RIP Jeremy

Some of my regulars might remember meeting Jeremy the creepy head last year. This pic is from the first gardening post of '08 - a post worth revisiting just for the comments.

I spent yesterday on my knees; the garden is in and Jeremy isn't speaking in class or anywhere else this year. The head is dead. I left him in the garden over the winter and the winter killed Jeremy, he was busted into a zillion pieces.

In memory of the head I will continue to label my gardening posts with his name. If you spot a Jeremy post be prepared to be bored by veggie chatter.

I planted tomatoes, carrots, snap peas, red onions, green onions and broccoli this year. I'm skipping the peppers since they took up a lot of space and didn't produce much. Lettuce will be going in too but our fav, Butter Crunch, wasn't available so it hasn't been planted yet. Oh and a strawberry bush will be going in the corner garden once I get over to my mom's to dig one out. Yum!

Suds for Slugs

I've had a problem with slugs in the garden and finally tried out the cup of beer trick; sure enough the poor buggers were lured by the aroma of hops. Next year I'll tuck my beer cups in the ground as soon as I plant.

Here's an update that will likely bore you but will be useful to me when I plant my veggie garden for the second time.

Lettuce: grew really well until mid-July. Next year I'll pull out out the plants and replace with fresh guys in mid-July. Butter crunch was by far our fav type: yummy tasting and grew quick and clean (upwards). Six heads of lettuce is all we need.

Peppers: growing well. Jalapenos are coming along best but the bell peppers look like they're doing pretty well too. Mmmmm

Peas: planted them super close together but didn't seem to matter, they grew really well. Three rows is plenty and they're best planted next to the fence where they were able to lean for support. Yum Yum!

Tomatoes: loads of tomatoes and they're delish! Four plants are enough. They have just started ripening in the last week but according to my neighbour and grandma I'm not alone. Guessing it's the ridiculous amount of rain we've had this summer that has delayed red from showing up.

Dave, our neighbour, tossed a carrot from his garden over the fence tonight and sold me on planting carrots next year. Mmmm so good. His beans are growing like crazy too but that means including a trellis for them to climb when building the garden next spring and something tells me I'm going to be swamped with school then... maybe the following year.

I know, I know you wish I would just keep on writing because this post has you itching for more. I promise I'll post something more interesting tomorrow.

Just call me Ella Fudd

Fabulous photo found here.

pparently Jeremy isn't a very effective scarecrow.

Monday morning I sleepily wandered into the kitchen, opened the curtains and glanced in the direction of my lovely garden; I was jolted awake by what I saw. A very fat (probably pregnant) rabbit was plopped smack dab in the middle of my lettuce chomping away. Needless to say, I was not impressed.

The poor bugger was terrified when I whipped the door open; he proceeded to run back and forth bashing himself off the bird fencing (it's plastic and no he wasn't hurt) until he finally managed to rip one of the bamboo sticks right out of the ground. Silly rabbit.

The nasty little creature entered Jeremy's home by chewing a hole in the plastic fencing - the fencing that took me a ridiculously long time to set up - I wasn't pleased. Jeremy has been fired, he is no longer acting as security, he's just a pretty (creepy) face amongst the veggies.

Thankfully I caught Peter R. when I did, he must have just broken in because there was barely any damage to my plants. My garden now resembles a high security prison, the rabbits won't be getting in and Jeremy won't be getting out. Why didn't I use chicken wire and wooden spikes to begin with? It took an eighth of the time the bird fencing took to set up and is much more secure.

Lesson learned, I know now to skip the bird netting and go for the chicken wire next year... that's assuming Peter (rabbit) doesn't find away past the new security measures.

Totally Worth a Sunburn

"Once the deck is done..." has been the intro to many conversations in the last few years. I have a zillion and one plans for our yard "once the deck is done."

A vegetable garden has been the one consistent plan I've mentioned over and over again. While visiting my parents last week I admired the new garden dad and Neve planted together, admired and complained about not having my own. I'm sure this was the 13 billionth time my dad has heard talk of my future garden, he stopped me in the midst of my whining and asked why I was waiting for the deck to be done, why didn't I just go ahead and plant the garden. My concern was where to put it, what if I dug up the grass and then decided "once the deck was done" that I had dug in the wrong place. My dad, being the kind man he is, managed to not roll his eyes at me when he suggested that if that ends up being the case we could simply purchase a few strips of sod to cover the bare spot. Duh, why didn't I think of that?

A brilliantly simple solution like the one suggested by my dad was all I needed to hear. Saturday I hit the garden centre, chatted with the pros, dug up a little plot in our yard - my father warned Mike today that it's "the perfect size to hide a husband" when he came by to check out the finished product - edged it, filled it with the recommended fertilizing soil and compost and sat back to admire my work. Yesterday I earned a hideous sunburn while planting and arranging bird fencing to keep out the rabbits. A pina colada was the celebratory drink when I finally made it to this point:

Of course our home isn't our home without a bit of WHAT THE? so the garden needed a little bit of strange to spice it up. Hence the handsome devil sitting in the middle of the plants.

I dug out the head that has been hiding in the garage for the last four years and stuck it in the middle, we've named him Jeremy (I do have a cousin named Jeremy but the head has no relation to him besides belonging to me). I made him (the head, not my cousin) a few years ago alongside my student when a fabulous art teacher offered to teach her to sculpt during her spare. Please do not judge the teacher's fabulousness based on my sculpting ability (or lack of). He's a wee bit creepy so maybe he'll act as a scarecrow. Don't worry, he has no teeth so he can't eat the veggies.

It's just a tiny garden but it's a start and I'm thrilled with it.

I'll be keeping track of what works and what doesn't here, so yes you can point and laugh or if you're not interested in my veggie tales (veggie tales... get it? insert laugh track here) feel free to skip any posts that you see labeled Jeremy.

I know you're all on the edge of your seats waiting for the big reveal.... I'm growing (or trying to grow) tomatoes, red peppers, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, lettuce and peas.

Our yard has been unbelievably bare up until this point. Now it's beginning to feel cozy and inviting.

Mike and I ooohed and ahhed over it last night after we rearranged things. It might not look like much but it looks a zillion times better than it did last year. After work today I sprawled out on that swing with a pillow and a book for an hour and a half. Bliss!