So apparently I am terrible
at follow through; it’s been two years since I remembered to post something to
ye ole blog. I have good excuses though! Lots of good excuses! The most
exciting of which is I bought a house last year! Woooooo! It’s been 14 months
of renovating and saving for renovating and then renovating some more. There is
literally NO END to the work that needs to be done on this place. About six
weeks ago though, I finally bit the bullet and had some raised beds built in my
garden. I didn’t even bother to test the soil. It’s West Oakland. That shit is
seriously fucked and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Natural state of my backyard.
Pre-patio, pre-new back door and pre-getting rid of those hideous bars.
I had a few main concerns
about the garden beds. Redwood is pretty and lasts forever, but I’m on a
budget, and will likely only be in this house ~5 years. We ended up going with
douglas fir for both of those reasons (redwood for the patio though). I also knew
I wanted my beds to be 2ft high, so figuring out a way to combat outward
warping/bowing of the wood was key. We ended up filling the lower third of the
beds with vermiculite to keep everything lighter (added bonus of increasing
drainage!). I wish I could say that this lowered the cost of filling the beds
with soil, but the vermiculite was only nominally cheaper. We went with
EcoScraps for compost and the soil (2:1 ratio), because it’s pretty much the
only brand Home Depot carries that isn’t owned by the devil or filled with a
bunch of terrible crap.
Another piece of my garden
pie was making the most of the existing space and the non-functional yet
extremely heavy fountain that sits smack in the middle of the garden. I opted
to create three distinct spaces in the backyard: a patio, the garden, and what
will eventually be a small fire pit/hangout space. If I had to guess (and
apparently I feel like I do), we probably spent about $3k on the project
between labor, soil and materials for the patio and beds. Not exactly cheap,
but well worth it to create my happy place.
Getting the pieces together...
Fits like a puzzle!
Since the garden didn’t get
finished until mid-may, and even then not all at once, the plants I chose this
year are a little different from years passed. Now that I pretty much live
alone, I’m trying to grow mostly foods I can put up for the off-season so
things don’t go to waste. Instead of growing all the tomatoes, I’m growing four
Roma tomato plants to can for sauces and paste. We’re growing seven kinds of
chili peppers because I can’t live without hot sauce, and carrots, cukes and radishes
to pickle. I am determined to have a pantry that would make my great
grandmothers proud.
Thanks for the action shot, Annie!
2014 Planting List
Roma Tomatoes
Romanesco Zucchini
Carrots (Carnival, Red Chantennay, Little Fingers, Tonda di Parigi)
Japanese Eggplant
Artichoke
Mesclun
Spinach
Delikatesse Cucumbers
Pickling Cucumbers
Chioggia Beets
Golden Beets
Watermelon Radishes
Petaluma Gold Rush Beans
Sugar Snap Peas
Black-eyed Peas
Rainbow Swiss Chard
Bunching Green Onions
Chili Peppers (Serrano, Thai,
Super Chili F., Hot Banana, Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Jalapeno)
Basil
Dill
So, six-ish weeks into
growing things are a-happening. Once again, aphids are the bane
of my existence (seriously, aphids, fuck off and die), but they don’t seem to
be doing much harm other than raising my blood pressure. Chard and lettuces are ready to be enjoyed, and we've harvested 2 giant hot banana peppers that are currently fermenting with some habaneros and garlic in my kitchen (post on adventures in fermenting hot peppers coming at some point!). Things, as they say, are going tits. And I like it.
First harvest of the year!
