A New Year

**This post is a long one, it's an intro and most will not be this long!**

Last year we planted a garden, it was an experiment and a rush job.

This year, we hope to actually grow some tasty additions to our menu and we hope to help others in the process.

This blog will tell the story of our gardening trails. Not just the good, but also the bad. Were going to post tips we find, toss out information that we come across, and hopefully help others to create their own little slice of the country in their backyard.


One of our problems with last years garden {and there were a myriad of them} was that we did not give our plants space or depth enough to grow. The bed was a previously a sandbox and after emptying it we started a layer garden. We did not give enough layers for the plants to really take root and show a yield. This year we started from scratch.


Almost the same time last year as we started our garden we acquired a mass amount of "landscaping" rocks. They were various sizes and shapes and were from someones yard. The listing was on craigslist and basically was a you move, you keep deal. No funds involved other than the gas to get them to and fro.

We spent several hours over a two day period and gathered as many truckloads as we could. The idea at that point had been to use them for a patio.

The more we moved, the less they looked like possible patio rocks. They were large and odd shaped and sharp edged. Something we were going to have to seriously dig out for. And so they sat.

For nearly a year they sat in our front yard collecting leaves. I was determined they were going to be used.


This winter we decided several trees in our yard would have to be removed. They are encroaching on the house and one we believe to be dead. As such, we started discussing the plans for this years garden. My husband mentioned the stones out front, asking if perhaps we could build a rock wall for the garden. We'd already used a couple of stones here or there to help in our reshaping the flower beds to help with the flow of water across the yard in the rains.

It was decided quickly that that would be a great way to use the rocks.

Now, there are only a few spots in our yard that get decent sun right now. Most of the yard is covered by tree shade. The one area that does get a bit of sun was lower than the rest of the yard. So first we had to build up the yard in that area.


We've been quite busy over the past fall and winter and thus had lots of leaf matter in the yard. We raked the majority of this into the area of the yard that was lower as fill. Every time we went out and raked up spots we'd add it to this area. Instead of hunting down a load of dirt and just tossing bags of leaves out to the curb, we managed to fill the area several times over with leaves. {I did say we have a number of trees!}

About two months later and the ground was nearly level. When we ran out of leaves we used some of the neighbors. They were fine with us picking up their bagged leaves.

The wonderful thing about doing this is that we created a very nutrient rich bed in which to start our garden.

Our city does not have a program that I've seen in some other cities where they offer mulch/fill for free. Ours charges for it. We would rather compost our own mulch*.

Lines set out we built our garden wall in one day.

It's not perfect, it's quirky and makes me think of wild English gardens. I cannot wait to fill it with leafy greens.

But sprouts come first.



*We will discuss compost in another post later on. It's great stuff and simple to fix if you feel you've done something wrong.

Help with Ants

Posing a question to all of you homeowners and gardeners.

We've always battled ants at our house because it's older and has lots of small places they can sneak in. Every year we find new spots to fill with caulk and we lay down some serious nasty stuff to get rid of them.
(blech I hate using chemicals like that, but when it's the only thing making a dent...)


This year they've been extremely bad. I'm used to seeing one or two and then finding where they got in at.....but three times they've invaded in larger numbers this year. I'm talking from spring to now!

The kind of ant we have seems to not care about water as they keep trying to take over my bathroom (in the shower!). They've left the kitchen alone as of late, only trying there once. So I'm wondering, what do you guys do?

It's getting silly, I don't want to waste any more money on chemicals if they just aren't going to work and cinnamon hasn't stopped them a bit. Not even bleaching the entire bathroom (which was said to make the ants at the colony ostracize the bleach smelling ants) has worked. These are some tuff little guys.

We've bombed under the house and in the attic, seeded the yard with a spreadable seed like poison and sprayed the permiter several times. They just keep coming back.

To me it seems like they've got a nest somewhere we just haven't found the critical entrance yet. But I have combed the house. We've killed so many other bugs around our house the spiders are getting brave and exploring the floors for something to eat! (*shudders* I cannot stand spiders)

Help?

Tomatoes, Squash, Lettuce and Pumpkins

Being the only things that survived in our little garden, we've decided next year to really give it all some space.

The tomatoes are doing fine, I've gotten three little cherry tomatoes off my plant and have another pair growing up there right now. Still waiting on everything else to produce, but as most are 50 days or more...should be soon.

Tomatoes

My neighbor brought me a bag of tomatoes he'd traded some peppers the neighbor for. He said she gave him too many for them to eat so he thought he'd share.

We love tomatoes so we were more than happy to have them.

Seeing those bright red yummy treats made me a tinge jealous though. My little tomato out there is still tiny and green.

Patience is something I am working on regaining.
I'm sure it will be delish when it finally ripens though and I hope it will have some tasty siblings soon!

Our Second Growth

So far....so meh.
We've gotten nothing much out of our sprouts so far. Granted, we weren't expecting a ton as we were bad little gardeners and left the sprouts in their pod greenhouse for too long.

Unfortunate, but something we didn't really have to much control of as the weather was so wild here for a bit. Of course that was right when the sprouts were ready to move on.

So I've gathered one more bean pod and we've got our first tomato growing on it's little stalk.

I've got to buy more dirt this weekend as my squash plants have managed to push around enough in trying to stretch in their new home and have nowhere down to go. So I'll add some more top layer and cross my fingers.
It is layer gardening after all. ^-^

Til next time!

So a fresh start, litterally!

Come on in, pull on your gardening shoes and grab a chair in my back yard.

This blog is going to contain the mishaps and *hopeful* success of our family garden. We don't want much, just a few things that we love to eat and tend to buy often in the stores as is.

So here is a list of whats growing in our garden.
Lettuce
Pumpkins
Tomatoes (Big boy and Cherry!)
Yellow Squash
Green Beans

Now...when we started this project there were a few other seeds sown that didn't make it.
A moment of silence for
Spinach
Watermelon
Sunflower

Yesterday I spent the day creating a layer garden for our plants...who frankly were out growing their seedling box in leaps and bounds.
I layered newspaper (damp), organic matter (leaves and a manure mix), and then a couple of types of garden soil to round it out.


This morning I planted all the survivors and the newly purchased Tomato plants.
I also went worm hunting for some wrigglers for the garden ^-^

So far so good, we've actually gotten our first little harvest out of the seedlings. Not quite enough for dinner, but they look great to this amateur gardener.


Well, this little gardeners pooped! Off for a catnap.

I'm in a foul mood.

Ok, First off a little back story.


About two weeks ago I was out shopping when Hubb called me. Apparently our Co2 alarm was going off. He wanted me to call my dad so that he could talk to him about it. My dad is a vol. fireman. They both thought it might be the battery but then decided it wasn't and Hubb called our local fire department. They came out and checked the levels and they were dangerous. Thankfully the boys had not actually taken their nap when we'd asked them to earlier in the day because their room was one of the worst.
Everyone was ok, and life went on. We figured out the reason for the Co2 build up and fixed it.

Then the other day we get a notice in the mail. Apparently the local government considers the fact that while the levels in our house were dangerous and needed the attention of a person with a meter while no one was hurt, a false alarm. To me thats bull*#@t.

There was no FALSE alarm. It was a real alarm that was raised and needed. It wasn't like an ambulance was called out and none of us were needed to be rushed to the er. It wasn't like we yelled fire when there was none. There was a real need for someone with experience. Had we just called the local gas co and said, hey we think we have a leak, they would have said " Ok, we'll come check it out when we get time." No rush. And we could have ended up needing to go to the er! I mean really.

Granted the notice did not say, heres your fine, but I don't see the reason in recording what wasn't a false alarm as one. Nor should I need to get a permit for our Co2 alarm! Fire and Co2 alarms should be standard in homes. That should be mandated by law. The fire department offers free fire alarms, they should also offer the Co2 alarms for free. Every house should have one and it shouldn't be considered the same issue as a burglar alarm.

Which is my main problem. The form they sent me and all the information on their website said that they considered fire andCo2 alarms to be the same as a burglar alarm. Not true. I can see it being easy to bank up a bunch of false alarms on a security system. Forget your code, false alarm as it immediately contacts the local authority. But a fire alarm or a Co2 alarm going off means somethings wrong. Really wrong! Unless its a bad battery and even then it beeps at you and you fix it, no authority contact needed.


The notice also said that if the form wasn't returned in a certain amount of time there would be a fine levied against us. Thats redonk. I can see slapping someone with a fine the third time there was a false alarm and there was no paperwork on file, but a fine because you didn't fill out some form saying, Hey I've fucking got the standard equipment in my home to keep my family safe and I've contacted you more than once because of it?



I think I'm contacting a local representative about this shit.


And don't get me wrong. I know there could have been a real fire somewhere else in the city and the fire department was sitting at my house checking the levels. And I understand that there is a cost of gas, a cost of machinery, and a cost of paychecks, but really, thats their fucking job. They should get paid more because they came out to a call that didn't result in a traumatic experience than one that does?


And by the way WTF, we live two min from the fire station, they sent a big truck with 6 guys to check out a Co2 call? They have a fucking suv, two guys did all the work, they carried around a box that read levels and then walked out.


Oh and just incase your wondering what dangerous levels they were at, the gas company guy tried to walk into our attic *which is behind both the boys and our room upstairs* and nearly fainted. He said he couldn't even get three steps past the attic doorway before he got really dizzy. So yeah...false call my ass.