[garden] obsessed

[dragonlady7]

I am completely obsessed with gardening. Perhaps it is because the weather has been so fine of late? Sunny, clear, but cold-- the grass is growing as though it were midsummer, but everything else is beginning to die back. I hadn't thought there had been a frost, but both of my tomato plants abruptly died, leaving healthy-looking green tomatoes hanging as if stunned from the dead branches.
I find myself unable to get much done in the garden, though. I am paralyzed by indecision, or too easily wearied when I do pick a task. Which is just as well; several of the things I was determined to do at the end of September, I have since decided against.
But I have spent hours and hours and hours on the Internet.
My latest obsession is with Wintersown.org. It appeals to my by-turns-fussy-and-lazy temperament. I think I am going to try it.
I went through my stash-- this year, my garden was minimal, and I only had a few cucumbers, some herbs, the strawberry plants I got from heebiejeebie, two tomato plants, and two pots of peppers. I didn't get around to sowing all the seeds I bought. I kept the seed packets in a bag in the sunporch, so the seeds have at least been dry and somewhat protected. So I have half-packets of a bunch of things. That'll cut down significantly on the expense for next year's garden, and allow me to purchase more infrastructure-type stuff. I need to put some kind of edging around the beds, especially if I get off my ass and put a bed out front. That one will have to be very slightly raised, I think. If nothing else, to keep the grass out of it. In this kind of neighborhood, if one is going to have a vegetable garden in the front yard, one had better make it pretty damn tidy. And I am slightly worried about the kids sabotaging it. So I know I've got to make it ornamental, and keep anything really appetizing for the backyard. I'm thinking wacky-but-cool-looking stuff like rainbow Swiss chard and leeks and sweet peppers, all intercropped and cute. I'll have to plan it out. (I initially thought 3 sisters, but I really, really don't think I can pull that off. I just don't have the space for corn.)

I don't know why I'm this obsessed with the garden right now. Maybe because it's something I've been wanting to do for so long? Maybe because the weather is so pretty? (But I'm obsessed with planning, not with doing, which is a problem.) Maybe because I just got a big double handful of raspberries from the surviving canes of the ones I planted three years ago? Maybe because I'm worried about the future and the environment and the economy?
Maybe.

Anyway, today I picked one of the overripe tomatoes hanging sadly off my suddenly-dead plants, and I cut it open and followed the directions for saving tomato seeds off wintersown.org. I don't know what kind of tomato it was, I don't remember. I got it at Home Depot almost too late to plant it. It was pretty rootbound. It did OK, produced some decent fruit, with no fertilizer and almost no care and not quite enough water.
I don't know if it's a hybrid. I figured, what the hell? It was free; I was just going to throw the tomato out anyway. So I have an envelope of tomato seeds to winter sow, just to see if it works. I saved some Kentucky Wonder pole beans too, so I'll try those. I'll go through any seed packets I find and see what might suit, and try it out.
I'd better get some groundwork laid so I'll have some beds ready come spring, though. I can't do much heavy labor in spring as long as I'm skating-- heavy gardening risks injury at inconvenient times, and spring is when my derby league holds bouts. January through June, and by the time I'm freed from the concerns of thrice-weekly tests of strength and agility, it's really too late to plant much of anything, let alone properly double-dig a new bed. Which I've been meaning to do. I really had better get to it.
But things are still blooming and I am so, so, so lazy...

Comments

[heebiejeebie.livejournal.com]

oooh I love wintersowing

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Has it worked for you? I had thought to ask. It just seems so common-sensical and easy to do.

[heebiejeebie.livejournal.com]

yeah, it did. It wasn't as reliable as growing things inside under lights was, but I'm soooo determine not to do that next year (what a waste of money and effort).

the problem with buffalo is that our weather is flip floppy. So after the sprout, you really have to protect them.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Flip floppy! Yes it is.
I had been wondering if I could use my un-insulated, but largely weathertight, porch for sprouting seeds. It has a lot of windows, and heats up during the day but not tremendously.

I would grow a few things under lights, and am planning on doing a bit, but I've had poor germination rates with that because the air temperature in the room where I have lights is so cool. I don't want to have to heat the room because that would be *so* much energy! Light is a lot less electricity than heat.

The strawberries, incidentally, put out *so* many runners. I think they're going to take over the front yard. Which suits me fine; I'll just expand the bed. I'd rather have strawberries than a lawn I have to mow. And my mom said strawberries were hard!!

[heebiejeebie.livejournal.com]

if your room gets low heat, you can use heat mats. They keep things very warm, and don't use much electricity - abou tas much as a light bulb.

Yeah, those strawberries are the healthiest strawberries I've ever grown. The company came highly reccomended by many people and http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/

I would definately order from them again. http://www.noursefarms.com/ They were BAREROOT strawberry plants, which I never thought would do well (look like dead sticks). But they did wonderful... almost too wonderful.