Last weekend was the last weekend of hard labor for this season! Regular readers will remember that I dismantled the herb bed this year so that I could put my herbs in 7 gallon fabric grow bags. I’ll put them in the greenhouse come winter and have my tea and cooking herbs at hand year round. Frozen pizzas with fresh oregano is quite the upgrade!
Saving the Shallots!
That project left some bed frames in the northeast corner of my yard. Two of them are 12×2, and one of them is 5×5. The 5×5 bed is where I planted shallots a few weeks ago. When I went out Saturday the few small sprigs of comfrey had morphed into a strangling monster of purple flowers that was choking out my shallots!
I decided to cut it to the ground, disrupting the gang of pollinators that were enjoying the pollen. I informed these flying freeloading friends that they can still feed from those flowers in the pile where I laid down the cuttings, and also that there are plenty of other things things in the yard for them to enjoy.
Now my shallots have a fighting chace!
Spying Spiderwort!
One of the 12×2 beds needed a complete re-do after two years of negect. While reviewing the contents of that bed, I found that somehow I’ve acquired spiderwort! This is a gorgeous plant that blooms in the mornings.
I did a little internetting and found that this is also kind of an invasive native. The people building the giant apartment complex behind me are putting up a fence this week a few feet north of these beds. I’m going to plant spidewort and comfrey alongside and I’ll have a beautiful wall of purple. If it decides to come out into the yard I can just mow it down!
The Fruits of my Labors
But back to the 12×2 bed. I had to dig it out completely. I added the remains of a bag of Jobes organic fertilizer and then filled in with Veggie Delight from the pile in my driveway. I double dug the bed so it was thoroughly mixed.
Then it was time to transplant what I started from seed earlier this spring in the Costco greenhouse! Three Honey Butternut went on one end and three Sugar Baby watermelons went on the other end. I plan on letting the vines run rampant through my yard and thus reduce the amount of grass I have to mow. Plus, it will look cool and make me happy.
Behold the before and after on that bed!
Over the past many years I have had garlic in that bed, among other things. I will never, ever, dig all the garlic that was run free of the beds in that back corner and made off with my structured landscape. As I was clearing the bed, I came into a good amount of green garlic, which I promptly put in a bucket and will enjoy in some springtime pasta sauce very soon.
The BSE is gardening this year and she had a spare zucchini and a spare yellow crookneck squash. I decided to put those in pots with tomato cages and I located those up in the former herb bed real estate as well. The other 12×2 bed has oregano and my newly planted ramps, so I decided to park the pots in there temporarily with the liberated spiderwort. They’ll look pretty back there, trained up the cages for vertical interest and delicious squash.
Having freed the shallot bed of the scourge of comfrey, dug a new bed for the butternut squash and the watermelon, and cleaned up the other 12×2 bed, the Great Northeast is now thoroughly repurposed!
Running around hilly-nilly!
Magic Molly in the front yard (on the right) and Yukon Gold by the greenhouse (on the left) have taken off! I had to hill up potatoes Saturday. As potatoes get taller, I mound up dirt around them, repeating this as they get taller. I keep doing this till there’s no more room, because by doing this you’ll encourage more root formation and that’s where you’ll get your potatoes! You can read the whole story on how to grow potatoes here.
Behold the before and after of my driveway. Here’s how much dirt I had delivered in April, and after I hilled up the potatoes, I have a small pile that fits in a bucket. I HAVE MY DRIVEWAY BACK! I can also fold up that raggedy tarp and put it up and thus improve the overall look of my estate exponentially.
Greenhouse Upgrades: Floors and Power
The Greenhouse Floor
I am so lucky to have such a great community around me. My good friend Tom W. brought over many buckets of crushed gravel and raked it out. He will be back to tamp it into a solid floor for the greenhouse! No more mud under the rug. No more persistent weeds. Thanks, Tom!
Powering Up
Todd Urness at Yes Electric came in clutch again! We talked earlier this spring about running power to the greenhouse from my main panel. Last winter’s extension cord system worked okay, but I wanted something safer and more efficient going forward. I explained the things I wanted to accomplish: heating and lighting in the winter, and ventilation in the summer. I crunched numbers on wattage and explained to Todd how I use the space and he told me what he could do.
He ran power from the main box through the basement, out the side of the house, and trenched under my driveway to the greenhouse. I have two boxes inside now, one on the west wall and one on the east, for a total of four outlets. I also have a box on the east wall of the house now, too! Six new outlets ran me around $1,200, and I consider that money well spent for safety and efficiency. Todd does great work and he’s my go-to in Kalamazoo.
Now I can design climate management systems in there, since my vintage fan probably isn’t going to be enough. #nerdout
Whew!!
Digging out that bed was the last of a hard labor for the season. Thank goodness. Now it’s just down to watering weaving and feeding periodically, and hilling up potatoes. I’m so glad that we’re down to the fun stuff and done with the hard stuff.
