What's up with gardening?? pictures of my POT garden

HA!! made you look!!  pictures later on, my dirt digging friends---

After another year of gardening, I have to ask these questions--

WHY, oh, WHY do weeds thrive during droughts, and the planted stuff doesn't??

Why does that daggone groundhog know how to sort out the sweet potato leaves from the weed leaves?

Why do I plant green beans when I really am not a big fan of picking or processing them?

Why is it called manure when it's good for the garden and SHI- when it's on my shoes??

Why do people insist on letting their walked dogs wander around the edge of my garden and mess it up?  Geez, people, I left enough room between the garden edge and the freakin' sidewalk, keep your dogs outa my gardens. 

Why do I like invasive wildflowers that show really pretty, but start to take over like an angry crowd by the end of two years?  Culprits are cup plant, spiderwort, blackeyed Susans, daisies.

Here is the long awaited POT garden.   I interplanted lettuce in a geranium planter.  See how nicely that works?  See how anyone with a lick of sense and some soil can have a garden, no matter how small?   I have been eating from this!!

Here are some pictures from the end of the garden season..

sideways photo of tomatoes, they are still plugging along!!!

.flowers in pots---must be watered at least once a day.  so I keep them all together along the edge of the deck, they seem more lush that way.  there were some cucumbers and broccoli in these pots earlier.

Here's a great plant for long lasting, drought resistant blooms.  Hydrangea.  I have about 9 in my front yard/garden.   Tardiva, Annabelle, Pinky Winky are a few of the varieties.  Some blooms will start white, and age into a soft tan color, I have some on my desk from last year.  I have some planted under a water-sucking maple, so they may get droopy, but one quick drink of water, and they perk right up.  These are great dried flowers, I was told they may sell for as much as $9 a stem.  I like to use them in the flower vases at church because they stay fresh at least two weeks.   I have successfully grown nasty looking clearance, $5 hydrangeas into the beauties of my garden, it's all in how you treat them.   Lots of water at the beginning, feed them properly, and they will serve you well for many years.

If you see these late bloomers, some call them Autumn lilies, or August lilies, they are a type of hosta, a great family of hard-working garden plants.  I love that they start blooming with these trumpeting white flowers just when everything else is starting to fade.  Plant in the shade with some enriched soil and some mulch, and enjoy!  They are a bit yellowed and starting to fade because we've basically had no rain since the beginning of July.   I have several varieties of hosta, one variegated one I love is "strip tease."  ahem.........

If you have a perennial garden, now is the time to start cutting back iris, daisies, daylilies, flax, faded hostas, bee balm,  columbine, anything else that is looking tired or dried out.  If you have black-eyed susans, be sure to get those seedheads out of the garden.  I laid some dried seed heads alongside my house a couple years ago, and have had an abundance growing in a place I don't like to mow.  It is not a good place for shrubs because the ice melts and falls off our metal roof with big crashes. 

IF YOU HAVE SHRUBS or  perennials, you MUST water them deeply from now until frosts start up.  If they do not get a good supply of water to their roots now, in the fall, they may not make it to spring, especially in our droughty weather.   I put out a sprinkler in the early morning, or later in the evening, and let it run 1/2 hour in one spot and then move it around.  Be sure to water both sides of plants , or the roots will be dried out  on one side.  Many trees and shrubs have shown damage from the past few years of dry summer/fall weather we have had,  and need the water to keep them going this winter.  This is also a great time to start thinking about planting new trees, with shorter days, less heat, milder weather.  We are having a huge elm in the front yard taken out in October, and have already purchased a nice sized burr oak to replace it. 

If you must weed and feed your lawn, try to find newer fertilizers withOUT phosphates, phosphorus in them.   Remember when that was taken out of laundry detergents?  Why is it allowed into a product that is going to run-off into groundwater and streams? 

Also, before you forget, make some notes on what you want to do differently, the same, or record your garden plantings, so you can crop rotate next year.  This cuts down on disease, and doesn't wear out your soil so quickly. 

And this is the best time of year to start that compost heap!  drive around and find people who are bagging their leaves and offer to take them off their hands... they're happy, and you didn't have to work so danged hard.

have a great week, my gardening buddies, and Stan, who lurks here, but probably never gets his hands dirty.

Dianne, who has probably one more weekly mowing left in her. 

10 Tips for a Zero-Waste Household by Bea Johnson — YES! Magazine

Bad news today.
And, it just sank into my noggin.

Last spring I read that Purdue University would test my soil in their earth science department. Liam and I dug up, labeled, and shipped off three large samples from the front, side and back of our 1874 Victorian. I forgot about it until today.

The Center for Urban Health at IUPUI was sponsoring a study for urban homes and a colleague at work had recommended I do this. I blew it off, a bit, and if I recall correctly, we'd already begun chipping the old paint from our porch off. Today, when those results came in, our lead ppms were above 4700, and the highest levels for alert action were 400-600ppms. OMG comes to mind. The letter explaining our lead results says that if we [had] 400-600ppms of lead, we should
1. build raised beds and don't grow root or green leafy veggies in them unless we wash thoroughly. We have put three of our raised beds out front. This maximizes sunlight and reduces grass mowing. I hate grass for the record. I'm looking for something that doesn't suck water and require fossil fuels to control. Besides, I'd researched the effect of old walnuts on soil and suspect that falling walnuts or leeching into the raised beds in the back might ruin veggie crops. So we put our fortunes out front. Wrong move.

Worse yet, I'm retracing my steps. My daughter was out there for hours chipping paint. Did we chip that paint into the soil before or after the test? I didn't make her wear a mask! Should she be tested for lead poisoning? I think so. Who cares that I will have to call 80 dollars worth of shipped in soil a wash and move those dang beds next spring. I'm really worried my daughter was damaged.

In the meantime, I guess we can eat from the maters we planted out front, if we're washing them thoroughly.

In all, this was an interesting year for bringing our home back to basics. We've gone from piles of trash weekly to almost complete recycling. We compost or feed the hens all our food scraps. Almost all plastics, papers, styrofoams, metals and glass are collected in every trash can of our house and hauled to the local recycling center. That feels good. So here's some tips for you. Test your soil. Take that seriously if you live in an urban area. Then read this awesome article and more from YES! Magazine.


10 Tips for a Zero-Waste Household by Bea Johnson — YES! Magazine

Now, I will go pine for a subscription to this piece and wonder if I can justify the extra three bucks for the Wendell Berry poster the site is hawking. Love me some Wendell Berry.

Night night all.

Past the Peas

Yesterday, I got the questions.
How did your garden do this year?

My answer? And I promise this was not just because the person asking was selling the last of the garden yummies planted by my CSA maestro of last season. My answer is, "I miss my CSA." Not so good is the answer.

I love this gardening thing, but true to form, I've lost the momentum a bit. Don't get me wrong, we're still producing tomatoes and cukes as fast as we can pluck them. The basil has been like arugula and we have so much PESTO!  It's fabulous.

Yet the patty pan, zucchini, melons, pumpkins and butternut never actualized. I plucked two small spaghetti squash, three white melons, six or seven patty pans and one butternut squash. That is all, folks.

It's time to reflect upon what worked, which is what I've been dodging. Like listening to "You Bet Your Garden" with Mike McGrath. Like weeding in 100 degree heat. Like replanting for a fall rotation. I pulled out the pea seeds I bought two weeks ago to plant this weekend. "Plant two months before the first frost" read the directions on packets promising a fast production.

TOOOO LAAATE.

So, for this first year and first reflection, here's what worked:

1. Window boxes of Arugula work. Move indoors at the first sign of heat and kick any large Garfield colored long-haired monstrous cats who sit on and poop in said boxes. I'm not kidding about the cat. Kick it. I like arugula more. It doesn't try to rub affection out of me when I'm not feeling affectionate. And I can eat it. Even if I ate meat, society frowns on stewing up cats.
2. Add a lot more manure and dirt to my boxes. The front ones are not attractive but prolific. They had the most dirt. I started this yesterday. after volunteering at Achaius Ranch. I threw two large 20 gallon buckets of green fresh horse manure into my ghetto sled (a dottering old Toyota Sienna). Then, I drove 2-60 down the roads to keep the tiny flies from biting us and to push that smell out the window vents in the back. At home, forty gallons of manure only surfaced the one 5'x5' box out back.  It needs several more cubic yards. That one was my squash box. I got the six patty pans from it.
3. Re-arrange where I plant what. Cukes were great next to the fence row. They climbed my pallets and fences. I will mix in lots more of the cherry tomatoes for snacking. I will create much better tomato cages and let the cukes and maters compliment each other. Summer squash will stay out front, with basil, climbing spinach, peas, beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrots and rutabagas. These are prettier and I can show them off. I will put some climbing winter squashes alongside the house, maybe. Out back? Some maters, some taters, and lettuce. I want be more conscious of how the seasons can compliment the growing. 
4. Stop being a summer only gardener. I did start seeds early, but only for summer plants. I didn't put out broccoli or other items like that this year. I was jealous at the success of Dianne's--her shared tastes whet my appetite without the the havoc that grocered items produce. This year, I need to learn more about rotation. I need start really cold plants in January and have 'em ready for those boxes. I need two rounds of peas and beans. 
5. Find out why my sweet potatoes didn't grow, and where to get good starts. That's my plan.
6. Rinse and repeat on all herbs. That worked very well! Pallet gardens were good for herbs, edible flowers and lettuce, until the summer heat. It didn't help that I was gone four long weeks of the irascible Indiana heat. It's hard to teach the kind friends how to water. So much for early morning, drip and deep watering. These are better than throwing beats of water all over the leaves of plants in mid-morning, which is either like a magnifying glass to burn leaves or a mere cloud, evaporating away without ever reaching the belly of the plant down there in the dirt.

Okay, this is like a gardener's journal. Here's my confession. I justified paying more for seed-savers heirloom species. My plan was to save and regrow. Considering this year's production, I think I need more work on basic. We'll get to the art of seedsaving after I learn plant rotation.

In other news- our hens have moved to Tom's a block or so away. They are producing shiny blue feathers mixed with their rustic red ones. Coxcombs are appearing. Poo is flying. I'm ready for eggs, brotherman!

More to come on next year's watering and vermiculture.