Having a compost pile is something we have been looking forward to since we bought the house. For awhile I stopped keeping my food scraps completely. We’d moved further away from the community garden and I was just not in the mood to keep it up. Back in September Chris decided that we could start a makeshift compost pile in a ratty trash can left by the previous homeowners. I rinsed it out and we stuck it on the side of the storage shed/carport and I started the pile by throwing in the weeds I collected from clearing out the vegetable bed area on the south side of the house.…

On Sunday we dug up our sweet potatoes at the community garden, the last plot we had still growing there. It was a bit sad to leave but it felt right to be leaving. We grew a lot there in the year we spent at the garden but I know we’ll be growing a lot more at our garden at the house in the future. The sweet potato harvest was pretty good, though at first we were a bit doubtful. We kept pulling out the smaller, thickened roots but were finally rewarded with good sized potatoes. The smaller roots and pieces we are keeping for ‘seed’ for next summer’s crop.…

Yesterday I spent practically the entire day working in the yard. Having been gone for several weekends in a row it was time to get some work done. And the title of this post…well, I was pretty filthy when I finally came in shortly after 6pm yesterday. I had arm rings, neck rings, dirt covering my legs and feet; I was awesomely filthy! All the filth was well worth it as I ticked off items on my to-do list. This photo is really for Chel because it shows our nasturiums coming up in our front flower bed. They are coming along nicely and I hope they take over the bed…

Sometimes you just need something pretty to look at and make your day a little brighter.

For various reasons we decided to leave the community garden we were gardening at earlier than expected. We still have a plot of sweet potatoes there that we will harvest in a month or so and then we will be done. So, that has forced us to find a place to throw some seeds down for the Fall or purchase some of our produce instead. This area is the south side of our house where eventually it will be a flower garden with a nice pathway. It had tomato and peppers plants when we moved in, and I found a rosemary plant that will survive with some pruning and care.…

Summer. I’m done with you. You are hot, sticky and well, frankly I wasn’t really able to enjoy you much. I didn’t dip my toes in the water. I didn’t hike. Beach? What beach? I saw a post on a blog the other day that turned the whole “Aww, only one month of summer left” into “YEAH! One more month of summer!” While I do like their optimism, I am wishing it was 20* cooler. As you can see above the garden is in a state of crispness. When I’m averaging once a week or less to the garden of course it turns crispy. I’m always afraid of what I…

I should have taken a photo of this bed a couple of days ago before I trimmed up the vine on the left hand side, closest to the beans. It’s already impossible to walk between the bed and the eggplants on the right, but I really didn’t want to have both sides overtaken. The melon in this bed is the Bidwell Casaba melon—and apparently tastes like orange sherbet. Two weeks ago we had several afternoons of thunderstorms which provided a much needed drenching for the beds. In turn the beds responded by exploding in new growth. This one has just kept on going. The vines of the melon aren’t the…

Chris came in last night for the closing of our house today. We made dinner then went to find a nonexistent ice cream shop (thanks Google Maps) before heading to the garden. The heat has been brutal this week, 100* many of the days; the beans can’t handle it and neither can a few other plants. Sometimes between moving we’ll have to find some time to do maintenance on our beds. I was busy watering the garden and Chris had been putting hoses on various beds and then piddling around. I went back up to the front of the garden and found him deep into picking figs off the Celeste…