05/23/10

My neighbor used to work in construction so he knows people that will bring him tons of concrete from demolition sites aka urbanite. So he said I could have as much as I want. I was moving it across the street in a wheelbarrow and then he pulls out his truck and told me to use it instead. I was surprised considering Ive only talked to him a few times. Im pretty stoked to be friendly with my neighbors since Ive never known any of them. Anyways, Im currently carving up the hillside where Ill use the urbanite to build retaining walls. My little sister Jordian is helping me move the urbanite up near the hillside. Every time I come in the house she wants to know if Ill be working outside and asks if she can come help. My other little sister Evelyn only seems to be interested in the garden work. To each their own I suppose :)

The broccoli is starting to get florets. It seems like the lettuce, spinach and strawberries will be ready to harvest at the same time as the broccoli. Can't wait for the feast!!

I really have no idea what Im doing with the gardening. Im simply going off what I read on blogs and see on youtube videos. Ive seen bean plants that are bushes and dont need to climb on anything. So when I got the snap peas all I did was stick them in the dirt. I noticed that some of them were looking limp and sad, but the ones in the middle were doing fine. After close inspection I saw that the ones that were doing good had little vines that were holding on to the handle of the bucket. Apparently snap peas need to have something to climb on. So I cut some pieces of old rusty fencing material we had lying around and stuck it into the dirt on the outer edges. After a few days the plants had already latched onto it and theyre really happy now. Only problem is that it seems like Im gonna have to make them hang lower because theyre getting bigger fast.

My cat Yo-yo likes to come hang out while I'm working. But a lot of times she annoys the crap out of me by begging to be held. She's an old lady but she acts like such a baby :)

05/11/10

Im still preparing the secret special ingredient for the compost bin and I cant use the compost bin until the secret ingredient is ready. So in the meantime Im doing a bit more prep-work. Im putting plastic around it to discourage any critters from getting in there. Supposedly with thermophilic compost bins they get so hot (between 115 and 140 degrees) that critters usually stay away but Ive never had one before so Id rather put the plastic on and not need it than need it and not have done it. I also made a cover out of some fence wire for the top of it.

I finally got my rain barrels too. The city will sell them to you for $85 each. I got 4 of them for $80 off craigslist!! So far I have one set up under the gutter with an overflow tube connecting it to another one then there's an overflow tube on the secondary one just to let it spill out. I put each one out on separate days just before it rained and each one filled up. So my theory is that if I had put them both out on the same day they probably both wouldve filled up from just one rain!! One small problem is that I put the secondary one up a little higher so its not letting the main one spill out all the way. I think thats why the one in the pic didnt fill up all the way. Of course it might just not have rained enough. Ill have to wait and see. I put a screen on the inlet hole so the water is pretty clean. But theres some plastic floating around from when I cut the holes. Ive already used some of the water for my hanging plants :)

When I bought my plants it said they could all be grown in pots. My girlfriend said that from what shes seen artichoke plants get real big. I have no experience on the matter but it looks like the artichoke is getting too tall for its space. So Im working on screwing some pieces of wood on to the beam to make it hang lower. Im thinking maybe the artichoke plant wouldve been better off in its own pot (I have it with a cauliflower plant right now). I hope I can transplant it if it gets too big.

The strawberry plant is starting to get some berries!! Maybe the lettuce and spinach will grow back in time to join the strawberries in a simple little salad :)