Garden Frugality

I read an article in one of my organic gardening magazines (a free subscription, no doubt) a few months ago about a family planting their garden on a budget of like $50. I was intrigued because after all, what good is this garden thing if I can't pull it off frugally?

One thing I had going for me was the fact that a neighbor tills the garden for us each year. While I am always tempted to find $300 to pluck down on a manual tiller I accept the annual till and then use old fashioned elbow grease to keep the weeds out for the rest of the year.

Next up: plants. My plan to grow tomatoes from seed failed. I find tomatoes difficult to grow, like some mystical experience I just can't quite master. I don't know why but I've yet to have any success. Instead I took $20 and went off in search of nice healthy plants last weekend. The rules: stay under $20, get as many varieties as possible, and buy all local (and locally grown, hopefully).

Between Mount Eden Nursery, Cheeks Produce, Polk House Plants & Produce, and Garden Gate I picked up the following for $20:

Tomatoes

1 Giant Tree

1 Mountain Fresh Hybrid

1 Manalucie Red

1 Chuck's Yellow Beefsteak

1 Razzleberry Hybrid

2 Pink

1 Celebrity

1 Floramerica

1 Big Boy

1 Green Zebra

1 Persimmon

2 Cherokee Purple

1 German Johnson

2 Yellow Jubilee

1 Better Boy

1 Grape Tomato

1 Beefsteak

1 Big Beef

I already had at home: 2 green pepper plants, 1 red pepper plant, and a jalapeno plant.

At the house I had planted: zucchini, straightneck and crookneck squash and pickling cucumbers. I also have white half runner beans leftover from last year and several packets of other green bean varieties bought during a buy one get one free Earth Day sale.

Which means all I needed were burpless hybrid slicing cukes and okra. I already had seeds for both at home.

Be frugal!

So, I planted a tray of Okra and Cucumbers. They started sprouting a couple of days ago when this thing showed up:

And burrowed itself in the middle of them. It's been there two days now and seems to show no sign of leaving. Meanwhile in the overgrown 'bird retreat' there are a dozen baby frogs hopping around. It seems the pond has brought all the creatures to the yard.

At least I had good intentions.

Unleashing the Inner Crafty

Riley visited last week and as you can see she came wearing her stylish little sun hat. So, so cute. At some point during her visit me and Riley's Mama got to discussing headbands. Specifically the little dent marks that store headbands leave on baby heads. Krystal said that Riley had only worn one a few times because she felt like she was somehow abusing her child with those dent marks. Crazy as it sounded, I sympathized.

And thus my crafty weekend was born.

I spent Friday night googling some headband alternatives and came across a great...dent free...idea that involved pantyhose.

A needle and thread, clearance hose for 50 cents from the Dollar Store, hair clips, a glue gun and loads of ribbon later and I was in business.

I made one headband with a loop of ribbon attached, each clip with a bow attached can be interchanged on the headbands.









I've been experimenting with various bow styles all day, with admittedly shaky hands...hopefully I'll eventually get the hang of it.

In other unrelated news, this was my garden bounty yesterday morning:



Amazing. Lots of recipe ideas in the work, I'll try sharing them this week as I go.

The Garden So Far

The progress from April 26, 2008 to this evening.

More Taylor

I swear I'm not becoming a Taylor Swift blog. It just seems that way.

Anyways, me and my people watched this George Strait Artist of the Decade thing on CBS tonight. A bunch of singers covered their favorite George song. Taylor did 'Run' and we instantly decided it was one of the only songs of the evening that we didn't wish George was actually performing instead. (2nd place going to Jamie Foxx of all people!)



Jon says she is one of his 'favorites', which is totally teen boy code for she's hot. And if you tell him I told you all this I'll call you liars. But I doubt he'll deny any of it. Her poster is hanging on his wall.

*****
Final Plant count for those in the know:

54 tomatoes
18 peppers
14 squash/zucchini
10 cucumbers
5 melons
2 eggplant
47 silver queen corn
15 okra
an onion bed
basil, parsley, chives, cilantro

And we reused the trays that all of the plants came in to start seeds of sunflowers, gourds, and pumpkins. We'll also start fall crops in more trays at some point.

Sweet Basil

The most fragrant basil.



Saturday Farmer's Market find. Purchased from the sweetest New York accented ladies.

The car still smells like a pizzeria.

I Love a Good Birth Story

Going on in the blogosphere this morning: Crystal of about a million blogs, my favorite being MoneySavingMom.com gave birth to her new baby boy last night (MomofLittles: Join Us in Welcoming...). Silas Benjamin was born at 10pm and they were home by 2am...crazy! Midwife assisted, birthing center, all natural-no drug delivery, and a very cool story. There are so many different kinds of birth stories, exciting ones, natural, drugged, c-sections, emergencies. I love reading how different they can all be, yet the same (they do all end with smooshy babies at the end). Don't know why...just do. :D So, congrats to Crystal and her family this morning.

*****

I'm procrastinating, something that will probably not pay off in the long run, but you know how that goes.

I'm trying to train Molly to go outside to use the bathroom. Christina, my poodle from my youth always did. Jill runs away if you let her down outside so she uses puppy pads. But I think Molly has potential.


She is very curious about everything at this stage in the process. And Jack is maybe a little concerned about her peeing all over *his spots*, but hopefully they'll each get over their issues.


The bird retreat needs mulch. And birdseed. And hummingbird food. But it's taking on a decidedly kitschy vibe this year complements of my brother, the landscape king.


I have to remember to get pictures of more of the detail. But you can kinda tell some of them in this one. The glass crush bottle, the makeshift water hole, the rocks, yard art and garden gnome. Cotton Cuddlesworth IV really enjoys his new digs.


Plant Status:

Still not in the ground...

Seed & Feed

Monday I finally picked up the cilantro seeds I needed and I planted them last night.





Chives have been growing for days now. The sprouted super fast, which is awesome.


I was in Crestwood yesterday so I stopped by the 'Crestwood Feed and Seed Depot' where I found the elusive White Half Runner Beans. I also picked up four packs of pickling cucumbers for $1.25 each (I bought 2), 3 Bush/Garden Baby Watermelons for .89 cents each (the packs had 2-3 plants a piece), and packets of hard to find gourd seeds and mini pumpkin seeds.

Long story short: I have a ton of stuff to plant.



Those beans are supposed to be amazing. They have quite the cult following amongst people 'in the know'. My Grandpa always canned them, and I happen to think anything my Grandpa did garden wise is probably really sage advice to remember.

Planting starts this weekend, a week later than I'd like, but I can't help the rain situation so oh well.

Smorgasbord

I would kill for Blake Lively's legs.



And her hair.



And her boyfriend.



Basically if I'm ever reincarnated I'm coming back as Blake Lively.

In other news, remember when my Chiweenie, Molly, was having trouble learning to walk on a leash?

I found a little video proof that she mastered it!

And since I enjoy blogging the mundane, I immediately uploaded it to share.

I know, I know, you can thank me later.



Interesting things about this video:

*Wow, I have a shrill and annoying voice.
*You can hear the water! I miss the water. Quick, somebody get me to a beach.
*See all of the shells? That is the amazing thing about Sanibel. Seashells as far as the eye can see. Miss, miss, miss. Although the living room is overflowing with vases of them from our trips there.

I found this photo as I was organizing my set from this trip (I know, only a month and a half later! I still haven't even had any printed!). I just like it. I love it when storms roll in at the beach, the way you can see them coming from the horizon with nothing blocking your view. Sigh.



And finally, more of the Butterfly Set. Just because I liked how these turned out.











There is always that butterfly (or one identical to it at least) stuck to that flower every single day. I mean, I knew planting a 'Butterfly Bush' might attract a few, I didn't know they'd be moving in.

But I like it.

Garden Update

When I started my garden this past spring I couldn't have foreseen what was to come. As I carefully cultivated my soil, worked in compost and chose my plants there was no way to tell that 2 months down the road I would have absolutely nothing to do with it anymore.

I should have seen the warning signs in retrospect. How my father gave me the evil eye as I was planting in a spot he didn't deem 'right'. Or how he scoffed at the spacing saying I'd not planted them far enough apart despite following every written direction I had at hand.

But about a week or two into the process it was becoming abundantly clear I was losing control of my own project, as he'd prod me awake at ungodly hours because I needed to water my garden at least twice a day. This after I'd read in my latest gardening magazine purchase that most people OVER-water their tomatoes. You can't tell men named Bob anything.

The piece de resistance came a few days after we returned from vacation when he doused the mother effing hell out of my plants with a combo of Miracle Grow and Sevin Dust. When he was finished an entire 5 pound bag of Sevin Dust was gone and my garden looked like a scene out of White Christmas.

I could have cried.

No, scratch that, I did cry. A lot. Because I wanted it to be organic. Because I knew that everything I read said that using Sevin Dust does nothing more than leave your plants vulnerable by killing the good bugs too and allowing the bad bugs to just come back stronger and less defended when the dust washes away.

And come back they did. Within weeks my plants were covered in cut worms. The leaves were browning and curling. One squash plant was dead with a capital D.

But he wasn't finished yet. Despite my protests that I'd decided to leave my tomatoes unstaked to allow a bigger yield of fruit he decided to wrap them with twine and in true Bob fashion...WAY too tight. So tight that weeks later as the fruit became ready to pick you almost couldn't get it out from the mess of twine. And immediately after the wrapping the yield slowed to an almost stand still.

It's not ended as this morning he picked a mess of tomatoes I would have not touched for days because he "doesn't want them to rot". I was livid. Crying, again for the thousandth time in regards to this garden.

I love my father, I really do. But it doesn't make up for us having what I will admit is a most difficult relationship. This garden has become the physical manesfestation of every problem we have. If I say the sky is blue he says it's yellow, if I say up he says down, if I say organic he says Sevin Dust.

So in the effort of being honest and upfront on my blog I felt I should update the garden disaster for everyone who asks me now, "how is your garden". My garden is a mess. My garden is not really my garden anymore. I'm trying to let that go.

But if left to my own devices and my own piece of land I feel confident that one day I could really garden gloriously. I'll just have to make sure my father doesn't visit.

In other progress news, my room makeover has stalled. Mostly due to a change in plans, since I'm now considering a 'fresh green' color palatte. When I finally set down the design magazines and start painting, you'll be the first to know. You know, if I ever decide to make a decision.

Photographic proof that despite what I have written here, I don't want you to think the garden has been a total waste. (Just not how I'd have done it. Which is hard for a control freak like me.)







Although I'm not kidding about the Sevin Dust. This was one of his lighter applications:

Identity Crisis

In my lifetime there are many things I thought I knew about myself, or the way my life was going to go. Like how I never wanted children, would graduate in four years from UK, would never enjoy frugal living, wouldn't dream of having savings accounts and investments and by now I'd have gone to Europe at least once and met some beautiful Greek man of my dreams. I would also never do things like garden or work my hands through a container of cow shit.

Oh how life makes liars of us all.

It goes without saying that I am most definitely not the person the 16 year old version of myself thought I would be. And I would say I've embraced these changes in myself and my attitude towards life. My biological clock is ticking, I'm perfectly fine with being a 5th year Senior, I love saving money, can't wait to have investments, and Greek men are no longer my idea of perfection.

However, I can't say I've embraced the goings on of the past two weekends. And today as I was elbow deep in compost and topsoil I whispered to myself, "I don't even know you anymore."

I can tell you this little "hobby" of mine is time consuming, body ache consuming, and pocketbook consuming. But I am loving it. Every single, dirty-icky-disgusting cow manure filled minute of it.


Last weekend I finished the bird retreat. This weekend I put the final touches in by planting various little plants, not visible to the naked eye yet, and finally putting the container together for the dogwood.






I then proceeded to "what the hell, let's go for it" and put together a small garden. Without a tiller, might I add. Saturday I drug my mother to Cheeks Produce in Elk Creek and bought 16 beautiful tomato plants. I picked up three squash plants today and a cucumber bush to complete the ensemble. I worked the ground the old fashioned way, added soil and compost, planted and added the weed-ex lining. I ran out of mulch to finish the top, but pretend it's all covered.






And when I was done with all of that I decided I wasn't done yet, so I dug a hole for my Redbud tree (yes, the one I dug up myself), staked it into the ground, mulched it and stood back to enjoy the view.





And while I'm tired, overworked and underpaid and no longer know myself I have decided in the end it is all worth it. Especially when I can sit back and watch these little critters:

Before and After

I worked hard all weekend long to finally reap the rewards of my little backyard makeover project. On one hand I can count the number of things I've planted in my lifetime, they all happened on Saturday.

I am so thrilled with the end result. Not because I think it's some kind of masterpiece, but because it's all a product of my hard work. It's a very satisfying and rewarding thing to be done with.

Here is the before, a tiny space that housed two shepherd hooks with feeders on them. All in all it worked wonderfully as a space to attract the birds.



However.

This:



Is so much more amazing.

When everything starts really taking root and spreading out I imagine it's only going to get more amazing. I can't wait.

And yes, I sat on the patio waiting for the first birds to arrive after I filled the feeders. It took about 5 minutes!

The Details:

• The tree is a flowering dogwood, which according to my research does well in containers.
• We can't plant the tree there due to a lateral field in the backyard, so the only option was container planting.
• There is a dogwood bush in the back, on each side of that a compact holly.
• The white shrubs on each end are azaleas.
• All of the flowers, except for the red petunias, are perrenials...including English Daisies, Salvias and others I can't recall the names of.
• Clematis is the only thing missing, it will grow up the trellis.
• Oh and I suppose Mulch is missing as well, I simply haven't bought it yet.

Caution: Girl Talk Ahead

It would seem I have two menstrual cycles, one which leaves me lying in the floor crying from the pain...oh dear God the pain and the other which leaves me relatively pain free but an otherwise blubbering, yet full of rage, emotional mess.

This week it's been the emotional mess I've been dealing with. I have, in the last three days, managed to cry over the following:

• Cole Slaw
• my Mother
• otherwise happy music on the radio
• Little People, Big World
• Dancing with the Stars
• "Dan in Real Life"

I'm rounding a corner and should be fine by the weekend. But geez...it's getting a little pathetic.

In other news, I figured my car lot weekends were over now.

Ha. Right. So my mother informs me last night that she needs me to follow her to the Honda dealership tomorrow because they are fixing a cylinder in her driver's side door and reprogramming the keyless entry. After that she needs me to follow her to garage where they will be replacing her brakes.

Happy joy down in my heart.

Other things I've been doing while suffering from blog block this week besides taking pictures:

• Buying milk from a local dairy
• Planting bulbs of gladiolus and raniculus. The latter of which I can't find a proper spelling nor picture of. But when I brough them home Jon looked at the package and said, "Raniculus? More like ridiculous!" Then he laughed like an old man and held his hand up for a high five.
• Catching up on all of the neighborhood gossip. Which, remember as we re-enter the warmer seasons, I live surrounded by housefuls of extremely religious people of several denominations. Including a pastor from a prominent Mt. Washington Church. The gossip never ends. (You know those kinds of church goers. Don't deny you don't. "I'm not into spreading rumors, so listen close the first time." Yeah.)
• Trying to find a suitable pet friendly hotel in Amelia Island, Florida. I've had loads of success with Savannah and have a list of about 12 different options. But Amelia is turning into a crapshoot. Unfortunately this is one area of this trip where I can't just go with the flow. As is the nature of traveling with pets I suppose. I'm currently considering St. Augustine or Daytona as a backup.
• Officially killed all of those seeds I planted. They sprouted. Things looked promising. And now they are dead. Moving onto Plan B on that one. Which would be buying the plants from a nursery or garden center. Oh well. Can't win them all.
• And finally I'm trying to talk myself into purchasing a Blackberry. So far, I've got myself pretty well talked into it. But does anyone have experience with them? The reviews have, for the most part, left me salivating. But I always enjoy hearing personal accounts.

Look at that! A real post. Aren't you all proud?

P.S. Any guesses on what Amalah is having for those who read her? I initially thought girl after comparing ultrasound pictures from a Google search, but I keep second guessing myself.