Journal March 26

A wrap -up of the week:

Monday- in pre-dawn raids, picked up boards, a landscape timber, a nice big piece of bead board plywood, three plastic planters and some leaf bags. Had a fellow scrounger- a fellow in a red pick-up. We kept passing each other, slowly trolling up and down the streets. I was at an advantage as I pick likely sites on Sunday evening, after Mass. But there are always new things out in the morning.

I briefly considered a shower door, for a cold frame, but our climate doesn't really make that necessary. And I don't want to start collecting items, since V. just worked so hard cleaning out the garage.In the afternoon, I planted cowpeas, okra and cukes, new radishes and new peas. Also, the African daisies, marigolds "Citrus Mix", and Liliput zinnias in Bed V.

Hung the herb baskets on the fence, and stapled trellies up for the morning glories and the peas.

V. hung up the shrine for me and I installed the statue.

Wednesday- I bought the boards for the new and last, garden bed. Now there will be a neat rectangle with mulched paths, so the mowing will be reduced/simplified. See how E-Z that is? or so I tell V. It was raining again, which was great, since we need every drop. Put together a new grid for the beds, and a teepee for the beans. Beans were up Monday.

Thursday- picked up three bags of leaves and a lovely big round hanging basket. It has to be hung from somewhere- I'm considering making it part of the Butterfly Barrow. Or putting up a brace on the fence and using it there. There are two or so in the garage.

To Do- depending on the weather: make cuke trellis, make another grid, make bean teepee, construct last bed.

Drunk Sailor in Port

That would be me- at Lowe's this morning.
But I am now supplied for the squash trellis, which I put together this afternoon. V. came out to see what I was hammering on and we had a little "Ur doing it rong" tiff. My take: it's a trellis, not a house. His: it should still be square.

Also set up my soaker hoses in Beds I & II. I cut the hoses to length, capped the ends and put these genius snap-on connectors on the other ends. Now I just put a two-faucet unit on the hose, attach the soaker hoses and turn it on.
Bed III gets the ollas. I'm wondering if something similar couldn't be rigged with a terra-cotta flowerpot and saucer. Just plug the hole in the bottom, bury the pot, fill it with water and cover it with the saucer. Might be worth a try. They might not be porous enough, though, for the water to wick through.
TP eggplant, red bell pepper, green bell pepper.

Bought cedar for the back fence bed, plus fence palings to put across the bottom of the fences. And some bee-attracting seeds: coneflower and cosmos. Plus pumpkin seeds for the tub.

I also bought some squirrel repellent spray for the bird feeders, called Critter Ridder. I'm not anti-squirrel, but enough is enough. They can eat corn off the ground with the doves.

There was a cute family- dad, mom and a little boy about five- looking at seeds with me, and trying to select some things for his garden. He wanted everything hard to grow: carrots, onions, flowers that needed to be started inside six weeks ago. I mentioned to his mom that the onion sets and vegetable seedlings were out front and saw them again when I went out to look for another basil plant.
If I were doing a garden for a small child, I think I'd use the bags of top soil method and plant:
Radishes- you plant a little seed and only leaves come up, but then you pull on them- and there's a radish! It's magic!
Cherry tomato
Lettuce seedlings
Sunflowers- so you can share with the birds
An annual from seed- probably a short Zinnia variety
and if possible, some vining plant: beans, or morning glories.
If they turned out not to like gardening, you just pull everything up and scatter the dirt on the lawn.

To do: order dirt