On a limb with Claudia

I went out to my garden yesterday morning to harvest what was ripe. The bounty had such amazing colors – red, purple, yellow, orange, and green tomatoes! Purple and white eggplant! Yellow cucumbers! Lime green squash! Amazing.

It made me wonder what bounty you’ve harvested this week. Let me know so that we can celebrate together!

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While sitting on my neighbor’s deck, I overheard this conversation:

“Can you believe it? She actually keeps bees?” The woman said.? “She even said that she wanted to GROW her food this year.”

Was she talking about me?? I don’t know her.

“Oh, she’s ridiculous,” the other woman said.? “What does she thinks she has?? An urban farm?”

They laughed.

My neighbor whispered, “That’s not you.? They are talking about someone in Boulder.? They don’t need to know about your backyard.”

Now at least I know what to call our little project.

Here’s a little update.

Beehives:

• We have four beehives.
• One with a beautiful Zia Queenbee.
• Another that is in the process of requeening itself.
• And two swarms. The third swarm did not stay.

Gardens:

• Everything survived the last snow storm and is beginning to grow!
• We’ve planted almost everything.
• We are starting new beds because order 3 get 3 free raspberries plants meant 18 plants and not 6 as I thought.? I’d complain but come on. Who wouldn’t eat more raspberries if given the chance??
• We are still waiting for a blueberry and strawberries.? Our squash and watermelons have not come up yet but we are optimistic.

Bed 1

Bed 2

Bed 3

Hope your weekend is going well!

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Hey folks!

I’m completely wrapped up with the bees, the swarms, the garden, the husband’s comprehensive exams, and every other non-computer time thing.? I’ll return next week with something brilliant – promise!

In the meantime, TT-on!

Claudia

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After checking the weather report four times, I spent most of the weekend planting my seedlings, seeds and tender veggie plants. My vegetable garden in under way!? Hurray!

Would you like to see it?

What’s this, Claudia?

Oops. Turns out the weather report was delayed last weekend. New weather report as of Monday morning? FREEZING temperatures tonight and the THREE inches of snow due tomorrow.

Sigh.

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This summer, I decided to return to my garden. At our old house, we had an extensive garden that went the way of the “no time” 100 hours a week work week. I thought this week, I’d share my venture into veggie gardening.

Thursday Thirteen #26 – In the Garden.

Our garden will be an organic, Biodynamic or French intensive garden. Here’s the whole story:

1. Well, Ok. What actually happened is that we decided to get rid of the guys who were mowing our lawn. (They did a horrible job as you can see in the photos.) Smiling, I convinced my biostatisitician husband that there way NO WAY he’d have time to mow. He smiled and said, “If you want to take care of the grass, that’s fine with me.”

Hee hee.

2. “So you won’t mind if create a veggie gardens this year?” I asked.

“Knock yourself out,” he said.

I hate grass. I just hate it. It sucks up water, creates a waste area of toxic chemicals and pollutants, causes cancer in dogs… bleck! I just hate it.

A fact that my husband of 11 years forgot.

Hee hee.

3. I had a few old manuscript drafts laying around. In March, I laid the manuscripts over the grass and put some homemade compost on top.

Death to grass!

Hee hee.

4. “I was thinking about maybe a rose bed in the back.”

“Just tell me where to dig,” he said.

This is the other side of the path. Rosie loves me so much that she killed this grass by herself.

Go Rosie Go!!

5. Beautiful Rose garden, wouldn’t you say? Four roses – three Aromatherapy and one yellow nameless. Purple spring iris and daffodils/crocus along the edge.

Now wouldn’t you say that’s better than grass??

6. A French Intensive garden starts with double digging the bed. Basically, you take off the first 12 inches (layer 1) and set it aside. Then you take off the next 12 inches of soil (layer 2). Under that you add compost (we used Clay buster). Then you put layer 1 back. Another bag of compost and layer 2 goes on top.

7. Truth is? My husband is never happier than when he has a shovel in his hand. He just loves digging in the dirt. That’s part of the reason this system works so well for us.

8. Of course, “we” had to deal with the tree stump.

9. How does it look? like? Funny you should ask!

We had to use “clay buster” compost because our compost is mostly clay. This bed was created in late April. It takes at least a month for the soil to return to bioactivity after grass

Ok, it doesn’t look like much – but you can plant at least 2x the amount of plants in this bed due to the soil prep.

We will have three French Intensive beds.

10. After the dirt work, French Intensive gardening is about companion planting. This means that everything that draws nitrogen is planted next to something that gives nitrogen. Therefore, we never deplete the soil, only improve it.

Huh?

Short version: we plant a lot of beans. Rosie loves beans.

Also, some plants enhance the growth of other plants. Some plants hurt the growth of other plants. For example, Lettuce, Radishes, and Carrots do really well together. Whereas, onions and garlic don’t do well next to peas and beans.

11. If you are really on it, you plant seeds two days before a new moon. Unfortunately, the growing season is sooo short here in Denver, that it’s almost impossible to do that. I’m not about to lose 2 weeks of growing while I wait for a new moon. Period. The idea is that the moons gravitational pull draws water to and from a plant.

Moving on….

12. Here’s our garden plan for this year:

13. A lot of this information came from a book called How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons. I was given this book about 10 years ago when the book was out of print. (My copy is circa 1995.) Although it can be technical, if you want to grow a lot of vegetables, this book will teach you how.

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How about you? What are you growing this year?
Leave your plans in the comments and I’ll add them to this post.

• Sandy Carlson says she has “to try double digging (not double dipping?)!”
• Janet is growing: “tomatoes, jalapenos, strawberries, basil, rosemary, two kinds of mint, sage, cilantro (altho I?ve not had much luck with it), and a couple of other herbs, I haven?t decided what yet.”
• Laura “always plant(s) lots of potatoes, lettuce, spinach, green beans, peas, broccoli, peppers and tomatoes.”
• Susan Helen Gottfried “likes pretty plants.”
• Tommie says, “If we are around for more than one growing season, we try to do a mini pizza garden: tomatoes, peppers, onions, basil, etc. The kids love it!”
• Colleen “planted corn, swiss chard, dill, marigolds, and zinnia. No manuscripts though.”
• Forgetfulone is “in the midst of replanting shrubs in our front yard. We had red tips, but I would like to plant a variety of garden plants and some flowers, too, but I?m still looking. Lily of the Nile is one I like, philodendrons (not sure of spelling), a small palm, perhaps a juniper tree, pansies, and who knows what else.”
• Julia is “a flower gardener, especially since our yard has a lot of shade. I do grow herbs but mostly for aesthetic reasons. I garden with my mom (my husband and I live with her) and we compromise on our gardening styles. My mom likes to impose order on nature, and I like to have a garden that seems to erupt from nature. Between the two of us, we have a lovely yard.”
• Are we there yet mom is “planning to plant a Pizza Garden with them, with tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant. Next year it will be a Sunflower House with Morning Glories.”
• Toni has “2 types of potatos and 2 types of onions as well as radishes growing. In a month or so we will also have peppers, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatos, okra and probably one or two other surprises?”
• Hazelnut “keep(s) things simple by using containers, a variety of sedums (less watering), and native grasses. I love the look and sound of the grasses when a breeze is blowing.”
• CajunVegan says, “I was just talking to the hubs about starting an herb garden. Fresh mint ? rosemary ? cilantro ?”
• Josie is “growing Clematis, Geraniums, Nasturtiums, Forget-me-nots, Petunias, Hollyhocks, Snapdragons, Roses and whatever else I feel like planting.”
• Michael C is trying to “grow his hair out.”
• Ornery’s Wife is growing “herbs, weeds and a lot of grass.”
• Shaunesay grew bunnies in her pots last year.
• Di grows complacent.

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Thursday Thirteen Participants

1. On a Limb with Claudia 2. AnthonyNorth 3. SandyCarlson 4. SJ Reidhead 5. Comedy Plus 6. Janet 7. Tammy 8. RandomMoments 9. gdaybloke 10. Susan Helene Gottfried 11. tommie 12. Adelle Laudan 13. Bethany 14. nap warden 15. Dane Bramage

16. colleen 17. Lori 18. forgetfulone 19. Sandy M 20. no nonsense girl 21. marcia v 22. Sandier Pastures 23. Robin 24. Sue 25. Tina 26. Journeywoman 27. Brenda 28. Ivanhoe 29. she 30. pussreboots

31. Elaina 32. storyteller 33. LaLaGirl – Twinfinite Chaos 34. Tilly Greene 35. julia 36. Bernie 37. AreWeThereYetMom 38. The Gal Herself 39. Toni 40. Hazelnut 41. cajunvegan 42. Bethanie 43. Shaunesay

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