More garden stuff

[sillygoosegirl]

I planted my zucchini and cucumber today. I decided to start them inside because they said things like "late spring" and "May" on them. But I don't want to run into the situation I had last year where I had hardly started getting produce from them when we started getting winter frosts.

Then I checked the weather. We're supposed to have another freeze this week. It's supposed to snow on Wednesday. And here I am planning to ride my bike to work, rain or shine, sleet or snow... I thought I was going to have a few months to get used to biking before I had to deal with the latter! It's almost Easter for crying out loud! Then I checked my journal entries about my garden last year (I should use the tags feature more, it's nice for stuff like that), and you know what? I didn't plant my garden until late April last year! And as I recall, I planted it right before the last frost too. Sigh. At least my peas, parsley, and green onions should be okay... they all say to sow seeds directly outdoors as soon as the soil is workable. As for the basil, oregano, and dill we planted last night, I guess maybe I should start more inside in case they don't make it, as I do have more seeds in all the envelopes.

All this time I'd been thinking I was getting off to a really late start with all this gardening stuff. I've been talking to my mother and sister about it a little, and I think they have their gardens planted already. I keep forgetting how much later spring comes in Chicago than it does in the Pacific Northwest. The daffodils are only starting to bloom... that means I should remember that outside it is still only late February, even though it's April inside on my computer.

I've also been reading up on indoor and patio composting. I would really like to be able to compost, for so many reasons (well, mainly spiritual/environmental and plant-food reasons), but I need to figure out how to do it without putting myself at risk of getting evicted or divorced. That probably means figuring out a way to do it without making a mess or a nasty smell (and the lady down stairs thought she didn't like it when water dripped off my plants). And apparently that is quite possible... from what I'm reading, it seems that with the right mix of ingredients, smell shouldn't actually be a big problem.

Also, I've been reading a bit more on container gardening too. Not surprisingly, a lot of information about indoor/patio composting has links to info on container gardening. And I'm realizing how stupid I was for starting my indoor plans in some of our pasta bowls. Sure, I can do without our pasta bowls for a couple months and wash them when I'm done with them... but they provide no drainage, and obviously I'm not about to drill holes in the bottoms of them. Why on Earth did I choose pasta bowls when I have a box overflowing with plastic and metal containers waiting to go to the recycling center? I think I am out of touch. It's been too long since I've lived with my mother... I've gotten so out of the habit of re-using things for other purposes. Sure, it's been fun to be my own master and just buy a "whatever" that was designed to do the task at hand... and sometimes it's still the best option (I think I will look for a small composter that is on a stand for turning to keep it easily oxygenated), but lots of times there's stuff on hand that I can make work just as well in a pinch... and all I would need to do would be to stop and think.

I need to remember to look at the half-full part of the glass, and that we need to build the republic of heaven where we are. It's useful. And now to go make some draining containers and plant some basil, dill, and oregano.

Oh, yeah, but first, one of the cooler things I found: Grow a pillar of vegetables -- 12 square feet of growing area on only 1.2 sq ft of ground. (Not that I'm going to attempt this one... at least not this year!)

Comments

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

My dad is pretty much the master of all gardeners...he's amazing...I should send you some pictures of my parents' yard. Anyway he always used to just have a compost bucket in our kitchen. Sadly, I didn't inherit his green thumb, so I can only tell you what I observed. Basically we used an old kitty litter bucket with a nice top that closed tightly. Whenever we opened it up to put something in, the smell was horrible, but it didn't stink up the whole area...we just closed it back up after making a deposit. I guess he did the actual composting part of it in the garden in the front yard, so maybe this isn't very helpful after all. I can ask him.