Sunday, May 30, 2010

Gardening Part 3

You might think that you missed part 2, well so did I so I figured I would just skip straight to part 3 and keep moving.

This week we continue the adventures of frugal gardening with Melanie.  I managed to plant my 2 pots this week without spending a dime.  You can too if you follow these simple steps.  First, have your mom throw a birthday party for an 89 year old family friend.  Second, when she asks you for help propose decorating with small pots of inpatients around the room.  Third, have her put you on the task and give you the money for it.  Forth, be unable to find inpatients you like and buy other flowers which you plant and bring to the party to create the perfect continuation of the theme centerpieces.


Then after the party


Have Grandma Dorothy beg you not to leave her with the flowers which she cannot use and so pack them up, bring them home and voila, free flowers for your pots.  So simple.

I planted 2 pots and put the left over flowers in with my now dead tulips.  I was told by a friend that you are supposed to leave the tulip leaves so that the bulbs grow and you get more flowers in future years.  When I was pulling some came all the way out but I left the bottom portion of many of the tulips so hopefully it will be even more spectacular next year.


You can't really see the flowers in the garden portion very well here but I am assuming they will start flowering beautifully once they get going.  I may have left the without water in the baggies I planted them in for several days.  It is possible.

Now when planting your frugal flowers you will need soil.  The trick to free soil is, well, a shovel.

I had saved some dirt in one of the pots from last year but the other was empty.  I just got out my handy garden shovel and filled them with dirt from the garden.  Yes I may have tossed a few worms into the pot as well but that is supposed to be good for them, right?  And yes the dirt is a little weedy but I am going to just hope for the best.  My mom suggested that this type of planting may require some plant food.  I will have to see what we have in our garage.  (you would be surprised what I find in there despite my lack of gardening skills.)

As I have been working through my existing plantings I have decided there is an aspect of gardening that is part archaeological dig.  As you work in the dirt you discover things and wonder, "what is that?" or "where did that come from?"

For instance,



What is that?  It appears to be a giant root that I can't find the ends of.  There is no giant tree near this giant root.  It actually looks a little like a giant tuber but I am just assuming it is a root.  It is pretty hard.  The question then continues?  Should I excavate further or just cover it back up and forget it?  Will it unlock a mystery of this yard that I need to know or just make a big hole and a big mess?  Can my curiosity simply be denied?
Also, I ask


Where did that come from?  I mean there wasn't a huge hole in our yard last year.  I am pretty sure we would have noticed it.  I am not sure this picture does it justice but it is about a foot deep, or more, who really wants to stick their hand in there and find out?  While I was thinking animal a friend came over and suggested this had once been the location of a tree which had been cut down and the stump buried. Now years later the stump is completely rotted and the earth gave way.  This seems a likely possibility as we have another smaller hole in the middle of the yard (this one is on the street side of our fence) which also seems to be a former tree.  Of course either way the next question is, what do we do with it?

I am amazed actually by how much I could say each week about our yard, and yet somehow couldn't write a post about it last weekend.  Next weekend I will be out of town but I will try to pre-post one of the many other thoughts I have.

For today I will leave you with a question.  What should we do with a whole stack of these slate tiles? 


I think I am so overwhelmed by the possibilities I can't make a decision. My top two ideas so far are to tile the front steps with them giving us a lovely slate stair or setting them in the yard somewhere to create a small slate patio which might hold a small table and a couple chairs.  What would you do with them?


2 comments:

  1. oh my this was very funny!

    i say go for the slate stair, instant satisfaction, because, who are we kidding, you will never buy the cute bistro table that would be required to complete the cute little slate patio.

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  2. Aha, Shel. As luck would have it, she does have the bistro table and two chairs to add to a cute little slate patio.

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