Serene of the Oakland Serenes

Garden update:

Volunteer sunflower (we think) is about four feet high.

I finally got impatient and picked the one carrot that actually grew -- it was too teeny to even eat. Oh, well. I'll have to tell the little boy who planted it that I messed up and picked it too soon.

The cauliflower is flowering -- it never made a head of cauliflower, but the flowers are beautiful.

There's a big, fat blossom on one of the zucchini plants, and tons of buds on all of them. I think zucchini will be successful.

There are 20 or so flowers on the tomato plant.

There are 20 or so strawberries, in varying stages of ripeness, and I finally harvested our first strawberry -- that is, the first one that didn't get eaten by slugs the second it started to turn red. It only took three years to get that one strawberry! :-)

Let's see, what else? Oh, yes, the bean plant looks like it's doing fine. I may plant a couple more hills of zucchini, though, if that's going to be the real thriver in this garden.

Oh! And the apple tree has hundreds of lovely apples on it. In a couple months, I'm thinking we'll have a lot of pie and strudel around here.

[I have no local filter; sorry.]

Would any locals be willing to come and keep me company for an hour or so in the next week, some time between dawn and dusk, while I clear my garden plot? If you're willing to help with the clearing, cool, but just company would be great, too. I think I can get most of it done in an hour, but I'm having trouble motivating myself.

I live in North Oakland; I can offer food and tasty beverages to anyone willing to come sit on a park bench and watch me get all sweaty. :-)

[posted to my LJ and a couple gardening groups; apologies if you see it more than once.]

Well, it wore me out, as I thought it would, but I took it relatively easy. Spent a half hour weeding just my square-foot box. Tomorrow, I'll do a half hour in my plot and a half hour in the common areas. I'm shooting for an hour a day this way, 2-3pm. It made me really happy to see that the strawberry plant that twostepsfwd gave me is still thriving; I hope we get berries this year!

Sadly, the frog in the userpic got broken while I was away from the garden. Perhaps I will buy a new mascot.

Today, I'll do some plannin'. Tomorrow, some plantin'. Yay! Garden!

[posted to my personal journal, norcalgardening, gardensnotgas, sq_ft_garden, and sq_ft_gardening. My apologies if you see it five times.]

So far, no garden pics (I haven't been in a picture-taking mood lately), but there's lots of garden joy this week. Last Friday, choirboypuppy came by to help me with some weed removal and planting, and to keep the garden cat company.

So far, the grid isn't nearly full, but it looks like this (tonight I'll plan what to put in the empty spaces):

pending	pending	1 tomato (black zebra)	1 tomato (super sweet 100)
pending	pending	pending	1 sweet basil
pending	reserved for slug trap (yeast/sugar mixture)	pending	pending
1 verbena (still there from last year)	1 strawberry (also from last year)	pending	pending

My goal is to go over there every day for at least a quick visit, and so far I'm doing well. Today, I laid down copper tape and pulled a few tiny weeds, along with watering the plot. Tomorrow, I plan to water the plot, water the butterfly-attractor plant I bought for the garden fence, put up my twine dividers, place my slug trap, and plant some seeds.

We'll see how it goes.

More marigolds are sprouting. Also three out of four lettuces, and TONS of beets. Happy happy, and I got to show dryadgrl around the garden, and she was so cute and happy about it that it made me even gladder about the whole thing. We ate little samples of stuff as we went -- mint, mostly -- and it was so cool. She tasted my apple, and I don't mean that in a smutty way.

She and I also spent a fair bit of time bonding over finding really wonderful people to love, and listening to each other about stuff, and talking over each other, and laughing, and eating. Mmmm, mangos! Mmmmmmm.

Behind the cut, more garden pictures. This time, I took some photos of other people's plots and some of the common area. I think the whole thing is looking so pretty right now. Next, I should make myself a gardening icon. Maybe Mr. Froggy wouldn't mind.

( more photos )

I did it! I went over and blocked off my squares, and now they're all planted. Behind the cut is a representation of what's planted where. (cassidyrose, hope you don't mind that I traded one of your cherry tomatoes for some strawberries and herbs.) (Eggplant will come later, as it has to be started inside, and bush beans will go in when something else is harvested or something. I got so many gifts that I didn't have room for everything, and I'm not gonna overplant. You hear me, rsc?)

I took off my shoes and walked in the moist earth, and it took me back to the days on the commune, but this time, I wasn't helping in someone else's garden -- this time I was growing what will please me and my family, and I felt all those feelings that make me start talking woo-woo language -- that connectedness, that sense that my roots go into the earth, all that stuff that for me requires absolutely no belief in a deity or a sentient earth. Anyway, it was glorious, and I'm covered in dirt and very happy.

( the table is behind this cut -- just imagine that the squares are the same size; I've forgotten how to do that in HTML )

Yay!

Building the box last night hit a couple of snags, but it's all right --
I'll figure it out tonight.

Today, my mental focus is nearly nonexistent, so I'm just rolling with it.
I'm not finding the oomph to write anything, and I will just sit and be
content to be paid for doing a lot of daydreaming. (Hard to believe, but
I'm actually really good at my job, and can do it when my mind is
somewhere else.)

Tonight, a visit to golden_c_turtle's place, and some
box-building. I'm hoping to get all the plants in the ground by tomorrow,
but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. I'm really very zen about the
whole thing. After all, I've waited two years for this garden. I can wait
another few days if necessary.

My hands are stinging from something sting-y in the weed pile. My fingers are pierced with rose thorns. I'm hot and sweaty and stinky, and I'll bet you can guess the next part -- I'm *oh* *so* *happy*.

someotherguy did TONS of work, unsolicited. Our garden is much less weedy than it was last night. My adorable solar-powered light-up-bellied frog is ensconced in his new corner. Some snails are really pissed at me. My box parts are in the plot waiting to be put together (either tomorrow morning or evening). By tomorrow night, there will be a garden. I am elated.

(The box looks so much smaller in its context. My plot really is huge in comparison to what I was expecting. I am not going to give in to the temptation to overplant, though. One thing at a time.)