Wednesday Weeds and Wine

Well, it happened over the weekend and Monday and Tuesday and there were no weeds and [unfortunately] no wine but...

The group of [mostly] women who share a community garden in our neighborhood decided to expand the garden area this spring.  

[I'd be happy with a repeat of last year's exceptional tomato harvest but...]

So over the weekend we put in two expansion beds [with the help of The Husband].

With warm weather this week we've removed rocks, added compost, tilled, removed rocks, added some more compost, tilled, removed rocks.

We're still not quite finished [the lip around the edge, for example, is incomplete to make it easier to dump wheel barrow loads].

It'll be time to plant the early seeds in a few weeks.

Yea, spring!

Wednesday Weeds and Wine

We had our first meeting of the Wednesday Weeds and Wine Women last week - the idea was to plan this year's garden. Our current area is roughly 16 x 16.  You'd think that would be plenty of room.  I guess it depends on what you want to grow.  As expected our meeting produced a list of wants that would feed all of our families for years.  Of course it would require a massive expansion of the garden area...  I guess we should have held off on the wine.

[yeah, like holding off on the wine every slows down a group of enthusiastic gardeners who've been stuck inside all winter]

We passed around a seed catalog and I have a list of plants to research and order.  Bush beans, 2 kinds, Pole beans, 2 kinds, spinach, 3 types of beats, carrots, arugula, and a hopefully slow bolting cilantro.  That doesn't include the tomatoes and lettuce that we'll buy locally or any of the basil or other herbs we're planning.  Hmmm.   Think we're going overboard?  

Think we'll have leftover seeds?  

[Anyone want any leftover seeds?]

Did I mention that one of our members has about 120 garlic plants in her yard that she's planning to share (if we'll help her with the weeding and harvesting)?

[Me?  I just want home grown tomatoes and organic basil all summer long.  Everything else I can get at a local farm stand - we have excellent farms stands around here.  Well, maybe a few other herbs, too...  And maybe....  See, we all get carried away!]

The area where we garden was abandoned for years so we still have plenty of weed seeds.  We'll need to pull these soon.  Then it'll be time to add compost and start planting the cool season crops.

Whew.  Winter is almost over!

And soon I will have chives for my potatoes.  Yum.

The End is Nigh

The End is Nigh.

No, not the end of the world.  [that only occurs on Tuesdays [sorry that's a joke only a few people will get]]

Oh, I did post this on Tuesday.  Uh-oh.  So maybe the end of the world is coming.  But that's not what I'm talking about.  [I'm certain that given a cape and a nice tiara that I can save the world {quote from, possibly, Leigh Standly}]

The End is Nigh.

I'm talking about the end of the summer vegetable garden.

Doesn't this look bad?  The tomato plants have lost all their leaves.

The few tomatoes that are left all look diseased.

And they're falling off the vines.

The basil is done for.  Good thing I harvested a lot of this a few weeks back.  I only took half the plants because it is a shared garden.  Looks like I should've taken it all, frozen it and then shared it among the Wednesday Weeds and Wine Women.

No more Wednesday Weeds and Wine.  Darn it.  I guess we'll have to find another excuse to get together for Wine.  Wednesday Whines and Wine?  Saturday Snow and ...  is there a type of wine that begins with an S?  Hmmmmm.....

At least I still have some work to do in the perennial garden. 

The bulbs are coming!  The bulbs are coming!

They're due to ship on Wednesday.

Now I just have to remember where I planned to plant them....

Ghosts of Projects Past, Present and Future

Today you will be visited by updates on three ghosts projects:  The Ghost of Projects Past, The Ghost of Projects Present and the Ghost of Projects Future.

Enter The Ghost of Projects Past...

Earlier this year we moved some "foundation" plantings that were way too big - Pieris japonica that were in front of our windows.  I was pruning these plants several times a year to keep them below our windows.  I don't like to prune plants.  I like plants to fit their spaces.  But I really like the Pieris in the early spring when they are one of the first plants to flower.  And the bees appreciate the early blooms, too.  So we decided to try and move these four foot tall behomeths [excuse the bit of hyperbole but if you've ever tried to move established shrubs that are only four foot tall because of pruning you understand].  One long, sweaty day later and they were now in the back yard where they can get to be six foot tall [my estimated expected size] without pruning.

  I expected wilting, leaf drop, loosing limbs.  I'd be happy if one of the shrubs survived.

I didn't get that.  Instead I got no wilting, no leaf drop, no loosing limbs.  Sure they didn't grow any [above ground, I hope their roots grew].  But then this appeared.

Buds!  And lots of them.  Pieris produce the buds in last summer and hold on to them all winter only to bloom in the spring.  Looks like we'll have blooms next spring.  

The Ghost of Projects Past has been kind.

But now comes The Ghost of Projects Present.  Will she be kind?

Well, yes, she will.  Several of our neighbors have been working together on a vegetable garden this summer.  Wednesday nights is Wednesday Weeds and Wine where we open a bottle of wine and work in the garden.  It's a rip roaring success.  

Here is this Wednesday's harvest [one of the women brought bruschetta, too.  Maybe next week I'll have to bring our marinated tomato salad].

The tomato plants are growing like, well, weeds.  The Husband kindly stood next to a plant for scale.  The Mayor insisted on being included [he's such a politician!].

So The Ghost of Projects Present is generous.  But here comes the scary one.  The Ghost of Projects Future.

The main entrance to our house is poorly designed.  There is a narrow area between the house and the driveway where water pools after a heavy rain.  And ice forms a nice skating rink in the winter.  A lot of water gets dumped from the roof to this area.  So drainage is an issue.

We have started by removing the grass and bringing the level of the dirt down to the same level as the paving.  We still have work to do, though.  I'm going to try planting a rain garden.   We'll be bringing the ground level below that of the paving and planting vegetation that can take the water that will hopefully pool in the rain garden instead of on the paving or next to the foundation.

I hope The Ghost of Projects Future is kind to us and that this rain garden works to mitigate our water issues.  We'll just have to wait and see.

So now that we have been visiting by Three Ghosts of Projects what have we learned?

Good.  We learned that Projects are hard work but they can definitely be worth it in the end!

Now I just need to get that depression dug out before Hurricane Irene shows up!