Houston, arugula has landed!!! . . . .

. . . . or as Sam said before a big, corny hug "We made life!!" (don't read into that, this post is still just about veggies folks).

We had a good amount of rain this weekend. I was happy not to have to fret about watering all this stuff that we are now responsible for. That being said, we didn't poke around much in the yard but tonight . . .while Sam was taking out garbage and recycle he spotted our very first hope of all this gardening working out. We saw a small sprout the other day but assumed it was a weed. Now there are 6 sprouts, each in the center of the squares where we planted them. Arugula - we can hardly wait!! So exciting :)

dirt is still yucky/home depot workshops

So I was able to 'suck it up' when working on a garden project for a long period of time (digging, planting, etc.) but I'm NOT enjoying the feeling of being dirty on a daily basis. I have separate shoes for gardening but it's not enough. My socks are dirty and my feet and I don't like it. So today I admitted it to Sam . . . I'm now in charge of telling him when things needed to be watered and he's doing it. We'll try to be diligent about watering the lawn this year since we're actively trying to grow grass in many areas in a variety of different stages. Hopefully this won't be something that's part of our day forever.

Today we're having company but tomorrow we plan to visit Agway and finish the overseeding.

Part 2 of the posting is that I heard an ad on the radio for one of those Saturday workshops that HomeDepot and Lowe's put on to teach you how to do stuff (so that you'll buy the supplies there). This weekend their focus was veggie gardens!! I wanted to go . . . but Sam and I were both pretty tired from all that we've accomplished this week and we just weren't willing to wake up early. But I am intrigued by these and wonder if anyone has attended one of these workshops (on any topic).

rain??

Well, the rain never came. I know we heard it was going to rain last night (and it sure felt like it) and I know Sam said we were getting thundershowers today . . . but it didn't happen so I'm out to water the lawn/plants. Not happy about it because in my mind we were going to get to skip watering today. No updates other than that. Haven't had time to buy more fertilizer and grass seed so for now I'm jut concentrating on the stuff we already have planted not dying.

Updates on grass and peas

This morning Sam mowed the grass (1st time using the new lawnmower). We had intentions of overseeding but ran out of fertilizer and grass seed after doing about 1/3 of the lawn. At least some of it is started before the nice rainstorm we are expecting tonight. We'll take care of the rest by the end of the weekend if at all possible. I'm proud of us for keeping up with the watering twice each day.

The pea fence was delivered so we went out after lunch to set it up. Soil was amended and moistened, weed paper was cut and laid down, and the pea fence was poked through. Next, I planted the seeds while Sam secured the fence with stakes and twine. We went through and checked all of the weed paper in the garden and tried to make sure it was moist and secure. Tonight will be the test - a nice windy rainstorm vs that paper that is supposed to be able to survive an entire season. Hoping for the best!!

So the summary of what we have planted is arugula, 5 kinds of lettuce, and peas. Patches of grass were seeded and 1/3 of the lawn was overseeded. Anxious that vacation time is running out, but excited for what may . . . . or may not . . . . .grow in our backyard.

Well we did it - today the plot was finished and ready for planting. We made that paper plan a reality today by using landscaping stakes and twine to mark off the walkways. I read that it was important to have walkways so that you don't compact the soil the plants will be searching for nutrients in and so that you don't spend money on soil amendments for areas where there aren't even plants. Next we amended the soil where they lettuce and arugula was to be planted. After that we cut and laid down biodegradable weed blocking mats/paper. Supposedly these will block weeds from growing but allow our veggies to grow and at the end of the season you can just work it back into the soil. Finally we planted the lettuce and arugula. *Note: The strange looking space leftover in the arugula patch is for subsequent plantings. We plan to plant some more in 3 weeks.*

That weed blocking paper sure makes our garden look silly. Hope it works. And we hope this garden grows some veggies because right now it looks fairly ridiculous.

The Plan

The late May planting plan

The previous post listed what I hope to plant this week. After Sam's birthday (aka late May) we plan to plant Butternut Squash, Zucchini, Peppers, Tomatoes, and Sunflowers (Sam still thinks they will look ridiculous but he seems less outraged when I speak of them). I will list information when I have it all. The peppers and tomatoes are coming as transplants so I won't have them until the mailman brings them . . . likely around May 19th.

We ordered from Seed Savers Exchange. We ordered the variety pack. There will be 6 kinds of tomatoes and 6 kinds of peppers and we do not choose them, the supplier does. Hopefully they will choose kinds that grow where we live and hopefully they will choose yummy kinds. Arugula, 5 kinds of lettuce, and this wild variety of peppers and tomatoes?? There could be some AMAZING salads in my future later this summer.

If you are following this blog and don't know that Sam and I have issues, we've attached a picture of our garden planning bulletin board. All the cool kids have garden planning bulletin boards.

I'll have Sam rotate the picture of the actual veggie garden layout and try to get it posted in the near future. Thank goodness for school vacation!!

Today's outdoor update

Before I begin, I have no idea why the times of these postings are so wacky. I manually corrected this one so hopefully it will figure it out from here.

Sam made a valiant effort digging in the veggie garden. We hope that tomorrow will be the final installment of digging/initial soil preparation. This lettuce won't plant itself!

Tonight I planted Bachelor's Blossoms, from seed in 2 places. The first picture is over by the garage. This was the soil that had tons of worms, which probably means it is healthy enough to grow without additional fertilizer so we planted one batch of flowers here and we'll see what happens. The 2nd batch went in the far corner (which used to be the child's rock garden). That soil isn't nearly as nice so we ammended it with garden/veggie soil that has fertilizer in it (the same stuff we are using for the veggie garden). Supposedly they germinate in 7-15 days so we'll know soon if anything is happening. 2 different types of soil in spots with 2 different amounts of sun. Experiment away, nature.

PS I think today is a good opportunity to say that watering the grass is going to get old. I don't mind at night when we are already working in the garden but I'm less than motivated (about anything really) in the morning when the grass needs its water the most. I've been keeping up so far but only time will tell how much I really want this grass. Hopefully once it starts growing I'll be more motivated to keep it up.

The seeds have arrived!

Just to be crystal clear before we begin, the soil is not finished being prepped and the pea fence and tomato cages have not arrived so we aren't planting this very second. But having the actual packages of seeds is helping to give me more information and continue the planning process. For those that are keeping track, here are the official varieties I have purchased. May not plant them all, but here they are:

AMISH SNAP PEA (Pisum sativum)
~ Takes 60 days (will be ready right when I get out of school. what a yummy grad school snack!)
~ Vines will be 5-6 feet tall and are supposed to be heavy producers of 2" pods.
~ Ready to plant as soon as the pea fence comes
~ Might try to plant again in the early fall
? 3" in between seeds in rows 24" apart is still hard for me in envision, especially since it says that I can plant double rows on each side of the fence ?

ARUGULA OR ROQUETTE (Eruca sativa)
~ Take 40-45 days
~ Says to plant a new row every 3 weeks as long as it's cool. Will have to plan space for that. I think I can plant in early fall as well.
~ Ready to plant this week

SLOBOLT LETTUCE (Lactuca sativa) *looseleaf*
~ Takes 45-55 days
~ I think I can plant it again in early fall
~ Ready to plant this week

YUGOSLAVIAN RED LETTUCE (Lactuca sativa) *butterhead*
~ Takes 55 days
~ I think I can plant it again in early fall
~ Ready to plant this week

MERVEILLE DES QUATRE SAISONS LETTUCE (Lactuca sativa) *butterhead*
~ Takes 60 days
~ I think I can plant it again in early fall
~ Ready to plant this week

RED ROMAINE LETTUCE (Lactuca sativa) *romaine*
~ Takes 70 days
~ I think I can plant it again in early fall
~ Ready to plant this week
? Says red color does best in cooler weather. I'm unsure if it will survive in the heat, but be less red or if it is a cool weather plant. In general, I've read that romaine is heat tolerant but it is unclear how this variety will do. ?

FORELLENSCHUSS LETTUCE (Lactuca sativa) *romaine*
~ Takes 55 days
~ Does well in the heat

For all of these items I am currently looking for information on how many seeds to plant. I want to have enough veggies but I don't want to have too many. We'll need to look into how long they last (some we can save and not have to buy next year but others will only last 1 year). I also need to figure out what gets planted in waves (some seeds this week, another batch next week, etc so it isn't all ripe at once). The arugula says to do this, the others don't . . . but it seems like it could help with the lettuce. Then again I purchased varieties that all take a different amount of time to grow so maybe I'm OK?? I'm also concerned that some of them claim to self-seed. Although it seems nice not to have to re-purchase and re-plant year after year, how does this work with the concept of crop rotation??

We also plan to experiment with one hardy annual variety of flowers, growing from seed. I don't know if anything will happen but it claims that we will know in 7-15 days. I'll be planting BACHELOR'S BUTTON MIXTURE (Centaurea cyanus). I'm thinking of planting it in 2 spots in our yard with different amounts of sun and different soil types. I'll need to make a quick phone call to Sue first to see if I'm supposed to fertilize the soil or something before I plant.

More later . . . this is the batch that is ready to plant in the weather we are currently experiencing.

What's grosser than dirt??

In a previous posting I probably mentioned that dirt is yucky. Do you know what is grosser than dirt? Worms and maggots and the other bugs that live in the dirt I dug in today. I hear this is a sign of healthy soil but it's still gross and yucky.

There are plans to put some flowers along the edge of the garage. Don't know what kinds yet but Sue is in charge of flowers so I know she'll guide me. I figured that my job was to have soil ready for when the weather is right. Today I loosened the soil and pulled out weeds and rocks. Hopefully that will help.

We dug for a while in the veggie garden. Made some progress in turning the soil but there is still a ways to go.

veggie garden

I'm looking forward to measuring this veggie garden because it's fairly ambitious. We've got 2/3 of the soil dug up and prepared so we hope to finish that by Monday night.

I ordered the veggies from the Seed Savers Exchange - doing my part to help out endangered species and also keeping our culinary side interested (if I'm going to grow tomatoes, they better be interesting ones). Here's the plan:

As soon as the seeds come (later this week) we hope to plant peas, lettuce, and arugula. At that trip to Agway Sue filled my trunk with a soil/fertilizer mix that she suggests so as soon as we finish digging we'll lay that down. We also need to purchase some sort of trellis for the peas to climb.

The weekend before memorial day our peppers and tomatoes will arrive. We bought a variety pack - 6 different varieties of each. Either nothing will grow in our garden or we'll have more salad than we can possibly eat. If you live close and like veggies - stay tuned :). We need a cage or steaks or something for the tomatoes to climb but I can't believe the variety of products that claim to be just perfect for that. More research needed . . . good thing it's school vacation.

Once we plant the tomatoes and peppers it will also be the right weather to plant flowers. Annuals? Perennials? What will we choose? Will others be transplanting plants into our garden or will we attempt to grown from seed? Just for fun, I wanted to try to plant sunflowers . . . just to see if they would grow . . . and what they would look like. So I spend $2 and ordered a packet of seeds. Sam FLIPPED out. That was just this morning so we'll see what happens. I didn't think he cared what kind of flowers I planted in our yard but apparently sunflowers are "ridiculous". Good times, good times.

grass

While we patiently waited for the closing date on our house we drove by several times. The last drive by before the "big day" we noticed something unpleasant . . . a big chunk of the grass in the front lawn was yellow. I don't know a lot about houses or grass but I know it's supposed to be green and I wasn't happy. This was the perfect little house and that yellow grass wasn't going to wreck these upcoming first impressions to our loved ones! So I stared at it, asked around, and looked on the internet.

The most likely explanation is that of my father-in-law. We have a variety of grass that is yellow for a few weeks of spring and then will later turn green and blend in. We'll see about that. It's also thicker and more brittle and when I raked tons of it was coarse, dead knotted material. Super. So that yellow grass and I are not friends. It better turn green soon or it's not going to be living in our yard long.

There were 3 ugly patches in our backyard. One used to have a kiddie pool. The 2nd was where the previous homeowner let a small child plant their own garden. No idea what the deal was with the third one. That "garden" was mostly a pile of rocks and a noble chunk of long grass that was tough to dig up. My mother-in-law won however so now it's a little corner than maybe would like a perennial or too. We'll see when the weather warms up a bit. The other 2 patches are going to need grass - that Sam and I agree on.

So we dug and raked and then Sue took me to Agway (Sue is my office mate, dear friend, and she also happens to know a lot about gardening. She supervises me all day and now she's going to have to supervise me in my backyard too!!). She showed us what fertilizer and seed to buy for the grass. Now let's just be clear for a second . . . . we don't have a grass spreader machine and I had no intention of buying one. The package directions just say what setting to put the machine on so there was no way to know how thick or thin to spread this stuff. I used a plastic cup and tried to spread it evenly and then we raked it in . . . just in time for a rainstorm. Many thanks to the Agway lady who advised me to get my butt home and lay that grass seed before that night's impending storm. While it rained I was quite pleased. We'll see if anything happens with the grass. Adventures. Oh! And we also seeded a small patch in the front yard that didn't have any grass.

Since we have this yellow grass and a bunch more fertilizer and seed I would like to see the entire lawn overseeded at the end of the week. We'll see if Sam will allow that. We haven't bought a lawnmower yet so that's the first step before overseeding.

Our first house

Well, we bought a house. It was scary but that's a subject for a separate blog. The elderly woman who used to live in our house had a vegetable garden and although it hasn't been used in a few years we see it's potential so we took on the backyard this year . . . . or rather I took on the backyard. . . .

Sam (my husband) seemed open to the idea of growing veggies but we agreed that it was a Year Two project. But one day my mother in law starting digging in the yard and it looked so good that we felt the need to continue. So now we own a hose and rakes and shovels and trowels and clippers and gloves and it's taking some getting used to.

The previous owner planted onions. They are right by the back steps. I'll try to add a picture of those some time this week. When the weather gets cold again we'll likely put some onions into the actual veggie garden since I read that they are good complements to other veggies we want to grow (in terms of soil nutrients).

So this blog is for people who want to smile and laugh during our journey - - - because that's truly my goal with this garden. I don't like dirt. Anyone who has met my parents has heard the story of the first time they took me to the beach. I did NOT like being surrounded by that sand (aka dirt). But I do like veggies and this notion of a smaller produce bill so it's worth a shot. We read a little on the internet and checked some books out of the library but the research happened quickly. We only bought the house last week and lots of the things we want to do need to go in the ground right away so it's all an experiment really.