Monterey Road Garden Report #1

Somehow, even with all of the growing up around a garden, with two green-thumbed parents, and all of the farmers market support, I have made it through my entire life without ever having started a garden. A real one, in the ground. Sure, Hannah and I had a couple of tomato containers at our summer rental in Des Moines, and I always found room for herbs on the windowsill in Brooklyn. Erik had tossed a few seeds around his backyard in Queens, way before I knew him, but he hadn’t really gardened before, either.

Turns out, neither of us have any idea what we’re doing. I got a bunch of books from the library, but only one thing stuck in my head: You can’t grow an avocado tree from a pit for some reason. The plants are always unwieldy and hardly ever produce actual avocados. We decided the best plan of attack was to just dive in.

After checking out a few nurseries in the area, we finally, with decidedly heavy hearts, decided that our best selection for stuff we could afford was Home Depot. (I know, I know, I can actually hear you all rolling your eyes at us, from states away!) One recent Saturday found us pushing one of those huge orange carts around, gathering up the essentials. $70 later, we had: potting soil for some succulents in pots that needed to be refreshed, two strawberry plants, a butternut squash, an acorn squash, a zucchini, five tomato plants, a bell pepper (orange!), six corn plants (hey, ya never know…), a rosemary bush, starters for yellow onions, and a shovel. Not bad!

Of course, the first key ingredient was something we did already have cooking for several months. Rob and Marty had helped us build a compost pile, don’t forget. (Well, ‘helped’ is a strong word since they did all of it.) The moment I was inspired to grab my camera on that first gardening afternoon, actually, was when Erik started digging down into it. That was some pretty gorgeous compost, if I do say so myself. Check it out:

I don’t know if you can tell, but that is some good-looking compost.

Our backyard has a nice long strip down it, between the walkway and the tall fence. We’ve watched it throughout the day, and it gets solid light from early/mid morning (either early or mid, depending on if you are on Mom/Dad time or Emily time) until 2 or 3. Perfect. As we got our new little babes home and laid them out in formation, the only question we had was: Do we have to dig up ALL of the grass for the garden patch? Or can we just clear enough away for the plants? Hmmm…

As you will soon see, we ended up with the latter. We did some quick googling and could only find that people get rid of the grass for the aesthetic of a perfect, soiled garden bed. It was actually a Victory Garden online Q & A that pointed out to us that the grass might actually keep weeds down. We decided to try ‘mowing’ the grass with some clippers… It’s entirely likely that we’ll end up digging all of the grass out at some point, but that one afternoon’s main goal was more easily met by skipping it: Those babies got in the ground. Here’s a long shot of it, looking from our back porch (with the famed compost in the background):

(This photo is too small for you to be able to see, but over the back fence is a neighbor’s yard in which he plants… banana trees. Tons of ‘em. Oh, California!)

We also threw in some surprises along the fence (on the left, not along the back fence). I’ll wait until they show themselves to tell you what they are. The pots on the sidewalk are some succulents and dragon fruit plants that Erik got me for Valentine’s Day! We have plans for a better home for them, which we’ll get around to one of those days.

I was out of town over the weekend, and I swear these guys have gotten taller since I’ve left. Here’s a view of the garden from the other direction:

From left to right, back to front: Basil and rosemary, bell pepper, tomatoes, and then hiding just behind the dragon fruit plants are the strawberries. Here is the second half:

The tomatoes are the four plants on the left, and the winter and summer squash are the three in the middle. The corn are on the right!

Now I know it looks a bit silly to have grass between these plants. But think it’ll work? So far, so good: We’ve had more rain than average, and we also have a sprinkler. It’s only been a few weeks, so the grass hasn’t grown too high yet. Is there anything we should look out for? Or should we just suck it up and hack away at that grass when we have a little time? I’d love your opinions; as I said, we know next to nothing about this!

Next up: Looking to plant some beans, and more herbs, and Brussels sprouts! We also want tons of onions and garlic, but I think we’ll have to wait until much later in the year to get them in the ground. And I’m having visions of bouganvilla all along the fence on the other side of the yard… That is the plant that ate LA, I swear — it’s everywhere! I want some of it for my own!

Faith and Hope

There had been other posts (see July 2008 and May 2009) about our cherry tree, so here is some perspective and an update. 

We acquired the cherry tree in 1997.  It had belonged to my Uncle Clarence.  I have lost several aunts and uncles in the past  year, but Uncle Clarence passed away 14 years ago this date.  He was a Lutheran pastor and taught many lessons on faith, but I remember him more for his teachings on nature, the two topics dove-tail wonderfully into one other.  He was the kind of man who would take a bunch of us out hiking on a nature preserve and give lectures on whatever flora and fauna we might encounter.  He was a beekeeper and taught us about the amazing life of bees…humans have so  much to learn about life from bees!  He also was a member of NAFEX…North American Fruit Explorers.  He actually grew kiwi in his backyard in Kirkwood, MO.  He grew them on a trellis that he would lay down on the ground in the winter and cover up with bags of leaves for insulation.  I have a vivid memory of him (standing precariously with a walker) collecting magnolia seed pods to see if he could get them to germinate, nevermind that he may not live to see a tree grow from those seeds.  He was passionate about grafting and he had an orchard.  Evidently, he also had a cherry tree in a bucket that had yet to be planted when he died on this date back in 1997.  Aunt Mickey gifted us with the cherry tree.  We planted it in a half barrel and set it out on the brick patio.  We always intended to take it out to our farm to plant it permanently but 14 years and life in general passed by.

Last year when we sold our home, we told the new owners that the tree on the patio would not be left behind.  We planned to wait until winter when it would be a better time to move a tree.  They agreed for us to come later to claim the tree.  In our private conversations, we wondered about the tree.  How had it managed all this time so happily in a half barrel?  Perhaps the barrel bottom had rotted out and the roots had grown down through the morter between the bricks?  Would it survive a move? Should we leave it behind or risk uprooting it?

In the end, we decided that we could not bear to leave it behind.  Late in February we went back to the old place.  We had a saw and a two wheel cart and a bunch of bungie cords.  Once the barrel was tipped over, it completely fell apart.  The roots had indeed grown down in between the bricks.  They were sawed off and what remained of the root ball and tree was scooped up and loaded into the van.  We planted it the next day, a late gray Saturday in February.  I trimmed all the branches off to give the roots less tree to support.  Then it was left up to faith and hope to survive.

This weekend is a fitting time to check on the progess of the tree. 

What we are left with is faith and hope.