NB: This post is about gardening. If you like to stick your hands in Mother Earth, read on. If not, I respect that. I didn’t care before this year either.
I’ve been meaning to tell you all about our new garden and I’m not really sure what I’m waiting for. AN ENGRAVED INVITATION PERHAPS??
We were pretty jazzed about having a yard to do some gardening in, but when it came to the actual “building the garden”, we called in a professional. We are not do-it-yourself lesbians. We are “work, make money and pay someone else to do it” lesbians and we’re fine with that. So when it came time to turn our tiny patch of turf into an urban garden wonderland, we called Seaton from FarmCity Food Garden Construction. And she made all our organic gardening dreams come true.
Here’s our original patch of lawn, just for a “before” shot. Not seen – gaps between cedars on the right where the dog likes to bust out into the world and sniff around for signs Big Balls, the Cat Who Fears No One.
First phase of construction – Seaton started by building two 3 x 4’ raised cedar beds, separated by a strip of gravel. Photo by Katr. Most photos are by Katr, because she takes good photos and mine look like I took them with my feet.
We endeared ourselves to the neighbourhood with these twin piles of dirt and manure. Pungent. Felt like Laura Ingalls Wilder every morning, breathing in the smell of nature and trying not to gag.
Beds filled with dirt. Trellis on the way. Dog in repose.
Trellis in place! Or, as Emmy would say, “dog prison activated”. Note ingenious strip of trellis between cedars in the back.
Once we figured out where the sun was going to be (i.e. mostly on the left), Seaton built us an extra trellis for our cherry tomatoes. Our hypothetical cherry tomatoes.
Plants! Katr has espoused the square foot gardening philosophy and actually put the eyescrews and twine in HERSELF! She has a blister to prove it and she likes to prove it often. The drip irrigation, though…Seaton put that in.
So the garden – she is growing! Especially when the sun is out, which has been rare so far this summer.
I have to hand it to Katr, who consulted at length with Seaton and also bought gardening books and ACTUALLY READ THEM, because she is becoming a real gardening maven. She’s out there in the mornings, inspecting, spraying, staking, watering and otherwise tenderly administering to our little green charges. She is also, however, worrying. Because when you put nature in your yard, other nature can sometimes get to it. Witness our nommed zucchini.
Aphids have been an issue and something is getting at the beans every now and then. And last week, Katr went apeshit on some crows that were pecking at the peppers. “I don’t know,” breathed Katr as she came back inside from clapping angrily at the birds. We gazed out at our planters. “We might end up just getting one $1500 cherry tomato.”
But I bet that tomato will be DELICIOUS.
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