New Year, New Garden

fter a relatively successful summer of vegetables last year, this year I think I'll take a more studied approach. Well, somewhat more studied, really just building slowly on the last go-round and adding a few things. Mostly, I now have a large enough crop of compost to use for a bed or two, and I know how big those dang zucchini will get.

Unfortunately, this means I do need to dig a few new beds, possibly three or four. I already have a satellite view of the house to transform into a (to scale) chart of the yard in order to keep track of what was where which year. As most gardeners these days know, it's best to rotate which crop goes in what bed each year, so any pests don't get too cozy and the soil isn't depleted (can't find a good reference right now). I've heard lots of advice on keeping a garden journal of notes about each step of the process, how different plants fared, etc. Frankly, I didn't, it seemed like one more thing to do and for the first year, fine-tuning was not a big concern.

So, mapping aside, that leaves us with planning what plants and when. I'm still looking for a source for hops, sage and tarragon, seed or seedling, if anyone in the DC area wants to trade (I get most of my seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds).

As you'll see below, quite a few things need to germinate indoors as long as eight weeks before the last frost (early April in Alexandria). My google calendar is now laden with "PLANT CANTALOUPE" and such. I'm going to try out a grow light this time as my seedlings got a little too sperky* last year, even on a South-facing windowsill. This does mean that I'll also need some sort of heat source underneath my seedling trays. Although the basement is a pretty regular temperature, it's only around 65F and seeds prefer something more like 68 or 70.

Anywho, I've put together this little chart for my own benefit, but thought it might be of use to some other backyard gardener. Feel free to copy the format or just get inspiration. Click the chart to see it full-size in google drive and to copy or peruse further.

*I grew up using this word and only recently encountered several people who said "What?! 'Sperky'??" It means what it sounds like. Don't suppose anyone else uses it?

Garden Variety Anxiety

uch to my dismay, Twitter has trained me to only have witty, entertaining thoughts in 140 character spans. This makes writing blog posts a humorless and rambly process, especially if I don't crank out a post immediately when inspiration strikes (whaBAM).

So now here I am, three weeks after starting an ambitious yard rehabilitation project (it's impossible to phrase that in any clever or alliterative manner. Cookie to anyone who can) trying to remember what I wanted to say about it.

I guess the first thing would be "hire a dang landscaper with a backhoe," if you can. The yard I'm working with is (according to Zillow.com) 0.13 acres, maybe half of it taken up by the house, but with a good sized front yard and considerable backyard. When we moved in, all but maybe, maybe 20% of the backyard was either underwater or overgrown. I wouldn't want to lose the topsoil by having heavy machinery rip out the overgrowth, but regrading would be easier, nay-doable with something more efficient than a shovel.




Anyway, having thrown my back out doing too much of that by hand (and the upcoming birthday doesn't make me feel younger, either), I'm going to wait for it to actually rain again before reevaluating the drainage situation. I improvised a rain garden with existing daylilies and added irises, bee balm and a willow stick which will hopefully sprout (they always do when I don't want them to...) and a little slope and dip for water to accumulate in.





Mostly, the rest of the work is ripping out vines (english ivy, poison ivy, virginia creeper, roses, that variegated purple flowering thing and whatever else) and hopefully getting grass to grow. The new lawn needs to be tilled and aerated, but there are so many roots and bricks (which is great, I'm planning a patio, too, but at 30+ bricks randomly strewn around the yard under the grass...) I'm not sure a rototiller is a good idea.  So for the moment, turning over a new garden bed, an existing one and getting my seedlings in will take top priority.



After all of that, I'm (understandably, I hope) anxious about getting everything to grow. The addition of (free!) composted horse manure that I lugged up from Lorton (yes, by myself, in contractor bags, in my little honda) should be enough to improve the soil and feed the plants. For exciting realtime updates, just follow the hashtag: #gardenvarietyanxiety. ¹

1. Note that because twitter is stupid, the hashtag isn't searchable. Yet.