Quick Update

I'm heading out to my folks' for the week, and leaving my plant babies in the care of good ol' Hubbyman, so I thought I'd toss out a quick update post before I leave.  You know, in case something goes awry.  Then I will have a scapegoat.

So.  State of the garden.  The kale and broccoli have been slowly dwindling.  I'm down to about three or four broccoli seedlings.  The kale has fared better, but I have been losing those too.  Hopefully some of these will make it past infancy!  But if all else fails, I do have more seeds.

Okay, let's see some pics.  We all know that's why you're really here.  I think.  Maybe?

Whatever.

Lettuces and radishes.  I thinned them.  Just thought you'd want to know.

Swingset photobomb!  I really like baby radishes.  They're cute.

Bunyans.

I planted more radishes in here.  If the first round is successful, I'm bound to want a second.

I think I'm doing this wrong.

I planted more lettuce in here.  It seemed a shame for it to just be sitting empty.  I also put some in the Lucy tub.

Again.  Doing it wrong.  I actually cleared this out and put garlic in it.  Another one of those experiments I'm doing.  I call them experiments, because when things go wrong, I can shrug it off that much more easily.  All in the name of science!

We had wind.

Chard!  I'm officially excited.  I've never even eaten chard, but I feel like I've won a personal battle I was having with the elements or dirt or something.

Spinach!  I grew spinach in a container a few years ago, and it was really yummy and easy.  I planted it late, though, so it bolted really fast.  Hopefully we will get to enjoy it longer this time.

Peas are opening up!  I'm so excited.  Peas really were the highlight of our garden last year.  I was told by another gardener that you don't have to thin them out to six inches like the packet tells you to, and that you can grow them close successfully.  I'm going to try that out this year.

I really couldn't remember if I'd said anything about the trellis, and I was too lazy to check.  So here you go, redundant or otherwise.  Trellis.

More trellis.

There's spinach in here too!  I think...  LOL!

I thought we should end on a pretty note.  So here, oregano for you.

The end.

Planter Play

So it was supposed to rain today, but instead we had sunshine and 60 degrees.  Ah, the Pacific Northwest... always keeps me on my toes.  This time of year, a sunny day is like a little gift, so I decided to enjoy it while it was here.  Honestly, I expected dark clouds at any moment, but amazingly, the sun stayed out all day.  It was nice.

Anyway, I thoroughly hosed off all the planters (soaking myself in the process--evidently I am eager for July).  It was fun and relaxing to move them around and figure out where to put what.

Here's my arrangement for the time being.

I was pleasantly surprised that the long planter box is the perfect length for the side of the porch!  Also, I like the idea of a planter on each step, and the boxes make things nice and symmetrical.

One the other side of the peas is a little drainage relief for the yard, and it's full of river rocks.  I thought this was a good place for the trays.  I don't know what I will put in them.  I was considering succulents, but decorative mosses might be fun.

I put the scissors there for size reference... okay, fine, I accidentally left the scissor there.

This was the more fun addition today.  My daughter has one of those princess tables with the mini chairs.  Well this one was all busted up, so I removed the seat, and with the two smaller pots and a little wire, voila.  Touch of whimsy or something.  Anyway, I like it.  I've been wanting to do this for a while now, and the free pots gave me the motivation.

I also started a compost box.  As you can see, I have no idea how to use a Dremmel. 

It's a miracle I still have knees, really.

Nothing like learning as you go!  I saw someone do this online, where they drilled a million holes in an 18 gallon tote and used it for composting.  I had the tote rejects from last year's planting, so I figured there was no harm in giving it a try.

I'm sure this will work great!  We all know how reliable the internet is.  What could possibly go wrong?

Stir stick.  Something tells me there is a better way to turn compost, but I'm kind of a neanderthal when it comes to tools.  So it's either this or a spatula from the kitchen.  And we kinda use those.  You know, for cooking.

It was full to the brim when I put everything in there!  I guess it's settled.

Currently contains some dirt, those grounds I got from Starbucks, dead leaves, and a few egg shells.

The lettuces and radishes are coming up more plentifully.  Amazingly, even after the toddler attack, the rows are for the most part intact!  There are places where the seeds are more clustered together, but overall, I think we're okay.  But you'll have to just imagine that part, because I forgot to take pictures of them.  Go me!

Okay, items left on the to-do list:  get dirt, get plants.

The end.

A good day in the garden...

...I say that as though I were in the garden a bunch today, but actually I spent most of my day away from home.  It was a good day for the garden, however, because I totally scored on a random pile of flower pots and boxes on the side of the road with a "free" sign attached to them!

This isn't even all of them, because I shared some with a friend.  Granted, they are pretty beat up, but free!  FREE, I tell you!  Mega score for a Patchwork Patio like mine.  Not sure what I'm going to do with them yet.  There are more drainage trays than pots, so I may attempt to find some alternative use for those.  We shall see.  They need a good scrubbing all the way around.  Lots of old spidery remnants in there.  No spiders though, thankfully.  Think of it as the kinds of spiders that move away, but leave their attics full of crap because they can't be bothered, and surely the next spider will find some use for it.

Also, things are sprouting in the lettuce and radish tray!  I'm not sure what's what, though, because of that whole thing where my three year old decided to grab a few handfuls and spread them around after I'd planted nice, tidy rows.  I think the heart shaped ones are radishes, but don't quote me on that.  This is the internet, after all.

Radishes, perhaps?

A lettuce or five?

More peas are coming up.  They are finally awakening!  I think one or two of them are even threatening to open up those first leaves!

Oh happy day.

The end.

Show goes on...

I'm sure all my readers have been little pincushions, all waiting to find out what happened to my plants the other day.  ...You haven't?  Okay, whatever.

Anyway, nothing died!  I think a few of them may have kinda shriveled up, but to be honest, I'm not sure if that was a result of the sleet, or something eating them.  Because I think something is.

A couple of these look like they might have some sleet damage, but others definitely look chomped.

Nom.

Definitely been chewed on.

I haven't the faintest idea who the culprit might be.  What eats something so small, yet only eats that much?  Something tiny.  Aphids?  I haven't seen anything out there, but clearly something is.  I guess this is the part where I look up recipes for pest control that also won't kill seedlings.  Got it.

Onions are doing well.  Sir Gerald the wooden caterpillar abandoned them.  Sort of.  He fell between the two lid pieces.  So he's kinda stuck.  I guess he's not much of a guardian after all.  But the onions don't seem to need any help.

These have done so well, I almost bought another bunch today to fill in the gaps.

Sir Gerald!  Stop hiding!  You ought to be ashamed of yourself!

The peas are still slowly working their way out of the ground.  We really need the temperatures to warm up.  Supposedly going to be sixty tomorrow, but the weatherman has been lying to me for two weeks solid, so I can't say I'm planning on leaving my umbrella at home.  Not that I'm going anywhere.  And that whole umbrella thing doesn't make a lot of sense, because I don't have one.  But I think you know what I mean.

All the bad weather we've been having has made me so bored, since I can't go out and make things pretty like I want to.  So I started some seeds indoors.  I did the egg carton thing that I see people do on Pinterest.  Seems to work pretty well for them.

On one side I planted Cilantro seeds, which I just bought today.  On the other side, I think I planted Basil.  I had a seed packet spill in my junk drawer.  I have no idea what happened to the packet itself, and I was too stupid to write it down or make some sort of mental note (like those even work).  I think it was Basil though.  If not Basil, then Mint, because I did have some mint seeds at one time.  Then again, maybe some poppy seeds dislodged from an Everything Bagel and found their way into my junk drawer.  Only time will tell.

I don't actually eat Everything Bagels, so the last scenario is pretty far fetched.  But wouldn't it be cool if I ended up with a Bagel tree?

The end.

Not good...

No really, not good.  Maybe even bad.

In case you're a little uncertain, this is sleet.  I had to look that up, actually.  I was going to call it hail, but I wasn't sure what the technicalities of such things were, and sometimes I just have to know.  Anyway, it turns out (according to the internet, which we all know is infallible), sleet occurs mostly in winter or during cold weather, whereas hail is a warm weather occurrence, usually accompanying a thunderstorm.  Apparently, even though they appear to be similar, their formation is actually quite different.  I didn't read anything about that, because I got bored.  Hey, at least I'm honest.

Anyway, sleet.  Bad.

My poor babies.

Oh, by the way, I see blue sky on the horizon, and the clouds look like they might be breaking up.  Thanks for the little present, sky.

But hey, the countertop celery is growing!  Yay, celery...

The end.

Okay, garden. I nameth thee! And some other junk.

I'm happy to be naming my containers today.  It will make blogging much easier, since I will be able to type fewer words.  You know, that whole less-is-more thing.  Except for names.  More names is more.  Are more?  Okay, I'm going to stop now.  On to the names of stuff!

Last year I named my plants, but since I am trying to grow more this year, it just seemed too overwhelming.  So boxes/beds it is!  I decided to go with an Epic Fantasy theme, based on some of my favorite novels.  So here they are.  Pictures are good at painting stuff and whatnot.

Lyonesse is the land for which a series is titled.  The books are Lyonesse, The Green Pearl, and Madouc.  Lyonesse is a coastal country, to the south of which stretches a channel called The Lir.  (The Lyonesse Trilogy is by Jack Vance)

On the south side of The Lir, facing Lyonesse, are three island countries.  To the west, Troicinet, to the east, Dascinet.  Nestled between the two is the tiny island of Scola.

Cadwal is another Jack Vance world.  I couldn't resist the "wall" pun.  Get it?  'Cause it's... oh, nevermind.  (By the way, Angry Child is not a character from The Cadwal Chronicles.)

I think the Narnia references are largely self explanatory, although Puddleglum might be a lesser known character, due to his lack of appearance in the movies.  I gave Hubbyman the honor of naming one of the boxes, and he named the big one Grudge.  Thus, Grudge Jr. for the little front pocket.  I think it only fair to point out that he chose the name for the bed that has been named Scola, and that now it doesn't make sense, since it's referring to a Tool song.  Sorry, honey, but geographically speaking, it just had to be named Scola!

Do I need to explain this?

 So there you have it.  If ever you have questions about one box or the other, say, "Hey, blah blah this and that Edmund?" and I'll know exactly what you're talking about.  Hooray and stuff!

Guess what.

In case you're still not sure: that, my friends, is a baby pea.  (Cue fireworks and halos and explosive choir songs.)  They are finally breaking the soil!  Hooray!  Unfortunately, still no sign of the chard.  I went ahead and planted more chard in Dascinet, in case the ones in Grudge don't work out.

Segue goes here.

Hubbyman, apparently, has hopped on board with this whole random-crap-in-the-garden thing.  His contribution follows.

I told him the elephant had to go, since he is trampling on my newly planted radishes.  So he joined the chicken up in the Edmund box.

I dub thee Sir Gerald, Guardian of the Onions!

The Broccoli and Kale are looking good so far.  I see new ones every day.

Did you know that you can get free used coffee grounds at Starbucks, for the purpose of nutrifying your garden?

I did, but that's because I worked there once, and I never would have thought to ask, so it's a handy little tidbit.  I'm going to attempt to start a compost pile with it.  I have no idea how to compost, but I did hear that coffee grounds are a good ingredient.

And here's my cue to go in the house--Washington style.

The end.