Thursday, February 19, 2009

Pre-season gamble

This season should have never happened. My now 10 month old boxer destroyed what was growing in the garden -- all but the herbs. I fear that what is left will not withstand the lonely days when Kate is banished to the backyard. All full pots were overturned, leaving only the sad remains of once beautiful plants and functional clay pots. Discouraged, I abandoned the idea of growing anything. Until a coworker enthusiastically mentioned his plans for his garden. Grand plans were coming together for him and I could see that this was going to be a great season. So, I got excited about planting again. After mulling over my options I reluctantly talked about seedlings and how I always grow my tomatoes from seed. Come to find out he doesn't grow much from seed. So, like a good lamprey eel, I have a beneficial relationship with a guy who has a pretty sweet layout but no plants as of yet. We'll see how this works out but I am hopeful and excited again.

There may also be some room in front of the house to grow some plants but I haven't really decided what to grow there. -- maybe giant sunflowers & corn!

2 comments:

  1. maybe your cc&r's will consider squash a groundcover! you might be able to get away with far more than you think. remembers, its always easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

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  2. That is my motto. Listen I was already playing around with idea of planting more pumpkins especially since Jenn, my lovely wife and sole reason I started blogging, has the best pumpkin pie in town. What can I say, I'm bias. In the years past we have grown various varieties of pumpkins with my personal favorite New England Sweet Pumpkin. These little gems were only 1-5lbs but they had a texture and natural flavor that we found extra sweet. No other pumpkin compares. Plus its just cool to walk the yard everyday and see how much a pumpkin grew in 24 hours.

    Con: Aphids, whiteflies and other soft bodied critters like pumpkins. I have tried insecticidal soap (IS) and other harsh methods but really the best thing that worked was a combination of IS, water and ladybugs. Plus the kids love ladybugs.

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