Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Raised Beds, Square Feet


I made a raised bed planter this year. Trying some square foot gardening.  Some of the plants I want will take multiple square feet.  I decided that was ok since I could put a lot of the smaller things, in containers.  Plans are below.

Images courtesy of www.groveg.com's Garden Planning software's free trial


Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Misadventures Begin Again

It is time for the annual State of the Garden address:

My plan(t)s for the coming year:

I cleared out an area about 3ft x 6ft to try to make a raised bed.  I plan on having a Roma tomato, a zucchini, a melon of some sort, and some eggplant.  I'd like to have red bell peppers, but I fear those must be confined to a pot to prevent the deer from preying upon them.

In the container states

I will have suhyo again.  It's the only one that consistently does well for me.
I already have 3 heads of lettuce and 2 stalks of arugula going well.
I will try my teapot again.  This year I will learn to properly harvest my herbs.
The lavender may bounce back but it will need some help.
I will do genovese and purple basil again.
I really want red and green shiso.  Does anyone know a reliable seed seller that has them?
I would like to grow bunching onions, but they never sprout for me.
I need deep buckets in which to grow daikon and kuroda carrots.
I fear many of my containers are, in fact, too small and I'm not sure I have space for bigger ones.
I have run out of thyme.  I will endeavor to make more thyme. 

Thank you for your support.



Thursday, January 19, 2012

What I Have Learned from Making My Bookshelves

Wood is uncompromising.

It is a reflection of how much time and care you choose to put into the work.

If you choose to take shortcuts, they will be clearly visible in the finished piece.

Every step takes the amount of time its going to take, and if you try to rush, it just leads to mistakes.

Mistakes are not easy to fix.  Often the only thing you can do is to go back and start from the beginning.

At a certain point you have to decide it's "good enough" and accept what you've done, flaws and all.

If you are patient and work carefully and lovingly in the end the entire piece will glow.