Wanna see something cool?
The pumpkin plants are growing like crazy. They would take over completely if I let them — and they may take the rest of the yard now that I’m encouraging them out of the fence.
And so are the beans, especially the “Royal Burgundy” variety:
I also have a mystery for you. What kind of squash is this?
Jun 292011
Jun 132011
I have my first real garden this year.
Last year, we dipped a toe into the gardening world, with a handful of peas and about 10 tiny, stringy carrots. The peas were fabulous!
Then we bought our new house, with the crazy overgrown garden and yard. We razed 95% of the crazy front yard, then added some tulips to the remaining 5%. In the back, we razed and sodded over the larger of the two enormous raised beds, but we left our 25′ of raspberries, and an approximately 10′x12′ bed. I put in some large, flat rocks so that the bed was reduced to 2 2×12 and 1 2×10 growing areas. I also dug up 2 enormous rhubarb plants (leaving the biggest one), converting the space to another 3×12 bed, and dug up several unkillable hostas (now thriving where I tossed them).
The results are pretty good!
There are a lot of strawberries (3 varieties in the middle of the big bed, plus one of those topsy-turvies): 
I’ve also got about 8 productive peas, with another 8 that are about 2″ tall. And 10 bush beans — 4 “Royal Burgundy” (purple!), 3 yellow, and 3 green. I’ve just planted another 3 green and 2 purple. (The yellow just didn’t sprout.) Only 1 spinach plant has actually come up, but I’ve just planted a bunch more. There are a dozen or so beets and carrots growing, with more seeds hopefully growing. I also have a corner for pumpkin and one for watermelon, and 8 tomato plants (4 varieties), a sweet pepper, an eggplant, a summer squash, and a mystery winter squash. Plus 2 kohlrabi, and 4 broccoli and cauliflower.
Oh! And 5 blueberry bushes — unlikely to produce this year, but maybe next year:
Just to see what happens, I’ve planted cantaloupe seeds behind the pots of blueberries.
I was not going to go to BlogHer this year.
Not because I lack love for BlogHer — I love it, I’ve had a blast every time I’ve gone, I’ve made or improved friendships, learned new things, tried new things, and generally wished that it would go on about 3 more days.
No, this year, I wasn’t going to go because it wasn’t really in the budget, and it also falls the weekend before Jill’s birthday.
Then the wonderful BlogHers asked me to speak at BlogHer Business 10. And that does change things. My co-panelists and I had a great discussion today, and I am confident that the presentation will be lively, informative, and fun.
Now that I’m going, I’m getting SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited. More friends, more learning, more new blogs, more fun in NYC, more time to spend with awesome blogospheric friends.
In a wonderful moment of the universe aligning, that weekend will also be my infant niece Hailey’s Simchat Bat. BlogHers and public speaking AND family celebrations! And being without my own small children waking me up at 5 am. I couldn’t be more excited.
(I just wish I weren’t also trying to pack, move, and unpack between now and then. Then being in 2 weeks.)
Jul 162010
I may have mentioned that our new house came with a jungle. Two, if you count the front and back yards separately.
Yesterday, while waiting for the electrician to come and update the house to 3-prong outlets and rescue us from scary webs of extension cords strung across the basement, I started work on the front yard.
I’d cleared roughly 5 square feet — and probably close to 25 cubic feet of thistles and miscellaneous members of the dandelion family when Something Happened.
I’m still not sure exactly what it was.
I just know that suddenly, where there had been 2 or 3 bees buzzing with some vague interest in what I was doing, there were 2 or 3 dozen bees, annoyed with what I was doing.
Dropping the weeds in hand did not satisfy them.
Shaking my hair kept them out of my face, but did not make them go away.
Within about 10 seconds, I’d conceded the territory and run away to the grassy part of the yard.
The bee defense teem followed, although the bulk of the bee force stayed on guard where I’d been encroaching.
The bee defense team continued buzzing, trying to get in to my face and upper body to make sure I’d learned my lesson, but fortunately, I had more room to shake my hair like a troll doll, so they couldn’t get in for a sting.
Eventually they considered me suitably vanquished and returned to the home defense.
I decided that perhaps I’d done enough yard work for the morning. For the first time in a week, I didn’t even pick raspberries from the backyard jungle.
Jul 012010
The new house has a crazy garden. Here’s the back yard. The front is almost equally scary.
I’ve spent 8-10 hours digging up crazy plants already; my Mom has also spent several hours.
On the plus side, I’ve eaten about a dozen raspberries, and there are dozens more ripening.
My current neighbor, Melissa, identified several species of Thyme, garlic, yarrow, chamomile, borage, and Russian sage; I also saw chives, and of course, crazy volumes of rhubarb.
On the decorative side, there are 3 out of control rose bushes, 2 unidentified trees, a lilac tree, 2 or 3 small pine species, and 5 zillion day lillies. And 3 or 4 mums, lots and lots of stevia, 2 random sunflowers, several giant decorative grasses, lots of low-growing ground cover, including wild geranium, and lots of smaller things with succulent looking leaves.
And there are weeds. The previous owners moved before spring.
I dug out a 5′ tall thistle; Mom dug out several 3 or 4′ tall ones. I’ve pulled out dozens of enormous goldenrod (pre-bloom, thank goodness!), lots of varieties of thistle and other plants in the daisy and dandelion families, and approximately 25 square feet of daisies. Most of these things were at least 3′ tall, some more like 5′ tall. I also chopped the back path clear (middle right photo), cutting back about 1/3 of what you see in the picture.
Depending on when you ask, I might want to keep gardening, or I might want to pave the whole blasted thing. There’s nothing wrong with any individual elements…but the volume is totally overwhelming, even aside from the jungle of giant weeds.
Anyone want some day lillies? Or some borage?
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