Sunday Night in the Garden

Finn is still AWOL, but not for want of my presence outside to trigger his chuminess instinct.  I went into the forest this morning to look for him, and walked a few miles in either direction up and down the closest trail, but there was no sign of him.  Water still running in the creek, lots of little critters, and warm temperatures, so I'm still holding out hope that he's just on walkabout and is taking care of himself just fine.

Anyway, as I hinted, I spent the day in the garden.  Here are the fruits of today's efforts:

New 4'x4' raised garden bed

A new garden bed!  I spent the day today sawing out the notches by hand, and then drilling holes to accomodate 3/8" rebar that I will hammer down on the corners to hold it all together.  This is the first of many that I am going to put in place along the south side of the house, which I have identified as being the primo garden real estate on my lot.  Here's how it looks now:

 The barren waste land

As you can see, I haven't done much with that side of the house.  That's compost that I'm starting to spread out over the clay, and I do have a row of various plants along the house proper, and they're doing quite well.  Which is how I know that this strip of land is the best that I have for gardening, because I come out in the early morning to water and there is already beaming sunshine all along there.  The reason I haven't done much with it is because, in the dark of winter, I mistakenly thought that my main back yard area would be the best -- and it is, but only for things that need shade.  Anyway, along the house I have:

Vigorous tomato plants (this one is 5.5' tall)

The variety that I planted this year is Early Girl, an F1 hybrid.   I didn't want to go with hybrids, but this being the first year that I tried gardening for real, I figured that I should go with something straightforward.  And man, are they growing like crazy.  There are about 30 young tomatoes getting bigger on the vines, and the vines themselves grow 3-4" every day.

Slicer Cucumbers

The cucumbers got off to a slow start, but they are now growing like crazy in the 75ºF days.  As small as those guys are, there are about 25-30 little cucumbers growing on them, already.  I'm weaving them through the tines of a trellis that I've got leaning up against the house.

A tiny ear of corn (you can see the tassels!)

I decided to try my hand at sweet corn, too.  Hell, I planted about one of everything, to see how it would go.  The corn is really doing well, with big, beautiful, strong plants, and now finally some ears starting to develop.  About two months behind the rest of the country, but hey, that's the pacific northwest for you.

Russian Mammoth sunflowers

I've always loved sunflowers.  I love the way that they follow the sun -- I remember taking the commuter train to Munich in the morning and passing fields of sunflowers, their heads all facing east, and coming back in the evening and seeing the same flowers looking in the opposite direction.  Mine do the same thing, although they have yet to flower.  Those glacier wands (the sticks with the orange flags) are there to give the flowers support when it gets windy -- the flower on the left was 3" shorter than the top of the wand that it is tied to, only four days ago.  It's growing like mad!  Also, around the bases of the flowers are my patented (well, not really) slug deterents.  Anyone who has ever tried to grow sunflowers in slug country knows how much slugs love to devour small sunflower seedlings.  But not with my system!  (Basically just a liter soda bottle with top and bottom cut off.)

Anyway, these babies are supposed to grow to 9' tall, with enormous seed heads.  In their own way, they're my favorite plants in the garden.  I am happily anticipating some beautiful flowers.

Here's a sample of what's going on in the "main" part of the garden:

Thirty-gallon potato pots getting close to harvest

Everyone laughs at me for growing potatoes here, because you can buy a metric ton of potatoes for less than what it costs to drive them back home, it seems.  But you can't buy the varieties that I'm growing.  German Butterball alone is so very much worth the effort -- an amazing potato, delicious and buttery, but delicate.  It wouldn't hold up well to commercial production.

Tender lettuce heads

I seeded these guys a while back and I totally forget what they are, but I need to remember because they are vigorous and the slugs don't seem to like them.  All I remember is that the seeds came from Uprising Seeds, inc.

Black Beans!

Seriously, life would not be worth living if it were not for black beans.  I adore them.  So I planted a handful, and look'it'em go.  That giant lettuce in the background is one that I'm letting go to seed, just to see if it produces anything worth propogating.

Anyway.  There are a ton of things happening right now that make me not so happy, not the least of which is Finn being gone for nearly a week, so I'm glad that I have this little oasis of mine to tend.  Who knows, maybe he'll come back soon.  Maybe some favorite voices that have gone quiet will  be heard again.  Maybe my sister's marriage won't fall apart.  Maybe all the other ridiculous things that seem to be off the rails at the moment will right themselves.  But, well, if they don't, at least I'll have a lot of beans.

UPDATE: PZ Meyers of Pharyngula is going to be in Seattle at the Pike Brewing Company on tuesday!  I am sorely tempted to take the day off and drive down there to buy him a beer.  In case you don't know, I am a big fan of PZ.  He is a take-no-prisoners empiricist, which I admire, for I am not of the Dawkins breed of empiricists; no, I tend to be rather vehement, like PZ.  But I don't have his fortitude under fire.  I try for a while to keep up pointing out logical fallacies, but after a while a sustained approach of ad hominem attacks will beat me down.  Not PZ, though. 

And, I love the Pike Trippel, for it is one fine, fine beer.  Finally, to complete the trifecta, I have been telling my friends for what seems like forever that I need to go visit the Pike brewery.