Like looking at a blank sheet of paper before writing a novel. This could go anywhere! So much space for imagination!
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Yes! I drew up a general garden plan last night. Then I pulled out my companion planting books and drew up a detailed planting plan. I am officially obsessed! 
Iâm blaming it on my previous courses in landscape architecture. Today will be a busy day.
The biggest issue with this gardening style is keeping it well fed until the end of the season. Right now we donât have a compost bin and we badly need one.
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Good news! I followed @LadyDuck âs advice to post my loose sand on Buy Nothing, and someone is interested. My new theory of how the sand got here is that someone needed it for a project, a bag broke or it otherwise spilled, and no one cleaned it up.
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Also: for other folks who get very dirty working in the yard, talk to me about your garden laundry system! I think we need a separate bin in the bathroom? Laundry yesterday took me 100 million hours with all the sorting and dirt shaking out.
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Pre-sort. We have one laundry basket that lives in our laundry room which is right next to the kitchen so all the kitchen towels, bath towels, and yard work clothes get thrown in there. I brush off all the extra dirt outside before I take them off but theyâre still going to be somewhat dirty. The other laundry baskets are in the bathrooms, yard work clothes do not go into those baskets.
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I donât really shake dirt off (donât really get loose dirt on me?) But I keep and wash yardwork clothes separate because there is always the possibility of tick and/or poison ivy contamination, so I just keep them separate. My washing machine and my drier are tiny (like Japanese or Korean apartment sized?) so 3 pairs of long pants plus shirts is a load. Sometimes I re-wear pants if I am sure there are no ticks. I almost always wear long pants because of the above (unless it is really hot). I wash on cold (because of the poison ivy) and dry everything on high heat because of the ticks. (Damn those ticks.)
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We finished planting one bed at least! Also bought a tumbling compost bin that has yet to be put together. Weâll plant the second bed tomorrow. Iâm exhausted.
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Feed with azalea food (blueberries like acidic soils (low pH), which is why they do so well in my area (naturally low pH soils).
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Just planted roses yesterday and todayâs forecast calls for hail lololol
Put upside down buckets and blankets over most things which took like an hour.
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Depending on what it is, im eother clean enough it goes in with my normal tshirts etc, OR i walk on through our laundry door, strip and put my clothes into the machine, turn the machine on and then put myself in the shower. If Iâm really concerned (e.g. recent asbestos, maybe if i was working with compost?) Iâd run the clothes through 2 washes and then run the machine empty on a 90*C cleaning cycle. (I ended up throwing out the asbestos clothes and am so sad about losing my jeans).
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We did manage to assemble the tumbling compost binâŚ56 screws and nuts later. . It took both of us.
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I had good success using acidic potting soil, that used by Camellias and Roses, in a big self watering pot as Bloobs like moist, not wet, roots.
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Yesterday down around 112, this morning down to around 104. Technically still active, but obviously cooling. I would have rebuilt the pile yesterday, but I had to work all day and only had a chance to cut some of the lawn after 6:30 and by the time I was done it was too late. I can cut more today and rebuilt the pile with a lot more greens, I guess⌠I still have some leaves left too, I could make a second pile and have a comparison.
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Dumped elderberry in the compost that Iâd bought as freeze dried fruit and then had made tea out of through the early part of the pandemic (has antiviral properties). Now we have an elderberry forest right beside the porch! Itâs native and hardy and marvelous. I may have to find somewhere else for compost.
So anyway, elder is blooming here but our new bushes were a bit behind the wild ones until we got some rain yesterday . They are partially under the roof overhang so get some water but maybe not enough. Anyway a bunch of flowers opened after the rain. So I watered them better this am.
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!!! This is amazing that they grew!
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Itâs DONE! Finally finished planting our backyard vegetable garden. We still have a blackberry cane to plant, and 2 pepper plants. But the peppers are going in a cloth pot on the deck, and the blackberry is going into the back yard.
Neighbour has offered us cantaloupe seeds. I wonder if they will tolerate part shade? Maybe I can get them to climb an oak or maple tree?
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Seed varieties planted in our small garden. Bear in mind we did square foot gardening combined with companion planting. So while this seems like a lot of seed, we actually planted few seeds of each variety. Also some of this seed is 2 years old and some is from a friend. So we werenât out as much money as it looks like we might have been. We also planted herbs, tomatoes and peppers on the deck in containers.
Our total outlay for seeds and starts this year was approximately $200 CAD.
Scarlet Runner Beans
Sugar Snap Peas
Top Notch Hybrid Golden Wax Beans
Alice Sunshine Beans
Chioggia Beets
Fireball Marigolds
Conservor Shallots
Jewel Mixed Nasturtiums
Chives
Lettuce mix
Red Sun Carrots
Black Prince Turnip
Redbor Kale
Prizm Kale
Black Magic Kale
New Zealand Spinach
Rover Radish
Rally Leeks
White Satin Carrots
Winksâ Jacobs Cattle Beans
Seaside Spinach
Patio Snacker Cucumber
Ireland Creek Annie Beans
Red Baron Onions
Blue Jay Beans
Super Hero Yellow Marigolds
Lakeside Spinach
Rosemary
Sweet 100 cherry tomato
Swiss chard mix
Miami Carrots
Bullâs Blood Beets
Blue Curled Scotch Kale
French Breakfast Radish
Dalvay Peas
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More questions about bloobs:
FedCo says that I need multiple varietals to pollinate each other, but the plant sale only had one kind. Is that true and how do I figure out what varietal I currently have?
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