Kitchen Gardening Expansion: Day One A Virtual Bust

But let me explain...

I'm the type of person who needs a lot of planning time.  By "planning time" I mean I need to see things drawn out on paper.  I need months to agonize over it.  I need people to tell me how I should design stuff so that I can disagree with them and haggle back and forth with them over trivial details until I finally achieve clarity or give up from  mental exhausted.  The reason I'm such a freakazoid over this stuff  is because I simply cannot stand the feeling of regret.  It's too uncomfortable for me - it makes me feel bad about myself and who needs that? 

I blame Pie Guy and GB for this unproductive gardening day.  You see, they've abandoned me.  We used to be able to spend a few minutes per day planning (arguing over) my next garden move but now GB has a new job and Pie Guy has gone off to medical school so I'm all along (cue the violin!)  Yes I know that we can still discuss by phone and email and it's not as though GB has moved to a whole different state preventing us from ever getting together (cough cough Pie Guy) but it's just not the same. 

So yesterday I had my  what-if-my-design-sucks freak out, during the planned work session eliminating any chance at productivity.  Not a single plant was dug up, not a single blade of grass removed.  I mostly just sat on the patio staring at the area we'd marked off, hating the entire plan. 

I. My original plan

1. Small enclosed kitchen garden area.
2. Two 3x3 foot compost bins at the back by the privacy fence
3. Four 4x4 raised beds.
4. 3 foot path down the center of the two beds and 2 foot path around the rest.
5. 1 foot raised beds on the left and right sides for strawberries.

II. Problems with original plan

1. Small ended up being way bigger than I'd expected and I still have this ridiculous paranoia about grass removal.  Even though we've decided we're never moving, I can't stop thinking about resale.
2. The space is entirely too big to only hold four 4x4 beds. 
3. The paths, though very necessary, take up too much garden real estate.
4. It makes my yard seem freakishly boxy, square, harsh.  The house is square, the patio is square, the garage is square, the basketball court is square and here I am inserting another square. 
5. Surrounding the new garden with a fence seems like it would ruin the scale of the garden compared to the rest of the yard.
6. I didn't want to move that many plants.  I thought I'd just need to move things from the Spirea to the Weigela but as it turns out I'd need to remove the Iris, Sweet Autumn Clematis and a bunch of other stuff.  I have not had any time at all to agonize over where that stuff should be relocated to.

III. Possible new plans (what's your favorite?)

1. Scratch the fence all together and keep existing plan. see section I.
2. Scratch fence and extend the garden further toward the house making it less square and giving me more raised beds.  Still move all the plants along the fence so that the compost area and raised beds are butted right up against the privacy fence. 
3. Keep existing plants where the are (all along the fence) and place two 4x4 raised beds side by side along from the edge of the garage flower beds to the edge of the house foundation flower beds.  Make all paths 3 feet to accommodate little red wagon or make 3 foot path before each next set of 4x4 beds to accommodate little red wagon and 2 foot path up the center for walking.  Place narrow strawberry beds on each end in the front.  No fence.

Here's the problem.  I just ordered garlic and was really hoping to have a place to plant it but come to find out, it seems I'm so early in the decision making process that I can't imagine have a bed ready to go by the time it arrives. 

HELP! 

More posts about Kitchen Garden Expansion 2008

Prelude To A Kitchen Garden Expansion

Kitchen Garden Expansion: Before Picture

Technorati Tags: kitchen garden,organic vegetable gardening,landscaping,garden planning

Coveting Other People's Gardens

Do you find yourself going to other people's gardens and wanting to take pictures and put them on your blog pretending that it's your garden?  I do!

Last week I went to GB's for a barbecue in honor of Pie Guy going off to medical school next week.  GB grilled (the food rocked) in the rain and even though we had to eat inside I was still able to snap a few pictures. 

So, here's my pretend garden...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: landscaping,gardening,espalier apple tree,container gardening

Envy

This is the winter patio of the Garden Buddy. Notice how the bottom left corner is outlined with the winter sowing containers. So orderly, so planned. Why can't I be like this???? Isnt Envy one of the 7 deadly sins? Well, I envy her patio AND her winter sowing! Here's the scoop from her email - proper documentation. Why can't I be like this???

"Here is my list. I planted everything from annuals to perennials, including veggies. I don’t know what my success rate will be but I wanted to give it a try. I only had 12 milk containers so I used foil pans, water containers, bulk salad containers and take out boxes w/ covers. I sorted the seeds by growth height and then planted them in the appropriate sized containers. I put everything that was <18 inches high in the small take out containers, medium for the foil trays and the gallon containers for the taller plants. I still have the last 3 plants on the list to plant in addition to Foxglove and Morning Glory seeds from our HD trip. Once I get seedlings, we can use this list for our container gardening plant swap. GB Junior took the pictures of how I set them up outside. The containers are numbered and match up the plant list by number of packets. Numbers start from the small black containers and if I am looking out from the kitchen, they go from right to left (kind of like reading Hebrew) or if I am standing in the yard facing the house, from left to right. I figured if the Sharpie labels fade, I can still figure out what’s growing."

I can't figure out how to post her planting chart but imagine proper spreadsheet with all seeds entered and coded by height. It includes the number of seed packs and the total is 43.

Here's my favorite part from another email.

"Here’s the sad thing….I need more containers so I have offered to convert the regular milk to chocolate milk in order to have the kids finish it off quickly. I refuse to buy soda so that they drink the milk. I’m also trying to get them to drink the apple cider so I can use that, too.

Mr. GB was looking for the huge spring water container to change the tank for the frogs. I had to confess that I confiscated it for my WS project. He just laughed and thought I was crazy.

Sadly, I am a gardener with a mission. "

Happy Early Birthday To Me!

Guess who got Light Blue Crocs straight off her wish list????? Today I had a working meeting scheduled with Pie Guy at 11am. So 11 rolls around...

Me: "Okay Pie Guy, time to get to work??"

Pie Guy: "I need to get food first, lets go downstairs"

Me: "Where are we going"

Pie Guy: "Lets go down to the first floor"

Me: "Why???"

Pie Guy: "Well there's variety on the first floor

Me: "VARIETY??"

Pie Guy: "Yeah...you've got *pseudo-restaurant x* you've go *large coffee chain Y*, you've got *crowded bakery z* across the street...."

Me: "Pie Guy has lost his damn mind if this is what he calls variety". (thinking it-not saying it.)

So we walk outside and I see GB walking towards us grinning ear to ear with GB Jr #1 and GB Jr #2 in tow. I was so confused! GB is off today, what the heck is she doing here? And then I saw the bag! It's my birthday! They totally got me this time! Surpriseeeeeeeeeeeee!!

We went to lunch and had a great time! GB Jr. made me the prettiest birthday card I've seen in a long time.

They are so pretty I don't want to get them dirty!

Thanks, GB, GB Jr's, Pie Guy and Computer Guy! You guys are awesome!

Saving Seeds or Saving Trash

This bug is not related to saving seeds other than it is sitting on a plant I hope to save seeds from. Mostly I just thought it was cute. I had 2 Rudebeckia and a Coneflower that I wanted to try to get seeds from but I have a feeling none of this is seeds.

I followed the directions on several seed saving websites and this is what I got. Does this look like seeds at all? It looks like trash to me. I really want to participate in the seed trade but nobody needs to trade for trash. The one below is Goldilocks.

This was from the Rudebeckia in the bug picture. One website says the seeds from this plant look like dark brown splinters but I can't imagine I could get this much from 3 little flowers.
The picture below is from Coneflower and I'm 99.9% sure THIS is trash, thanks to reading Mr Brown Thumb's saving Coneflower seed post. Oh well, maybe next time.

In other gardening news, as soon as GB read about how I was killing all my plants she promptly delivered 24-30 new seedlings for me to kill. Is she crazy????? No, seriously, she brought me 24-30 new plants!!!!! She came over and made me demonstrate how I would dig up a plant to move using a big weed to check my technique. I've never been so careful with a weed! It sorta felt like when your math teach makes you go to the board. She also showed me the proper way to move a plant by moving my Coreopsis Rosa herself. We planted all the seedlings and I watered them really well after she left. As I sit here typing they are in my garden dying. No, I'm joking. I am committed to keeping these alive! As God is my witness, I will not kill these plants!

The Garden Of The Garden Buddy

Garden Buddy invited us over for a bbq today. I havnt seen her garden since early spring, so I was excited to see how things had grown and what new stuff she had planted.Mr. and Mrs. Garden Buddy live in a 1908'ish Chicago Bungalow. It is a very big old cool house and I love it. This is the entry to her garden which is bordered by enormorous pine trees planted by her neighbor over 20 years ago. You can't see it very well from this picture but the trees are contrasting colors and provide nice privacy - they are beautiful and I kept thinking I should come back in December with my oranaments.This aerial photo captures the bigness and color of the trees a lot better.This is the garden just beyond the entry gate. There are billions of varieties of plants here but one kept my interest for the entire party.

This is GB's Rhubarb. Can you believe how big and awesome this is? I think it's so pretty and I'm trying to figure out where I can put this in my garden. I just love the enormous leaves. To give you some perspective on just how big the rhubarb is I've asked Pie Guy to stand next to his beloved rhubard. Pie Guy is 6'8 - he loves to bake rhubarb pie with GB's rhubard. He also bakes apple and various other pies. Thanks for the pie, pie guy!
I love these window boxes.More garden picturesI love these plantersAerial view of the gardenKitchen garden. The pots mostly contain heirloom tomatoes given to Garden Buddy by her father-in-law.

Here are a few of my favorite flowers in Garden Buddy's garden.

This giant pink Hibiscus just demands your attention. I also love the milkweed behind it to the right.This hydrangea reminds me of a wedding bouquet.

I don't know what this is or why I was so drawn to it, other than the ladybug buried in lower portion of it.
Strawberry pot with actual strawberrys!

Cardinal flower.

It was funny, Mr. Garden Buddy said "I wish she'd just make up her mind to leave things where they are." I was trying to explain to Pie Guy on the way home that it'll never happend. It's just not like that with gardening.

We had an awesome time - thanks, GB!