Feeling Contained

     This has been the longest winter ever and most people in these parts are starting to wonder why on Earth they’re living here in the first place. There’s an end in sight however as we’re supposed to hit 70 today! All I want to do now is get my garden going. This is the first year I’ve taken anything more than a haphazard approach to my garden. Previously I would throw whatever I felt like in there and if it didn’t like where I planted it or how much I watered it, too bad – it was worth a shot. Not this time. Since January I’ve been obsessively reading everything I can get my hands on about container gardening. By far the best book I’ve found is called “Bountiful Container” (actually my wife found it, but I have since claimed it as my own).  This book was perfect for me and explains everything you need to know like what plants to put together in one container to get something to harvest at any time of the year. I’ve also been pouring over heirloom seed catalogs. Most gardeners already know about all this stuff, but I had no idea. Most of the varieties these companies offer I’ve never even heard of. I didn’t know carrots could be purple, or watermelons could be orange, or the inside of a tomato could look like fire. I love the idea of starting with organic seed, and watching it develop into food I know beyond any doubt is safe for my family. I also love the names: Dragon, Moonglow, Bright Lights, Flame.

 

    I’ve got a few flats of seeds started already out in the garage, with a heat pad underneath them and a grow light overhead. I’m expecting a visit from the DEA any day now. I read our last frost in southeast Minnesota is right around May 15^th. After that it is full speed ahead. Oh and as for the backyard project, I’ve had a few contractors out to get bids on pouring some concrete. It’s running right around $4 per square foot. I’m not sure how it will affect the price to have it stamped or colored. I’ll let you know. In the meantime, here’s stuff I love at the moment:

 

Heirloom seed companies:

www.seedsavers.org  - awesome source for really old and hard to find cultivars. I’ve ordered from them several times and they’re great. Everything I’ve planted so far has sprouted no problem.

http://www.territorialseed.com/ - Huge variety of seeds and tools. Territorial also sells Columnar Apple Trees. Thought you didn’t have enough room? Think again!

http://rareseeds.com/ - I like Baker Creek. I want to order one of everything from these people.

 

Reading Material:

Bountiful Container – Everything you need to know to grow a perfectly respectable vegetable and fruit garden, anywhere you want. (thanks Tau – you were right!)

 

 

 

My Third Post (Part 2)

That night I laid in bed dreaming up a plan. Our back yard is somewhat awkwardly shaped, much longer than it is wide, and that has always ended up tanking any ideas I ever had for the space. As I entered that stage just before REM sleep, you know, where you still can think, but not move, ideas started forming and clicking into place in a way they never did before. I had a plan. By now it was three AM – three hours before I had to get up for work. Who cares, I have a plan! I wrote it out and woke up my wife to share in the moment. She was less than excited, but to be fair she was far more understanding then I would have been under those circumstances.

      So the plan – here it is. Pave off half that long, muddy yard in the area immediately behind the house, creating a patio about 35 feet wide and 30 feet long. Where the pavers meet the grass, add a chain link fence – this will make the “back 40” of the yard officially the Dog’s turf. Between the house and the attached garage goes a privacy trellis, otherwise I’ll always feel “on display” for the neighbor. Over the patio goes a pergola, under which will be the grill, the patio table I made two years ago, and maybe a couple of wood lounge chairs I’ve been considering building later in the year. A fire ring will go just outside the pergola, toward where the fence will be. The bulk of the patio however will be given to a water fountain I built last year with a small, above ground pond, surrounded by something I’m trying for the first time this year – a container based vegetable garden. Locating it near the house, I’ll be able to use rain barrels to capture water off the roof to use for the plants. I’d also like to add solar power to the top of the pergola someday, but that’s another project. I’ll see if I can get a scan of my late-night sketches of the project posted for part 3.

My Third Post (Part 1)

I’m really proud now because I’ve never made it to three before. So I said before this blog would be about my life and my kids and food. So as promised, here’s one about gardening! This could actually get really long, so I’m breaking it up into a few sections. Here in Minnesota we just ended something like a hundred days in a row of having a few inches of snow sitting around everywhere. There’s still some ice in the shadows here and there, and yes it did just snow a couple inches yesterday, but I have reason to believe spring is coming, and with that I’m getting a severe case of cabin fever. It’s bad. I would not call myself a hugely active outdoors type, but this is the time of year I get the motivation needed to do some actual work in the back yard, and man does it need it. Our dogs basically have eaten, scratched, mangled or dug up every square inch of our back yard. Last summer I built a wooden fence around the garden to keep them out, with a lattice gate. Finley, our bigger dog, ate it a few weeks ago. The gate is gone now, it’s splintered remains lay all over the yard. It mocks me as I stand there at night looking at it while waiting for the boys to “do their business”.  The weekend I gathered what little resolve I could and said to myself, this far, no farther! I slapped some plywood over the gaping hole and set about hatching a plan to not only bring this yard back to life, but make it better, faster, stronger, lighter… okay not lighter.