I come from a long, long, long line of green thumbs. Both sides of my family have grown beautiful yards and house plants and fed their families the fresh fruits and vegetables they've grown. My mom grew lovely things in ALASKA. Somehow this enviable genetic trait jumped right over me. It landed and settled nicely with my brother, but not even the teeniest bit wiped off on me. Let's be serious, I'm a danger to anything green and growing. Lucky for me, we live in Portland, and it seems if you plunk something in the soil outside it just grows and grows! It might have a little something to do with the tender care of my husband, but don't tell him that.
And what is my new project? A HOME GARDEN!! That is right, I'm going to plant these lovely things, I promise to take care of them to the best of my ability, and we will eat and store the harvest!! The price of organic fruits and veggies is outrageous and my son is incredibly sensitive to the damn pesticides, so we are going to do this ourselves!!
Here is what we have so far:
Not really! That is Martha Stewart's garden. We hope to have a tiny corner of this yard!
Our back yard was hyped as "RV parking" when we bought this house, which means half of it is paved into a horrendous concrete pad. The neighbors said at one time a sweet little garage sat in the concrete pad's spot, but that it was knocked down when a tree fell. We'd love to replace it, but for now we can afford a few above ground garden beds!
Our plan is to put thin beds along the fence and plant "climbing growies" (this is an architectural term) to soften the hard fence, and large beds along the rest of concrete. My husband started making them:
He drafted out plans on the computer and we found lots of great tips about mesh and drilling holes and planting guidelines for Oregon online. We plan to start small: 3 large planters and 3 against the fence for growies. We'll also plant some blueberry bushes in the little bit of actual soil we have along the East wall. I'm so excited to get planting!
I check in on your blog & site every once in a while. (Diana sent me the link a long time ago). I had to comment this time. You totally got me on that first garden photo. I was thinking wow -there is nothing this girl can't do! Thanks for a good hee haw. I try every year with the gardening but I think the only thing that will keep the deer from eating every last green bit would be to put up a Jurassic Park style fence.
ReplyDeleteHappy Gardening!
Donna (Milko's wife)
hi donna! how GREAT to hear from you! can you IMAGINE having that garden?! martha is seriously too much, and i love her!
ReplyDeletewe don't have any deer here, but have been having long discussions about the birds and raccoons eating our harvest. most people, though don't have any fences or netting at all - lots of people here actually have gardens in their front little park strip along the street! i'm going with the "we live in portland, so it will grow" theory! this weekend is building a couple more beds and then we'll start planting! yeeeee! (you guys should come out and share in the harvest!)
m.
Good for you! I keep saying I will have our own garden but we never get around to it. My project is to start a compost bin this year! I'm buing a turning one soon!
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