Oh, how our garden does grow
Last weekend we got a wild hair to actually do something about our yard, which was beginning to reveal us for the secret redneck trailer trash we really are. Our attack was three-pronged:
* Daddy built a sprinkler system for our front lawn, using some pop-up sprinklers, a timer, and a bunch of PVC. The sprinkler system was something Daddy had been dying to do for ages, but in the end was something I, of all people, pushed him to do after I spent some time in the lawn-care section of the library. Now the grass seed in our front yard sprouts and grows lush! To the edge of the sprinkler radii, anyway.
* Daddy replaced the disgusting, half-rotting wood fence along the back edge of our backyard (which was not our responsibility, but I DIGRESS) with an all-new dogeared one. It is beautiful enough to garner a second glance out the kitchen window each morning as I pour my coffee.
* I began planning a vegetable garden. While at the library perusing lawn-care books, I couldn't help but notice all the gardening books nearby. Planting a garden is something I've been meaning to do since we bought the house, but only now are the kids old enough that I feel it might be attainable. Plus, Isaac is suddenly fascinated by the idea that he could plant seeds and watch them grow. My first act as O'Neal Vegetable Garden Steering Committee Chair was to suggest that Daddy build us a compost bin. After a half-hearted perusing of some illustrations in one of my new favorite books, The Frugal Gardener, Daddy and Isaac teamed up to build the following container of their own design from scratch. I swear, that Daddy could give MacGyver a run for his money.
It is now my daily joy to take my vegetable and fruit scraps and coffee grinds and tea bags and eggshells and dump them in my backyard compost bin, squirting lots of water on them, and watching random bugs fly all around as I do so. All this is so delightful to me that it makes me thank the sweet lord I have no female offspring.
Our thought is to let the compost bin rot its little heart out over the winter such that its contents might nourish our well-planned spring garden. But in the meantime, I wanted to do a little test-run in the garden department, also to satisfy Isaac's need to watch things sprout from seed. So we planted a container garden of fall crops on our new patio.
I let the boys each pick something they wanted to plant. Jake picked peas, which are now beginning to sprout nicely a week later. Without even seeing any seed packets, Isaac announced that he wanted to plant beets. BEETS. How did he even know about beets? Have *I* ever even had a beet? Well, now I shall have to, since they will apparently be the bumper crop of the season. They started sprouting like crazy only three days after planting.
Per Daddy's suggestion, we planted spinach and mustard greens. The mustard greens came in a close second in the sprouting race.
My choice for planting was a bunch of herbs -- rosemary, oregano, parsley, and catnip -- and they made quite an embarrassment of themselves in being the last to sprout. Everybody is up now, though, except for that lazy, no-good rosemary.
* Daddy built a sprinkler system for our front lawn, using some pop-up sprinklers, a timer, and a bunch of PVC. The sprinkler system was something Daddy had been dying to do for ages, but in the end was something I, of all people, pushed him to do after I spent some time in the lawn-care section of the library. Now the grass seed in our front yard sprouts and grows lush! To the edge of the sprinkler radii, anyway.
* Daddy replaced the disgusting, half-rotting wood fence along the back edge of our backyard (which was not our responsibility, but I DIGRESS) with an all-new dogeared one. It is beautiful enough to garner a second glance out the kitchen window each morning as I pour my coffee.
* I began planning a vegetable garden. While at the library perusing lawn-care books, I couldn't help but notice all the gardening books nearby. Planting a garden is something I've been meaning to do since we bought the house, but only now are the kids old enough that I feel it might be attainable. Plus, Isaac is suddenly fascinated by the idea that he could plant seeds and watch them grow. My first act as O'Neal Vegetable Garden Steering Committee Chair was to suggest that Daddy build us a compost bin. After a half-hearted perusing of some illustrations in one of my new favorite books, The Frugal Gardener, Daddy and Isaac teamed up to build the following container of their own design from scratch. I swear, that Daddy could give MacGyver a run for his money.
It is now my daily joy to take my vegetable and fruit scraps and coffee grinds and tea bags and eggshells and dump them in my backyard compost bin, squirting lots of water on them, and watching random bugs fly all around as I do so. All this is so delightful to me that it makes me thank the sweet lord I have no female offspring.
Our thought is to let the compost bin rot its little heart out over the winter such that its contents might nourish our well-planned spring garden. But in the meantime, I wanted to do a little test-run in the garden department, also to satisfy Isaac's need to watch things sprout from seed. So we planted a container garden of fall crops on our new patio.
I let the boys each pick something they wanted to plant. Jake picked peas, which are now beginning to sprout nicely a week later. Without even seeing any seed packets, Isaac announced that he wanted to plant beets. BEETS. How did he even know about beets? Have *I* ever even had a beet? Well, now I shall have to, since they will apparently be the bumper crop of the season. They started sprouting like crazy only three days after planting.
Per Daddy's suggestion, we planted spinach and mustard greens. The mustard greens came in a close second in the sprouting race.
My choice for planting was a bunch of herbs -- rosemary, oregano, parsley, and catnip -- and they made quite an embarrassment of themselves in being the last to sprout. Everybody is up now, though, except for that lazy, no-good rosemary.
posted by Claire at 11:45 PM
2 Comments:
Have fun with your garden! Very fun! I am terrible with our garden - it's bad when your cilantro starts FLOWERING!
Gardening...I hope someday I have a little bit of a green thumb. But something tell me it will probably just die. Planting herbs is definitely cost effective. That stuff is kind of pricey in the stores.
Beets?!
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