Vacationing at Home: Day 7

Day 7:  Sunday

Today was a perfect day. Woke up and brewed some delicious coffee, sat outside and caught up with some reading I have wanted to do. The screen house is helpful during the day with the amount of insects flying from plant to plant, flower to flower.

The Sunchokes and Marigolds are blooming, much later than last year. Morning Glories and Moon flowers appear and disappear each day. The most prolific flowering plant is the buckwheat we spread around. It attracts the largest variety of insects.

This week off has seemed like a month to me. Paying attention to each day - enough to be sure not to miss it, but not caught up in over planning each moment - has really made each day stretch out and I feel very relaxed. When I return to the work I do at my Mon- Fri job, I have a different perspective now. It's just one of the important things I do and no matter what happens or how long it lasts, I feel really good about my contributions there and in the rest of my life. Keeping a balance is what will keep me from being stressed out again.

During the Permaculture class I took - one of the things said is that we all really need to be able to do at least five things, because the way we work is changing, the way we are employed is changing. It may very well be that many of us will work more than one part time job. Or maybe we'll learn to do what our grandparents did? Grow our own food, spend Sundays with family, babysit for each other and live nearby so we can build a stronger community?

The world is changing and it's an exciting time to live in - we have access to more information than ever before and can learn as much as we choose.  My interests and possible jobs would be: permaculture design, gardening, food security, writing, music, cooking, teaching and advertising as long as I have to.  I have heard figures that say 1 in 3 children in this city, where I live,  are not sure where there next meal will come from. Hundreds in the school system are homeless. That doesn't include the adults or the elderly. This is something I would like to help find a solution for.

So my week off was amazing - a week of great food and friends, relaxation and reflection and a start in a new direction, if only internally right now. Every change starts with a decision and that is made.

What tomorrow brings remains to be seen.

Sunchoke flower (Jerusalem Artichoke)

June Garden and Volunteer Plants

Over the past few weeks we have had much rain, and in between the rain storms we added a few new plants and a few more volunteered in the garden!

New Rhubarb 

New Raspberry

Blueberry from last year has berries! 

Vetch is everywhere

The Paw-Paw is doing nicely - just planted this year!

We planted this 4x8 bed with corn and beans and found that MANY pumpkins came up from last year. As well as an overachieving butternut squash...so we decided that a new bed was needed!

Notice the large volunteer Mammoth Sunflower behind the bed. 

I love these and will find a way to have them all over the garden next year =)

So I took some newspaper and placed it down in the front yard  and wet it with a watering can.

And then I put cardboard over that and wet it down with water.

We filled the circle up with soil...

And moved the many rogue pumpin and butternut squash plants into the new bed...

We watered it in and it looks good as a starting point to replacing the front lawn...

Notice the Sunchokes are about four feet tall in the background!

in the back garden, trees are growing like crazy, grape vines are vining....

In the beds, canning tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and amaranth, carrots, radishes, sea kale,

and eggplant, etc. are all growing. Intermingled hot peppers in each bed as well as 

marigolds, poppies, herbs and flowers all perking up after a week of rain.

And the first of our apple trees is fruiting - I pruned off about 25-30 fruits

and we are letting a few grow near to the trunk where they won't break the branches.

I can't wait to try this fruit!

Perfect Yellow

Today is the beginning of "vacation" for Rob & me. Technically it's vacation time for Rob and a little short term disability for me, but I am making the most of this and today was beautiful.

Because I've been home for four weeks with this ankle/foot/air cast thing, I thought it would just be like another week home, but it isn't, and Rob is here!

We spent the day today enjoying the birds and the garden. The weather was perfect - warm with a cool breeze...and it really, truly felt like a vacation day. That timeless, nowhere to go kind of day that seems endless.

Being home hasn't been so terrible. When I open all the windows and pretend I'm on vacation - it's a little easier with this view out the living room windows of the Sunflower, Corn, Beans and Squash bed.

Of course, it does look more impressive from outside - but I love that I can see the plants while I am resting indoors.

And the view of Sunchokes through the front windows is amazing!

Today, we got a little surprise of a pair of American Goldfinches!

I saw some rustling in the flowers and it took awhile to see them because

they are the same color yellow. If you look closely, he is in the center of the picture below.

This was how the day started and I was so happy to see them!

This is how the day ended - blue skies...

Wine & Chocolates.

I'm learning more and more to take each day as it appears and make

the most out of what I have to work with. I could find faults with the day, the situation of 

my health, the noise in the neighborhood, etc. etc.

Instead I chose to focus on the things that I really have control over. 

My attitude, and my choice to enjoy the many, many things I have to be grateful for.

I hear the voices that say: it's just a yellow bird, a few flowers and sunflower seeds are at the store and take a lot less work.

But I say that until you really look at the flowers and hear the song of the Goldfinch, sip that wine and taste the handmade chocolates from Vermont...Until you sit on a couch for four weeks with yourself and realize how much you have to be grateful for, you cannot know, and I cannot explain what this means to me. Every time I put my hands in the soil and connect to the Earth and harvest seeds from plants that grew in this yard...I realize that I would not trade this moment and this experience for anything. 

It is magical and I don't want to miss a minute of it!

And by a happy accident, I don't have to...

Yard in Bloom

Amaranth and Cherry Tomatoes growing together in the same bed - support each other and look beautiful together!

Marigolds in the herb spiral

Vetch around the fruit trees

Pumpkins in the Sunflower / Corn bed!

Pumpkin

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

Waiting for Sunchokes to bloom!

From Exhaustion to Exhilaration...

"When I go into the garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have been doing with my own hands."  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a limit that everyone reaches, and this weekend I hit that limit and wall. The stress of work, the busy pace of life and pushing myself to do it all – caught up with me and I started the weekend exhausted and with a migraine.

On Saturday, I woke with a headache, but still wanted to go out to lunch, so we went to the Boynton, which was amazing as always. It’s encouraging to walk into a local place where people are friendly and remember you and your favorite drink or meal and suggest things you will actually enjoy. After lunch we went to Wooberry for frozen yogurt. I had Lemon with fresh strawberries and little chocolate curls. Another favorite, and so delicious.

But after that, I felt sapped, like my strength was gone completely and I couldn’t do anything else. This being a long weekend, I knew I had to get some rest! We got home and took a 3 hour nap, and then went into the garden to water and look around. I spent a lot of time just walking from tree to tree and plant to plant and found some of what I needed was restored. This connection is crucial for me to keep sane. I had lived so long without gardening and now that it is such a big part of my life, I cannot imagine a day that I don’t walk in the garden.

As the weekend has passed, I am feeling calmer and healthier and I have enjoyed this time home to work on little projects and rest for the coming week.

2 weeks ago

Ready for companion plantings

We worked on the next step of our 4x8 bed with the Sunflowers and Corn. They had grown enough in just two weeks, that we added three squashes (butternut, zucchini, and pumpkin) and filled in the spaces with Mexican Dry Red Bean, an heirloom bean for storing.  We also replanted some Sunflowers because some of them are being eaten and we haven't been able to see what is snacking on them.

There is room behind the bed - and around it to either trellis the squashes or train them to the front yard - which is largely untouched right now and would be lovely full of squash plants and flowers.

It was so refreshing to sit on the back patio (after the shade returned) with a cold drink and just look at the green that has appeared over the past couple of weeks. The tree trunks are all thickening and the leaves are growing like crazy. The stars of the garden are the two beds of peas. The shelling peas are in the Hugelkultur bed and are doing great - the Snap peas are in a far bed and just started flowering this week - and have also grown to more than 4 feet tall.

Shelling peas

In the center of the garden, is the herb spiral, everything was planted by seed and had sprouted. Some are growing very quickly and others are taking their time, but all sprouted, and that was something new for me. I had never planted herbs from seed. I find this such a beautiful addition to the garden.

Fruit trees and vegetable beds in the back yard. 

Last Autumn, I planted Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes) in an unused side bed near our front steps and they are now more than 12 inches high...however, the bed had been taken over by weeds and grasses, so I did a little work today to make it more attractive and useful.  Because it is a fairly new bed, nothing was deep rooted, so I just pulled up the grass and other weeds that were making themselves useful until I did something with the space. I planted Nasturtium and Green Beans in around the Sunchokes and then covered everything again with straw. 

Sad little forgotten bed.

Something else had changed - the 50 gallon rain barrel in the back left corner of the picture is new this week,  and the hose will be on the inside of the fence, so I wanted to put a path in that would give me a sure place to walk when I need to water the plants.  Rob sliced up some of the Pine tree that my sister Kim gave to us and I made a small path in an area that nothing ever grows.  Also, one step into the middle so I can reach to water all the plants. I pulled out grass and weeds and planted Nasturtium along the little white (dog proofing) fence and hope to keep the weeds out by growing something beautiful and useful.

All in all, it is a huge improvement and just the beginning of our work with the front yard. We did get another 50 gallon rain barrel and put that near the 4x8 bed which is the center of the house and with the 65 gallon that we have been using (and using up quickly) in the back garden, we should have enough water for all of the beds. 

One of the nicest things about this weekend was that our neighbors were home celebrating Memorial Day in their yards, hanging out in their pools and it made it a pleasant weekend. Even though our houses are very close to each other, I don't mind. We have some really great people to live near. Chatting early in the morning with one neighbor - he asked if he could come in and see how things are going and it was fun to show him around and hear his story about being born in Italy and always having a garden - up until recently.

It made me happy that someone else could come and enjoy with us.

When you see how the yard used to look - it's really not surprising that we stayed inside and no one really stopped by.  It's been transformed and it is just the beginning! 

Signs of Life!

Last Autumn I planted flower bulbs and they have already come and gone. Beautiful Tulip, Crocus, and Daffodil flowers in Spring when everything else is so gray... 

I also planted the Sunchokes - or Jerusalem Artichokes - and had no idea what to expect. This week, pushing through the straw, the first signs that all is well in the Sunchoke bed and the experiment is off to a good start. Since this is the first time through with all of these plants, I am trying to document them to keep a record of how they look when they first sprout and also to recognize them should they start to sprout where we do not want them.

Sunchokes / Jerusalem Artichokes 

I squeeled like a little kid when I saw the Sunchokes were almost 6 inches tall! I only looked away for one day...

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We have two experiments in our potato beds. One with soil, straw and seed potatoes, and one bed with just the straw and seed potatoes.  Both have sprouted. The bed with soil is growing at a little faster pace, but who is in a hurry? Potatoes grown on the ground, covered in straw grow just as well so far.

Potatoes growing on cardboard with some soil and straw.

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The most recent bed is a 4x8 on the South side of the house. Space we never used for anything! Now it has sprouted corn and sunflowers. When they are 6 inches tall we will be planting beans and then 3 different squash plants to either vine out to the front yard or trellis - not decided yet. 

Bed with Sunflowers and Corn

Sunflowers Sprouting

Corn sprouting

The seeds took less than a week to sprout. It practically grows before your eyes!

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On April 12th, we planted our fruit trees - four different apples (semi-dwarf) and 3 pears (dwarf). In what is one of the most encouraging things to occur this week - the trees have leaves and one even has blossoms. We won't be letting them fruit this year, but knowing that they are growing and healthy and seeing those first flowers is a feeling that can only be described as having a full heart.  

Pear tree with a new little flower garden by the house.

Apple Blossom 

Two more Apples and a Pear nearest the shed.

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The view from the house.

Straw beds in the back left are potatoes - foreground (right) is dwarf pear.
To the left of the clothes line - are the apple trees and almond at the end of the  fallen tree.

During the past couple of weeks, it has rained quite a bit, and the river bed has been serving its purpose. We only have one rain barrel right now, and when it is full, it overflows into the riverbed - and flows on to the fruit trees. It's working well and we will be getting two more rain barrels to capture water on the other sides of the house to use in flower and vegetable beds there.

water gathers in the dry river bed and flows along the log to the center of the yard
and the fruit trees.

The past few months of work - bits and pieces here and there that suddenly seem to come together in this season and become a garden. More perennial plants will be arriving - Paw Paw Tree, Kiwi Vine, Concord Grapes, etc. etc. and there are more seeds to plant in the beds.  Each small thing that we start carries on by itself. Our part in this is observation and enjoyment. 

The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is go to the window and see what has changed. Mushrooms spring up over night and are gone when the sun hits them, the plants get greener and greener as leaves open and seeds sprout. 

One of my favorite moments was when I saw a little sparrow land on the branch of an Apple tree and sit there. Barely a branch, barely a tree - and already the bird knows to stop by for the caterpillars. It works because it is supposed to. The cycle has always existed and will long after we are gone. All we hope to do is restore the conditions for Nature to work her magic...

Life is truly miraculous. 

Nasturtium growing around the herb garden.