Cost Update

We need to update our cost total again; since we added the back-up tomato plant (don't tell the other tomatoes - they might be upset!) and cilantro in the pot on the back patio, we need to factor in those costs. The pot was $14.67, the dwarf Roma plant was $6.00, and the 2 cilantro plants were $3.00 each. That makes $26.67, which brings our total thus far to $221.52.

We will be really interested at the end of the season to compare our yield with our costs, to see if we beat grocery store prices on our veggies.

Yardwork galore!

So, were we just talking about having unseasonably cool weather, like, last week? Because this week it's been unseasonably warm. Both yesterday and today, the temperature was in the upper 80s, almost 90 degrees. We suppose it was just too much to ask to have a nice, normal spring to experiment with a new garden. If we can survive this season, we guess we can survive anything.

Along with three other neighbors on our block, we bought a giant pile of mulch this past week. It was delivered on Friday, and Dean spent the day out there with the other neighbors shoveling it out of the one giant pile it was delivered in and into smaller piles in each neighbor's driveway. Dean says the original pile was as long as our Honda CR-V and about as high as a 4-door sedan. Our personal pile, now in our driveway, was about 35 wheelbarrows-full. Dean spent a good portion of the day yesterday filling mulch in our front flower beds. He also pulled a ton of weeds. Kris spent a little time (she can't tolerate the heat like he can) spraying weeds on the brick patios with vinegar (a cheap, non-toxic option that kills 'em dead in just a couple of hours, when the weather is sunny like this) and putting mulch around our garden vegetables.

Speaking of the garden, we're still just anxiously waiting and watering it (when it's not pouring down rain, that is, which is often these days). We are a little worried about the tomatoes - the bottom leaves and branches look a little worse for wear. They're yellowed and sort of wilting. We've read that the bottom leaves of tomato plants tend to die back as the plants grow, and the tops of the plants look okay, so maybe they're alright. Just in case, we bought a back-up plant at the Alexandria farmer's market yesterday - a dwarf Roma tomato plant that's already starting to flower. We put it and a couple of cilantro plants into a large planter on the back patio and watered it in well. It rained (again, sigh) last night, so it got some extra water, and they all look terrific today. We've got our fingers crossed!

We weren't the only ones enjoying the sunny weather today - check out the Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat (aka Spooky) in the backyard today.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

There hasn't been much going on with the garden in the last week or so, but we did want to check in so you don't think we've abandoned our veggies. Since we planted, we've had several days of unseasonably cool weather and a ton of rain; so far, the veggies are holding up, though they're looking a little waterlogged today. After tomorrow, we should have a stretch of warm and sunny days, so hang on, veggies! The sun is coming.

After looking into some non-toxic pest control methods, we're trying black pepper. We read somewhere that the squirrels and rabbits don't like it, so we sprinkle it around the plants - when it's not raining, that is. So far it seems to be working. (And we're helping to keep McCormick in business.)

While waiting for our veggies to grow a little - we have to admit that now that the planting is done, gardening seems to be mostly comprised of waiting for something to happen - we've been doing some food-related reading. It's been eye-opening, to say the least. It would not be exaggerating to say that some of the things we've learned about the food business in this country have shocked us. It looks like starting this garden may be only the tip of the iceberg for us as far as changing how we look at food and what role we want to play in the United States food industry. We're planning to write a mini book review shortly, but in case you want to do some reading on your own, here are three books that have really turned our heads these last few weeks:

The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver

Cost Update

Time to do a cost update. Not counting the martini fixings, the garden cost up to a few days ago was $133.49. Including the $61.36 we spent on soil, we are now at $194.85.

The veggies seem to be doing fine. We're keeping our eye out for hungry varmints and critters, and have been researching nontoxic ways to keep them at bay, should the need arise. So far, we've learned that black pepper, castor oil, and peppermint oil are good options, so we may be employing one of those methods soon. Stay tuned!

Life Goes On

As sad as we are about the baby bunnies, life goes on. For us, that means the baby veggies we planted in the raised bed today. The weather forecast for the weekend has some more cold weather coming in the evenings on Saturday and Sunday, but we were afraid that the veggies wouldn't do well if they stayed in their temporary pots any longer. They were looking just a little bit peaked. So we bit the bullet and planted in the new bed this afternoon. Our veggies look so cute there in the new soil!


We have some tomato cages to put up when the time comes, and we're going to keep a close eye on the plants - if it looks like critters are getting in there and chowing down, we'll put up a wire fence, too.

In addition to the vegetables, we also have a small herb garden. Up close to the house there's an old brick fire pit that's cracked and not really safe for fires. Last year, we got the idea to fill it with soil and plant herbs in it. We had tried growing basil and oregano in pots on the windowsill, but they always got too dry and died, no matter how much we watered them. We thought that if we planted the basil and some other herbs in the fire pit, there would be enough soil there, along with the bricks, that the sun wouldn't heat the roots up too much. It was a great success, so we repeated the endeavor this year. We have our basil and some Italian parsley back in the new vegetable bed, and in the fire pit are last year's rosemary and chives (which came back beautifully, to our surprise) and some newly planted oregano.


Can't wait 'til we get to harvest our first tomatoes - with a bit of the basil and some mozzarella and olive oil, we'll have the best caprese salad of our lives!

Some Very Sad News

Unfortunately, our 3 baby bunnies didn't survive the unseasonable cold we had last night. Mother Rabbit didn't come back until early this morning (the sticks had been moved) but must have abandoned them when she saw they were dead, because they were uncovered and laying there exposed to the elements. We will bury them in a special little place in our new garden.

Needless to say, we are a little sad this morning. The Circle of Life is sometimes cruel.

Bunny Watch, Day 2

Now that we know there are little baby bunnies in the backyard, we cannot seem to keep ourselves from compulsively looking out of the back window to see if Mama Bunny is taking care of her nest. Having not seen her last night or this morning, we are naturally a wee bit worried. Northern Virginia is experiencing a cold snap that is supposed to last the next couple of days - it was close to 70 a couple of days ago, but the high temperature today is only supposed to be in the 40s, with the low tonight getting close to freezing.

Having read on a website somewhere that mama bunnies don't always stay with their nests - they don't want to call predators' attention to their babies - we feel a bit better that she's not around. But it's still way cold out there. We checked the nest a few minutes ago and found it bundled up tight - the babies are well buried beneath a layer of mama's fur, and the long grass is providing a screen against the wind. The nest is so well-covered that we can't even see the babies anymore, which is a sign that mama did actually come back at some point, but we're still paranoid. The website we checked suggested laying a couple of twigs in a cross on top of the nest, then checking it the next day to see if the twigs are disturbed. If so, that indicates that mama is on the job and there's no worrying necessary. So our twigs are out there and now it's just a matter of waiting and seeing.

A Hare-Raising Discovery

Funny, we had been talking when we started this endeavor about whether we'd need to put up chicken wire or something around our vegetable bed to protect our plants from rabbits and squirrels and such. We hadn't really come to a conclusion, and figured we'd consider it again when the plants were in. Well, lo and behold, what did we find in the yard this afternoon? A rabbit, just sitting there in the grass.


Dean walked up to her, but she didn't budge. We thought she might be injured, but as Dean got closer, she took off. And boy, were we shocked to see what was underneath where she'd been sitting!!


We felt awfully guilty about chasing her away, and stood looking out the window for a good hour, wondering how we would be as new parents to our foster-bunnies (should we put a warm towel over the hole on this chilly night? should we bring them in and nurse them back to bunny health? what kind of scholarships are offered for middle-class rabbits?)....when momma rabbit showed back up. She crept stealthily towards the hole, her nose twitching in the air, and settled back down to warm them for the night.

We're not sure how many little rabbit babies are in there; if you look closely, you can see the rump end of one on the right, and the little face and paw of another on the left. I suppose we should be honored that they've taken up residence with us; last year, they came into the yard just to try to eat the Japanese maple sapling, and this year, they consider us family. Aww!!

We seem to attract critters in this house; we've got robins who build a nest in the crook of the gutter on the back of the house, and more birds who have built a nest in the garage rafters behind the molding on the front of the house. The cats have even caught a mouse or two in the lodge room. And now this! It's kind of cool, actually.

At least Dean has a good excuse for not mowing the back lawn just yet. ;-)

$$$

So, we figured that it's probably a good idea to keep track of how much this garden is costing us. Once the veggies start coming in, it'll help us determine if we're coming close to saving any money on produce at the store, and will maybe give us something to go by next year. I'm sure we're spending more than we need to this first time out, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. And here's hoping we don't produce the proverbial $64 tomato. The breakdown so far:

Wood, screws, a garden hose nozzle, and veggie plants (4 tomato, 2 basil, 2 parsley, 2 oregano, 1 yellow pepper, 1 green pepper, 2 jalepeno): $92

4 tomato cages, a quart of linseed oil, stain pads, cloths, and latex gloves: $41.49

Martini fixings, with which to reward ourselves after our hard work in the yard: $40

Quality time spent with your spouse on a beautiful spring day: Priceless

Total cost so far: $173.49

Here's the work we did today. We rubbed in a coat of linseed oil on the wood and let it dry:

The can of oil says you have to be really careful about disposing of the cloths and such that you use to apply the oil - apparently, linseed oil gets very hot as it dries, and the stuff can spontaneously combust if the rags and whatnot aren't handled carefully. Boy, in this case, PAY ATTENTION to the warnings on the can! After we spotted smoke curling up from the used stain pads (which we had left sitting on top of a dry wood table top), we decided to put them inside of some unused clay pots for further drying. Those burn marks? From the spontaneous heating. There was some serious heat coming off those things.

Can you see the smoke?


We allowed the boards to dry a little, then screwed them together into a basic rectangle:

Then we put our wooden rectangle in its spot in the yard and left it there to dry further. The can of oil says it needs 12 to 18 hours to dry, and since we'd rather not see our new little wooden rectangle catch on fire (though the ugly shed is another story), we don't want to put dirt and stuff in it just yet. We'll do that later this week.

In the meantime, we took our plant babies out of the dining room and set them outside to get some sunshine. We plan to plant next weekend, when the average last frost date has passed, so these guys just need to last another 6 days or so in their transplant containers.

BTW you can find great information on the web from the Virginia Cooperative Extension (www.ext.vt.edu/resources). They have great printable charts and information on planning and building a garden, when to plant what, how far apart, etc.

And then we congratulated ourselves with a couple of martinis. Aaaaaaahhhh.

A Little Vernal Poetry

In honor of William Wordsworth (and all the daffodils we've never got around to planting):

I gardened lonely as a cloud,
On knees, begloved, my tools unfurled,
When all at once, I felt a crowd,
A host of lean and hungry squirrels.

-- Dean

And so it begins...

So here we are, a couple of new gardeners with no idea of what we're doing and a very 21st century desire to publicly catalogue our attempt for posterity. We're not quite sure exactly why we're attempting a garden this year - probably a variety of reasons, really, including the desire to save money on produce; the desire to eat fresher, better produce; and the desire to be a little self-sufficient.

There's something kind of cool about being able to grow your own food. Of course, this year's crop - if it survives - will only be a few tomatoes, herbs, and peppers, not even enough to make a decent salsa. But, it's an experiment, and if it is a success, we'll try even more veggies next year. And if we can do this, believe us, YOU CAN, TOO.

Our plan is to build a simple raised bed out of 1x12 boards, to make a 3'x10' starter garden. We have the boards, but we need to get some linseed oil to treat the wood before we can put the whole thing together. We're putting the bed out back near the shed; Dean dug up some of the ground there today. The first photo shows above shows the plot as it was a few days ago; the second one shows it now, as it's sort of dug up.