Memorial Day

There are more additions to the gardening project:

Bill in his new urban gardener suspenders

A cactus has appeared.

The purple sage looking for riders

A rose e'er blooming

Salvia in a pot planning to attract humming birds

Updates from May 22nd

Hello Gardeners,

Just wanted to let you know the updates I have made to the space. I know that the lettuce is loving the cool, rainy weather, but the tomatoes are just not sure about it :). Here are my pics:

Here is our new pumpkin/squash patch.

Wanda's pumpkin starts.

Feyd impatiently waiting for me to finish watering the pumpkins and squash.

Wanda's new lights for the squash in the lower garden.

The celery and tomatoes.

The potatoes are going crazy! They will be delicious!

The peas and beans are very happy.

Rose began work on the next bed! Any suggestions to what should go here?

It looks like rose added more the the far bed.

The onions, freshly weeded and recovered.

The lettuce just going crazy.

And my dill, now I just need some cucumbers....

Regards,

Brittney

Flowers

 A friendly neighbor came by and told us about a plant sale on Phinney Ridge.  Bill went by and got a lot of salvia and fuschia and two Brandywine heirloom tomato plants.  At garage sales coming home he bought many pots and hanging baskets, one sporting a pretty white petunia.  I got the tomatoes into the ground at either end of the east bed that's awaiting scarlet beans.  Our neighbors to the west have cleared a bed of weeds under the cherry tree and offered it to us to plant.. They have put down weed barrier cloth and we have mulched it,  Thinking pumpkin patch...

We had a hummingbird at Rose's flower patch yesterday!

A Morning Walk Around the Gardens

Our giant parsley plant.

Our shivering tomatoes.

Hearty mint under the east cherry tree

Cutie cloches over summer squash

Pretty edible kale

Arugula in flower

Red lettuce ready for a salad

Oregano along the walk

Red snapdragon in the rockery

Johnny-jump-ups (with Boo behind, asleep in his new napping spot)

Into Each life...

I planted some of the summer squash starts at the top edge of the west rockery -- TWICE!  The first time someone ate them off to nubbins-- there is some debate between the squirrel lovers and the crow lovers in our family about who was the culprit.  Anyway, I replanted yesterday and put up little "cutie cloches" to protect them (red mesh cut from "cutie" citrus bags.  So far no nibbles.  The first of the wild flowers Bill sowed in the back yard are coming up already, as are the bush beans we put in some time ago.  The weather has been dreary, but not very rainy.-- just enough to make you wonder if you should water or not.  There doesn't seem to be any sign of jalapenos in the pots I planted them in ages ago...I guess they know they're not in Texas....

Better Late Than Never

As life takes you on its rides, you sometimes have lots of time and sometimes have no time. While I have a moment and I wanted to share my pictures too. I am so grateful to Bill and Wanda for sharing their land with us! In honor of my mother, my goal is to get pumpkins in tomorrow (or at least some space for them in the future)

Brittney

April 12, Ground Breaking

Poor Feyd hates the rain

April 13th, Our first plant

Alan Watering

Sara too

April 16, more additions

Walla Walla Sweet Onions

So Many Peas

May 4th, This is how our garden grows

With Rose's Peas

May 11, 2013

The snails haven't paid any visible attention to their little cans of beer, but the crows love 'em.  They pick them up and play with them a while, then drop them in unexpected places. (They are, after all, closely related to magpies aren't they?)  The arugula in containers is bolting , as are several lettuce plants in the greensward--whatever that means.  I don't expect stuff to bolt until August, myself.  Bill has sown wild flowers in the back yard beds, which will be pretty if they come along.

May 10, 2013

Ups and downs in the garden life.  Someone is nibbling at the butternut squash leaves.  I believe it is snails, and have put out beer traps in old tuna and catfood cans.  No takers last night.  We will see. On the up side, there are definitely carrots coming up in their assigned row, and there are flowers on two tomato plants!  In the back yard we have set up the pavilion for the summer, with rug, table, chairs, and fire pit.  Today I found it festooned with hanging baskets of flowers-- an early Mothers' Day gift.  Bill has tilled a narrow bed around the sunnier sides of the yard by the surrounding bay laurel, and plans to sow wild flower seeds therein.

May 8th, 2013

We have had a few days of gloriously sunny and warm weather.  All the crops seem to be  thriving and the seeds started in egg cartons are coming up--English peas, and summer squash.  A friend gave us some cucumber and zucchini starts, too.  We found some expandable baby gates at a yard sale that Bill rigged into not unattractive trellises for the tomatoes and the future scarlet runner beans that are starting in egg cartons.  Bill has put in a hand rail for the front steps and says he will train some more runners over that!   The beets in the east bed are visible, but no sign of carrots.  We have nice row of chard from starts I put in last week.

May 3, 2013

Today I planted a couple of trailing rosemary starts along the edge of the east rockery in hopes they will someday become luxurious and tumble down the rocks like our neighbors' do.  I put in a couple of snapdragons in pots along the southwest rockery.

May 1, 2013

Bill came home from our favorite fruit, veggie, and garden center in the south end with a large rhubarb start and two good mints -- one of which is chocolate.  We planted the rhubarb in the greensward and the mint under the east cherry tree. He also brought two more tomato plants and three butternut squash.  The patio tomato went east of the front steps and the "Viva Italia" joined the rest of the south side tomato bed.

April 25, 2013

There are now the prettiest peas in the greensward, with wire trellises to grow upon.  In a bed along the east side rockery wall I've planted beets and carrots from seed.  In egg cartons in the garage I have started jalapenos, peas, and summer squash .  The squash and pea seeds are from a medley given us as a gift from some friendly neighbors passing by to encourage our endeavors.

April 20th, 2013

The gardeners come and go at will and more garden develops every few days.  The containers in the rockery are full of herbs and I have added a variety of ground covers to the soil among the rocks: "luna basket of gold," "blue rock seed," "New Zealand brass buttons," some creeping jenny, ice plant, and some sweet pennyroyal that brings forty-year-old memories of our farm in Virginia. Of course there are a couple of lavender plants just for me.  In the upper terrace we have planted three tomatoes under the front south window where the pyracantha was removed(do not worry, it is growing back apace).  Around the cherry tree to the east we've put a couple of mint plants.

April 15, 2013

The 3 yards of Cedar River compost Bill had ordered arrived today.  With the compost and the mulch we are ready for anything!

April 13, 2012

We have purchased a small tiller and are busily working to remove sod, till, and mulch the upper level of the lawn on the east and southern sides.  Bill has worked hard to get the greensward ready for the gardeners to till and I have been clearing the rockeries of weeds and debris.  This morning two gardeners who had worked diligently,  planted their first few plants -- some thyme, cilantro, lettuce, catnip, etc.   They had  not been gone long when a fierce hail storm storm came over!  Bill hurried to set up long picnic tables over the tender new crops to shield them.  They all came through unscathed, although the cilantro had the worst of it.

March 28, 2013

The vernal equinox arrived (finally) last week and we began to get responses to our offer,  Tonight we had 4 potential gardeners for dinner and discussion and found them all delightful. We made an informal agreement to pursue a small community investment in the greensward.  It then proceeded to rain almost nonstop for two weeks!.

January 2nd, 2013

We were disappointed that we had not gotten any responses to our posted garden space, but this did not keep us from the next step in the progression toward possible gardeners.  Today we had our two cherry trees and our back-yard encompassing laurel hedge trimmed and pruned.  We kept all the mulch created by running the tree trimmings through the noisy machine.  It was three huge piles!

September 30, 2012

When we attended the Sustainable Ballard Fair in the Commons helpful people were able to give us a website where we could list our potential gardening space for others to share..  We thought some eager gardeners would want to prepare the plot in the fall for spring planting.

Fall: 2012

Our house, at its sunny corner location in Sunset Hill , has a wide parking strip we have always felt was going unused. We have also recently removed a lot of overgrown shrubbery from the front of the house and unearthed an extensive and attractive rockery that has been lost under foliage for more than 20 years.  We would like to find some gardeners to make use of the greensward and perhaps containers in the rockery.