Garden Tea

My newfound interest in growing roses and my very expanded vegetable garden have led me down some wild YouTube rabbit holes lately. One of the main topics I've been trying to learn about is composting and using natural, organic methods of building up soil. 

Can you guess what this is?

That, my friends, is a bucket of "tea" made of earthworm poop (!) that I mixed up and used in the garden a couple of weeks ago. I'd read lots of stuff online about how good it is for flowers (specifically roses) and also vegetable gardens. The only problem was I only had access to our city water, which has chemicals in it and isn't good for making the tea. So, I had an idea! I asked the young guy next door (Ms. Luella's grandson, who bought her house) if I could have a 5-gallon bucket of water from his outdoor spigot, because they still have well water. I told him why I wanted it, and of course he said, "Sure, take as much as you need" but I'll bet he thinks I'm kind of nutty! But in any case, I got my non-chlorinated, non-treated water and all the plants seemed to perk up a little when I gave them their first dose of "tea". 

Anyway, last night we finally got some much-needed rain, and I had a plan. I made a rain barrel out of a large, sturdy Rubbermaid trash can and positioned it in a spot where water runs off the roof. It got totally filled up with rainwater! There's a lid to keep out mosquitoes until I'm ready to use it. The next time I want to make Worm Poop Tea I won't have to go ask next door for the water!

The garden's looking good. Last night's rain made a big difference.

The Rattlesnake beans are really getting going now. In the foreground: squash seedlings. Behind and to the left and right of Poppy: the two tiny corn patches.

Tomatoes are looking good. 

I love sipping a Gin and Tonic on the porch after working in the garden. Thanks to Mistress Maddie for inspiring me to use borage flowers in them! 

So pretty. So refreshing.

A few spring photos

Spring is rushing by, and I realized the other day that I haven't shared any pictures of it with you. Here are some pretty things that have been growing and blooming in my world over the past few weeks:

Isn't that beautiful? Our young crabapple tree has shot up to over 7' tall and two weeks ago it was covered with these pink flowers. 

Speaking of beautiful..

Two borage plants from last summer started growing back late in the winter. I moved them from the zinnia bed over to the corners of the new raised bed. They've since burst into bloom, and I just love the color! 

Next, some neighborhood photos with the wisteria and azaleas blooming. I just love this time of year.

Summer hours

This has been a nice summer so far. Since I go to work two hours later this time of year, I'm able to get up, start the coffee, and take a good walk with Gregg and the dogs. When we get back, I sit on the porch with a large mug of coffee and enjoy the birdfeeders and garden for a half hour or so before I have to hit the shower and get ready for work. It feels luxurious to have all that time in the morning! 

And work barely feels like work right now. It's only 6 hours a day, and the only other people around are the principal and the custodians. There's not much to do. I've already put in work orders for summer classroom repairs, organized and prepared to fill the teachers' supply requests for next year, and cleaned up my desk and the files from this past year. Occasionally I answer the phone or fill a records request from another school. And that's about it! I listen to podcasts or music to help pass the time. I'm going to miss this laid-back pace (and the hours!) when school starts back. And having Fridays off is another great perk to working through the summer. 

Well, not quite all the way through. Wednesday is my last day next week, and then I'm off until July 8th. Hooray! 

Summer break means more time to spend in my garden! 

Here are some pictures I took in it recently.

Here's one for the Marco fans out there. Pretty flowers, pretty bird.

Garden update

The 2024 garden is coming along, but it looks like it's going to be a disappointing year for tomatoes. So far there are only two or three tiny tomatoes out of 12 plants. For some reason they're just not setting much fruit, and several of them have yellowing bottom branches. I thought at first that the yellowing was from too much rain a couple of weeks ago, but now I'm beginning to wonder if some sort of disease has struck. After pulling off the yellowing branches, there's still lots of vigorous green growth, but not many flowers. Who knows? At least the cherry tomatoes (in a different spot in front of the porch) seem to be doing well. We'll see.

One of the (very few) small tomatoes that's finally forming. That one is a "Mortgage Lifter".

You know what's NOT disappointing, though? Cucumbers and beans! We're getting two or three cucumbers per day, and on Monday I picked the first rattlesnake beans (sent to me by Ms. Moon, thank you Mary!) and cooked them with our dinner. They were so tender and delicious! And there will be more to follow soon. As for the cucumbers, I'm eating large salads everyday for lunch (and sometimes dinner, too) and I still can hardly keep up. I guess I should either attempt pickles, or else start giving them away.

First harvest of beans!

Today's cucumber haul.

Poppy by the bean trellis this afternoon.

The cucumber vines. I'm growing them in large pots. 

We'll soon have peppers! They're planted in front of the tomatoes and doing well. At least something is! 

The borage is about to flower! This is my first time growing borage. I sowed the seed directly in the bed in front of the porch.

And finally, the volunteer zinnias have popped up all throughout the bed, around the borage and sprawling cherry tomatoes. We'll have zinnias very soon! The bees and butterflies will be happy.

The only other thing of note is that the melons are sprawling all over the end of the raised bed, and have tons of flowers, but so far, no baby melons. I'm trying to be patient.