Man, what a summer.

This really has been an absolutely incredible year for my garden. I have spent almost all of my free time either in it, around it, working with things from it, or laying in bed thinking about it. I would say that I've spent at least twenty hours a week for the past five months doing one or all of the above. I would love to say that it's all been great, but it definitely hasn't.

As of right now, I have more grass in my garden than I do in my front yard. Green beans were a huge disaster, for a reason I have yet to identify. I didn't get nearly as many cucumbers as I would have liked. My tomatoes, which came on strong, have just sat there for the past two weeks with little green ones on them and no development. I thought that I had planted too many squash plants, but the fruit has begun to rot on the vine instead of growing to a decent harvesting size. Did I mention there is grass everywhere? Well, that's because I got really tired of going out there and working my way through the garden with the tiller once a week. So I took a week off. So the needy whore made me pay for it. I actually had to use the mower out there this week. That was pretty embarrassing. Lots of things never came up, or if they did, I got nothing of consequence out of it. Beets, corn, basil, rosemary, chard, and more than I can even remember I planted were a huge waste of my time. But......I'm definitely going to try all of them, except the corn, in a massive fall planting. We'll see if I can fall on my face again.

There definitely have been some incredible positives, though. I have more salsa than I will probably be able to eat over the next nine months, twelve jars of pickles, three jars of relish, and one huge jar of pickles jalapenos. I have four gallon freezer bags of yellow squash, four of okra, one of green beans, one of roasted tomato and jalapeno salsa, and one of roasted tomatoes and onions. I still have lots of things producing, as well. If any of those tomatoes ripen, I'll be able to freeze some more of them, as well as possibly make some more salsa. Just today I got fifteen jalapenos, five bell peppers, twenty okra, and two yellow squash. The okra plants have continued to flourish, so I will definitely be able to put some more of those up, and I have high hopes of some sweet jalapeno jelly. Definitely keeping my fingers crossed. I have four cabbages that I have to decide what to do with soon, and all the figs I could ever hope to eat.

I have big plans for the fall, but all that grass is definitely going to sit between myself and progress. I really should just rent a big tiller again, but I really don't want to have to figure out a way to get it here. Decisions, decisions. I'll be sure to share some plans for the fall and winter soon, so come back and check if you happen to be in the neighborhood. Oh, and as always, free veggies to anyone that wants to come and pull weeks. You're more than welcome!

Headphones On:
Maps & Atlases-Perch Patchwork
Tom Petty-Mojo
Yeasayer-Odd Blood
Grateful Dead-American Beauty

They're Everywhere, They're Everywhere!

It's been a good month my quarter acre. I have all the okra, squash, green peppers, tomatoes, green beans, and jalapenos I can eat. I have gotten so much squash, peppers, okra and tomatoes that I've been able to save a ton of it by freezing and canning. If this can keep up for a few more weeks, I'll be able to make it through winter without having to buy much, if any, summer vegetables out of season.

So far, I've put up six jars of pickles, one gallon of salsa, one gallon of squash, one gallon of green peppers, one gallon of okra, and I'm working on tomatoes today. I'm roasting about ten pounds of tomatoes in the oven with vidalia onions, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I'm going to peel the tomatoes when they cool, and then toss them whole, along with the onions, into freezer bags. I've found a ton of recipes that work off of this simple, easy method of preservation. I can make lots of stews, soups, sauces, and pretty much anything else you can think of with this base. I'm hoping to continue getting as many tomatoes from the garden as I can, because I think that this will be a time saver for me.

I still have over a dozen okra plants that seem to be just getting warmed up, so I know that I will have all the frozen okra I can handle. We had some pretty big rainstorms here over the past couple of days, so the bermuda grass, clover, and other weeds have really gone crazy lately. I will have to spend about a day with the tiller, and then a couple more days cleaning, clearing and plucking. Sunburn, here I come again!

I have been listening to the new Maps & Atlases album for the past couple of days. It's called Perch Patchwork and definitely gets my seal of approval. They sound a little like Mumford and Sons, so if you're a fan, you should check em out. Happy week!

That, sour disgusting smell of vinegar.

I had an absolute blast today! I channeled my inner old person and canned me some pickles! I turned twenty cucumbers into six pint jars of Ross's Dickles! I've got friends to thank for that one.

Yeah, that's a lot of slicing alright. A couple of months ago, I was really considering picking up a mandolin, but, figured that I wouldn't need it. WRONG! After this much slicing, my hands hurt in weird places. I sliced 'em up, tossed them in some brine to get them pre-soaked, and then started packing clean, hot jars. I made my canning liquid in a tea kettle with apple cider vinegar, peppercorns, a little salt, and a few cups of sugar. After heating it, I poured the mixture into the jars, stuck a plastic spatula in each one to get the air bubbles out, and then dropped them in my canning pot. It's a big mutha, and was able to hold all six jars at once. I boiled them for an hour or so, pulled them out, and listened for the snap that says, "Yo. I've got a good seal over here." All six jars are resting on wire cookie racks right now while I wait for them to cool off. The whole process took a couple hours, which is much quicker than I thought it would.

After getting these processed so quickly, and, to all appearances, so well, I am feeling pretty confident about getting even more things from the garden canned. I've got a ton of okra coming up, but I've never been a big fan of pickled okra, so I'll have to figure something out. I also have a ton of tomatoes still coming, so I'm definitely looking forward to pasta sauce, and maybe even some tomato soup. I found a pretty good website that has a lot of really good canning recipes. If you're interested, check out canning-recipes.com It's got a lot of really basic stuff on there, including a recipe for catsup that I'm more than a little pumped about trying to figure out.

I listened to the new Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album while I was working today. It's called Mojo and it definitely has my seal of approval.

Canning Like a Grandma!

I think that I had more fun yesterday than I have in a long, long time. Before I went to work last night, I spent several hours heating my kitchen to about 85 degrees and "putting up" veggies for the long, harsh winters that we get here. Ok, so that was a little extreme, but I really did get to do some preserving, which was incredibly fulfilling.

Squash I chopped about fifteen squash into half-moon shapes and froze them in a one gallon freezer bag. I'll be able to thaw them out, and use them in soups, stews, casseroles, or anything else I can think of. I've frozen squash before and discovered that they really aren't of a consistency to eat by themselves. They get a little slimy. Gross, I know, but they cook up just fine if they're in something else. I've got a couple really great crockpot and stew ideas, so I'm not worried about it at all. I'm getting several squash each day, so I have no doubt that I'll be doing this some more. I also have plans to make a squash relish that I found a canning recipe for, so I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Green Bell Peppers I cored, sliced and blanched about ten peppers and filled a one gallon freezer bag with these guys. I have absolutely no idea how they'll taste, but I'm pretty confident I'll be able to figure something out. Worse case scenario, I can cook them in some stir fry, beef stew, anything. I've got at least another fifty little peppers coming up on my plants, so I have a pretty good feeling I'll be getting even more.

Tomatoes Salsa, baby, salsa! I found a great Rick Bayless (my hero, in case you didn't know) recipe for Roasted Tomato and Jalapeno Salsa that can be made in huge batches. I didn't have a whole lot of confidence going it, but man it turned out great. I mean, incredible. It took about three or four pounds of tomatoes, five jalapenos (also from the garden), one onion, some garlic, salt, vinegar, and cilantro. Roasted them all in the oven, blended together in stages, mixed in a huge metal bowl, and voila! Magnificent! It made over a gallon! Rick recommended freezing it over canning because of the low amount of vinegar in the recipe, so I froze a one gallon bag of it. Since I still had more left over, I filled one pint jar and took the rest to a vegetarian friend at work. This was pretty time consuming, but man it was worth it. It tastes amazing, and I can't wait to bust it out in the middle of winter and relive the awesomeness. Yes, that's a word.

I plan on beginning the great pickle canning fest in the next couple days, so I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. I've got about twenty cukes ready to go, a new canning pot that holds eight jars at a time, and twelve jars to fill. I may work on it tomorrow, we'll just have to see.

There's a ton of really fresh, local produce at farmer's markets around the country right now, so go and get some! It's cheap, and if I save it, anyone can.

I've been listening to the new Jack Johnson album and an older Ugly Casanova album. Really good standing up and sweating music. Enjoy your weekend and go outside!

So, I've got these pretty pictures.....

This is a picture from back in early may. As you can see, the cucumbers are just starting to come up, the sugar snap peas are still going strong, and in the far left hand corner I still have some lettuce, bok choi and cabbage. Those three burned up one we started hitting ninety degrees with regularity.

These were from one of the first days that I got a ton on one day. Probably June 20th or so. I'm now getting about two times this much a day-except for the green beans. They're kinda crapping out on me.

Yup, the small stuff is mine and the big stuff on the other side of the fence is my 80 year old neighbor's. Man, that guy's annoying.

Seen me lately?

Hola, and long time no see! I would apologize for not updating this big guy more, but once you add a forty hour a week job to twenty hours a week in the garden, you get zip. I'll try and give quick little update today, with some pictures over the next few weeks.

Tomatoes They're doing pretty well overall. I'm averaging about 8 romas a day and five or six large tomatoes a day. The only plant that really hasn't been producing is the German Queen heirloom tomatoes. By the time they're ripe enough to pick, birds have usually picked them apart trying to get at the bugs that are on the plant. We've had so much heat and so little rain lately that they've really begun to wilt if I don't water them thoroughly every day or two. I have a pretty good size bucket filled right now and I'm deciding if I'm going to can salsa or pasta sauce first. Decisions, decisions.

Cucumbers I have three full size plants with multiple vines and one that is growing. I planted six more plants today, hoping that they'll begin to produce fruit in time for me to get some pickles made before the weather turns too cold. They should take two months or so, which is why I'm pretty hopeful. I get an average of three to six cukes a day, which is great for lunches and some refrigerator pickles, but not enough to get my goal of twenty jars of pickles to help me make it through the winter.

Green Beans I have a forty foot trellis that I planted green beans on, but only the far end has really produced any beans to speak of. I tore out the twenty feet closest to the house and replanted today. They also have a germination period of a couple months, so I'm hopeful to get some out these in time also. I've been getting twenty five or so every couple days. This is pretty good for eating now, but not nearly enough to be able to freeze. I have a huge deep freezer that is just begging for some one gallon zip lock bags of crispy green beans.

Squash Great Guggamuggah! I get several squash a day, which is several squash a day more than I can handle! I've taken squash to friends' houses, dropped some off at work, and eaten enough to have jaundiced my skin a little! Frozen squash is pretty slimy, so unless you're making soup or something, it's a little too gross to eat. Those plants keep growing, too. Good Lord.

Okra Going pretty well! I've got a one quart tupperware container filled with sliced okra that is ready to either preserve or cook, and I expect to have thirty or forty more of these. Eleven plants have survived and thrived, so I'm really looking forward to freezing most of these guys to have all winter long. Sweet!

Sugar Snap Peas They've burned up because of the heat, and I really didn't get many before they did. I definitely started these too late, and I really didn't ever get a decent support system up for them. I think that I'll either build a lattice type fence that I can put up and take down depending on the season, or just grow them along a chain link fence that runs across the back of my yard. I can grow some more in the fall once the heat ends, but I'm not sure if I want to mess with it this year.

Yellow Bush Beans These guys were overrun by weeds and grass earlier in the summer, so I had to replant them in a different place. They've really grown a lot in the past two weeks and I'm looking forward to having these guys in a month or so.

Cabbage Blah. Too hot. I read that I can actually grow these all winter long unless we have prolonged hard freezes like this past year, so I may try again in a few months.

Bok Choi Sweet, sweet awesomeness. I grew these completely on a whim because the seed packet was fancy looking. I know, I know, but they turned out amazing. I got way more than I could ever eat, so I pulled up the bolted plants and have replanted four seeds every two weeks for the past two months. They're coming up in stages, which is great. Grilled, stir-fried, used as wraps, anything. I highly recommend tossing a couple of these seeds in the ground and then tossing the plant's leaves on the grill right before you pull the burgers or steaks off. Incredible.

Corn Well, um, yeah, not so much. I planted them in partial shade. I thought it was full sun. I'm an idiot. I have about ten plants left, but only a couple even have corn growing on them. I may get ten ears. My Methusalah of a neighbor has about fifty plants and they're all about eight feet tall. He's a gardening god.

I guess that's about it for now. I plan on putting some more cooler weather plants in around the middle of August, so I've been trying to clear some of the used land for then. I'll buy five or six forty pound bags of manure (peat moss, for ya'll city folk) and work it into the ground between now and then to ensure that I've got enough nitrogen and other nutrients to make it through the winter.

Junk I've been listening to:

The Avett Brothers
Broken Bells
Ugly Casanova
Jack Johnson
The Gaslight Anthem
Sleigh Bells
Passion Pit
She & Him

Good Stuff, Dude.

I promised some pictures of this behemoth, so here's a few that I took this evening.

Nice grass, right? Yeah, I'm a big fan, also. I've found that my weeds are minimal, but the excess amount of grass and crabgrass are pretty frustrating. It has taken almost constant tilling and plucking to keep the whole thing in any semblance of order. I till in between my rows in a pretty constant cycle that lasts about two weeks. I try and weed one row every other day, but I still haven't been able to stay ahead. It's a lot better now as opposed to last week, but I still don't feel like I've got a really good handle on everything. This is a view from the lower left corner of the space. You can see corn, dill and cilantro in the foreground followed by okra, squash, snap peas, tomatoes, peppers, and green beans.

These will be some of the most massive tomatoes I've ever grown. They are an heirloom variety and will grow to over a foot in diameter. These are the first two that appeared and they've grown over the past week. I have at least ten more blossoms on this plant, and I expect to have a lot more. A LOT more.






To the left are my six tomato plants. I'm incredibly proud of the weird little planting system I came up with. First I created a hill of about eight inches from the rest of the plot for each of the plants. When I planted them, I put them incredibly deep and left a crater around the stem of each plant in bowl shape. When I've needed to water the plants, I poured enough water into the crater to fill it to the top and let all the water soak down to the roots. I really believe that this method helped to ensure that the plants received the water and not the dirt around the base. Whether this worked or not, I have four plants that come up to my shoulder and all six have at least ten little green tomatoes growing on them. Tomato sandwiches for months!

To the right are my incredibly surprising massive heads of bok choi! Thanks to some friends for reminding me how incredible it tastes grilled! Warm up a saute pan, toss in some leaves with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper and you have yourself some of the best tasting greens you could ever imagine. I have had over twenty heads come up and I've decided that I will replant these in August to try and get a second crop this year. We'll find out the hard way, just like with everything else!

I've got some more pics to put up, so check back tomorrow for tons more. Thanks to everyone for their support, it's been an absolute blast sharing this with you guys. Holla!

Recent Garden Playlists:

To the Sea-Jack Johnson
Madman Across the Water-Elton John
Plastic Beach-Gorrilas

Watching the Grass Grow

So I broke my tiller. Sort of. Ok, not really, it's just resting. I was tilling through some of rocks along the fence line and lost the bolt that holds the blades in place. Tomorrow I'm going to head out and pick up a replacement and try to tackle the amazing amount of grass that has cropped up. things are really coming along though! I have at least fifty green tomatoes on my plants, so I'm sure to be sharing!

Amazingly, I've had a pretty boring run of it lately. Some family came into town a week ago and that has really put a damper on anything that I had planned on getting done over the past week. Still lots of tilling and weeding to do, but I've done so little lately that I'm almost looking forward to it. Almost.

Dude. Guess what I had for dinner.

Yum, yum, gimme some! I had quite the meals today! For lunch-LETTUCE from the garden! For dinner-stir fry with BOK CHOI and CILANTRO from the garden! Woohoo! All I can say is that both were absolutely amazing.

I have some good news, and tons of bad news about this bad boy. First off, the good stuff. Four of the six tomato plants have itsy-bitsy tomatoes on them and they all have tons and tons of blossoms. The greens bean plants are starting to climb my chain link trellis and look like they will be coming in just fine. The sugar snap peas, yellow squash, cabbage, cucumbers, and assorted peppers seem to be right on schedule. Sounds great, right? Well, here's the bad. TONS of grass still all over this bad boy. I'm tilling in between every row and each individual plant at least once a week, and I'm still getting waaaaay too much grass popping up in between. It's a little frustrating, to say the least. My yellow beans were over run by grass and weeds and I've had to till them up and start over in that section. No swiss chard. No beets. Only one or two okra plants out of 20. They'll be replanted this week. Corn is growing very, very slowly and I'm not too hopeful. My old guy's corn next door is already up to knee level. Jerk. That's the last time I help him till anything up.

I've come to the realization that I have too much space and not enough plants. My pops-in-law encouraged me to put in some field peas, so I'll probably do a couple bushes of those and a couple bushes of black beans. They'll go in this week too. I've got four different kinds of hot peppers coming up now-anaheim, jalapeno, poblano, and habanero. I've got a couple friends that absolutely love spicy stuff, so I'm gonna drop a little hotness on them.

I'll put some more pics up in the next couple days, but I spent about three hours out there today, so I'm pooped. Have a good one!

Like I Said. Pics.

Yeah, so, for some reason, my garden is Bok Choi friendly. I have no explanation, but these guys have been growing from seed really well and will probably be the first to be ready for harvest.

This is a pretty good long shot that gives you a good idea of the size of the garden. You can see some corn sprouting in the foreground, my rosebush in the far corner, and my 80 year old neighbor's rockin' garden. Much respect.
Righteous Rosebush. I didn't trim or cut it back at all this year because I wanted to see how it would grow and how many blossoms I would get. Um, yeah, tons.
Tomatoes! They're getting big and bushy and already have tons of blossoms on each plant. Good stuff.

It looks like I'm going to have to give up on the idea of growing my peppers from seed this year. I haven't been able to get any sprouts for either the poblanos or the jalapenos. I'm gonna head to Lowe's this week and buy two plants of each and hope that they'll grow for me. I'm also going to replant a lot of my cucumbers. A couple have sprouted, but I'm really hoping for bushels of them so I went ahead and tilled up the row that they really weren't coming in on. I'll replant today or tomorrow depending on the weather.

Check out the new album from The National! You won't regret it, I promise.

Um, Yeah, My Bad.

Ok, no stones thrown please! It's been pretty tough for me for the past few weeks because I have some pretty intense allergies this time of year and have been trying to get my meds correct. Sorry!

Here's the update. I have gone through the entire garden pulling weeds, tilling, raking, and doing all those other things I hate. I have also gotten all of my crops in the ground and I'll try to give you an update on them one by one.

• Tomatoes-All six plants are still alive and absolutely thriving. They have all tripled in size and most of them are already showing blooms, which is a good thing. The more blooms, the more fruit you get. If I'm guessing right, I'll probably start getting fruit in a few weeks.
• Green Beans-The plants are up and growing. Pretty soon they'll be tall enough for me to start leading them onto their supports.
• Yellow beans-NONE! I really can believe it. I planted them at the same time as the green beans, but haven't had a single one come up. In the next few days I'll run my tiller down the row and plant more green beans. They'll be a little behind the others, but that's ok. We have a pretty long growing season here, so I'm not worried.
• Green Peppers-About half of the nine plants have survived. They're growing, but slowly. I have never had much luck with any kind of bell peppers, so any help will be appreciated. I haven't watered them much, since we've had so much rain, but I'm really not sure what to do to help them.
• Cucumbers-The first row of cukes was so infested with grass that I went ahead and plowed them up. I put in four hills with three plants each to replace them and each hill has had at least one plant come up and start to grow. I'll just have to keep my eye on them.
• Yellow Squash-I planted about twenty feet, or five plants, of squash and they have all sprouted and begun to grow. Squash is still the easiest thing I've ever put in the ground. It doesn't need water, it kills all the weeds around it, and produces tons of fruit per plant.
• Jalapenos-I planted seeds, not purchased plants for this one. I haven't seen any plants emerge, but it's still been only two weeks since I put them in. There are only three plants, so I can easily go out and buy plants to replace these if they don't come up. I really want to make my own salsa with these guys, so I've got to have them.
• Poblano Peppers-Same as the Jalapenos. Three plants, planted at the same time, haven't seen any growth, will buy to replace, salsa. =)
• Beets-I planted about twenty of these guys. They've sprouted, so I'm hopeful! I have some pretty fond memories from childhood about them, so I can't wait to start canning, preserving, and feasting on my own.
• Sugar Snap Peas-Dude. Has to be my favorite veggie. You can eat 'em raw, put 'em in stir fries (fryes?frys? yeah, whatever.), and they're incredibly easy to freeze. They're coming up and I haven't yet figured out how to build a trellis to put them on. Yeah, I've got to get on that soon.
• Bok Choi-definitely the biggest success of my early plantings. Every seed has come up, and they're getting huge! They're about four inches high with well developed heads. I haven't grown them before, so hopefully I'll know when they're big enough and when I need to pull them up. Plants talk, right?
• Swiss Chard-Stupid swiss chard. Not a single seed developed. I've got a twenty foot long empty row. Should I try again? Put something else in? I was really excited about trying chard, so I may try again. We'll see.
• Cabbage-Most of the seeds I planted are coming up, but the heads have not begun to develop yet. I need to look them up and see how long it's supposed to take.
• Lettuce-Growing, growing, growing. I picked a kind of lettuce that doesn't develop a head, but matures like romaine. I'll probably pick some of it in the next week or so, plant more to replace what I picked, and pick the rest when it gets bigger.
• Corn-They're about a foot tall and developing still. My father in law gave me some advice about supporting them by piling dirt all around their bases as they grow, so I'll definitely be doing that soon. I also need to go to Tractor Supply (dude, that place is awesome. It's a gardening nerd's dream. I'm buying one of those straw hats.) to pick up some nitrogen pellets to place next to the plants. It's supposed to help them develop.

Whew. I may have missed a plant, but I don't think I did. I'll check later to be sure, but I'm pretty positive that this is all of them. As you can see, I've been busy, but I'm really fortunate that I got as early a start as I did. With all the rain we've had, there's no way that the ground would have been dry enough for me to do any tilling later than I did. The rain has also been helped me not feel as guilty about having to stay indoors for the past couple weeks to hide from the dirty, evil, vile pollens. Stupid pollen. So necessary, so painful.

The next post will probably be entirely pictures, so look for it in the next couple days! If you ever decide to start your own garden, say goodbye to the rest of your yard. It takes up so much of my time that I don't mow as often as I should, don't weed my front flower beds, and don't really care that I'm missing them. Oh, well. Time to go blow my nose!

Here's what I've been listening to outside as I've been ankle deep in dirt.

Eric Clapton's Unplugged, Band of Horses's Cease to Begin, Passion Pit, and Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming, Blonde on Blonde, and Times Are Changin'

I know, I know

I know that I haven't posted in a couple weeks, but it's ok, I promise. I've been working in the garden too much! I'll have a huge post and lots of pics next week. Oh, and p.s.....I'M DONE! Well, as done as you can be while waiting for things to grow and pulling random weeds. See ya Tuesday!

The Great Tomato Quest

Man, what a beautiful day outside. If you missed it, shame on you! I got a lot of stuff done today that I've been putting off (not weeding, of course), and it felt pretty awesome.

My first stop was Lowe's. I picked up my yellow squash seeds, cucumber seeds, okra seeds and five different kinds of tomato plants. Then I did some other stuff, but absolutely none of that is at all relevant, so I'll skip it. You're welcome.

I decided to use the ground that I prepared on Saturday for my tomato plants. I bought six plants, and five different kinds. Two of paste tomatoes, two different kinds of large hybrids, and two different kids of heirloom tomatoes. I know that the roma, or paste, tomatoes will grow well, and I have big plans to make some of Rick Bayless's salsa and can them to use year-round. I'll definitely give some more info on this when we get to the canning stage of the year, because I'm pretty pumped. If you don't know me that well, I have a man crush on Rick Bayless. If you do know me pretty well, then, well, you already know and have understandingly forgiven me.

I bought the other four kinds of tomatoes because I really want to figure out what is going to grow best for me based on my location and soil composition. The two hybrids are Atkinson and Red Beefsteak, both developed by Burpee. The two heirlooms are Pink Brandywine and German Queen. The Beefsteak and German Queen are both supposed to be very large, dense tomatoes, and the Brandywine and Atkinson are both tomatoes of average size and yield.

While I love to grow anything, tomatoes are by far my favorite. If you've ever bitten in to a freshly grown tomato out of someone's back yard, you understand. It has gotten to the point where I can't even buy tomatoes at the grocery store anymore because of the way they taste. Did you know that all tomatoes at the store are picked and shipped when they're green? They are sprayed with a chemical that reddens the tomatoes instead of allowing them to ripen naturally on the vine. I'm not saying that this is unhealthy, but you can't tell me that an unripened tomato that is picked and travels 2000 miles to your local grocery store is going to taste the same as one picked from my backyard. Oh, and I don't think I need to tell you how many fossil fuels were used, how much carbon emitted, etc., etc. to get that tomato to you either. Grow it yourself people! Buy at the farmers market from local farmers! If it's not in season, eat something else. Yeah, I get cravings for stuff too, but imagine all the things your missing. Want a list? Hop on animalvegetablemiracle.com and check out the vegetannual. Have you tried half of the things on that bad boy? Do it. You'll be a happy, cleaner person more in touch with the world around you. Oh, and don't buy stuff from Chile. That's stupid.

Thanks for letting me rant a little today. This has become such an important part of my life that I can't help from sharing with everyone I meet. Have a great day, go for a hike, plant a tomato plant in that patch of dirt next to your house, in a pot on your apartment balcony or patio, or even at your parent's house. I'm sure they won't mind!

Today's Playlist

Good Ol' Fashioned Nightmare-Matt & Kim
All I Want is You-Barry Louis Polisar
Lookin' Out My Backdoor-CCR
Old Dan Tucker-Bruce Springsteen
Spaceman-The Killers
Shady Grove-Blitzen Trapper
Summersong-The Decemberists
My Name is Jonas-Weezer
Whole Lotta Love-Led Zeppelin
Blister in the Sun-Violent Femmes
Chicago x 12-Rogue Wave
Magic Carpet Ride-Steppenwolf
Naked As We Came-Iron & Wine
Ocean Breathes Salty-Modest Mouse
Ode to LRC-Band of Horses
Sweet Rose-Matt Costa
Dock of the Bay-Otis Redding

Ooooo, pretty!

Ok, so we'll start out with a little honesty here. I really don't want to go work in the garden. I don't want to put my gardening shoes on, I don't want to casually glance out the kitchen window at it, and I certainly don't want to have to go crawl around on my hands in knees in the dirt and pull up those stupid, godforsaken roots of grass anymore. In case you couldn't tell, a wall might have been hit.

I spent yesterday morning/afternoon weeding and raking the area in front of my green beans in order to plant my cucumbers. It really only took about an hour or two, but that was an incredibly long amount of time for the small amount of space that I picked over. It is probably only about 30 square feet, but it was a tough little spot. All I can figure is that I just didn't do a very good job of tilling in this spot because I had waaay more stuff to pluck out here than anywhere else. Oh, I of course I forgot that I have yet to purchase my cucumber seeds, so I'll just have to rake it again once my dumbass goes and gets some. Yeah, a little special needs today.

I do have a little bit of good news, though....MY LETTUCE HAS SPROUTED!!!! I can barely tell, but it's there, reaching for that yellow sun for all it's worth! I have only watered the garden twice since I put the original crops in, counting on the one day of rain and the good amount of moistness (word?) in the earth to help it out. My aforementioned ninety year old neighbor never waters his garden, relying solely on mother nature to give him a hand, but I just don't know if I trust that bitch enough. She can be a little persnickity. Especially when I call her that, so.....I'll probably be watering a little bit this year! Ha, suck it nature! Sorry, I get a little carried away sometimes.

I got nice and crispy yesterday, so I definitely needed to take it a little easier today. I got home from work around 5, farted around a little, and then headed out into the garden to get some planting done-NO WEEDING!

Yesterday afternoon I put corn, green bean, and yellow bean seeds in containers to help them sprout earlier. In all the books and articles I could find, I found that corn is not supposed to go in until you are sure that the average nightly temperature will stay in the fifties. So....I went ahead and planted it. It's been in the eighties here during the day and the sixties at night, and this looks like it will continue for the next week. It's a little bit of a gamble, but corn has an incredibly long growing period-three to four months. I planted four fifty foot rows with about one foot between each plant. I ended up putting forty eight seeds in the ground. I really could end up having tons and tons of corn, but it is easy to freeze, so I would rather have too much than not enough. I also planted my beans today and set them up on either side of my makeshift trellis. As you can see from the picture, it's in pretty long rows as well. I am really looking forward to having enough beans to eat all I can handle now and still have enough left over to freeze and help me get through the winter months. Wow, that sounded like I'm expecting famine, plague and lean months without easy access to any grocery store. Well, maybe I am.....Ha ha, sorry. Not an end of the world guy, I promise.

Today's Playlist

1. Tegan and Sara-I Was Married
2. Dave Matthews Band-Lie in Our Graves
3. Radiohead-Nude
4. City and Colour-Constant Know
5. Chris Isaak-Winter Waves
6. U2-Exit
7. Bright Eyes-I Believe In Symmetry

Short list today, but I really was only outside for about thirty to forty-five minutes. If you ever have any questions, you can always drop me a comment, and I'll respond as soon as I can. Sorry, but I hear beer calling me. Bye!

85....in April?

Yup, the title was accurate. Eighty-five degrees on April 5. Seventy-seven at 10 am. The season has barely begun and I am already quite crispy. I think I'm just complaining because I feel like it, though. In all honesty, it was an absolutely beautiful day here today, with plenty of sun and almost no clouds. Do I wish I had put sunscreen on? Maybe.....

I spent about two hours today raking, tilling, and weeding two rows about forty feet long. I have been looking ahead on our forecast for the next week or so, and it looks like we are completely in the clear concerning frost, and even cool temperatures in general. Since I have that slice of really great news, I've decided to go ahead and begin planting my summer crops in stages. Today's efforts were the first step towards that goal.

The first year I had a garden, my dad and I put three four by four posts into the ground about fifteen feet apart. Beginning about one foot off the ground, we attached chain link fencing to the posts. We planted rows of beans on each side of the fencing and trained them to grow up, through, and along the fencing. This was a pretty good idea, but our yields were never that strong. I always felt that we should have done a better job weeding than we did, but this will be the first year I'll actually be able to see if this was a great, decent, or piss-poor idea. If it can pass as decent, I'll be more than pleased.

This year I will be planting green beans along one side and yellow wax beans along the other. I don't think I'll have any problems with the two, but we'll see. This afternoon I pulled seeds out of each pack, placed them in water, and set them on the window sill to soak overnight. This is supposed to speed up the germination process, but I have never tried it before. Rolling the dice once again. I also put corn seeds in water for the same reason.

I have a lot to plant tomorrow, and I'm a little pooped from today, so I don't plan on doing any more raking or weeding until Wednesday. I know that I have to keep working on it, but I don't think I'll be able to describe the level of meticulous, annoying work it is to pick one root of grass after another. I need a day off from it.

Meanwhile, Two Weeks Later.....

So the intermittent rain and intense amount of work have kept me busy for the past couple of weeks. Big time. In the past couple of weeks, I have completed the following:

1. I have raked and pulled weeds, grass, pine cones, rocks, roots, sticks, and other various pieces of debris from about two fifths of my garden.
2. Since I have what doctors call "an inability to gauge distance, walk in a straight line, or put one foot in front of the other," I placed stakes on each end of four rows and ran kite string or twine between them to ensure that I planted straight and evenly.
   
3. I planted my first crops!!!!
4. I raked a forty pound bag of peat moss (fancy name for cow shit) into the area I will be planting my corn in a couple weeks.
   
5. I discovered that I hate weeding, raking, and anything to do with bending over for long stretches of time.
   
6. Oh, I have to either start doing some yoga, or start drinking enough beer to convince myself that I don't ache all over. Any guesses as to which activity I will be participating in?
   

Today I planted the earliest of my vegetables. I really should have put these in a month or so ago, but with all the rain and a 40 hour a week (sometimes-heh, heh) job, it has been impossible to finish preparing the soil for planting. From left to right, I planted twenty foot rows of lettuce, red leaf swiss chard, cabbage, and bok choi. All of these should be ready for harvest in six weeks to two months, which is just about perfect. By June 1st, I should be dining on incredible salads, succulent greens, and all the ingredients of some incredible egg rolls and potstickers.

The amount of hard, physical labor that has been involved in the past couple of weeks hasn't been too bad. I can tell you that I have had every ounce of my patience and work ethic tested, though. If i squatted down in one area, it would take me anywhere from fifteen to twenty minutes to pull up all the grass and weed roots that I could reach from that spot. Multiply that by about fifty and you've got a pretty good idea of how I spent my time lately. I'll say this for the first, and definitely not the last, time on this blog. STUPID FREAKIN' WEEDS!!!! Whew, that's better.

I now have to prepare the remaining six rows for planting. I'm planning on finishing them up in the next two weeks, and having the rest of my garden in the ground by the end of the month. Optimistic, but I really feel like I need to get my ass in gear in order to have the longest harvesting season possible.

Today's Playlist

1. Whole Wide World-Wreckless Eric
2. The '59 Sound-Gaslight Anthem
3. The Cave-Mumford and Sons
4. Adventures in Solitude-The New Pornographers
5. Adrift-Jack Johnson
6. Advice for Young Mothers To Be-The Veils
7. After All-Wyclef Jean
8. Ain't No Easy Way-Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
9. Coma Girl-Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
10. The Girl-City and Colour
11. Hang Me Up To Dry-Cold War Kids
12. Furr-Blitzen Trapper
13. I Made a Resolution-Sea Wolf
14. Diplomat's Son-Vampire Weekend
15. Like the Way She Moves-Chris Isaak

Parting thought-Asparagus, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Blueberries, Strawberries and Cabbage are in season right now!!!!!!! Go get you some fresh produce wherever you can.

Holy Frijoles, This is a Lot of Work!!!

So I spent most of the day working outside, doing everything from cleaning the garage to trimming the front hedges, but most importantly, I worked in a freshly tilled garden! The feeling of soft, fresh earth compacting beneath your feet as you make your way across it is something that must be experienced by each and every person. I spent about an hour and a half in the garden today, raking and pulling clumps of clover and grass that had been tilled last Friday. I will probably not be planting any seeds for at least a week since we are supposed to be getting thunderstorms and showers for the next several days.

I should have attempted to rake the day that I planted, but I can't imagine doing everything in one day. I think that if you own your own tiller you could till a little bit at a time, rake when you finished and save the rest for another day.

Day One of Many

I'm going to use this blog to try and document the growth, success, and possible miserable failure of my attempt to create an urban garden in a normal sized backyard in the Five Points area of Huntsville, Alabama. I'll have fairly regular entries that will document my day to day tasks, tricks I've picked up, things that did not work at all, and my overall goal of becoming as self-sufficient as possible. I'm a new home owner, so that challenge is going to be incorporated on a regular basis as well.

Let's start out with a little backstory, shall we? I have to admit that this isn't my first garden, just the first that I've done completely on my own. I've worked on gardens for the past few years, but always with my father. I must admit that he did most of the work, and I came up with most of the plants and ideas that just never seemed to work out quite right. He passed away this past winter from a long illness, so it's all mine now. My wife, Kaylin, and I moved into his house, and I've taken over the backyard plot.

I've decided to make the space even bigger this year, almost doubling the area I've used in the past. It's now 40'x34' for 1320 square feet. I feel both incredibly excited and a little overwhelmed by the amount of space. I've plotted out my crops using Excel, and have, in theory, set aside proper spacings for each plant.

I rented a rear-tine tiller yesterday from Mullins Equipment Rental here in Huntsville and it set me back to the tune of $88. I know this sounds bad, but I wanted the bigger more expensive tiller. I've rented the smaller ones in the past, and have found the extra $20 to be money well spent. I have the tiller from Friday 3/19 until noon on Monday 3/22. Not bad, right? I spend two and a half hours tilling yesterday and it completely wore me out. I mean, big time. A few hand blisters, a decent arm scrape, and I lost a pinky toe in the tiller tines, but no other wounds. Sorry, just kidding about the pinky toe. All day yesterday I kept thinking about how I didn't want to lose a toe, but running the tiller is no more dangerous than walking behind a lawnmower, so don't worry about that.

In the next day or two I have to go through the entire plot with a garden rake and pick out all the tufts of grass and clover that are left over from the tilling. I can tell you from experience that if that doesn't happen, you have grass growing in between your crops. Been there, dealth with that. The first week of your garden is possibly the most work, but if you cut corners, you will feel it the entire season. Weeds and grass will crop up quicker that you can hoe them out and they will take water and nutrients from your plants, which will result in smaller plants and smaller yeilds. I have to tell myself this over and over because bending over and weeding is my least favorite part. Seriously, it's really horrible.

Music Listened to While Gardening Today

Eli, the Barrow Boy-The Decemberists

Corrina, Corrina-Bob Dylan

All I Do-The Lightning Seeds

I'll Fly Away-Gillian Welch

Method Acting-Bright Eyes

England-The National

Off the Hook-CSS

Method Acting-Bright Eyes

Well, until next time, go outside, bend over, and put your hands in the dirt. It feels amazing and you won't regret it, I promise!