The Sounds of Spring

Last weeks assignment from Gayla for the Grow Write Guild was to record what your garden sounds like.

With the beautiful weather this last weekend, I had ample time to spend in my garden, on my knees, head bent over the dirt. As I've mentioned before I have many trees on my lot and as a result, we get a number of birds. I'm constantly hearing them call to one another, or at one another.




Picture taken by hubby.


We also live on a corner, so I often hear the sound of cars going down one street or the other. But I was surprised at two different sounds I heard this weekend.

The first is so distant and constant that which is probably why I never noticed it before, not even sitting on my deck. We live about a mile from the freeway. When I stopped and really listened, I realized that the white noise was actually the traffic flowing along at a steady clip. It never ceases to amaze me the distance that sound will travel. At my last house we often heard the train whistle that was over two miles away. And that is in a day and age when there are motors whirring everywhere. If you don't think there are, just sit outside and listen during a power outage. The silence is so complete as to be almost deafening if your aren't a country dweller.

The second sound that surprised me this weekend was the endless chatter of a new garden helper. The little girl who lives behind me was out playing while her dad mowed their lawn on Saturday morning. She came over to say hi and then said that she often helps her grandma pull weeds like the ones in my yard (my dandelions had gotten completely out of control while they waited for my husband to have a day off to mow them and they were up to her hips!). Then she asked if I wanted help pulling mine. I asked if she was sure and she got excited and demanded her dad find her gardening gloves. I set her to work with a weed fork in the area I'd outlined for one of my beds while I started to dig the stones in. She did a good job in her floppy blue adult sized Sherwin Williams gloves and she told me all her family secrets in the way that five-year-olds often do. We agreed that we would have to make chocolate chip cookies as a thank you for all her hard work.

Here is a picture of the garden layout with three of the beds dug in.

Quite a change from the original layout I'd been playing with.

Gardening Inspiration

Our latest assignment for the Grow Write Guild is to talk about who your gardening inspiration is. For me, my biggest gardening influence would be my grandma Dot.

Grandma is no longer with us. She passed about 3 years ago at the ripe old age of 90. She was one tough bird and a God fearing woman (though it was often debated whether she feared God or he feared her!). She raised 4 boys who were piratically stepping stones in age. My dad hates gardening to this day because of the memories he has of serving out punishment pulling weeds.

Grandma was from New England, and lived in Illinois most of her married life. When Grandpa retired they moved to Arizona. She could never quite get the hang of the climate out there. She was constantly upset because the 120 degree summers would burn up her tomatoes and other plants. It was probably because of their time spent in Phoenix that she became an avid houseplant grower as well. They eventually moved back to Illinois to a small town and we moved near them when I was in the 4th grade. She helped me start my own garden  in an old ash pile (the one I talked about in my first assignment). I dont' remember what all I planted other than the carrots. I remember the carrots so well because when I finally harvested them, they were barely an inch long! Meanwhile, she helped my mom grow 8 tomato plants (we didn't know what to do with all the tomatoes!) and helped her make grape jam out of the grapes from the vine that was in the yard when we moved in. We ate grape jam for the next three years and I don't like it to this day!

I didn't get into vegetable gardening until I was an adult and by then Grandma lived in upper state New York and we didn't really communicate except by birthday and Christmas card. By then she wasn't gardening anymore because of her osteoporosis and it just didn't occur to me to ask her advice. But I never fail to think about her when I'm in the garden. I wish I'd gotten to know her better.

Grow Write Guild - Changes

So I'm horribly behind on this post. I mean how hard can it be to stand in place and describe your garden. As it turns out, pretty hard. I usually write these posts away from home so there's that. Also, until last weekend I didn't actually have a garden yet. Not even a clear vision of my future garden.

A few weekends ago, DH tilled the area where I knew the veggies would go. He did it while the ground was pretty wet, but he'd set aside time especially for that project. I wasn't going to get in his way. He was missing Little Wars for me. Needless to say, the venture did not turn out well. Mud caked the rototiller and we didn't get more than the top inch broken.

So last Sunday, after a week of the ground drying, I tried again. It went smoother this time. Suddenly the layout became clear me. Small squares lined with bricks.

 In the picture you can see the first one. I had to redo it after getting it in because my first attempt was askew and I knew it was going to bother me. Even though I'd tilled, I still got down on hands and knees to hoe/hack up the weeds with the deeper roots. Six hours in the sun and nary a tan line or pink nose to show for it. Darn.

I've chosen this spot to record my garden from because I know I will sit here a lot. Also, I can see much of my yard from here. Ahead is a large piece if semi-tilled land with one square, clean patch of ground that now holds my garlic, some marigolds and will soon be home to my onions and shallots.

Hopping along in front of this ground are two bunnies. My first ever! One checked out my peonies then hopped away. Two of the cats are now on high alert behind the screen.

To my right is a tree in flower. Its been suggested that it might be a crab cherry tree. Its lucky its pretty. I hate trees that bear fruit I can't enjoy.

To my left is a birdhouse where a sparrow couple has been setting up house keeping. We've named them George and Gracie. Only my middle cat takes notice of them and he talks at them in a frustrated 'Ick Ick Ick'. (Bonus points to anyone who came name the reference I just made.)

Lastly, here in my enclosed porch is one cat on His chair, two more on patrol, pansies, hyacinths and a clematis all in need of a drink and a transplant for the last two. The sun is shining, birds are talking to each other and its 69 degrees.At this moment it feels a little like heaven.

Blogging problems and past gardens.

What is with Picasa? I've been trying to upload pictures from my phone for over a week now, and every time I do, they fail. It's driving me crazy because it was the easiest way for me to add pictures to a blog post. I'm attempting to use Google + even as I type this, but if that doesn't work, I'll have to link up to Flickr. Uhg! So frustrating. Maybe I should just go back to old school and upload from my SD card after taking pics with my actual camera.

Grrr. Flickr won't work. Google won't work. So much for today's post. I was going to show you my garden layout. I can't run out and take a picture of it either because I'm at work. So instead, I'll wow you with pictures of my old garden. My FIRST garden!

These are from 2009. I'm almost certain that this was the first year I tried any sort of vegetable. I'd had flowers the year before. I can tell because the lilies are looking good, and I've embellished the Lily of the Valley's with "yard ornaments".

The vegetable of choice was lettuce in a pot. It grew so well! The only problem was that I didn't know when it was done growing. I'd never grown loose leaf lettuce before, so I kept waiting for it to form a head. Well, instead of forming a head, it bolted and became a big ugly mess.
I'm trying to remember what else I was growing in those pots other than lobelias. I do know that accidentally grew something edible, but I didn't recognize it as such at the time.

Does anyone have any idea what this is? It comes back every year and I've never attempted to eat it - not even once! I wonder if the new renters will even notice it, or if they'll mow it down.

And this was my pride and joy that year. I grew eggplant. In a pot. More than one actually. Unfortunately, I never ate it either. Again, I wasn't sure what to do with it other than Eggplant Parmesan and I already knew I didn't like that.

I run into this problem every year. I love growing vegetables, but we're not really big vegetable people. We're more pasta people. And potatoes which you already know how that went last year - not so good. This year my hubby wants to try corn. I've heard this is hard to grow, then I sign on to FB and see my brother-in-law with stalks of corn in pots down in FL. By golly, if he can do it, I fully intend to try. Gardening may be the one area I get a little competitive in. *wink*

(Lack of) Planning Gardening Projects

We had nice weather this weekend so I worked out in the yard on Friday. In fact, I worked like a mule (hauling heavy materials) and paid for it all day Saturday with sore muscles. Way to forget to stretch first. Yeah, right, like I've ever remembered to stretch first!

My gardening projects usually go like so - walk out to the garage to retrieve something, notice pile of bricks under porch. Realize that it's just a matter of time before the rose bushes fill in and I won't be able to get to said bricks without risking my general well being. Go back to garage and retrieve heavy duty garden gloves and proceed to crawl between rose twigs to retrieve the bricks. Discover there are way more bricks than I realized and that I'm not appropriately dressed for crawling around in the dirt. Proceed anyway. Pull out close to 50 bricks, putting them in piles behind my back. Crawl out from under porch and decide that the wealth of bricks would make a good outline for my future garden. Notice that there is a large area of yard that is actually getting full sun! Proceed to transport bricks 5 and 6 at a time (while still wearing inappropriate for gardening clothes).

Yep. I did that. But at least I can visualize what that area will look like now. I'm certain my neighbors are loving the randomness of bricks at the back of my property. Don't care.

Shade Veggies

I found this picture online someplace. I think it came from a Facebook page, Plant Gardens Not Yards. Anyway, I'm posting it here, so I don't loose it.

A Fantasy Garden

This is the garden that you would make if you could do ANYTHING. -Gayla of You Grow Girl
Reponse to Grow Write Guild Prompt 2

My fantasy garden exist in the pages of magazines and seed catalogs. I want a garden that is in color all year through. One with multiple growing seasons. One with fantastic weather. In other words, I want to live in California. Haha.

One of my favorite seed catalogs actually comes from California, and she sells the most amazing (to me) flowers. Annie's Annuals offers everything from shrubs and grasses to flowers, succulents, vegetables and trees. Some of my personal favorites are the poppies.



Papaver Commutatum "Ladybird" (Pic from Annie's) - looks like a ladybug!



Papaver "Danebrog" (Pic from Annie's)

We had a field near our house one year that someone had sprinkled poppy seeds all over. I loved driving past that field every morning. Here's a picture of it.

So let's see, in addition to poppies, I want a rose covered arbor...

From Sunset.com

because I think they're romantic and I want a gazebo with a white wrought iron table and chairs underneath like one featured in this years Flea Market Gardens magazine. 

Image borrowed from Flickr


In fact, I wouldn't mind a fantabulous potting shed like the one featured on the cover.

I want a whimsical garden,

one filled with wrought iron, a pond, fantastic lighting, an outdoor seating area, a shallow cave with a fairy garden in it, all covered in moss and teeny tiny flowers.

A climbing tree with a tree swing is a must and I want ivy climbing over everything and morning glories galore! The smell of honey suckle in spring, and the smell of lilies of the valley without having to actually put up with the lilies of the valley! And Asiatic Lilies that stand strait and don't grow 20 feet tall (OK, it's actually only 6', but their stalks are so ugly!).

I also want an apple tree, just one, so I can have apples all fall and winter to enjoy with peanut butter but not so many I grow sick of apples. And not just any apples, I want them to taste like Honey Crisps.

I want one of those trees that blooms white and pink in the spring,

and tons of Alpine strawberries that the squirrels and bunnies actually allow me to eat before they devour them all!

And a greenhouse made of old window panes like this one.


Image from GlassforGreenHouses.com via Flickr


I thought this blog would be hard to write, but I can see now that I could go on and on. Writing this blog has helped me remember that there are things I want in my garden that are do-able. When you're faced with as much yard as I have, it can be intimidating. Where to start? What to put in? Sometimes maybe you just need to let your imagination run wild to find a good starting place, rather than a practical one.

I will end with the quote Gayla included in her prompt, because it has struck a cord deep inside me and I want to be able to read it anytime I need a reminder that the world may not be perfect, but it is full of possibilities.

“I shall never have the garden I have in mind, but that for me is the joy of it; certain things can never be realized and so all the more reason to attempt them. A garden, no matter how good it is, must never completely satisfy.” – from My Garden (Book) by Jamaica Kincaid