My husband made us a raised planter box for us to do square foot gardening in. It was great fun mixing the potting soil and amendments and planting the seeds with our kids. But, then I gave it a good watering and the bottom fell out! Just didn't make it strong enough (wood too thin, not enough supports underneath, etc.).
Well, in the weeks afterwards while we tried, and failed, to find ways to fix it, the seeds started growing in the dirt anyways (even though the dirt was on an angle, tipped where the bottom gave way and spilling out).
So, I decided before the thing collapsed completely (it was only a partial collapse) I would find a place to move them. So, I sectioned out a square of earth, poured boiling water over it to kill the grass and weeds, and started tilling the ground today. (If this sounds like I'm making up this plan as I go you're exactly right--I was.) I gave my middle son a spade, and he was a hugh help digging and mixing. Later his brother came home from school, and him and the neighbor kids came to help. We mixed the some vermiculite and peat moss in...and I was kinda glad they had to leave before we got to the compost (didn't want to have to tell their parents why they would need a bath). Then we moved the surviving seedlings over and planted some more. The water looked like it was pooling up when I watered it, so I don't think I mixed it right. OH WELL! I figure whatever plants survive my gardening attempts are the hardiest (and any seed collected can tout the lable "Hardy Enough to Survive Gale's Garden!")
Stopping in to say hi!!
ReplyDeleteWe miss the easy gardening of Southern California. Here in the piney woods, we plant peppers and tomatoes. They do okay. The peppermint and rosemary run wild!
ReplyDeleteI miss easy gardening in California too. Well, actually, in the mountains where I lived it wasn't that easy--sort of the opposite problem as Texas (there it was short season, with late and early freezes, a lot of shade and not much sun). But when I went to college in Riverside I took botany and for extra credit worked in their garden, and it was SO EASY to grow stuff.
ReplyDeleteDuring high school and college, I worked for Rogers Gardens, a big, high-end nursery in Newport Beach, CA, from 1980 through 1985. I spent a big chunk of each paycheck buying herbs and flowers for my folks' garden!
ReplyDeleteI actually worked in a nursery too for a few years, up in the mountains. I was lucky that the manager liked to send home some of the plants that were past their prime but still good (perrenials that had stopped blooming or things that were starting to get root-bound)--
ReplyDelete"Here, try this out, see if you can bring it back to life." Even so, I still spent a lot of my paycheck on flowers.