build and install a bat box.

Below is a .pdf of our garden plans made through www.plangarden.com.  There's a cool 'when to plant' feature and also a user forum for gardening help.  I like that we can log garden activities from year to year and hopefully this will make us more efficient gardeners overall.  I can't figure out how to save this as an image, but I'm working on it.

plangarden

What are your plans?