Stakin' Yo' Stuff

There comes a time in every gardener's life when their seeds and starts start to grow up and get a little wild. They want to test their independence and spread their wings but in gardening, as in parenting, you need to reign them in a little bit. The best way to do this is through stakes and supports (this is starting to sound like a post about bras).

Some vegetables and fruit are climbers by nature and staking and supporting them will help keep them off the ground which not only gives you room in small gardening spaces but it also helps protect them from disease and mold/mildew.

Vegetables that need support:

• pole beans
• runner beans
• pea
• tomato

Vegetables that can benefit from support:

• asparagus
• broccoli
• brussels sprouts (but seriously, who plants that crap?)
• cucumber
• eggplant
• fava beans
• melon
• pepper
  

My peas are getting all happy and viney so I made teepees for them this afternoon during the sun breaks. They are pretty farmy looking but I think they look cute. No doubt Hot Jeff will get home this afternoon and be mortified by their farminess and re-do them. And that's ok because his will no doubt be sturdier and less farmy looking. Sometimes farmy is kind of good though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Housekeeping

1) Congratulations to Emily H, who won the title contest with her entry. Wahoo!

2) Praying for Your Kids Monday starts back up THIS COMING MONDAY!! Thanks for praying for me while I was on PYKM sabbatical! I'm excited to start it back up.

I Feel a Gardening Post Coming On

The Stevie Wonder song "Isn't She Lovely" is totally running through my brain right now as I write this post. I am so crazy about my garden. Just bonkers.

Yesterday was an amazingly beautiful day so I decided to plant Phase II. I had planted seeds of lettuce, garlic, carrots, peas, onions and potatoes and now that it is warming up a bit I was ready for some of the less hearty plants like cucumbers, peppers and herbs. Because I don't like delayed gratification and had already tested my green thumb with seeds on the other plants I just got starts and went for it. I also planted some marigolds which are a wonderful beneficial flower for the garden. More on beneficials later.

Because my bed is a bit smaller than I would have wanted it, I planted my herbs in pots. This turned out to be good as I just learned parsley needs less sun than the rest of the plants and I'll be able to move it if I see it struggling with the oodles of sunlight my backyard gets. And yes, speaking of herbs, Kristan, I did plant you some basil!

Here's a picture of the whole scene complete with pots and Ella the composter (which should be giving my first load of compost in about 2 weeks!).

Isn't that a lovely little fence? Hot Jeff found and put that together to keep Jersey the evil, neighbor cat out. It has totally worked too. Oh Hot Jeff...not only are you hot but you are so clever. Single ladies, never marry a man who can't outwit a neighbor cat.

This is just another view/angle of the raised bed. Don't you love the rain gauge in the corner? All serious gardeners have rain gauges. I got one so that I would appear to be a serious gardener. I think somewhere in Raleigh, Bug is very, very pleased with me.

Ok, lets talk about beneficial flowers. First of all, I have to give credit to Bug, my gardening Sensei, because without her I wouldn't have even known I needed to google beneficial flowers. Bug knows ALL THINGS GARDENING and she even cans. I know.

So anyway, beneficials, (as they are cleverly called) are flowers you plant in or near your garden to attract bugs that benefit the plants by pollinating them or eating the bugs that kill them. I know it seems that all bugs are bad for your plants but that is not the case and in fact, you need to some to have healthy produce. For example, marigolds deter whiteflies and beetles and cornflowers attract ladybugs who eat aphids while hesperis attracts bees which will help pollinate your flowering plants. Another wonderful beneficial is actually herbs! The basil you planted? It attracts bees and repels aphids. So very cool.

There are a gajillion websites about beneficial flowers but I have found this one to be the most concise and resourceful without being too wordy.

One final word on gardening, I hope I don't get bored with this. I tend to really get excited about stuff and then get bored with it. I'll keep you posted.

p.s. Lying to my kids about their food is going gang-busters! A few days ago we went to McDonalds drive-thru to get diet cokes for Hot Jeff and me and Samuel bellered from the back seat, "We don't eat here! They have fake chicken!" Jamie Oliver would be so proud.

You Had Me at Shelves From Scrapwood
Part Two

Ok, so if you read this blog you probably know that Hot Jeff and I are very different people. We are wired really, really differently. And I'm not talking a male-female-he's-from-Mars-I'm-from-Venus different I'm talking like crazy opposites-attract-but-shouldn't-breed different. Hot Jeff is like a warm and gentle Spring rain; I am a torrential downpour. When Hot Jeff tells a joke its quiet and hilarious and if you missed it that is just too bad because he's not going to repeat it; when I tell a joke it is never without an audience and microphone and most likely someone else's material.

Our differences carry in to our parenting. When the kids started to walk Hot Jeff considered putting them in helmets. My approach was a little different and I'm certain they both have heard me say, on numerous occasions, "If you fall off the table and break both of your legs don't come running to me".

Jeff is meticulous and thorough and I'm messy and haphazard. Remember the story about the water getting shut off because I forgot to pay the bill and lost the warning notice? Yeah, that kind of stuff doesn't happen to Hot Jeff. Hot Jeff doesn't lose anything, well unless I throw it away.

So it shouldn't surprise you that when it came to making my garden bed our differences shined through. It started simply with Jeff asking me how big I wanted it. I looked at him cluelessly and said, "I dunno". We got online and found some raised bed ideas and went from there.

Off to Lowes we went. I was super excited to get the dirt so we headed to that end of the store first. I had grabbed a little shopping cart to put my bags in and didn't pay much attention to Jeff's snicker as I headed to the aisle filled with every brand of soil, manure and peat moss you could imagine. I quickly realized why Jeff had giggled when I grabbed my little cart because it would NEVER hold all the dirt I needed. Jeff asked how many bags I would need and I told him 6 bags of soil, 3 bags of steer manure and 3 bags of peat moss.

"How do you know that?" Jeff asked. I looked at him incredulously, "Um because I just do", I replied. Jeff leaned over my growing pile of manure bags and said, "You're only supposed to use 1 bag of these per 100 square feet. Since you have less than 20 square feet you should only use about a 1/4 of the bag and even then that would probably be too much".

My heart started to race. Beads of sweat began to form on my nose. Color rushed to my cheeks. "Well if a little manure is good then a lot is better", I told him indignantly (that's my philosophy on Tylenol too, by the way). "Only if you want your vegetables to taste like crap" he quietly said.

Turns out my Mom was a farmer in her past life and concurred with Hot Jeff and if you use too much manure (which gets really hot in the sun) it will cook your veggies. Blah, blah, blah.

Hot Jeff, realizing I was totally retarded and clueless, took matters in to his own hands, did the math in his head and bought the perfect amount AND BLEND right down to the cubic square foot. He loaded the bags on to the huge rolling-platform looking thing that had mysteriously replaced my little bitty shopping cart.

"Now lets go get screws." he said. "Screws?" I questioned. I would have rounded up whatever spare nails I could have found in the garage and hammered that thing together with a high heeled shoe...not Hot Jeff though. 20 MINUTES we stood in the screw aisle while Hot Jeff fingered every screw in every box. Alas it was time to go pick out wood.

"What kind of wood do you want?" Hot Jeff wanted to know. What kind of wood do I want? Has he not been paying attention? I looked at him blankly, searching my brain for the right answer. I pleaded with the dark recesses of mind to come up with something intelligent that would restore Hot Jeff's confidence in me...my brain remembered another moment such as this.

It was our first summer in Alaska. We had only met a month or so earlier and were still in that cute aren't-you-adorable-stage. We were sitting in the dining tent eating and he was inquiring about my day. I excitedly told him that Jami and I had found a bird's nest near the bathrooms and that there were little birds living in it. "What kind of birds?" Jeff asked. "Baby birds" I answered knowingly.

"Cedar" I blurted out, coming back from my reverie. Jeff nodded, "I think so too". Relief.

The rest of the story is filled with boring measurements. A lot of boring measurements and a level. Yes, I said a level. Hot Jeff used a level to place my garden bed on the ground. How friggin' awesome is he? Thankfully I didn't even have to ask him why he was wasting time with a level; he must have seen the glassy look in my eyes because he said, "We don't want your water pooling up". Oh yeah. Duh.

I'm fairly certain Hot Jeff has a secret college degree in raised garden bed building. How else would he know about wood screws?

The finished raised bed. Isn't it lovely? Insert Stevie Wonder song.

You. Are. Wel. Come.

Hot Jeff got a little shy with all you women fawning over him and asked that I remove his hotness from the blog. I know, I'm not quite sure what's gotten in to him either. I couldn't just leave you all empty handed though so here's the next best thing to Hot Jeff without a shirt. MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY without a shirt! Hooie.

You Had Me at Shelves from Scrapwood
Part 1

Way back in the day when Hot Jeff and I were just two young kids livin' on love up in Alaska...

Is that seriously not the best starting sentence ever? If there are awards for the best starting sentences for blog posts I'm pretty sure that one just won me the top prize.

Anyway, when Hot Jeff and I were working in Alaska on the remotest of remote islands at a sport fishing lodge (I know, right?) we lived in a 10x10 plywood box (I am not lying) that had no plumbing, one small space heater and electricity that was sourced from a generator. To make matters worse it didn't have any closets. Hot Jeff, always the gentleman, searched around and found some scrap wood lying around the island from various finished projects and built me some shelves that I could stack clothes, shelve my beloved books and use for whatever my little heart desired. And let me tell you, when you're living in a 10x10 box on a remote island in the middle of a river in Alaska its those "little" things that make a girl happy beyond measure.

My Hot Jeff isn't handy. He doesn't enjoy building things, he doesn't love the smell of sawdust and it took him just shy of a decade to finish our bonus room. He is uber talented in many areas and when it comes to around-the-house type stuff he's my yard/landscaping and painting hero but remodeling rooms and putting in flooring and all that other DIY crap he finds pretty uninteresting and unappealing.

That's why his offer to build my raised bed was so sweet.

And the fact that today was a State employee mandated furlough day AND he is studying for that pesky "little" CPA exam AND he doesn't like building stuff yet this afternoon he suggested we go to Lowes and pick out wood and he spent the afternoon building my beautiful raised bed garden.

And that is why this 3x8 bed is so much more than just a raised bed for gardening. It is a tender gift from my sweet husband who knows exactly what my love language is.

Hot Jeff gettin' his sexy on and checking out his materials.

The raised bed coming right along. And I am sorry ladies, I tried and tried to get him to take his shirt off. It was like 50 degrees in the backyard this afternoon and Hot Jeff was taking his project too seriously to indulge me and my fantasies. I know, I'm disappointed too. I'll go back through last summer's photographic archives and see what I can find for you.

Let's Talk Gardening

Well Ella isn't here yet. She's supposed to be here no later than the 22nd so I've already started saving my composting materials in a bucket in the garage. What do you fellow composters use as an "in between" from the kitchen to the composter? I know you can spend like $30-40 on actual counter top compost collection type thingy-ma-jobber but I doubt I can talk Della into getting me one of those as an early Christmas present.

You'll remember last year I planted my garden in pots and had great success with the 4 veggies that I planted so I decided to plant even more this year. Hot Jeff offered to build me raised beds (don't you just get all hot and bothered thinking of Hot Jeff hammering with his shirt off!) and I'm going to plant all sorts of fun stuff. The 4-H clan is pretty fussy when it comes to vegetables we will and will not eat so I've decided to donate my extra veggies (and the ones we don't particularly like) to my city's food share. I wish this were my idea, but alas it was my friend Al's and he wrote about it in our church's bulletin last weekend.

I've been talking to my Gardening Sensei, Bug, and she says carrots are cool weather vegetables so it looks like I will be planting those pretty soon. After that I'm pretty much clueless so I will need to spend some time withy my Bestie, Google, and find out what else is a cool weathered vegetable.

Well that's all I have to say about that. I'll be sure and get pictures of Hot Jeff building my raised beds. I'll lube him up with baby oil and spray him with a spray bottle so he's all glistening and sexy--we can make calendars and sell them on Etsy!

Introducing Our Newest Family Member...

I'd like you to meet Ella, our new composter. Ella, I'd like you to meet the Internet. Ella is an early birthday present from my Mom who is still trying to understand why I would ask for a composter for my birthday instead of a Louis Vuitton handbag. I can only chalk it up to an identity crisis.

I named the composter Ella because "Ela" means earth in like Greek or Arabic or Hindi or something like that and my Mom's name is Della and she's always wanted a namesake. I'm not sure she wanted something that decomposes waste to be her namesake but beggers (and people named Della) really can't be choosers now can they?

I'm so excited about my new composter that I am seriously having a hard time sleeping at night. That is not hyperbole. I literally lay there and think about waste and C/N ratios and compost tea and how it will be fabulous for my garden and blah, blah, blah.

Bestie Kara thinks composters aren't worth the "trouble" but I think she is just jealous.

Tidbits

Bug asked me last week how my gardening was going and I realized I hadn't put anything on the blog about it in a really long time. I'd like to tell you that I've been receiving a ton of emails requesting information on my garden but I haven't. Not a one. And to punish you for your lack of interest I'm going to write about it. All week long. Every day, every post.

No, come back. Cooooooome back. Alright, we'll compromise--just the one gardening post today.

Here's Samuel with some of our early bounty. A delicious zucchini who found a home in Neighbor Melissa's spaghetti sauce, one tasty cuke that I ate with a little salt while I made lunch one day and basil that sat in my fridge until the leaves turned brown and I threw it away. I had hoped to make pesto with it. Don't cry for my basil; I have more basil than I know what to do with. If I weren't so lazy and if pine nuts grew on trees I would start my own pesto processing plant. That's how much basil I have.

Ah, another lovely cucumber accompanied by a lemon cucumber. I love, love, love lemon cucumbers which is a good thing because I have a lot of them. The kids like to pick them and eat them like apples. Hooray for lemon cucumbers!

Here's a fun fact: I am growing zucchini in very, lets say, interesting shapes. Two words: Doctor Ruth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And just because its my blog and I can do what I want, here are some pictures of my really cute kids. I'm actually just posting pictures of them as reverse psychology because right now I WANT TO BEAT SAMUEL WITHIN AN INCH OF HIS LIFE. It is 9:30 and he has just come down stairs for at least the 12th time. Jeff told him he needed to get some sleep because he was going to be tired and cranky tomorrow. Samuel's response: "That doesn't make any sense".

Where does he come up with this stuff?

Baby Emily looking all sweet and sassy in her sunglasses. And seriously, how cute is that outfit? If I were to completely lose what little good sense I have and wear an outfit like that out in public I would be arrested. Arrested, put away for life, and forced to watch episodes of What Not to Wear 24/7. Stacy London makes me want to ram screwdrivers in my ears so that coupled with what little good sense I have, keeps me from wearing an outfit like this.

Reverse psychology. Not working.

Still not working...very glad his Dad is dealing with him right now.

Ok, how tired do you have to be to fall asleep while eating? I fell asleep at Disney World once but I have never fallen asleep eating. 3 year olds are an enigma to me. I'm thinking of donating this one to science.

Parable Plants

My potted veggies are SO happy! Check the zucchini out on the right! That's a happy plant. Here's why I love a potted garden; my zucchini was getting so ginormous that it was actually shading the other pots so I just moved it! JUST MOVED IT! Like oh la la, "you're kinda big, guess I'll just move you". It had been the first pot so I moved it the last one, lemon cuke from second to third, burpless from third to second and basil from last to first.

I guess its true, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last". Wow, that was a lame joke.

Bug Will Be So Proud...

Since Bug planted her first garden last year, and since then has become a famous gardening guru, I have wanted to be a copycat and plant one also. I had grand plans of Jeff (or Shannon's husband Drew, more likely) making me some raised beds so I could plant a square foot garden. Well when I actually began thinking about it and realistically wondering where I would put raised beds in my small backyard I realized it wouldn't work. So I gave up the dream. Then today I went out to Wavra's and saw veggie starts for only $1.25! I couldn't resist, I got 4 starts and Cheryl, who was with me, said she had pots I could use! WooHoo!

So here is my lovely garden: 1 zucchini, 1 lemon cucumber, 1 burpless cucumber and 1 basil. I am delighted. I know it isn't much but I am jsut so excited about it. I would really like to do carrots but does anyone know: is it too late to plant carrots and can you do them in pots? I would like some advice on this.

By the way, yes I am back from Montana; just got in yesterday. We had a wonderful time and I'll get some pictures posted soon. Secondly, who came up with the name "burpless" for a cucumber???