i'll make this quick...

ohmygosh... I haven't done THIS in awhile!! Phew! How are y'all!? Man, I am doing good. I guess it's been almost two months since my last confession, and I have had so much going on, I literally have had NO time for blogging. It has just not been a priority whatsoever. I wake up at 6:30 AM, am at work by 7:30 AM, home by about 5:30 PM, into the throes of meal making and kid-hugging and stuff, and by the time it's quiet, this is that last thing I want to sit down and do after sitting in front of a computer all day. On the weekends we have been trying to be very intentional with our plans so that we get away and refresh our minds at least one day out of the weekend. One day for working, helping, etc, and one day for play with the family. We've been going up to the mountains every weekend for the past few weekends just taking our chances, not worrying about time, just seeing where the road (or trail) takes us. It has been so good for our souls. We've seen some beautiful waterfalls, been tubing, hiking, driving, just taking in the cool mountain air and the green and the mountain vistas. We've needed the play time so badly and I am glad we've been doing that. I think we are going to try to go camping this weekend up in the Smokies. 

The garden is doing so awesome... beyond my expectations after having to move it down to to the community garden. So far I have harvested about 32 cucumbers so far! I've made six or seven jars of delicious pickles. I have harvested some cherry tomatoes and my Romas are going absolutely nuts! They haven't started to turn red yet but I will probably pull them before they get real red because they seem to be better when they ripen on the counter. I have about six or seven peppers ready for harvest this week as well. I am so happy and nothing fills my heart up like filling my arms with fresh homegrown vegetables from my garden!

Work is good! I am thankful for the pay and benefits and the proximity to my home. I love everyone that I work with so much! We have all bonded. I am technically still in training but wearing a number of hats in somewhat of a management role. It's corporate America based out of Bangalore...soo.... ya know, it's corporate!

Oh yeah and I sold my vintage clothing business... the whole dang thing! Someone bought EVERYTHING and I was able to pay off some debt. Bittersweet but one less thing to occupy my time...

Anyway, so now my time is up... I am going to watch Talahina Sky with my husband and have a glass of wine. I gotta go to bed soon anyway... 

Here are some IG photos for your enjoyment. 

the patio garden that is about to NOT be a patio garden :(

cucumber seedling

pepper plants

pepper plant in foreground... irises in back were transplanted from our old house in Woodstock

Big Boy, tomaters, cucumbers and peppers

So here's the thing about living in a condo. 

One, you gotta get pretty creative if you want to grow stuff. And I have done that. The community, as I have mentioned before, provides a community growing area but it gets terrible sunlight. So this year I planned a very extensive Spring/Summer garden to place on my patio. To be exact I have about thirty plants. Eight pepper, eight tomato and eight - twelve pickling cucumber, some herbs and marigolds to keep them all company. I have scrimped and saved for good potting soil and to start with mostly plants although all my cucumber plants are from seed because I could not find a pickling variety as a plant. Mostly I just wanted a successful garden growing a few things, but many of them, with the intention of learning more about food preservation this year. This is my pride and joy, my baby. 

So imagine my surprise and heartbreak when the president of the HOA showed up at my door to inform me that "you have too many plants" and they will have to be moved down to the community garden or destroyed. Oh and that area leading up to your front door? That is considered "common area" and under the jurisdiction of the HOA. And any "changes" to this area must receive pre-approval from the HOA. These changes include putting plants, yes, plants out. Oh and they especially do not like the fact that they are "food plants". I was told that the wire cages I placed over the plants (though a bit early, but I do not have any other place to put them) looked "trashy". It was the unanimous consensus of the Board that they looked "trashy" and needed to be moved or destroyed.

The last few days I have been trying to be sweet and kind to the person I am working with, and respectful, as I didn't realize that these were "the rules". I am most confronted with the fact that I have very little freedom here to do the very thing I look forward to and love, something so central to our values and I think widely regarded by gardeners and non-gardeners alike as a skill that every human being ought to know - the ability to grow one's own food. It is a learning opportunity for my kids. It is a life enriching activity. It is an investment not just financially but emotionally and spiritually. To think that all that I regard in high value is "trash" to another person, and that person has authority over me in some way, in the place where I live, well, this is very hard for me to digest. But I am trying to not be like everyone else and give them hell... though I want to, I am trying to do right.

So tomorrow, I am moving my plants down to the community garden area. I am going to plop them down in the sunniest spot I can find. I am going to leave my pepper plants on the front patio and propose that since they do not require the "trashy" wire cages that they stay so that I can monitor them, along with my herbs. If they refuse that proposal, I will try putting them on my southeast facing back patio, and use mirrors behind them to try to give them more light... not sure if that will work. Otherwise they all will be down there. The guy I've been talking to said I could leave them in their containers for now but not past fall. Which is not an issue really, since the community garden gets more light come fall than my front patio. I will transplant the cucumber seedlings into a portion of a plot assigned to me and pray that they grow. All of my tomatoes will have to go down there for sure. 

I am pretty much heartbroken. 

I am thankful for the condo. But I am very anxious to be in a house again with a big yard where I can grow whatever I darn well please. 

:(

PS: good news on the composting front... my friend Sarah of Kula Project gave me a patio composter!!! I am so thrilled! It is sitting on my back porch :)

patio composting

I think I've found a few things to blog about. It's been a little dry around here lately, but only because I simply cannot find within my life any reason to prioritize blogging or anything else that involves sitting, stationary, in one position because of course (like right now) the children decide I am a jungle gym or suddenly need me as if all of their needs have been reserved for when I sit down for some "me" time. This season with a 2 year old and a 4 year old  (and a 12 year old who sometimes acts either 2 or 4) is EXTREMELY trying. I love them with all my heart, they are my greatest joy. However, I won't lie. I am taxed. They are at such a high needs state and I feel subhuman at times.

Anyway...

So, yeah, we've made a few changes around here. It is a travesty that in East Cobb there are SO FEW OPTIONS for recycling. We live in a condo community with an HOA that uses a sanitation company with no recycling offering. There is NO comprehensive recycling facility or drop off nearby. We did locate one recently that allows cardboard, plastic, aluminum and magazines/paper, so we decided to start recycling those items at least. We recycled heavily when we lived in Woodstock but since moving here it's something we haven't done and seems so wasteful. We didn't have anything like this when we moved in here. This is a recent change (crazy) in the community. 

In addition to that I have been researching composting when all you have is patio - not yard or garden - space. I found several great resources which inspired me to get started. I don't know when or if I will use the soil on my patio garden, but I certainly don't want to waste the vegetable scraps and other compostable items we discard so I wanted to start composting again.

I am reusing the 14 gallon kitty litter bins. I will probably end up with lots of batches of composting soil on my back patio but it can be donated to the Kula Project if I run out of space/use for it. 

To start it off, I began with brown matter in the base of the bin and added a few worms I dug out from under my existing pots. I used pine straw and soil. I probably put 4 inches of pine straw in the base of the bin. I placed a bowl of soil next to the bin to add to the green matter I will be adding as I go to try to keep a balance. 

The key to successful composting is having the right green and brown material balance so that decomposition will actually happen. Since we discard more green material (vegetable scraps, mostly) than we have access to brown material (leaves, hay, pine straw, soil, etc), I will actively have to seek out additional brown material to balance out the pile, which means adding a little brown when I add a little green. The ideal balance of green to brown is 2 parts green to 1 part brown, although a 1:1 ratio of each is acceptable. I am shooting for the latter. I am going to have to take a walk in to the woods and gather up some leaves and whatnot for my pile. Newspaper and paper egg cartons are also a great source of carbon/brown material.

From a scientific perspective, I might add that the brown material is your carbon source and green material is your nitrogen source. The correct balance of carbon and nitrogen provides the right balance of food for the microorganisms in your pile that actually do the work of composting the material. If you don't have a good balance, there will be no composting action taking place. 

Here's what I'm doing (I'm no expert - but learning as I go):

• I use a large plastic bin on my countertop to place compostable scraps into until full. Compostable materials include fruit and vegetable scraps and peels, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, nut shells, etc. Non-compostable materials are pretty much any and all animal products (no meat, dairy of any kind). I chop up my green material as small as possible before putting it into the countertop bin. Smaller pieces compost faster.
• I set up a bin (14 gallon kitty litter bin) on the back deck with a lid. I poked a bunch of holes in it to get the air circulating around it. I placed 4" of pine straw and a sprinkling of soil, a few worms in the bottom of the bin to get started. I have a container of soil on the side to sprinkle on top after each addition of green material. 
• As I add green material I try to keep it balanced with brown material. 
• I give the bin an occasional shake (though I am not sure this is actually helpful since I have worms in there? I am not really doing vermiculture, I just put some in to help the process - like, eight worms... someone school me if I am not supposed to do that!) to keep the mix blended. Like turning the pile if it was in my garden, I think this has the same effect. 
• I try to add a little water with each addition of green material.
• Once the bin is full I put it aside and start a new one. I will just continually use my kitty litter bins as they already have lids and are large enough for our needs. This may or may not work long term... see next bullet!
• I will monitor the pile for the right temperature. If it's not reaching the right temp, it's not composting. The pile should be 110 - 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I think challenges I will face reaching this temp will be the lack of surface area to my pile. But I can always transfer to a bigger bin and see what happens. For now I will keep you posted. 

Great online resources I found about composting:

Home Composting Made Easy

WikiHow: Make Your Own Compost

Patio Composting on Aunt Debbi's Garden blog

Making a plastic composting bin

Hope this inspires you to consider composting... it's something I did before when I was living in a house, but now I realize it can be done living in an urban setting as well with a little modification of our methods.

I can't wait for Spring and to be able to plant my vegetable garden. The patio has been getting more and more sunlight in the mornings which means it's almost time to plant!! 

Thanks for reading...

Brooke