Grow Baby Grow Part 2
The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship
Don’t those herbs look yummy (all the but catnip in the middle which is for my furry friends)
This weekend (in between a water faucet emergency that I won’t get into online. Lets just leave it at; we have water, and we are still married HA!) I worked on re creating a new garden bed on the back side of our house.
Let me just tell you, when those fellows re graded our property, the did a great job. However, they left me with a lot of CRAP soil.
The clay is so thick in here right now that the tiller kept literally jumping off the dirt like it was hitting boulders, notВ soil.
My teeth actually rattled trying to control that thing. CRAZY!
But with a little love, peat moss, arm muscle, and grit (yes, I seriously had to grit my teeth to handle the bugger)
Look what we have now:
Isn’t it pretty?
In this pretty stretch of soil, I plan to plant wildflowers.
The big window you see is my bedroom.
Right on the other side of that grass,В we have this:
And yes, we get A LOT of birds out here. So they will LOVE the wildflowers. Yeah, I know, the flowers are really for me.
I decided to go easy on myself and buy perennial wildflower seed. I found an organic seed company (vote with your dollars!) and bought 1/2 lb of perennial wildflower seeds.
If these fill in nicely (which they should, the amount of seed was perfect for this area), then $23.95 was a bargain for a perpetual flower bed (that I don’t EVER-HAVE-TO-WEED! WOOT!) The only maintenance involved with this is to mow the lot down after summer to redistribute the seed. I think I can handle that.
Plus, if I’m lucky, I’ll have cut flowers all summer long. Or maybe next summer for sure.
On the sides of our new deck, I now have this:
Say hello to the Green Bean Bed.
I should be able to get at least two rows of beans in that stretch!
Theopposite side of the deck will be the home for eight tomato plants plus at least two or three peppers.
The side closest to the house will be the new home for the lovely herbs you saw above.
And the last side:
Is the perfect spot for cucumber and squash. Maybe more!
I also have two large planters that I bought on clearance at the end of the year for $5 apiece that I am going to plant lettuce and Chamomile flowers in. Never underestimate the power of container gardening. I am hoping that getting our lettuce up off the ground will keep out the bunny rabbits. We shall see.
Ease of use
The beauty of doing my garden in this way (at least in my view) is that it is right at my fingertips daily.
We like to be outside.
We like to grill out and eat on our patio.
If I am standing outВ there anyway waiting for our food to cook, I know myself well enough to know that I will bend over and pull a few weeds since I’m standing there anyway.
Plus, I can see if the beans need to be picked (without having to put on long pants to protect my legs from the mosquito’s and my gardening shoes like I used to have to do when I had my old garden) I will go ahead and pick them. Since I am out there anyway.
Why bother?
Gardening to me is not something I do to save money.
Yes, ultimately the produce is cheaper than if I were to buy it at the grocery (and it’s organic too since we don’t use chemicals)
Yes, we will eat what we produce.
Yes, I will can or freeze anything extra to be used over the winter.
But that’s not really why I do it.
Gardening to me is a form of therapy.
I find it very calming to play in the dirt.
My job is a pressure cooker job. More so in the summer than at any other time of theВ year.
Getting into the dirt and doing a task that requires little to no thought process, CALMS ME DOWN. Which in my opinion is always a good thing!
Do you garden?
Why do you garden?
What is your favorite thing to grow?
I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject!
April 13, 2010
Posted in: Eco Friendly, Gardening
3 Responses
I love to garden. As you it is something that calms me. Sometimes I just need that break from kids. My favorite thing to grow is tomatoes, onions, and peppers. John and I love homemade salsa so I this year I am hoping to get enough to can some for winter.
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
9 To 5 Frugal » Grow Baby Grow-Updates! - July 15, 2010
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