Mulching sounded so easy ... it really did. You throw a bunch of leaves and vegetable matter in a pile, let it heat up (how can it not .... it's the desert duh), and turn it and then tada you have beautiful mulch. Well, maybe not.
So the leaves were easy, until my neighbor's tree died, but I got a few. The the vegetable matter, well easy too, at first. potato peels, egg shells, nothing cooked, just green stuff and the pile grew taller ... and then the ants came. Ants, unlike worms, are not welcome in a mulch pile. Oh, I forgot, location - location - location. Never next to the house. So Robert innocent of my intentions, stopped by and ended up moving the mulch pile.
Next, turn it ... oh sure ... it's taller than I am and well, maybe wider ... anyway turning didn't happen. Then use amonia sulfate so it'll heat up. Well it should have been hot, it got up to 118 last summer ... but apparently it didn't. In the fall I trimmed branches and my clever grandchildren patiently drug them to the mulch pile, where I didn't see and they didn't mulch.
Now it's spring ... and the garbage man hates me, even tho I bribe him with bottles of water and soda. My friend sets out cans of .... well, I won't do that, I prefer longnecks anyway. I make my now grouchy grandkids drag the branches to the street and, oh my there's Robert. I'm sure he'll eventually stop coming by to visit his son, but until he does he, and his truck, take the whole mess to the dump ... yeah! The pile is smaller and as I throw a pick axe into it wow, it's dark and rich and yes, it's finally, a year later, mulch.
Or you could spend some bucks and buy a fancy mulcher that turns by itself and deposits mulch in eight weeks, but look what you'd miss!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Gardening in Las Vegas!
Well chemo is settling in but in between being really tired I'm starting to add to my garden.
I started back in February with two raised beds for veggies (one 4 x 8 and one 2 x 8) and one small raised bed (4 x 4) for herbs, both from last year. I built them, actually Robert built them, 12" deep and I (yes me) dug up the ground underneath before I put them down so there would be plenty of room for roots to spread. Pretty cool, just like a box with no top and no bottom with a short post in each corner. Just pine, simple. I filled the beds in with planting mix and buried a soaker hose in both beds before I put the plants in, leaving one end out to attach the hose. My backyard is about 60' wide and 45' deep and gets morning sun and afternoon shade and the beds are vertical to the house. But there are two sides to the house too, and they were not exempt from my planting mania. But first, the back yard.
The raised beds share the back yard with other genres; a fast growing California Pepper tree (30'), a Pomegranate tree (15') a thornless Honey Locust tree (20'), two Thompson seedless grapevines (4 years old with lots of grapes on either end of a disapidated swingless a-frame), two Japanese Honeysuckle bushes and some Trumpet Vines along the side block wall.
In the two veggie beds I put five different kinds of tomatoes, and a green pepper and planted seeds for broccoli and snow peas. I added some bean seeds that came up about a month later but the broccoli is so tall that I can't find them now :{
Last year I put an old bathtub next to the back of the house and bordered it with wood . I put rocks in the bottom ... lots of rocks in my yard, and then filled it with planting mix. I put snow peas and spinach in and now the snow peas are gigornamous and the spinach gets lots of shade and has lots of leaves and is sweet. They key to sweet versus bitter veggies is .... tada .... water!
Next to the back door, by the Rosemary bush and Lilac bush I, okay Robert, built a 4 x 4 bed for herbs. Last year I put in creeping thyme, parsley, cilantro, garlic chives, lemon balm, strawberry, sage and marjoram, oregano, oh and salvia. The oregano, parsley and chives are huge, shading the other herbs. I can't find the cilantro, thyme or the lemon balm. Oh, and overshadowing all of it is, are you ready? An artichoke ... who knew it would get so big? Not me, obviously. When I first started experimenting with gardening I planted catnip (of the mint family) in the backyard. Now it's everywhere, which I love, but it wants to invade my herb box ... oh no! Back foul beast :)
So, right now we're picking snow peas, broccoli, spinach and herbs. Those tricky snow peas keep hiding so I have to enlist the help from my grandkids, who unfortunately keep eating them when they find them ... wretches :). The green beans are coming up nicely as are the cucumbers and tomatoes. I found about 15 green tomatoes of various sizes and shapes. I like to try lots of different plants to see what works, so I have small yellow and red tomatoes, oval red and yellow and big reds.
Yesterday I put in two rows of corn on the right side of the house (along with the berry bushes and one tomato plant), I need to put some fish emulsion down; they like that a lot! That's also the side with my small mulch pile that I started last year. wonder of wonders it's turned to mulch! More later on mulching, but I thought it would be so clever to plant some cantelope seeds in the mulch pile and now I can't turn it because they all came up! But it's all good, I love cantelope and I'll start another mulch pile on the other side.
I also put in somewatermelon and cantelope seeds and oh, okra on the left side of the house. It's the side with a new eucalyptus tree (that leans a lot). My arborist hates me because I now end up overwatering the tree because I'm watering my veggies. He's going to unstake it soon and then I'll have a horizontal eucalyptus *silver dollar* tree unshading my veggies :)
I used to hate okra, it grows like weeds here, but thanks to Trina's daughter, I know how to cook it and I like it much better! I have my pumpkin seeds ready to go, but since we picked pumpkins last year in August I better wait until the end of June to get them started. We ended up with a huge pumpkin patch in July and dead vines in October ... it's so hard to find the Great Pumpkin when you can't hide :( But not this year ... just wait!
I'll post pictures as soon as I can download them ... it's like an oasis and I love it. I'm from Vermont so it's a bit of Vermont in the desert. Unfortunately my honey is allergic to everything that pollinates (everything I grow). He looooves me, but he stays inside a lot.
Mulching next ...
I started back in February with two raised beds for veggies (one 4 x 8 and one 2 x 8) and one small raised bed (4 x 4) for herbs, both from last year. I built them, actually Robert built them, 12" deep and I (yes me) dug up the ground underneath before I put them down so there would be plenty of room for roots to spread. Pretty cool, just like a box with no top and no bottom with a short post in each corner. Just pine, simple. I filled the beds in with planting mix and buried a soaker hose in both beds before I put the plants in, leaving one end out to attach the hose. My backyard is about 60' wide and 45' deep and gets morning sun and afternoon shade and the beds are vertical to the house. But there are two sides to the house too, and they were not exempt from my planting mania. But first, the back yard.
The raised beds share the back yard with other genres; a fast growing California Pepper tree (30'), a Pomegranate tree (15') a thornless Honey Locust tree (20'), two Thompson seedless grapevines (4 years old with lots of grapes on either end of a disapidated swingless a-frame), two Japanese Honeysuckle bushes and some Trumpet Vines along the side block wall.
In the two veggie beds I put five different kinds of tomatoes, and a green pepper and planted seeds for broccoli and snow peas. I added some bean seeds that came up about a month later but the broccoli is so tall that I can't find them now :{
Last year I put an old bathtub next to the back of the house and bordered it with wood . I put rocks in the bottom ... lots of rocks in my yard, and then filled it with planting mix. I put snow peas and spinach in and now the snow peas are gigornamous and the spinach gets lots of shade and has lots of leaves and is sweet. They key to sweet versus bitter veggies is .... tada .... water!
Next to the back door, by the Rosemary bush and Lilac bush I, okay Robert, built a 4 x 4 bed for herbs. Last year I put in creeping thyme, parsley, cilantro, garlic chives, lemon balm, strawberry, sage and marjoram, oregano, oh and salvia. The oregano, parsley and chives are huge, shading the other herbs. I can't find the cilantro, thyme or the lemon balm. Oh, and overshadowing all of it is, are you ready? An artichoke ... who knew it would get so big? Not me, obviously. When I first started experimenting with gardening I planted catnip (of the mint family) in the backyard. Now it's everywhere, which I love, but it wants to invade my herb box ... oh no! Back foul beast :)
So, right now we're picking snow peas, broccoli, spinach and herbs. Those tricky snow peas keep hiding so I have to enlist the help from my grandkids, who unfortunately keep eating them when they find them ... wretches :). The green beans are coming up nicely as are the cucumbers and tomatoes. I found about 15 green tomatoes of various sizes and shapes. I like to try lots of different plants to see what works, so I have small yellow and red tomatoes, oval red and yellow and big reds.
Yesterday I put in two rows of corn on the right side of the house (along with the berry bushes and one tomato plant), I need to put some fish emulsion down; they like that a lot! That's also the side with my small mulch pile that I started last year. wonder of wonders it's turned to mulch! More later on mulching, but I thought it would be so clever to plant some cantelope seeds in the mulch pile and now I can't turn it because they all came up! But it's all good, I love cantelope and I'll start another mulch pile on the other side.
I also put in somewatermelon and cantelope seeds and oh, okra on the left side of the house. It's the side with a new eucalyptus tree (that leans a lot). My arborist hates me because I now end up overwatering the tree because I'm watering my veggies. He's going to unstake it soon and then I'll have a horizontal eucalyptus *silver dollar* tree unshading my veggies :)
I used to hate okra, it grows like weeds here, but thanks to Trina's daughter, I know how to cook it and I like it much better! I have my pumpkin seeds ready to go, but since we picked pumpkins last year in August I better wait until the end of June to get them started. We ended up with a huge pumpkin patch in July and dead vines in October ... it's so hard to find the Great Pumpkin when you can't hide :( But not this year ... just wait!
I'll post pictures as soon as I can download them ... it's like an oasis and I love it. I'm from Vermont so it's a bit of Vermont in the desert. Unfortunately my honey is allergic to everything that pollinates (everything I grow). He looooves me, but he stays inside a lot.
Mulching next ...
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