This past Monday I took advantage of my day off to do something I love but moreover something I'd been needing to do for a couple of weeks. My summer patio vegetable garden experiment had started to wind down after my cucumber and squash plants croaked and the tomato plant got all spindly. I have about 16 or 17 pots available and I wanted to try to use those so I didn't have to spend any money on anything except the components for my soil mix and maybe a couple packets of seeds. As far as I am concerned as long as I have a superior soil mix I have a good chance of success. Summer vegetables are generally BIG and the pots I had really weren't sufficient to support the big vines characteristic of a lot of the stuff I had planted. I have hope for a better fall "crop" given the fact that one 10- 12" pot should be okay for individual green leafy vegetable plants.
Fall is my favorite time to plant anyway. It is low maintenance, and as soon as plants like collards and kale are mature you can just take what you need, leave the plant and it will continue to grow leaves that you can continue to harvest. Here in GA these hardy leafy plants fair well over winter and I can usually harvest from them until they bolt in hotter Spring weather.
For soil I did a modified Mel's Mix recommended for square foot gardens (SFG) which is what I had before when we lived in our house. Mel's mix is typically 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost and 1/3 peat moss. I chose to do 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 mushroom compost and 1/3 steer manure. When I started my SFG at my house I did this same mix but with peat moss in place of vermiculite. I had great results. I think also the higher level of nutrients in the soil with my modified mix will be beneficial given that I have things in pots and not in a larger bed.
We still have sweet potatoes (4 big pots) growing... I am waiting a bit to harvest them. There are also 4 plants down in the community garden that I think will be decent as well. Everything else down there has been pulled out.
All in all we have...
4 collard plants
4 red cabbage plants
8 sweet potato plants (and lots of tubers by now, just waiting a little before harvesting)
2 mustard greens from seed
2 turnips from seed (won't do much with the turnips but I can harvest the greens at least)
3 spinach from seed
tons of radishes
2 rosemary still growing + basil is struggling along
It's not much but it's enough to keep me going. If the light is low enough and the community garden spot gets enough sun I might consider going down there to put some plants in but I'd have to redo the soil mix and that's EXPENSIVE!
Anyway, we took some photos of the process...
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| here are things BEFORE... mixing the soil components and cleaning out pots |
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| our shovel = fireplace shovel. yep. |
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| Shiloh on camera duty... |
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| dumping soil mix into pots... |
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| ...and smoothing out, ready to plant |
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| best thing in the world. wish you could see the shimmer of the vermiculite... |
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| she's finished! |
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| happy and dirty :) |
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| freshly watered... |
Looks nice. I spent too much time in the city.
ReplyDelete/Avy
http://mymotherfuckedmickjagger.blogspot.com
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Oh I love it! Its such a good thing to create a little veggie garden with the kids! Reminds me of my childhood <3
ReplyDeleteLove&Peace,
Betty from http://ajourneythroughlife4.blogspot.de/
I know that smile and feeling well. We lived in the same small 2 bedroom apartment for 5 1/2 years with 3 children. My porch was a literal jungle due to yard envy. The neighbors called me plant lady, much to my liking :)All I ever wanted was a yard and trees for these little guys to get dirty in. We are not indoor people and living in an apartment can feel so constricting sometimes you struggle with being "neighborly". We close on our first home in few days and I kinda feel guilty for all those families who still live there and will probably be there or some other apartment style living for years to come. I understand feeling like, " God, my dreams are so modest, so small in comparison to the extravagant and rich lifestyles that so many seem to live with ease. Why is it so hard for us to move up even one tiny step in life when it seems so effortless to those others?"... And now that we're days away from the finish line of a long run race (paying medical bills off, building credit, saving money) I wonder what it all was for. I wonder if I ever learned the lessons He was teaching, did I not glean all that He had wanted to share, did I waste the opportunity to learn to be like Paul "content in every circumstance", or was it not all about me but just life being life. Bad credit being bad credit, ya know?
ReplyDeleteI will pray that the walls of your space become larger in your perspective and that all that you planted will grow large and beautiful and you will be called "plant lady" until the day you are once again walking on your own plot of land :) Thanks for sharing your life and spiritual insights (my favorite part), Brooke.
Laura, I can't say enough how much I appreciate and relate to this comment. It means so much to me to know that I am not alone, and that you would take the time to share. That is a huge part of this for me... am I learning all I need to learn... wanting to make sure I do, but then, it's HE who began a good work, and HE who will complete it, right? Maybe it's incremental, there are more lessons, or more to these lessons, he will complete at a later time... Not for us to worry about? I don't know...
DeleteThank you for responding and taking the time to care.
And DON'T QUIT BLOGGING!! <3
Oh, yeah. Remember when I shared with you about my similar experience with the "blog persecution" from that neighbor? Well, she her family were GIVEN the home that her in laws owned because they wanted an upgrade and built themselves a new one.... You better believe that threw me off for a good minute! I was like, "Why God?! She totally dissed your servant!" and all that jazz ;) Yep, I was that ridiculous. But we often get a little sideways with what "prosperity" means. What "the blessing" really looks like. I know I do, for sure at times.
DeleteGiiirrrrl, I have been wondering the same thing... WHY does the rain HAVE to fall on the just and the unjust!? I don't think my dreams are that big or whatever... why can't we just have a little bit? And why does it come so easily to some others? For instance, a friend of mine is moving into a house a ton of acreage just because someone decided to rent the place to them after it being vacant for so long... Why not me? Do I have do go through that now? Learning to not say "why not me?"... I soooo relate. I wish we lived closer and stuff! Maybe we could meet!? Lots of parallel experiences it seems.
DeleteHa Ha! Yeah, there's been several of our church friends, too who got hooked up in those real estate blessings from other weller to do (not a word?) members. And Texas is as far as it gets :( At least you have such AMAZING natural forest and beauty to momentarily escape to. You are blessed, blessed, blessed geographically :)....One book that switched the flip in my perspective in a season of extreme, depressing discontent was Radical by David Platt. I bet someone you know has a copy. Each "slump" has a ladder, thank God! I REALLY pray, I really hope that your booth does amazing sales. Have you ever thought of getting into the estate sale business? Folks get paid by families to come in and set up, price, and oversee the selling in their loved ones homes. You seem like you would do great in that. Vintage pricing, personable, friendly face, direct,... yep, you'd make a great estate sale runner. You should look that up, what it would entail to get started on your own or hook up with an existing company. :)
DeleteAnd I can't say how I much I appreciate and relate to your blog ;) You write what most of us can only feel but not express in words.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for that last command. Needed to hear that.