If only all gardening was this regimented.

 \
Sometimes the thing that bugs me the most about gardening is that it is messy, with things flopping hither and yon.  Not these onions.  These are precision, man.

Free things from Burpee

My neighbor alerted me that Burpee was giving away free produce and plant starts near my house, so I stopped by after work.
 

I got tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and a pepper plant (which is going to be very cold, poor thing).  I also got a booklet about growing plants.

Thanks, Burpee!

Sprung.

Here's a bit of hardy kiwi.

And here's a bit of black current.

Potatoes. Sometimes, they are what's for dinner.

I remembered that I never finished harvesting the German Butterball potatoes last fall and dug up a pound of them.  They were in great shape, just muddier than if I had pulled them out of the ground last September.  I roasted them up and, man, were they good.  They were so good, I just had a double helping and called that dinner.

Enough already, I feel guilty as it is.

My garden this year is awful and none of these books at Powells will make it any better. 

What I did on MLK Day.

Three gallons of milk, a large pot and various small bowls of things. What else could I be doing but:

...making cheese!

I made my first pressed cheese: queso fresco. After it presses for eight hours, I can eat it.

When I wasn't actively making cheese, I planned this year's growing season. Sentinel helped.

A salad of my own making

Peas. Grew them.
Radishes. Grew them.
Lettuce. Grew it.
Dandelion Greens: "let" them grow until I harvested them.*

Delicious!

*I built
the roof for myself, the walls
for myself, the floors
for myself, and got
hung up in it myself.

EMSWCD Naturescaping Tour

The MAunts and I attended the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District Naturescaping Tour which was a tour of several houses that have successfully "naturescaped" as defined here . Some photo highlights:

I liked this cinder block grill and work surface

It utilized the holes in the cinder blocks for herb growing.

I'm guessing they need pretty regular water, but I find this to be a grand idea.

Many people had rain barrels and I took a lot of pictures of the setup. I would like to start saving rainwater in a big way, but have yet to find the how-to reference to get me started.

This house was the house next door to the tour, but it had a front yard completely full of red clover. It was beautiful.

In one back yard was a pioneer-type cabin playhouse.

The MAunts gazing up at a large stand of Douglas fir.

Motel Garden

The Comfy Inn is completely surrounded by asphalt, but that doesn't keep someone from gardening.

Containers under the stairs:

A flower box full of vegetables.

Farm in truck.

I happened to glance out the window of the Max and caught a glimpse of...What was that? The Max had sped by, but I kept watch in hopes that the object would catch up at the next stop and indeed it did.

It's a truck farm!

The plants were planted in dirt and the rows were covered in burlap, I assume to keep the dirt from blowing away. There was even a trellis for peas. I read about truck farming specifically the movie Truck Farm, but this was the first one I have seen.

Sunflowers shading the walk

The house where I pick up my milk planted rows of sunflowers along their walkway and I've been watching them grow all summer long. They are very tall now, with huge heads and they have totally overwhelmed the walk.

My sunflowers are about three feet high, with heads one-eighth the size of these. I think mine don't get enough sun or water.

This family will be eating sunflowers all winter long!

Fabulous!

I've been watching this work in progress for about six months now and I just have to remark about how very cool it is. First of all, growing things in the front yard is super cool. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Secondly, though I myself have decided that raised beds are not for me, I love how contained this front yard garden is. I think that is the key to success with front yard gardens: make them very aesthetically pleasing. Either that or have a full-on permaculture garden, but avoid that midpoint where things are kind of weedy and unkempt.
Hiding behind that cloche is a lot of kale and collards. I'm a bit jealous.
And look! Soon an espalier fruit tree will grow along the front of the house. I want to espalier fruit trees in my backyard.
And here is that empty lot around the corner from me. It's still waiting for me to plant a huge garden there. If only the generous owners would realize what a better owner I would be and give me the deed...

First Day of Spring.

It may be spring, but it was freezing this morning.

Ice forming.
Frost frosting.
Floating row covers freezing.
Spinach emerging!

Morning Walk

I got in a nice walk this morning and here are a few things I found.

One of the things I'm going to do this year is build supports for my garden. Square Foot Gardening says to use electrical conduit. It is the strongest for the cheapest. He specifically recommends NOT using PVC pipe. Apparently, it's too flimsy. Electrical conduit is what you see here, but what they did, intrigued me.
They have used a PVC pipe elbow to connect the two pieces of electrical conduit. I may just copy them. The Electrical conduit costs $1.97 for 10 foot lengths. The elbow connectors for the electrical conduit cost $4.95. I think I will try a PVC elbow first and see how it goes.
I love the blue house with the yellow door and the white trim. But you know what pulls it all together? The panel of fabric covering the window.
Lovely, isn't it? A very nice contemporary retro touch that fits right in with the house.