A weekend in the garden

The plants are starting to perk up in the garden, the seedlings were mostly ready (on the front porch), and I think I've let the compost sit long enough. It's time for planting. Out front, I spread several wheelbarrow's full of compost and planted the remaining seeds I saved from last year: larkspur and lavatera. Since I am such a bad composter, lets hope that tomatoes and cucumber don't come up in the compost, fighting them out for space. I also added another stone path to extend the pathways across the garden to the opposite side of the yard.A left-over from last fall are the pansies. The color of these are awesome. I am also a little surprised that they weathered the winter.The only sad development is that all of the hollyhocks that I transplanted from the back to the front have been eaten by rabbits. I am not relenting and added more hollyhock seedlings to this area. Lets hope that something survives and blooms this summer.Out back, I moved around some plants and put down several more wheelbarrow's full of compost. I planted the tomato seedlings as well as some sunflowers. I'll put in the cucumber and pumpkin as well as the basil next week if I find the time. The seedlings are very small so they can stand another week or so on the porch anyway.This past fall was the first year we did not cut back the raspberries. It is not an experiment or anything, I just got lazy. The first buds of raspberry flowers are starting to show. I wonder how long before we can begin harvesting?

How does your garden grow?

If you visit this site often, you'll realize that I am kind of an accidental gardener. I try things out that I see on TV or read on the web. I am very interested in plants and organic gardening so I am always trying to learn something new to try out at home. I see gardening as a kind of therapy. I am usually out getting dirty early in the morning or after work if it isn't too hot.

I realized that up until now, I usually post about the garden without including a lot of info - mostly pictures. I figured it was about time I departed from that and shared some of my successes and some of my problems (usually occurring simultaneously).

I don't use chemicals in the yard. I have started putting down blood meal and I use my own compost but that's about it. I hand weed, use a push mower, and get water from my rain barrels. Most people think I'm crazy. I don't consider myself to be on the forefront of anything "green" and frankly, I think it is laziness that keeps me gardening this way. I would loose track of chemicals and fertilizer and such and probably end up killing myself or my plants. Same with the motorized gardening equipment. Shovels are dangerous enough for me. I am guessing that the folks before me did something magical to the soil in this place because it doesn't seem that I need to do much for the plants to do well.

My yard has about four main areas where I garden. The easiest (and most rewarding) part is the raspberry border along our back fence. I cut this flush to the ground in November and then in the following year, I get two crops of raspberries. One will come in another week or so and then a second will arrive in early September. Besides embellishing the fence this year, I don't do much in this area of the garden.

I also have a vegetable garden and then two flower garden areas (one in the back and one in the front). The vegetable area is usually not too exciting: squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and this year we have peas and will soon be harvesting garlic. I pulled up our first garlic today and it still isn't ready but I'll use it in pesto tonight. You allow the garlic to flower but fold the flowers back so that energy can be diverted to the bulb. The flowers are also tasty in pasta dishes. I use a red variety (see how the stem is kind of pink) of garlic and plant cloves about 9" apart. Each clove will produce a full head of garlic.

Next to the veggie garden, I tried something new this year: potted lettuce. I have bib, romaine, kale, and chard all growing in pots. The optimistic side of me said that this would help keep it away from the rabbits. I'll let you know how it all does. So far, after two weeks, it all seems happy.

Across the yard is a small herb garden: basil, rosemary, and nasturtium. We have a mint patch that we are letting go crazy as well. Basil does extremely well in our yard. These 12 plants will produce more than enough pesto for the summer.

I compost. I am starting to think that I am not a very good composter. I put all my yard waste and all of my veggie waste from the home as well as coffee grounds and egg shells into the compost heap. I layer this and then turn it every week or so. The reason that I am calling my compost skills into question is that I am starting to get some odd (nice, but odd) plants around the garden. Most notably, I have squash plants sprouting in every area of the yard. I also have a few strawberry plants popping up and now tomatoes. I was told that seeds would not survive in the compost but I must be doing something wrong because they are obviously surviving. I am going to pull most of this stuff out but I am going to let the squash in the front yard go to see what happens - it might even look nice up there. If anyone has any idea what I'm doing wrong, please let me know. Oddly enough, no weeds have started sprouting up this way - only fruits and veggies. So far, I consider this a minor nuisance but maybe it will have it's own rewards later on.The back yard flowers are primarily perennials that I planted last year and the year before. I am particularly proud of the hollyhocks. They were started from seed and got about 2 feet high last year but never flowered. This year, they will top out above 4 feet and are about to flower. The anticipation is killing me. I moved the lilac next to them but today I dug it out and moved it away because the hollyhocks were getting too big and stunting the lilac. I hope to eventually transplant a clump of these out front. When they bloom, I'm sure I'll be bragging about them on the site.

I also have two trellis with clematis on it and hanging baskets. A funny thing happened this year: one of the clematis got blown off it's stem in the spring. A brand new plant came up but it seems healthier than the one that was there before and fuller than the one that did not get damaged. These are starting to flower. This is a pic of the one that got no damage. The one above is the other. Should I cut these back every year? I need to do some research.The front yard saw a big transformation this year. I designed it to be like a woodland path. I know, there's no woodlands but hopefully it will eventually grow up and feel more "wild". Many of the plants are left-overs from wildflower seeds and perennials (blue bells, forget-me-nots, lilac, black eyed susans, etc.) I put in last year. I am still trying to identify everything. If anyone knows what those pink phlox-like flowers are, please let me know. They have kind of a furry top with great flowers. These and the forget-me-nots are everywhere but I would like to control them a little better so they look a little more deliberate.

This year, I also started five new patches of flowers. They are all doing well and if the hollyhocks are any indication, these will look great in another year. One patch is echinacea, another foxgloves, another is lupins, one sunflowers, and finally (and I know I will catch hell for this from some of the housebloggers) I planted a patch of morning glories up front to grow up one of my columns on the porch. For background on the morning glories, just click the keyword in the sidebar and you can read the controversy. I saved seeds from the ones in the back. I still maintain that these morning glories are pretty spectacular and unlike any I've seen - they should look great out front. If anyone wants some morning glory seeds, let me know.

The intent of the front yard design was to have it expandable to the entire front yard and to create a fun place for my daughter to play and an easy way for me to tend the garden. It is fun and hopefully will continue to grow along these lines striking that odd balance of "wild" and "planned". I hope that I can do this without buying any more plants though. Between the front and the back, I think I have over 20 different varieties of perennials - plenty to fill the yard, I think. Right now, it is not very photogenic but it looks good in person and I bet it will look great in a few months.

A full day in the yard

I spent about 12 hours in the yard trying to do some major overhauling today. I made some progress on the back and got about half the front yard done. I stopped work because it started thundering but then the sun came out again. I didn't have the energy to finish so I did an art project for the back fence with my daughter instead. With the art windows and the hanging baskets, I think the fence looks nice. I am sure in some circles, folks might think it looks trashy but I think it brings an air of elegance to our plastic-filled yard.While working in the flower beds, I added a lot of the compost I have been making (actually, the little worms and other things have been making it, I've just been putting the stuff in there to help it along). The compost seems to be a huge success. It is litterally infested with earthworms. I swear that there were a few in there that scared me - HUGE. I tilled it into the beds I dug up. My wife exclaimed, "thank God we don't have boys." Hopefully this will make for happier plants. I think I moved about 25 3 gallon containers of the stuff. Not bad for one year's worth of kitchen and yard waste. Time to start over. I prepared for the day's work the night before at a local "temporary" nursery buying plants, mostly perennials. They had some really nice plants labeled native. I got some more black eyed susans, delphinium, and shasta daisies. I got three of the native plants but I can't think of their names. I better keep the little tags with them so that I can remember what they are in the future. As they flower, I'll blog about them. I want to throw down some more seed but haven't done that yet. I filled in here and there with some marigolds and alyssum and otherwise made do with transplanting what I already had. Can't wait until everything takes root and is bigger next year.

Considering the Environment

As a way to celebrate Blog Action Day, I am writing down a list of things that we do here at the Tinybungalow in the hopes that in some small way we will impact the environment in more good ways then bad.

1. Live small.
I am not suggesting that everyone should be living in an 800 square foot home but it is worth considering why people in our country seem to need so much space. Regardless of how energy efficient your home is, an extra two or three thousand square feet per home is just not sustainable.2. Live in an old home.
If you don't have to build it, you don't have to use resources to manufacture it and you will create less waste during construction. The greenest building you can build is the one that you don't build at all.

3. Get off your butt and walk.

I hate driving so this is an easy one. When we chose this home, we knew we wanted something near public transit and within walking distance to park, school, and village. Burning off the last meal you ate will do yourself and the environment much more good than burning fuel in your car.

4. Recycle.

It doesn't take a lot of time to have an extra garbage can for recyclable items. If we could find the space for it, then anyone can. If it can be used again, help to put materials into the recycling pipeline.

5. Re-use and Re-purpose.

We love Craig's list and e-bay. Old stuff is usually cooler than new stuff anyway. Now, we don't buy everything used but there is so much that you can buy and sell so why not do it? An old piece of furniture will do more good in your home than it will in the area landfill.

6. Compost.
A lot of people think composting is rocket science. We do not have a composter - I prefer to layer stuff in a big pile. The result is great. If it can help out your garden then why would you throw it away?7. Repair, don't replace.

I am a fan of our old plaster walls, the wood windows, and just about every part of this old home. There are some good reasons to update particular items in old homes but why create waste and use resources when you have something that works and is currently in your home.

8. Go bottle-less

It is tough to avoid them - this is one item that we have had some difficulty embracing but so far, so good. To help the water taste better, buy a water filter and instead of buying several cases of water a week, use refillable bottles. The nice part is that we save money.9. Put in some CFLs.Look, they even have holiday ones now!10. Install a rain barrel

Putting in a rain barrel is not the easiest thing to do and it does add a little more maintenance to the house. We love them though. Why pay for water when it's free?

The weather has been great!

I think that this is the first "real" spring we have had since we first moved to Chicago 10 years ago. The weather has been pretty great and except for a few serious downpours, it has been relatively warm with clear skies. The yard is doing well. The garden looks great as well. The inside of the house is a mess but the outside is looking o.k.After a couple weeks of using the rain barrels, I have learned a couple of things. I can water the yard (front and back planting beds and garden) daily for a week before I run out of water. Perhaps I'll get two more next year for the other side of the house because they are working well. Unfortunately, I can't use a soaker hose unless the barrel is completely full. So I need to find some other way to easily water the wildflowers coming up in the front. I also have a little tweaking to do with the barrel installation as my front barrel is creating a lot of splash onto the stucco during a rainstorm. This is not good.

We are almost used to the whole composting thing. We located the pile adjacent to the garden. It is separated by a wire fence "pen". I have been trying to layer kitchen wastes with yard waste and stockpiled leaves. We keep a medium size tupperware container near the sink and put all peels, coffee grounds, etc. in it and dump it when it fills (every couple of days). I create two stockpiles at the front of the pen, one for yard waste (weeds, grass clippings, etc. - these I collect each morning I work in the yard) and another of old leaves. The only reason I have these is because I had a scarecrow from Halloween that we never disposed of. I turn the pile weekly and water it every other day. It is already looking pretty good and there are no odd smells or visible signs of rodents. Even the rabbits are getting more scarce.

The weather has been so great, I even resorted to making some much needed repairs on the back step and today I cleaned out the garage. It is a little disconcerting to have so much space in there. Maybe it will rain next weekend so that I can get back to working on that bedroom.

The past few weeks

We like hosting visitors. It is a lot of fun to spend time with family and friends, it is a great excuse to visit that restaurant we always wanted to go to, and it is usually nice to play tourist in our own town. We have had visitors, in some form or another, for the past 4 weekends. It has been a lot of fun but unfortunately not much has progressed on the house. I don’t think we have even properly cleaned the place in 5 weeks – a somewhat scary thought.

All has not been lost though. I have made some strides in the yard work over the past few weeks. It is actually pretty easy to do work in the yard while people are visiting. I can get out early in the morning (usually between 5:30 and 6), before anyone is awake, and muddle around as much I like – as long as I don’t make too much noise. Since I have been able to spend a lot of time outside, and since it has rained quite a bit for the past few weeks, the yard is looking pretty good. The rain barrels are now both installed, the wildflowers are doing well in the front, and the vegetable and herb garden is planted and thriving. Another highlight is that it appears the first crop of raspberries is about a week or so away.

The installation of the second rain barrel went a little easier than the first. I partially credit the learning experience of installing the first one but more importantly, I credit the vinyl screen I used on the top in lieu of the metal one I used on the first. I typical HATE plastic on, in, or near the house but using the plastic screen made the installation so much easier because you could screw the top of the rain barrel right over it without it binding, tearing, or slipping out (like the metal one did).

We have the beginnings of a nice compost pile. I have layered stockpiled yard and kitchen waste with dirt and leaves. We are now composting just about anything within reason. I haven’t built a decent enclosure around it (that might make too much noise) but it seems to be doing well and has yet to spill over into the garden.

Our back porch has hopefully seen the last person trip on it. After much goading from just about everyone that has used it, the rear stair has had a major overhaul. Now we just need to get used to it NOT creaking when we walk down it.

After much anticipation and much publicity, the cicadas never came. I had hoped this would be a highlight of the blog for the past month but the few we had were eaten by our ravenous robins. I hear a faint call here and there but not the chorus that seems to be developing in the nearby forest preserve. Maybe we’ll have a better showing in another 17 years.

The inside of the home has not changed in about 6 weeks but this will hopefully change as we are not expecting our next visitor until the end of July.