Favorite Things Friday: Adopted Plants

14 Sep By 4 Comments

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So, “Coffee and Destruction” actually became coffee and digging. When we were walking around her house and waiting for the big digger to be moved into position for maximum destruction, my friend casually mentioned the gorgeous lilies which grew next to her garage and how much she would miss them.

WHAT??? Gorgeous plants going to waste? Something must be done.

We grabbed the neighbors shovel, some plastic trash bags and went to work. These lovely plants would have been wasted if I didn’t just take them right then. It was sort of like an emergency c-section of viable plants.

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The plants certainly don’t look like much right now, but neither does that lump of goo they call your baby when it first emerges. Sometimes, you just have to trust the professionals.

This isn’t a root. It isn’t a bulb. It is a tuber. As ugly as it is now, it will sprout gorgeous lilies next Spring. Just like that little red, wrinkly baby is going to grow up before you can say “who used the umbrella in the shower and why are these shoes in the refrigerator?”

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I planted these orphan plants in my front yard so my friend could enjoy them as well – every time she drives by! It is the best of both worlds for her – she doesn’t have to raise them, she can just enjoy them! Sort of like a very involved birthmother!

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In the excitement of saving plants, we asked the guy with the digger to pull out and set aside some big bushes. Um. Really big bushes. Which we could not move. And then the digger was gone. Oops.

Luckily, some neighbors with a trailer were able to roll a couple of them away and the beau was willing to grapple with the other ones. Phew. I guess you could say this was a plenty perfect effort at saving plants.IMG_1647

I got rid of overgrown bushes at home this week too. My daughter helped me trim back the bushes around our house and the beau came by with a truck and hauled them away. Yep, we gave those bushes quite a haircut. I am so lucky the beau is willing to roll with my projects and help clean up the messes I make!

Have you ever adopted plants from friends?

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Killing Weeds In A Brick Walkway

8 Aug By 2 Comments

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I used to be a fairly avid gardener.

I was the lady on the street who was out watering at 5 a.m., moving heavy things in a wheelbarrow, completely covered in dirt, not noticing that I looked like a crazy person with twigs and leaves in my hair. Sort of like a homeless person, but with a home. I amended the soil, fertilized, and planted lots of flower beds in my yard, planted trees, moved trees, built raised gardens and a brick patio, “harvested” rocks from the soil to make borders for my beds, changed my mind and moved things again. And again. My neighbors used to say things like, “Oh Annie, how do you find the energy for all of this?” and “You are really ‘something’ to be doing all of this.” What they actually meant was – “You look like a crazy homeless person and I am bewildered by you,” and “Don’t you have anything better to do?” or maybe “Is this what becomes of you when you get divorced? Yikes.”

My beau claims I was just killing time and burning energy until he came along. Maybe he is right, because I have really let things slip in recent years. Weeds have become a bit of a problem at my house.

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On The Art Of Doing Stuff blog, I read that boiling water can kill weeds, so I poured some boiling water on the weeds on my front walk. After a few days, I could see that the boiling water had made an impact.

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As I was pouring a teakettle of boiling water on my front walk, a neighbor came by (possibly to get a closer look to see if I had sticks and leaves in my hair) and casually mentioned that Borax might also kill weeds.

I read up on this and found out that Borax can sterilize the soil so that the weeds can’t grow back. Perfect!

Neutered weeds. They can’t reproduce. No weeds can grow back. This is what I have always wanted. Is this my birthday?

I know it isn’t totally, completely green to want to sterilize natural growing things – but at least I am not using chemicals to do my dirty work. And c’mon – they are WEEDS! I figure the growing things under my front walk don’t really need to be fertile, right? Please don’t get all huffy about this – I don’t want to neuter all of the plants in the world – just the little patch under my brick walkway. I am sure I have unintentionally done much worse things to the environment. And remember, this blog is not called Totally Perfect, it is called Plenty Perfect.

So I added Borax to my weed killing spree and this is what happened.

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(If the soil police come to my house, I am going to tell them I accidentally dropped a box of Borax on my front walk. Or I don’t know what that white stuff was because I was afraid to leave the house while a drug cartel was camped out on my front walk for a few days. Or I will tell them that the gypsies did it.)

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Dead weeds. Yay!

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Apparently, you can mix Borax with water and spray it on weeds – but, sprinkling the powder directly on weeds works well too. Once the rain washes the Borax into the cracks, I figure the job should be done.

Neutering your weeds can be fun – you should try it!

By the way, if you think this means that there are no more weeds in my brick walk, think again. Just because the weeds are dead doesn’t mean I have had time to pull them out. Again, let me remind you that this blog is not called Totally Perfect, it is called Plenty Perfect.

Do you have a good way to get rid of weeds? Or do you ignore them? Have the soil police ever come to your house?

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Birdhouse Tomato Stakes

18 Jul By 2 Comments

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Since I have decided to give my vegetable garden over to the bunnies this year,

I thought I would show you what someone else has done with their garden.

My beau planted these tomato plants for his mom around Mother’s Day. (I know, he’s a sweetheart.)

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These birdhouses on tall poles provide year-round interest in the garden,

as well as sturdy stakes for tomato plants.

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I planted my tomato plants around the same time and did not give them much water at all.

Yes, I have plant envy. Mine plants are…just…so…small.

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(I guess plants need water more than once every couple of weeks – go figure!)

For another great way to stake tomatoes, check out what my friend, Sara, did in her garden!

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Bunnies In My Garden

17 Jul By 3 Comments

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I have to confess that I have not been keeping up with things well this summer. And it is stressing me out a bit.

The kids are out of school. I am trying to make appointments with clients who are on vacation. Everything I think of to write about in my blog seems either too serious, or vulnerable, or insignificant. I can’t put things away because my systems are all out of whack. For some reason, my dog is sneaking naps on the kids’ beds and living room furniture. And now – my vegetable garden has become a playpen/dinner table for baby bunnies.

Today, I directed my hose at this pathetic patch of weeds (otherwise known as my vegetable garden) and half a dozen bunnies started bouncing around like crazy. Yikes. I didn’t know what to do – I was afraid they were going to knock themselves senseless running into the walls. Only one was big enough to clamber over the side of the raised bed. I am worried he will never be able to climb back in and find his way to the burrows they have created under the strawberry plants.

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I stayed away and they calmed down. A LOT. In fact, they were motionless when I returned. There was not so much as a twitch of a little bunny nose, even when I moved the plants aside and took pictures.

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Strangely, the bunnies are not eating the strawberry plants. Maybe they are eating the strawberries, though, because I haven’t seen any fruit! They seem to like my Brussels-sprouts quite a bit. Too bad they don’t like to eat the weeds!

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I am kinda wondering if this gives me an excuse to not weed or water anymore…because I am not sure I can keep up with my garden this year anyway. When my kids were little, gardening was the perfect activity for me to do to be near them as they played in the yard. I really love the idea of growing my own food, but I have more pulls on my time now that the kids are teens and tweens and I am working more. Maybe giving the garden over to the bunnies this year is a plenty perfect way to let go of something that is stressing me out.

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Do you find it difficult to let go of doing things you have always done?

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Lettuce Tower

23 Apr By 4 Comments

Do you have a small garden?  Do you have wild bunnies who eat your lettuce?  Does this make you whine? 

Hey – grow up!  Yes, you.  Growing up is the answer to your problems!  You can make a lettuce tower and rise above all adversity!  Here’s what you will need:

Landscape fabric

Stakes

Staple gun

Scissors

Razer blade

Dirt and lettuce

Unroll your landscape fabric and place the stakes on top, approximately 4-5 inches apart.  Line up the landscape fabric so that it is even with the top of the stakes and cut if off about 8 inches from the pointy end of the stake.   The closer the stakes are to each other, the smaller your tower will be, which means it will take less soil to fill it.   (You will thank me later.)

Now staple the landscape fabric to the stakes.  I realized my lettuce tower was going to be too fat halfway though the job of stapling the landscape fabric to the stakes and I quickly found a solution.

Instead of undoing everything and starting over, I just rolled the stakes with the attached landscape fabric and re-stapled.  You might not be as comfortable as I am with this level of imperfection.  Don’t be jealous.  It helps that I have had years of therapy.

Complete the tower by stapling the last flap of landscape fabric to the first stake. 

You should end up with something that looks like a flaccid triangle tower.

Use a mallet or hammer to drive the stakes into the soil deep enough so that the tower is stable.  Then recruit someone to fill it up with dirt, because that part of the project is really boring and will take a long time if you did not follow my advice and made your tower bigger than it had to be.  I guess some people might not have had their listening ears on.

Eventually, you will have a nice fat tower of dirt.  Use a blade to cut a small “X” opening, just big enough to shove a lettuce start into.  

I know the “X” opening doesn’t look very big, but you don’t want to make the opening any bigger than it has to be because soil will spill out if you do.  The soil has not compacted yet and it is fairly easy to just shove the roots of the lettuce start right in.   Go ahead, just push it right in – the lettuce will probably recover from the trauma and be just fine.  If it doesn’t, it was probably too weak to live without your constant care and protection anyway.  Sort of like Chihuahuas.  Really, why bother?

Repeat this every 6 inches or so down each side of the lettuce tower.  You can grow different kinds on different sides or you can create a pattern and alternate varieties of lettuce.  You can even grow something out of the top - sort of like hair!  I am thinking a curly style like kale would look nice. 

I gave the tower a really long drink of water from a watering can, just to get things off to a good start and I could see the water trickling down all the way to the bottom of the tower.  I actually used some of the worm compost “tea” made by my box of worms, so the lettuce starts should be really happy!   I expect that my regular watering of the garden with a sprinkler will be enough to keep the tower moist, but I plan to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t get too dry and supplement with the watering can if need be. 

There you have it – efficient use of garden space, creative outlet AND protection from wild bunnies!   What could be more plenty perfect?!

 

 

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