I love my Grandpa!

I'm lucky he loves me too!

Special Commemorative Edition Post
This post will deviate from the Community Garden Project.


My Grandpa is very handy when it comes to woodworking. He's made me a fun clock and two great picture frames throughout the years. A kitchen trivet and a cutting board (although he'll tell you it's a bread board, and it's made of Corian Countertop scrap not wood) but you get the point. He makes me great stuff!

I decided a few weeks back to look for a new spice rack. I had one from Kohl's but it was pretty chinsy looking and the plastic metal refused to come clean, so now it looked grubby too. I found a few online I liked, but nothing "Just Right". Cue Grandpa.


I sent him my thoughts; maybe too confining a list of wants/likes/dislikes? Either way a couple weeks later, I have the perfect spice rack. Made from an ash tree that grew right in the backyard - Handcrafted by Allen. No trees were injured in the making of this spice rack, trees died of natural causes before use.



Love it. Love him. Thanks Grandpa!

P.S. If you buy tins for your spice rack online, make sure to measure them yourself. The sellers might not be exact and then your Grandpa might build the rack to the wrong spec's ... not good. Don't do that.

P.P.S. Golden Pecan is a nice sunny color, neutral enough to go with any kitchen I might have next. Kudos to Grandpa on the selection. Fiddlehead wood gives it a fun irredesent quality. If you don't know what Fiddlehead wood is, google it or ask your Grandpa.

P.P.P.S. Don't damage your spice rack in any way - retail price: $1,000 i.e. too much work, you won't be getting a second one Steph.

Week One

Planting day went well. I sat on one lettuce plant, otherwise everyone seems to be enjoying being the great outdoors. Onions - all 50 of them - too much work. Cucumber, pumpkin, watermelon to be planted in a separate plot. All conventional wisdom seems to be they will be too big and choke my other plants. I shrank my garden a touch based on the amount of fencing I had (50 ft), now there is a serious lack of room I think.

I did have a few minutes of planters remorse; the commitment of having to water these things daily ... there were a few seconds wishing it was just the herbs on the back porch again. Too late now, and I'm over it.

Met Teresa, this is her 4th year. She said that last year was the worst (not good); she was planning to add fertilizer this year (glad I did too) and maybe pollinate her own plants (no bees last year).... I'll have to look into this. Too bad I can't find a way to move the hive from the condo out to the farms.

Friendly Farm Animal spotting of the day - Black or Blackie ... it's hard to tell which is which when they aren't together. Oreo is hard to see but is hanging out to Black(ie)'s left. Cute. Don't eat my plants dudes.

Score: Jenny Kolis, 1 Vijaya Laxmi, 0

No one said it would be easy, but I had no idea it would be so hard! One point Jenny Kolis. It seems I am not destined to be a great gardener.

So let me catch you up to speed, most of my plants have adjusted well to life in the condo. Spending their days happily lapping up the sunshine from my patio door wall ... the Tomato's need a touch more water than I was providing, come to find out, but now that they are on the daily water plan they seem to have forgiven me just fine. The Lettuce has not been so kind... it's taken the worst of the beatings, and still bears a few yellow leaves as a badge of honor and strangely the Italian Parsley that grew like a bush last year seems a little sluggish this year. Hmmm...

No pictures to documents these injuries; I think the house arrest could be to blame so once they've arrived at their outdoor living arrangements I'll start sharing the carnage (or recovery!) with you.

Anyway, Tuesday morning I get an email from Dianne at the Petting Farm, the plots are ready. Yippee!! No camera that day, but I took a little (much longer than I imagined) stroll at lunch over (yup, in my work clothes and opened toed shoes) to stake my space. Grass felt lovely on the toes. On my mosey over, I run into Oreo, my new garden friend.

As much as I like to share food with my friends, I was afraid Oreo might enjoy my garden a bit too much. And that was before I saw his friends, let's call them Black and Blackie. They look hungry. Ut oh.

Hard ground, blunt stakes, no sledgehammer = hard work. I made due and decided I'd go back this weekend to till the soil with some fertilizer and compost.

Only other major notes from Tuesday .... Found a few friends from DPZ participating in the Comm. Garden (Shout out to Tanesha, Angela and Lisa - If you're reading this); we've made a vacation watering pact, which is good for my trip to Orlando in June. Won't have to worry about the untimely death of my garden!

Quick note back to Diane confirms where the hose and compost I didn't see are, that yes, I can keep Oreo and company out by fencing my garden, and that Security can let me in should I want to work on my garden when they are "closed" to the public. Great! I needed to do some shopping for tomato cages, gloves, etc. anyway, I'll just add finding some bunny protection to my list.

Fast Forward to Friday. +$61.10 in supplies. New garden total, $94.10. The price of tomatoes just went up.

Headed over today with intentions of composting my plot. Looking back, a few things occurred to me at this point in the process.

One: I had no idea their compost pile was going to be so little dirt, so much yuck. I thought the whole idea is that it turns into very lovely nice soil ... apparently they are not yet at that stage. Bum deal.

Two: Fighting a wild turkey? Come on ... This is a bit to much... I'm more of an urban gardener. Less wildlife, more dirt from a bag I guess.

Three: I need a wheel barrel. This 5 gallon bucket is for the birds... speaking of birds, the chickens are free range?!?!?! I thought the animals would be in pens, barns, something! I hope chickens are vegetarians... I don't know if my fencing will keep large birds out...


So one trip and one bucket was enough to determine that my garden will be a largely compost free endeavor.


I was a little excited to start playing in the dirt and forgot to snap a completely untouched photo. This is almost untouched ... I had shoveled the first 3 feet or so in preparation for the tilling of the compost. That's before I gave up. You can see the darker area is where I had worked slightly. Just squint and imagine it looks like the dull brown further back.

Here is after. After giving up on the compost, but mixing in fertilizer, tossing the soil a few times each direction (ugh, manual labor), several healthy passes with the hose, and laying out by 1 ft by 1 ft squares. Closer to 18" by 18" in all honesty. Seems when I told my Grandpa my garden was 3 ft by 10 ft, I was a little off. Turns out it's much closer to 6 ft by 24 ft. Also ran out of twine, so only half is actually done, but you get the idea. Imagination comes in handy again on Live Brightly!

All I have to say in summary is these veggies better be fantastic, because as it stands all I have to show for my efforts to date are two muddy shoes. Two very muddy shoes.

A quick thanks to the backstage crew:
"Wheelbarrow" = 5 gallon bucket
"Rake" = Yard Stick
"Shoe Scraper" = Small Shovel
~Shovel
~Gloves
~Miracle Grow
~Hammer
~Twine

Tomorrow is planting day ... Official Week 1 photo's to follow. Stay tuned!

PS Come back for a special non-garden commemorative edition blog.

Rain or Shine...

I had plant picking on my mind. It was actually pretty sunny in Canton on my way but A2 was not looking quite so pleasant. Since I had a fairly large (and awkward to carry) list, against my better judgment, I decided to see how the Kerrytown Parking gods were feeling today and I attempted to park near the market. In theory, minimizing the rain/plant heavy walk instead of my normal 6 block jaunt was smart.

Reality? Bad, bad, bad idea. Terrible even. At 7 30 (30 minutes post opening) all available spaces for miles, okay not miles, but anything even remotely close was already taken. Then I saw it (there may have been angels singing?) ... I found a great metered spot and in the spirit of using the directional arrows on the ground I lost it to another driver not so, thoughtful, shall we say? I gave up and 15 minutes later ended up happy as a clam in my normal spot, traffic free uncontested street parking ... 6 blocks away.

Irony of it all? By the time I walked back to the market, the very spot I just missed out on now had an open spot right next to it!! Argh... too much irritation for this early in the morning. Let's just say I'll take a wagon the next time I'm worried about carrying it all back - just me and my walking shoes from now on.

Regardless, I am now the proud new owner of nearly all the plants I wanted... Spinach, Garlic, Cucumbers, Watermelon and Tomatillos are still on the wanted list though. Good news there though: I talked to a few folks who said they had them at home and would bring 'em for me next weekend. Hope I make it... two weekends in a row is a bit much. I want to sleep in a lot this coming 4 day weekend - boy am I ready for it.

Any way I ended up employing a sellers choice method - who knew there are 100+ different varieties of one plant to choose from. Not me. Also, unknown to me ... the fact they come in fours.
Why did no one tell me this in advance? I'm going to have way too much food folks, at least I'll be able to balance out the baked goods I give away at work with some healthier veggie options! Jodi should be happy.

Here they are:
Don't look much like a garden capable of producing 50+ lbs of food do they? We'll see...

• Mitla Jalapeno Peppers
  
• Garden Leader Green Bell Peppers
• Early Grand Onions (These guys come not in fours but a little tub of say 50. Also, rec'd free planting instructions from the super cute older gardener lady)
• Big Boy Tomato
  
• Viva Tomato (I'm told it's like Roma, but a little bigger and a much better producer. Great, I am going to be swimming in a vegetable I don't even like!)
• Buttercrunch Lettuce
• Romaine Lettuce
• For herbs, I found all the usual suspects: Chives, Basil (2), Parsley (2), Oregano, Basil, Sage, Rosemary and new to the family, Mint! Smells just like gum/toothpaste ... nice & fresh. I can't quit smelling it. PS I was so proud of myself I knew which herbs where which all by myself and was able to impress my fellow shoppers with my unsolicited advice (Flat parsley over curly, for sure...).
  

You are welcome!

I'm pretty sure even with the excess, this is going to save me money. Let's see what our investment is so far, in order of above: $2.5, $2, $2, $2.5, $2, $2, $20 = $33. Ohh, cue light bulb, idea - what if I sell the excess? If someone would buy it, I could have them pay for my garden. This has merit. Domino's Mailroom at work? Road side stand in Hunters Grove Condo? Nah... maybe door to door sales or flyers? Hmmm. Better flush that one out more...

Side note: Why did the goose cross the road? The chicken has weekends off!!



These guys were so cute...On my way back, I swung by the office to grab a few things I had forgotten - for once I had my camera handy when a wildlife photo op. presented it's self!!

But what besides Salsa?

Seemed that if I was going to go to all this trouble, maybe I should have more than just salsa to show for it. I had some ideas, but no idea how much space I was going to need for all this. Enter www.gardeners.com and their handy dandy little gardening planner tool. Drag and drop a few plants and Viola! instructions for your very own garden.

Or use one of their templates - the "set it and forget it version" was particularly appealing to me but I decided not to let a catchy infomercial guide my decision and I ended up with a nice hybrid of the Kitchen Essentials, High Yield, Salsa & Sauce templates with a mini herb garden and some other festive plants tossed in to round it out.

Though you can't see it all, my general plan includes salsa, tomato sauce, and pickle fixings, herbs - basil, thyme, sage, oregano, parsley rosemary, chives and mint. Maybe some spinach and/or lettuce, a watermelon, cantaloupe and pumpkin or two. Never to early to prepare for Halloween jack-o-lanterns...

Now'd be the time to get your special requests in. Space is going fast!!

How it all started...

Last summer a friend of Charlie's mentioned his salsa garden; and I wanted one too! Bad news: no where to put it. Good news: I forgot all about my imaginary salsa garden... until BHG reminded me.

You guessed it ... back on the salsa garden soapbox, but alas still no space. Until I saw this:

$30 for a 4 x 6 plot of dirt? Really? I quickly talked myself right out of that. Back to salsa-less square one. So then, and this is going to sound completely unrelated, I have my palms read with Chaula and Jenny.

Vijaya Laxmi tells me (as Jenny cracks up) that I'm destined to be a great gardener. In defense of JK's laughter you have to understand that she's been a witness to many a murdered plant while living with me. But it must be fate, because wouldn't you know the next day I stumble across this:

A quick email signs me up and confirms: Free! Unlimited Space! Ample free compost & water! Helloooo community garden!

I've decided to try my "hand" at documenting this garden thing. I'm planning weekly photo updates of my success (or failure)... be prepared for veggies if all goes well! And if the whole blogging my project du jour goes well - maybe I'll continue.