Saturday 9-10-11

Spent an hour at the garden, did a little weeding. Its amazing how quickly weeds grow- hopefully our vegetables will experience the same miraclous growth next season. The peas have sprouted- not all the seeds germinated. The plants are about two inches high and I pulled the three inch high weeds that surrounded them.

Helped the Plot 21 ladies look for some lost keys. We laughed when they discovered that the lady with no teeth and no English had inadvertantly hung the keys (with a dark blue lanyard) on the dark green fence post in the front corner of our garden. How they found them, I don't know but the three of us had a good laugh.
The weather last week was miserable. Heavy rains from Hurrican Lee lasted for days.A twelve year old boy who lived 1/2 mile away was a fatality of the flooding. He lived on Marcliff Court- the same street as the Kane family and was last seen in his back yard- apparently swept up in a tributary of Difficult Run. Hard to believe- his body washed up on Lawyers Road.

 I was supposed to sub on Friday (going to use the money for fencing for the garden) but school was cancelled because of the flooding. I'll work tomorrow so I'll have some fence money.

Tuesday August 30th

Busy day; purchased landscape timbers at Home Depot by Rte 29 and West Ox. They had a large choice and people to help with not only decisions but also carrying the "stuff". I may have gone over board but purchased 6 4 by 4 by 8 feet timbers and had them cut two of the timbers in half. Eight feet is longest that will fit in the car (Ed's car). I left the stuff in the garden and admired Ginny's progress.
Ginny excavated the middle path- she does nice work. It looks great.
Ireturned in the afternoon, about 4pm with some more wood chips and some cardboard. I worked on the Bob and Noel side bed where I planted the peas. I cleaned up the edging by using two of the long timbers fromLeslie. I redistributed the soil a little so it looks like a garden bed. Some of the peas leaves are shooting up thru the soil- quiet excitement.
Met Craig- Leslie's husband. We chatted a little and he told me that Leslie is in San Diego b/c her mother is ill. He said they have really enjoyed the garden this year and what a pleasure it is to eat produce from their garden. He gave me a Hablano pepper- almost afraid to touch it b/c I know how hot they are. However, the unbelievable taste of Vivian and Fernando's spring onions yesterday helped me be excited about the gift of the papper. Last night's dinner was so good- potatoes, parsley  from our garden, the onion from Nottoway and the spicy chicken sausages in oil and vinegar were excellent. I adapted a recipe from Silver Palate- French Potatoe Salad.
Am going to Pennsylvania tomorrow to visit my mother so won't be able to go to the garden. Am eager to work on the fence and the beds. Also interested in looking at the peas. I think that as they get bigger we'll need to fence in the area.

August 26th

Yesterday I hurried over to the garden beyween the rain storms. I gathered up the tarps because we decided to pull them in advance of the impending Hurricane Irene. I had soaked a packet of pea seeds and planted them along the border of Bob and Noel's garden. I decided that, while the timing is not optimal, I'd have to discard the seeds if I did not plant them so I went ahead and pulled some little weeds and planted a double row of peas. I placed the little green screening over the row to keep the squirrels out. I bought two packs of peas in the spring and planted the first pack in my yard in April .  Wednesday I started to soak the second pack in hopes of a sunny Thursday.

Amazing how muddy one can get in a very short time.

 I hung the tarps in my back yard  to dry out so I can pack them away until they are needed again. I went to Home Depot on Wednesday to purchase wood for the raised beds  but could only see pressure treated wood. Have to consult with Ginny.

August 25th
Yesterday, celebrated my birthday at the Garden with Ginny. We had a wonderful time; she brought her oriental rug from her living room, a table with a vase of flowers from her garden and we dined in luxury. We rolled back the tarps and sat on beach chairs facing the woods and watched the clouds sail across the blue sky. No one was gardening so it was as if we were alone in the garden. The afternoon will be a cherished memory. 

August 23th

Tuesday
Arrived a little after 7:30 am. Pulled up the tarps and draped them over the fence to dry them out. The plot looks GREAT. Worked on the final perimeter path for a bit and then Ginny arrived. We worked together and finished the path- Ginny is getting more wood chips to finish up the path. It looks like a garden without the tarps. We walked around the gardens to get an idea of how big/small to make the raised beds. I think that we are going to build one 4 feet by 8 feet raised bed  and then place it around the space to see how many we want. At this point, it seems that we need 8 of the 4 by 8 feet beds with 2 smalled raised beds set on the diagonal in the center of the plot (or wherever our chairs go) We also sketched out the placement of the gate. We replaced the tarps and left about 10 am. Time goes by so fast- I thought it was about 9 am.
Returned with Anne about noon for a a walk- met the next door neighbor "Bob and Noel" with their son Landon- he looks about 18 months old. Bob said they've had the plot about 3 years and their plot looked as bad as ours did when they started. He said they have yet to harvest anything this year because of the deer and the fact that they are expecting anew baby.  Bob said they had tons of stuff last year. He likes the black tape woven into the top of their fence. He says its permeated with Deer Liquid Fence and repels deer. He sugested that we put up a 6 foot high fence rather than the 3 foot fence they have.I asked him about their neighbor Plot 18 and he said she has the plot rototilled at the beginning of each season but doesn't plant anything and the plot is overgrown. Anne and I walked around and looked for pumpkins.
As I arrived home and was about to put the  key in to open the front door, the house started to shake- sort of vibrate- I looked up and could see the windows shivering. Poor Charlie was inside barking and I could hear glass shaking. I turned around and ran down to the sidewalk as soon as I realized it was an earthquake.

Saturday August 20th

Ginny finished the path adjacent to plot 23: looks great. Cleared off the remaining dried up weeds from the plot and worked on the final border path. It is a bit more difficult to get the lines straight- Ed helped dig and made a few trips to get wood chips. I think that I rushed in laying out the path guide lines because I did not want him to wait. I am eager to finish the border paths so we can begin the raised beds and fence but might have to redo some of the stuff I did today because it isn't right. The lines were crooked because of the humps of dirt and still living ( although almost dead) stuff  growing on the plot 23 side. I think that plot 23 is part of the Plot 21 ladies because when they cleaned up stuff along the plot fence, I saw that plot 23 is FILLED with peppers- a trade mark of the plot 21 ladies.
Worked about 90 minutes in the afternoon- it was very humid and I was muddy and sweaty because of all of the rain from last night's deluge. The rain collects on the tarps and picking up the dried up weeds was a smelly and dirty job.
While I enjoyed visiting with my sister and helping Carly get ready for school, I have missed working in the garden and was happy to be working again..

Rain

Saturday August 12th

Cool but humid this morning with rain in the air; perfect day for work in the garden. Arrived about 10 am and met Fernando and Vivian of the Blueberry bush gardens. They also have another garden and both are in great shape. Vivian told me that she is glad we are working the garden ---that it has been years that our plot has been empty--- the one that is catty cormer from ours - the one full of weeds- Vivian said has been unworked for over a year. They showed me their plots and we discussed fences and deer and stink bugs. They said they lost a lot of veg b/c of the stink bugs. 

Vivian suggested that we look at garden #5 which belongs to an architect. She likes the fence and thought we might want to look at it for ideas. As I was spreading wood chips along the path that Ginny dug , Ginny arrived and we trotted off to look at garden #5. The fence has   aluminum poles about 6 or 7 feet high and wire tied to the posts. The fence door was a anchor fence type of metal door. While it was nice, it did have a Stalag 15 feel about it. Ginny mentioned lattice gates and an arbor over the entranceway and I think that I prefer her idea that is, a less institutional look to the fence. Deer got into the next door plot and ate the sunflower plants.  Vivian said we’ll need to build a high fence not only in the outside edges but also on the interior edge since our adjoining neighbor has 3 feet high fences.

Ginny and I chatted awhile about how being negative and judgmental are habits and how understanding that is a drag because one can’t blame one’s personality for being judgmental and critical. Unfortunately, its all under one’s control…so much easier to be able to attribute being judgmental to a genetic flaw. Despite the resolve to be less judgmental, I did wire the composter to the wire fence. Just am afraid that someone will be tempted to take it.

Made a second wood chip run and dug up some pink coneflower plants. Dumped the chips, replnted the plants and met Leslie (Lindsey?) who has a garden adjacent to the Plot 21 ladies. She is very nice and told me she is the source of the  wood boards. She said she got them from the dump and thought we might be able to use them. They were from a deck that was being discarded. She said while they don’t like people trash picking at the Fairfax County dump, if one is quick , it’s possible to get stuff that is usable for the garden.

She is a first year gardener and told me that someone came in during April  and stripped  her plot of the fence and a  row of rose bushes that were left from the prior owner. I suggested that perhaps it was the former owner and she said “no, the prior owner had died”. She said she thought it was another gardener and she shrugged and said “what are you going to do about that stuff?” 
All of my judgmental reflexes sprung into action and I was glad I wired the composter.

Leslie said she laid down landscape cloth and used a lot of leaf mulch and has not had to water much at all. She has beautiful eggplants and said she just planted some brussel sprouts.  She was so excited about her tomoato harvest and said “Here, take this” and gave me a huge tomato- it looks as if it weighs 3 lbs! At that point, we heard thunder and scurried off to pick up our stuff. I finished the wood chips and loaded up the car and left- she said she was going to see it she could wait it out. The rain will be good for the coneflowers I just planted around the composter.   Left about 1pm.