Vitamin G: A Heavy Hit of Garden Love

Today’s goal was to plant the thyme in the galvanized bucket that I picked up at Callahan’s last Saturday. The bottom of our last 16 gallon bucket rusted all the way through.  Of course one thing leads to another. I spent a few hours pulling weeds first in order to clear out a space for said herb bucket. Depending on the kind of weeds you have, removing them can be very satisfying. You have to grab them at the base and pull straight up, sometimes rocking a little. If the roots release from the soil, and you can tell if they do by the sound and surrender, you’ve done a good job. I mostly have hedge parsley and rye near the raised beds, the satisfying, easy to pull weeds.  I had to use two bags of soil to fill the bucket. The thyme slipped into place easily. But it seemed so bare. There was enough room for chives so now I have a thyme and chive bucket. I’ve always had tremendous luck with thyme so I don’t doubt that the French and Creeping thyme that I planted will do well. We s...

   

Remember me? No? That’s okay. It’s been a minute or two, or three. I lost control of the garden. It was a slow descent. It could happen to any gardener, really.  Where there once were eggplant and melons and lavender is now a matted mass of weeds, both low growing and tall. It was overwhelming so I turned my back on it. Even my very small meditation garden was neglected.  Last year I had a heavy snail infestation. They were absolutely everywhere. Now, I fear, my soil is harboring their eggs. What to do, what to do? Baby steps. Pull up all snail habitat which was primarily baby blue eyes. That is about 90% done. There are still little clumps here and there but mostly it’s gone. However, more weeding is required. Much, much more.  I am clearing out areas and putting in new plants right away. I’ve actually been much better about planting what I buy. I have introduced Amethyst Falls wisteria, Magic Carpet polygonum (forgive my spelling errors), I put some bacopa in a containe...

  ALERT! June, July and August have gone missing. The last time I posted here was in May and it was about my microgreens and sadly, shamefully, I did not follow up. In brief, the outcome was just okay. Turns out my dear husband does not care for radishes, not one iota.  But hey, that little experiment was back in May. There are days ahead to play with microgreens again, just not anytime soon. I am in full anticipation of fall. I've started broccoli seeds inside under the grow lights. I have Belstar and a fancy purple broc. They came up in 3 days. Yes, you read that right, 3 days. I'm waiting on the chives and celery to come up. I also started cumin - that's the wild card. I know nothing about growing cumin. This is probably the wrong time of year for it but if it works out, how thrilling will that be?!  As for garden plans, I have a few. I've pulled up everything that I could along the front fence. We went to the nursery and looked at Pink Muhly grass. Michael has alway...

  Let me start by saying I haven’t a clue what I am doing. Michael and I went to a little, and I do mean little, restaurant last week - Nixta Taqueria .  The food was beautiful and good. So, so beautiful and so very good. The tostada was delicately presented, not a way I would have ever thought I’d describe a tostada but nonetheless.  They used microgreens in several of their dishes. Now, I’ve grown bean sprouts in the past, like many decades ago but these were no bean sprouts. These were lacy and purple.  Needless to say, I had my next project.  I wanted to grow them inside as opposed to the backyard because I wanted to make them readily available for Michael. He has a late night salad after work several days a week and I always feel bad when he has to go out to the garden with a flashlight and scissors to snip this or that for his dinner.  The first thing I purchased was a grow light. It came a week before the microgreen seeds so I set it up and placed a ...