Wednesday, June 11, 2008
I REALLY OUGHTA TAKE PICTURES OF THIS STUFF...
As some of you know, I have been trying with varying degrees of success to put up a garden in my back yard.
Understand, of course, that I know nothing much about gardening except that if you put seeds in the ground and water them stuff comes up.
This stuff is immediately eaten by stray cats who leave footprints all over your garden until you put up a deterrent. Orange peel proved to be a good deterrent until the peels pretty much just became mulch.
So, after planting summer crops a couple weeks ago, I got some radish sprouts, some other stuff, and waited patiently for the sprouts to get bigger.
Except they got eaten. So I laid peels again.
I have also put more seed in the ground over seeds I planted a few weeks ago that never came up. Beans, for example. How frickin' hard can it be to grow a goddamn bean? I am certain that those beans will sit in the soil for a while and someday, a year from now, they'll suddenly awaken and grow in a row I've since planted something else in. Which is why Janice refers to my patch on the side of the house as the "Mystery Garden."
I have stuff growing in pots, too. There's an Italian Eggplant (four plants, one actual fruit) growing in a window box in the back yard. I have basil growing in three locations on the property, thyme in two, carrots in a pot (this actually works remarkably well) and some extremely dead celantro which I have to replant.
Oh, and there's a cucumber plant growing in its own pot in the side yard that looks like it JUST MIGHT GIVE ME SOMETHING.
And then, there are the peppers and other mystery herbs.
Last summer I grew some tabasco peppers in a pot in the front yard. THOUSANDS of them. The thing was literally shitting peppers. So when it died in a frost I had plenty of seeds to re-seed with, and this year the pot looks like a forest.
In the back, my "Christmas Tree Lights" pepper plant is in its second year of production, which, if all other experiments with this plant are evidence, means I'll have to replant next year 'cause these things never last more than two years.
But wait -- I also have in the front yard a pot growing four manzano (or rocoto) pepper plants. These boogers grow straight up. I may seriously have to put in sticks and tie them off. I'm very excited about these plants 'cause they're Peruvian seeds and I had to literally send money to Peru to get some. The peppers themselves (if I get any) more closely resemble apples in shape than peppers, but boy, are they good and do they turn a burn on.
However, the mystery plants still invade. My Christmas tree light pepper bush is surrounded by chives. I planted the chives in the dirt in that box about FOUR YEARS AGO, and last summer they woke up. I'd long forgotten about them. Now it looks like my peppers are wearing a skirt.
Then there's the MYSTERY MINT, which has suddenly sprouted in the eggplant pot. It's not even very tasty mint. But there it is.
I tossed a variety of herb seeds in a pot in the front just to see what I'd get. (Remember, these were all herbs.) Now I have a nice basil output, a thyme that's trying, and seven healthy vinca plants! (Janice told me that since I didn't replace all the dirt, just pulling the dead vincas out of it was probably not the best idea. But it's sure gonna be an interesting looking pot.)
Then, there's the fact that not only do cats eat my sprouting veggies, they also kick up and relocate the rows I planted, so frequently, totally different vegetables wind up next to each other. Myyyyyyysteryyyyyyy...Gaaaaaaaaardennnnnnnnn....
My goal with all this is to one day produce enough stuff to create one home-grown salad. It's gonna be a while. I'll keep you posted.
(By the way, I also have a spinach plant growing in my actual garden. It's old. I waited too long to pick it. It's now 16 inches tall, flowering, and tastes awful. Looks nice, though. So I'm just gonna let it grow.)
TT
As some of you know, I have been trying with varying degrees of success to put up a garden in my back yard.
Understand, of course, that I know nothing much about gardening except that if you put seeds in the ground and water them stuff comes up.
This stuff is immediately eaten by stray cats who leave footprints all over your garden until you put up a deterrent. Orange peel proved to be a good deterrent until the peels pretty much just became mulch.
So, after planting summer crops a couple weeks ago, I got some radish sprouts, some other stuff, and waited patiently for the sprouts to get bigger.
Except they got eaten. So I laid peels again.
I have also put more seed in the ground over seeds I planted a few weeks ago that never came up. Beans, for example. How frickin' hard can it be to grow a goddamn bean? I am certain that those beans will sit in the soil for a while and someday, a year from now, they'll suddenly awaken and grow in a row I've since planted something else in. Which is why Janice refers to my patch on the side of the house as the "Mystery Garden."
I have stuff growing in pots, too. There's an Italian Eggplant (four plants, one actual fruit) growing in a window box in the back yard. I have basil growing in three locations on the property, thyme in two, carrots in a pot (this actually works remarkably well) and some extremely dead celantro which I have to replant.
Oh, and there's a cucumber plant growing in its own pot in the side yard that looks like it JUST MIGHT GIVE ME SOMETHING.
And then, there are the peppers and other mystery herbs.
Last summer I grew some tabasco peppers in a pot in the front yard. THOUSANDS of them. The thing was literally shitting peppers. So when it died in a frost I had plenty of seeds to re-seed with, and this year the pot looks like a forest.
In the back, my "Christmas Tree Lights" pepper plant is in its second year of production, which, if all other experiments with this plant are evidence, means I'll have to replant next year 'cause these things never last more than two years.
But wait -- I also have in the front yard a pot growing four manzano (or rocoto) pepper plants. These boogers grow straight up. I may seriously have to put in sticks and tie them off. I'm very excited about these plants 'cause they're Peruvian seeds and I had to literally send money to Peru to get some. The peppers themselves (if I get any) more closely resemble apples in shape than peppers, but boy, are they good and do they turn a burn on.
However, the mystery plants still invade. My Christmas tree light pepper bush is surrounded by chives. I planted the chives in the dirt in that box about FOUR YEARS AGO, and last summer they woke up. I'd long forgotten about them. Now it looks like my peppers are wearing a skirt.
Then there's the MYSTERY MINT, which has suddenly sprouted in the eggplant pot. It's not even very tasty mint. But there it is.
I tossed a variety of herb seeds in a pot in the front just to see what I'd get. (Remember, these were all herbs.) Now I have a nice basil output, a thyme that's trying, and seven healthy vinca plants! (Janice told me that since I didn't replace all the dirt, just pulling the dead vincas out of it was probably not the best idea. But it's sure gonna be an interesting looking pot.)
Then, there's the fact that not only do cats eat my sprouting veggies, they also kick up and relocate the rows I planted, so frequently, totally different vegetables wind up next to each other. Myyyyyyysteryyyyyyy...Gaaaaaaaaardennnnnnnnn....
My goal with all this is to one day produce enough stuff to create one home-grown salad. It's gonna be a while. I'll keep you posted.
(By the way, I also have a spinach plant growing in my actual garden. It's old. I waited too long to pick it. It's now 16 inches tall, flowering, and tastes awful. Looks nice, though. So I'm just gonna let it grow.)
TT
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