Drivel that cannot fit in a single panel comic.

Friday, July 09, 2010

The hopeless gardner

To read stories of successful efforts as self-sufficiency and sustainability visit http://bigmyrtle.blogspot.com/. I admire what Mark and Shelley have done.


My efforts on the other hand have yielded a single onion. It provided some nice flavor to my morning egg. There is still hope for a cantaloupe. Three of the plants grew real well until a rain followed by heat killed them. The dog killed two when he thought my little garden would make a great place to dig and wallow. The lone onion survived this assault. Walter placed some sticks in the bed to deter the dog. It worked and I had onion to show for it. One melon plant is still growing and blooming. I cheer it on every time I take Loki out for a walk.

Harvested a pound of Muscatine grapes but those weren't grown through my own efforts. We have a wild grape vine that partially encircles our backyard. When we moved in the previous owner said that the vine wouldn't produce because it was missing a component. Apparently the vine found the needed part. I snacked on the grapes for about a week after a good washing. Some of the grapes were located within Loki's firing range. I liked the tart flavor of the grapes. Looked up some recipes but these called for more grapes than I had.

Found that gardening is not something to do casually. Takes more time than I'm willing to commit at this point. I like the idea more than the actual project. That last statement sums up most of my life.

1 comment:

TK Kenyon said...

I agree that gardening usually ends up being a case of chewing much less than you bite off.

Some tips to get more for less effort:

Container gardening next to your back door. Bush tomatoes and herbs work well.

Loose leaf lettuce is great. Once you get 4 heads going, pick off the lowest leaves every day for 2-3 salads for two months. Last summer, I had stalks three feet high with a poof of green leaf lettuce on top.

Two cucumber vines twisted around supports will grow 20' long and produce 1-2 cucumbers per day for 6 weeks, but you have to really like cucumbers. Burpee's "Burpless" is a great strain.

Eggplant bushes produce 6-8 eggplants per bush. They take a very long time to sprout from seed. Start indoors in most climes.

Zucchinis and butternut squash produce many veggies per bush.

With these few veggies, I usually "garden" every other day for 10-15 minutes, most of which is harvesting. I do some watering, if necessary, in that 10-15 min.

Hope this helps!
TK