Garden Girl

There are challenges to urban gardening on the cheap.
That’s an understatement.
The amazing Gayla Trail of http://www.yougrowgirl.com/ has written about those challenges in depth and I find her to be an inspiration. Like her, I too garden on land not my own & that can come with certain stresses.
Take this morning for example.
I’m happily tippy tapping away at my keyboard when I hear the park’s ground crew outside my window.
& I peek out just in time to see them “edging” my blackberry plants, which granted, have gotten leggy, as blackberries are wont to do & have strayed outside of their raised bed.
You’d think dingoes took my baby-the cry I let out.
So, Mr. Garden Girl (who was more presentable than I) went out & showed them where the boundary between the empty lot next door & our yard was.
It was an honest mistake. Fences aren’t allowed so it can be hard to tell where one plot ends & another begins. They promised it wouldn’t happen again & apologized, but it got me thinking.
About how feelings of possessiveness come so naturally when we’ve put time and energy into nurturing lives (be they people, animals or even plants).
Again & again, I remind myself that it’s not about ownership, it’s about stewardship.
It’s about creating bounty for all, where we can.
And I remind myself that part of what the Fig Tree Cottage experiment is about (through both design & necessity) is learning to find and foster beauty and sustenance in less than picture perfect urban neighborhoods (places like, say– a trailer park ), because– that’s where a lot of us will live, maybe especially in economically unsure times.
More than anything, I want to show than virtually *anyone* in *any situation* can grow some food.
It sounds simple, but to me it’s a profound idea.
An idea that plants a seed in peoples’ hearts to take more initiative and control of their lives, for themselves, for their families and for their neighbors.
Because, as Mr. Jalopy pointed out this morning, we increasingly don’t own what we think we own anyway.

Now, granted, my garden is more of a plan for a garden right now (still crossing my fingers than I can get some herbs & greens in the raised beds for Fall), but I’m in this for the long haul and I hope that by journaling here I can share what I learn about how a tight budget in less than ideal surroundings can still afford a more sustainable and fulfilling life.

The Texas sage in the empty lot next door is alive with bees– honey bees and even a bumble or two. My own crepe myrtle bush behind the cottage is home to a dozen or more lady bugs. Even in the midst of a dry scorching summer here there is life. My peach tree has made a remarkable recovery. The willow stump out front has foliage taller than me now.
And on the ride yesterday to the tea house, we came upon a hawk with a fresh rabbit feast (there were kids & parents on the bike path too & I wonder how many kids got a lesson about the circle of life, rather close up & gory- heh).
Pictures of all this except for the hawk at his/ her repast:

Can you spot the bee?:

Tags: gardengirl, victory garden

Homegrown Evolution: Gardening in an Apartment Windowsill

Something to make your weekend

Honestly, I don’t know if the raised beds here will be ready by Fall. I haven’t started to build compost yet, the summer looks like it’ll be a dry, nasty, over a 100* often- as- not affair, & I’d like to save money for a jujube & a (probably white) mulberry tree next Spring.

I know mulberries are messy, but I love ‘em.
I’m trying to follow permaculture logic– start with trees & create micro climates, & when you have established zones of shade, sun, & protection, *then* put in your ground crops.
The mulberry tree will complete a semi circle of fruit trees we’ve planted close around the house (sides & back) that will provide weather protection for Fig Tree Cottage & bring in some birds.
The jujube will go out front to give us a head start on having a tree to replace the Bradford pear, which I expect to start dropping branches & being a problem child in just a few more years.

Ready to eat!
Nom, nom, nom.

The weather was breezy & perfect & the lake was crowded with families.
We had our own independence celebration before we even left home tho. We took a small step toward food independence, by eating our first food grown in our yard- a truly luscious, ripe, sweet fig from our own tree.

It was truly a wonderful moment for us that made us feel like this really was our home. It’s nice that the first fig was sweet & nummy

May your holiday weekend be a fun and safe one!

http://thatotherpaper.com/austin/inspiration_san_franciscos_victory_garden

Red, White & Grew - Victory Gardens and More!: This Letter Came in the Mail Last Week

More good news.

I’m happy to learn that oak galls are not that harmful to the trees:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IN022

I’ll be happier come Fall when I can get the dead wood pruned & the trees inspected tho.

aaaaaaaaaaaaand… the peach that was showing no signs of life & even had some withered branches? It’s sprouting leaves & new growth, and it’s become the favorite hang out for the baby cicada killers from the nest on my front deck. It must have just wanted more heat & dryness. Plants can be tenacious, for sure & they’ll surprise you, if only you can find what each individual plant needs. There’s some good life lessons for all of us

Buying a house, or even buying property that someone once tended is a surprise grab bag of goodies.
When we moved to our not yet named Fig Tree Cottage lot last Jan., I noted the stumps of trees that had been razed so the last home that was here could be towed out. I couldn’t identify what these stumps were, let alone know if they’d endure after such abuse.
Heck, I didn’t know what the Bradford Pear in the front yard was (I’ve urged Mr. Garden Girl to buy me some books for my b-day to help me know my native CenTex birds, bugs & plant life).
The 3 Red Oaks I inherited, I knew would need some pruning of dead wood by experts, but they seemed otherwise healthy.
The stumps tho… well, I thought it was sad since some of them had clearly been large mature trees, but I resigned myself to possibly having them removed.
& so they sat like an old chest from an unknown ancestor, locked away in the attic.
But summer has brought me keys for that chest.
The huge stump in front now is a profusion of willow branches (perfect for a cottonwood borer to emerge from, it seems). I’m afraid it will have to go when we build our screened in deck.
3 stumps near the house have shot up, in spite of our record heat & the dryness, and proved themselves to be Crepe Myrtle (a tree I love, tho I usually prefer the purple & white varieties & I’m pretty sure these will all be hot pink). There’s a mature Crepe Myrtle on the edge of our lot now that is just raining down its profusion of delicate, showy, Asian blooms.
The stump bushes & the mini rose out back are all being treated with a mix of baking soda, Garrett Juice, and dish soap dissolved in water to address some powdery mildew (poor stressed things).

I’m definitely going to keep the Crepe Myrtles near the house, if I can.
I don’t know if they’ll ever be full trees again after what they’ve survived, but I’d at least love to get them into healthy blooming bushes.
Thru these plants I feel a connection to the couple who lived here before us, who we never met, but have been told stories about by neighbors.
They are a legacy and I feel like I’m honoring the lives of that couple & continuing their story by nurturing the trees & the rose bush.

Tags: gardengirl, victory garden, slow food, locavore