hacked!

this just in from my neighbors, who are the original motivators on the empty lot revival!

"we went out this morning before running in from the rain a few minutes ago and we took down 3 to 4 of the big invasive trees, a bunch of little ones. I got more of the nasty spikey plants taken out - and if we have more time a little later (between rain storms) I'll head back out to get the rest of them.  We poisoned a lot of the stumps and we've got some more to do, but for now we should start seeing the maple trees get bigger and we'll only need to deal with the little ones that pop up."

It's the last day of May and everything is just getting wild and green and full of foliage, especially since we had a spell of warm sunny weather until today. Just yesterday the view of the afghan blankets was obscured, now they are in full view again thanks to the weed whacking.

In other news, I accidentally injured one of the tomato plants I got from Kilbourn by swiping the hose on it. Trying to revive it but not sure if it's worth the effort. Need to finish planting all the rest of the seedlings, as they need more space and composty soil.

Herban Renewal on TV

Last night I saw this on cable access or one of the Christian stations, I'm not sure which. Her company's name is Herban Renewal, which is the same as the name I used for this blog. She was reading some kind of conversation about human tapeworms, so I'm in good company for using bad puns.

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If you type in your email address to the right, you will get an update any time I post a new entry to this blog. Don't worry, I seem to be averaging less than 1 entry a week, so your inbox will not be overflowing. This is good for those of you who don't use RSS readers, like my mom (a master gardener & inspiration!)

mid-May photos finally uploaded

We have had a few days in the 80s with lots of sun. The plants are loving it, and drinking up lots of water. Here are a few photos from mid May. The radishes have all been eaten up, and I started some new seeds even though it's a little too warm for them. I've added a Flickr link so you can see more photos from the garden. I do not like posting redundantly to every social media network when I could be spending time actually in the garden.

First salad with lettuce and radish from the garden!

These are plants I picked up at the Kilbourn sale: alyssum (the white flowers), 2 tomatillos, amaranth, husk/ground cherries, nasturtium, horseradish, a baby raspberry, and a couple others I'm forgetting at the moment.

hanging pocket planter fails

Just tried to plant some of the seedlings in a hanging shoe holder, as I saw on my friends' (Temporary Services) blog:

http://halfletterpress.tumblr.com/post/541521314/verticalvegetables
http://halfletterpress.tumblr.com/tagged/vertical_garden

However my shoe holders were not sturdy enough for the weight of the soil. I didn't want to get plastic so I opted for the non-woven fiber, the stuff that reusable shopping bags you get from the grocery store are made from. Maybe I should have splurged for better ones made of canvas. The grommets started sagging and popped out right away. I've cut them into individual rows, but that defeats the verticality. I'm disappointed, but I'm not going to re-pot these poor plants again.

In other news, I did have a great salad with radishes and lettuce from the garden. I'll post photos later when I can get my camera's card reader to communicate to my computer again.

shrubs on the east end

Over the weekend, Lucy and Marvin put up some sun-loving shrubs on the east side of the lot. It's so green there now, it may be hard to tell where they sit in this photo. The dandelions have been up and are going to seed faster than expected. I also spotted these white wildflowers. Does anyone know what they are called?

Radishes and greens are coming up in the boxes, and more to come soon!