Surprises

1: The foxes are growing up. I hadn't seen them for a while and then one morning earlier this week they were out. It was so surprising to see how big they have become! I've not seem them all together lately though. And not seem the mother for over a week. And one was scratching -- mange -- *sigh*. So, I'm putting out a bit more medicine sandwich pieces. But who knows which ones are eating it. Last night, I saw one running around eating all of them. *sigh*



2: Well, now I know how my rosemary is getting broken. The foxes are big enough to jump up on low things. Including the big pot with the rosemary in it. Two were out, chasing each other around. First, she jumped over it. Cute. Next time, she hopped up on it and looked around before hopping off and racing around all the plants. Not so cute. *sigh* The rosemary will survive, it's creeping rosemary not the upright kind.

3: Despite the cold and wind and possibly even little bit of hail and bugs, my beans are developing blossoms. The runner beans are red, the French dwarfs are white with black spots. Surprise, Surprise.

Insects vs. Me

Written, yesterday.
I've gotten almost all the tomatoes transplanted. Only 3 more to find places for. 3 out of the 26 I started out with this morning. *sheesh* I sure hope some of these eventually make tomatoes. I also 'discovered' some insect eggs on the underside of one of the tomato leaves.

First instinct: Get rid of them!

But I remembered the ladybug eggs, so I left them there. I finished transplanting the seedling.
Then I washed my hands and reached for my laptop. Internet searching...reading...searching...reading...searching...
No luck. However, I did find the British Tomato Growers' Association. So I called them, described the eggs and the woman told me she wasn't a technical expert but they sounded like a bad insect not a good one.

I tried to wipe them off with a wet tissue and they all peeled off as one sticky bunch. AND it turns out they were really hard. REALLY. HARD. That confirmed it for me. I had read about something that lays eggs with sticky stuff to attract even more bugs. Good GRIEF! I flushed them and went on transplanting the rest of the tomatoes.

THEN I noticed a dead leaf on my mint plant and reached to take it off. IT. MOVED!!!!!!! It was big. It looked exactly like a dying leaf. I went for the camera. After I got a few images I took the pot to the outside trash bin and "relocated" it into it.
Interesting, huh? If anyone reads this and knows what it is please leave a comment telling me what it is? thanks.


What else I've gotten done:
* transplanted all the salad lettuces and parsley into a window box. I'm keeping them inside for a while.

* transplanted the cucumbers and planted a few more seeds into the big pot of soil my neighbor has left for me. It's outside.

* planted a few more okra seeds, outside and in. I just stuck some seeds into the pots outside.

* put all the pots of transplanted tomatoes on the shelves outside with the others.

Now, having finished all that, I'm going off to an organized protest and march to the Chinese Embassy.

The sun was shining and warm today so I took advantage of it and did the mowing. I finally was successful with the hand mower. I tried using it last summer and found that some pieces were missing. This year I got it all put together. Once that was done I sat in a chair near the roses facing the sun, leaned back and soaked up some of the warmth for a while.

The view from my chair in the garden. It smells wonderful here:


As the sun moved through the sky it became cold again. I'm still wearing my big red winter wool sweater and the heat is back on at nights.

This afternoon I examined my okra which is not doing well outside. Turns out that the underside of the leaves were covered with insects, brown and green. Ah, aphids, aphids, aphids. I went to the store and bought some Ecover liquid dish soap. I immediately made a bottle soap water (a few drops) and sprayed each plant. We'll see if they are still alive in the morning. I'd already decided to start some more okra plants once I get the big containers planted.

The foxes are mostly coming out at night again so I can't see them but know they are there. I briefly saw a new one today. At first, I thought it was one of the babies that was getting big fast. When it turned I realized it was a grown up and not the mother. It's coat is redder and in very good condition. Maybe it's the daddy of the family.

Things in my garden that I hope to eat one day soon---

Strawberries:


Tomatoes:


Green Beans:

The Garden Gods Might Hate Me

Of course, The Universe waited until I'd transplanted my tiny, fragile, warm-soil loving heirloom tomato seedlings and put them outside to turn the climate cool, cool and cooler. Then it rained. Now, on the face of it, rain is good. But it was followed by The Day Without Sunlight, so no warmth.

What's a nervous novice vegetable gardener to do? Nothing, absolutely nothing. They seem to be doing fine. *shrug*

UPDATE (I've been holding on to this one for a few days, it's now the 19th. Anyway. . .): It seems to be getting colder each day and without real sunlight it's pretty cool/cold during the days too. I want to put all my vegetable plants into the summer house to be warmer, but the reality is that they have been outside for quite a while and are acclimated, I guess.

zucchini


In other news, I won't be posting any news for a few days. Just a little stomach upset (as the parents would say), I think. MD appt tomorrow morning. I haven't eaten for 3 days. It's Miso Soup & Brown Rice time tonight. *sigh* And with the weather cool-down & rain, I'm not spending much time outside anyway.

This vexes me a bit because I had wanted to clean up the flower beds some more, not just weeding but just removing some stuff.

Also, I wanted to weed, prepare and plant a plot JW is lending me in the back for the carrots, fennel and celeriac.

And mow the back and rake the front and do shrub pruning.

Oh, well, maybe I'll be up to getting it all started in a few more days. However, it is great to have daylight from 5AM to 10PM. *ahhhhhhh*

**Foxes are doing fine. My neighbor, JW and his partner were here over the weekend and he says the mommy looks much better than a few months ago when he saw her. The kits are still amazingly cute :D
More news soon.

Oooops & Oh, Boy

I wiped some insect eggs off one of my bean leaves two days ago. Several hours later I remembered that I'd see mating ladybugs on one of the plants a few days before. Oooops! Sure enough when I looked them up the eggs I killed were ladybug eggs. Stupid me! The larvae would have eaten the aphids on the bean plants. Oh, well, live & learn. Research first; slay later.

Yesterday was busy one for the foxes and me.
In the morning, the vixen was out playing with two of her pups. Only two. I tried not to worry. I do worry too much. In the afternoon the whole family was out in the garden. Apparently eating somethings out of the grass. Mom fox looked at me often. When I wasn't leaning out the bathroom window they would come into the center; when I was in the window, she would retreat into the shade out of my view. I'm getting curious to learn more about fox behavio(u)r.

I planted a second set of seeds a few weeks ago and they are all ready for transplanting. I have a lot of work to do this weekend. It's time for me to capitulate and buy compost. Fortunately, I have found a good source for bulk organic compost at a reasonable-for-here price. Actually it's a very good price. *sigh*

It was a slow garden day. I didn't work on anything. My battle with one particular ivy root in the front and the big bag of sand in the back pulled something in my back that didn't belong pulled. All seems to be righting itself.

Last night, when I took the peanut butter medicine sandwich to the garden I stayed outside. First, I took some new pix of the all the transplants. Then I decided to sit down on a little stool on the ugly concrete and see what might happen.

Eventually, as it was getting dark one kit came bouncing down the path towards me and into the ivy. A short while later out he/she came and off to the back of the garden again. Was he the bravest testing the situation? Then two came out. Then all four were out. I'm assuming that mom was hidden somewhere nearby watching the entire scene. And me. I sat still moving only my eyes or moving my head when they were busy with their noses in the grass or ivy searching for slugs or snails or some-such.

For the longest time, they were grubbing in the ivy opposite me and the grass. Then someone came onto the concrete and then another. They began playing around. When another passed right in front of me, I made a little noise which made it run away a small bit faster. I'm ambivalent about them getting comfortable around me. I won't be sitting out like that all the time.

Eventually they did what they always do -- play! They came running around on the concrete, around the shelves of vegetable plants. Usually it's only 2 of them but this time at one point all 4 were around me somewhere on the concrete. I could see 3 of them but not the fourth. I turned my head around to see one sweet little thing just sitting directly behind me and looking at me. The others were very near too.

They ran around a bit, sniffed and nosed at things then off to the grass again, tumbling and pouncing and tumbling on each other. A short while later two of them started grunting at each other. Now, to me the sound was reminiscent of the sound my cats would made before vomiting, but the fox babies just made the sounds and then pounced on each other playing again. After a while more of this they all headed off to the back of the garden. I sat for a while more, but it was getting so dark I couldn't see anyone any more and my legs were getting numb :)
We had a busy day, the foxes and I.

Ah, HA!!!!!

The comfrey is NOT comfrey!!

It is something called "Green Alkanet" and it was originally brought in to be a part of Victorian gardens and the root makes a red dye, sometimes used as a substitute for henna. Now, it's just a pain in the garden. Worst of all, it wasn't successful in Victorian gardens because the flower wasn't big enough :o

I returned to the ivy in the front/street-side space. Got all as much of the ivy as is possible, right now. AND next door neighbor helped me by climbing down in a window well and lopping of the tree(?) that was growing there. It had gotten very tall to reach ground level then it started sprouting branches and leaves and continued growing to almost outside my window (~10'). Well it's done! YAY, OH, YAY!!! That thing was hideous.

I'm having second thoughts about the bamboo. It's gonna require water, in all that I'd read that hadn't really been mentioned. So I'd rather opt for some things that are more native, less water-needy.

In better news, I may have been *under* watering the rosemary. The gardening guy's recommendation? Put water in the sink, put the plants directly into it, no pot. Let them soak until they are heavy with water, their soil expands around the roots, re pot. In this case, I used to soaking to transplant them into their intended terracotta pot out back. 2 parts old tomato compost mixed with 1 part sand. Planted the watered rosemary plants in and added one small bottle (1 quart?) of water to see if it drained or absorbed. I think it absorbed or was draining very slowly because I didn't see any come out the bottom. Only time will tell now.

Best of all today I transplanted the last of the beans from their seeding pots and started transplanting the tomato plants. They have all finally started looking tomato-y. I didn't have enough pots for all of them. Everything went out into the garden on shelves.

I think the next big mission is to find enough affordable compost and a large quantity of packing popcorn for the large pots that will become the ultimate home of most of many of these things.
My 4 large pots = 40 litres compost, 2/3rds full.

Ivy, Ivy, and not an inch to spare!

The mission for the day was to cut away the mess that in the front of the house. It's the first thing people see upon arriving. We all have to walk past it entering and leaving. I hate, HATE it. So I was both dreading and eager to get rid of it. My dread was because it involved ivy. I despise ivy. I don't know who thought it belonged in gardens but they deserve an Ig Nobel Award.

It's a small space just inside and to the right of the entry gate. But it took ages, I wasn't feeling well, I thought the exertion would make me feel better. It just made me really, really, really tired. So tired I couldn't go out tonight to a fun evening. :( I stopped several times during the clearing to rest and to consider the next necessary steps. I may have been too severe with the bush in the corner, but it really doesn't belong there it just sprawls over the fence onto the sidewalk and into my neighbor's front space. It's stripped down now. There is more ivy and there are other bushes that will need pruning as well.

After the corner bush, I just went after the ivy. The snails were not happy with me. Oh, well, there's still space for them to hide. Until I get that done too.

The next challenge is what to put there. I'm considering bamboo. It's screening, there are types that do not spread, but clump so are easy to control. And it sounds neat in the breeze. I think they do well in the limited sunlight out front. The cafe uses it and it's on the same side of the street as this building. Bamboo.

BEFORE:

AFTER:






At this point, I could do no more. I went in. I decided to take a peek out back. I heard something, rustling, I looked out the bathroom window and was surprised to see the foxes. Mom and the babies, they romped, she sat, watched. I took photos and a little video. What fun they had! After quite a while, they headed to the back of the garden again. She stopped, turned back and looked up at me. She knows I'm watching and wanted me to know she knows. I suppose.

This one was rather brave coming onto the ugly concrete right next to the house. One other did, too.






This is why it's hard to get a photo of them. They rarely stop chasing each other around. This is the only one with all 5 of them. Mom is behind the weed pile, on the right. Watching. The tips of their tails are white. Just the very ends. Cute.













I think they like messing about with the snails, then eating them. YAY! All the weeding I did makes the snails and slugs easier to find.

Remains of the day

Or, how to lose your glasses and an earring while wearing them.

The back corner of the garden where the chair and table are placed needed a lot of cleaning out. The brick edging for the plot was completely overgrown.

BEFORE:


AFTER:


Not glamorous and the sun moved as I worked so "AFTER" looks almost like a completely different place.

And a few critters.
Snail (it only looks good large):



My upstairs neighbor has dug two ponds in his section of the garden. Frogs (or toads) love it. They also love to eat snail and slugs! So, this is the 2nd pond at the very back of the garden, near the foxes den.
Frog (also looks better large, but...):


He also build a fox den with the branches & brush from his pruning last year.
Fox Den (photo is by bluewingteal):


During my back-and-forth through the garden, I surprised the grown-up fox and later saw the back-end of a little one making a hasty retreat. Fluffy!

I'd placed the medicine sandwiches out and I returned inside for the evening. I perched with camera at the bathroom window and waited. First, the mommy fox roamed through checking things out. Certain that I was gone, she retreated to the back of the garden and a few minutes later she and her babies re-appeared. It was really too dark and they were racing around. 4 kits and their mom. They were having a great old time. They raced each other all over the front (my part) of the garden. Someone went into the bike shed, up and around my shelf of seedlings and to the edge of the entry alleyway. Eventually someone ate some of the sandwich pieces I could see. But they continued racing and rolling around on the grass in the shaded areas. All over. Quite fun.

Now, everyday seems to involve a loss of some kind. Yesterday was the keys locked in and me locked out. So, on this day, somewhere after weeding and before the fox sitings I lost my glasses. A remarkable feat in some ways because they were on top of my head. And yet, I could. not. find. them. I walked back and forth, squinted, then gave up. In the end it's a miracle I didn't step on them but they were found. Not where I was looking, of course.

Then there was the earring. Before the glasses but after the weeding one of my earrings popped free. When I felt it pull free I froze, I stood still and yet it escaped me, fell to the ground. I went stood and looked down, slowly. Then got on hands and knees, I think I know what fox poo looks like now, maybe not, anyway, no earring. I couldn't give up, it was there. Eventually found. A bit away from where my focus had been, and under some grass. Adventures in gardening with dilly. :\

A short, clean one!

Just a short update. I don't expect anyone to keep up with this all. It's really just a garden blog for me. But, you know, if you enjoy this, good on ya!

The fox or foxes ate the peanut butter, honey, whole wheat medicine sandwich pieces I left around last night. I'm such a hippie huh (Whole wheat?? For a fox? I just could see buying a cheap loaf of fluff bread. Ever.)

Oh, and I now have doubts that the stuff is comfrey. I was told by neighbors and landlady it is but I did some googling looking for information about it's gardening uses (as fertilizer water) and none of the pictures look like these tiny purple flowers. *sigh*

Here's what things look like a day after my first two onslaughts.
Lawn has brown paths through it but will green up over the next few weeks. I really don't care though. I hate lawn turf. Waste of space. On view: the pile of twigs and branches.
Isn't that concrete awful??!?!?!? I wish I could get rid of it. Put there by a previous owner ages ago.

EDIT: This picture is deceptive. You are only seeing about one-third of the garden. Behind the end of the grassy part is about two-thirds more where there is the summer house, a rather big compost pile, more garden space and a neighbor-made fox den. That section is my neighbor's garden. Photos of that another day.


The new rosemary and in the background -- the huge pot of grass clippings and the pile of stomped weeds/comfrey.


Next: the transplants! Mint, zucchini, okra, 2 types of green beans & around the corner the strawberries and a few more beans.


AND the heirloom tomato seedlings are getting their second set of leaves.

The War with Comfrey & Caring for The Foxes

Today I:

Bought new rosemary plants. Three. This is 'prostrate rosemary', in other words, it will drape across and out of it's container. While at the nursery I had a talk with one of the gardeners. The diagnosis was that I should have kept them outside not inside because at the nursery they were always outside. AND the soil I put them into needs sand to make it drain better, so...

I came home with the plants, plopped them on the bathroom window ledge which gets direct sunlight for about 10 hours a day. Then I headed out to the local nursery to buy sand. They will be delivering because I just couldn't see myself carrying a 25 kg bag of sand home on the bus. Since they are delivering I got two bags.

Now, before I went to off to the local place I decided to do some transplanting. I decided to do this on my front stoop with the front door opened and the door to my apartment opened. This made logistical sense because there is no water source in the garden and access to the garden is downstairs through a locked gate/door. Easier, I thought to myself, to transplant, water, and then carry the pots into the garden. First I did the last few okra sproutlettes. They look pretty pathetic, but anyway -- done. Then the strawberries, they are looking sort of okay and the mint which is looking great. Then I looked around and thought, might as well do some of the beans, their roots are bursting out of the peat pots and they are getting tall. Fine. Got more pots, soil, water, and settled back down on the top step.

It had been a gorgeous day. Sun, light breeze, warm, but not too. Now, as I began on the beans there was a nice cross breeze blowing through my apartment and across the front stoop. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move -- the door. Damn! before I could lean back and stop it, it slammed shut. The resonant 'thunk' that only a big, solid Victorian house door can make. Oh, but I have my keys in my pocket, I've been keeping them there every time I went in and out.

Except. This. Time.

I was locked out. Out of the building. Out of my apartment. And worst of all --- out of the garden. So, I did what I always do when I lock myself out. I went to the business next door and asked if someone could help me climb into my second story bedroom window. The last time they had to do this was at night in December in the freezing cold. When I was talking to the man who opened their door, I had an epiphany, "Hey," I said, "maybe I could give y'all a set of my keys?" He liked the idea. So, he got one of the guys to bring over the ladder, he propped it on the garden gate/door I climbed over and jumped down. This took a while because I'm terrified of heights and really didn't like the idea of having to hang then jump down to the concreted walkway. And am terrified of heights. *changing light bulbs makes me dizzy* Did I mention I'm terrified of heights? Well, I managed it. Not bad for 45. Yay, me.

From the other side I opened the garden door and in we brought the ladder. Into the garden and up against the wall next to my bedroom window. First, moved the tray of seedlings on the window ledge. Then climb into the window, replace the tray, get keys out of already opened apartment door. Out front door, with keys and into garden to help the guy with the ladder. Back home and did a quick search for my spare keys, labeled them, potted everything up, put it all in the garden. Dropped off keys to the office next door and off to the local garden center/nursery place.

Back from making the arrangements to *buy* sand and have it delivered (I can't describe how much it vexes me to have to buy sand or soil, much less have to get it delivered), I went to the grocery store because by then I was starting to feel sick having only had a croissant and a few spoons full of yogurt and coffee for breakfast. Ate. Went into garden to check on the things I'd set out yesterday, all seems to be doing ok. I was going to come in, but thought I'd pull up some of the comfrey. SOME.

It's addictive, weeding is. I was talking to my friend T. earlier and told her that I now understand that gardeners' obsession with ridding their garden of unwanted growths, i.e. weeds. I started on the comfrey, it pulls up easily, so I kept going. And going. And going. And going. And going. I got it all. It will come back but that's not the point. For now, it is gone. Keeping it tamed will be easy from here on.

Then there was that really thorny, viney thing growing from the base of the brick wall. It was mixed in with some of the comfrey. I got the comfrey untangled and pulled up. By now, the pile of comfrey was about 2 feet high. I stomped on it to crush it down and headed to the garden house for those fantastic limb cutters with adjustable long handles.

On the way back to the viney, thorny thing I stopped to lop off a few thorny branches that were drooping into my path and regularly grabbing my hair as I went back and forth. A few more steps and I stopped again, this time to get the last of the comfrey along the path but tucked under some other flowering big thing. It's in for a heavy pruning but not now. Now, just the comfrey (and that viney, thorny thing). Comfrey extracted, I moved on to finally arrive again at the front of the garden and the thorny, viney thing. But first, I noticed a few other spikey things growing out of the concrete. Snip, snip and tossed into the appropriate pile of debris. Then to the wall and to find the end of the viney, thorny thing. There were two sources. Snip, snip. It was severed. Carefully picked up and off to the pile a few steps away. But it pulled back. There was a third viney, thorny part growing from another place in the concrete. Snip, snip. NOW, it was all into the correct pile.

So now, in my garden I have three piles of debris to be bagged and removed:
1) a giant pot measuring about 3 ft. diameter and 3 ft. high filled with the grass clippings;

2) a considerable pile of green weed-age, mostly comfrey and the viney, thorny things

3) a pile of twigs and branches, no leaves, from the gigantic buddleia that had become a tree growing out of the brick wall It and some bricks were finally knocked loose by a big wind storm a few months back.

I felt I had accomplished some sort of garden maintenance, but there is still much more to do before it's in order again. And there are those vegetables to get into the really large pots. Great, huh? I was done gardening for the day. The sun was setting. I went in and took a shower.

While in the shower, I looked out the window. I was admiring all my handy work of the past two days. Then I noticed the dog. But it wasn't a dog!! It was a fox! It must have been waiting for me to leave for good. The lights coming on in the building were probably it's sign the coast was clear. Now, it looked up at me looking down at it. We stared at each other. I hadn't seen him/her for a while. I thought it must be a little confused and maybe even a bit vexed that all the grass was gone, all the weeds and other tall cover gone, too. And the little brown spot in the lawn where it probably liked to lay or nap slightly hidden, was now fully exposed, too. It turned and walked a few steps across the lawn and stopped to bite and scratch near the base of it's tail. Not a good sign. The tail didn't look good. It really does have mange. I hadn't been sure before, but now I was certain. I was going to have to go into the garden once more to leave it some medicine to treat the mange.

Before he left, JW has given me some fox mange medicine and instructions. He'd gotten it from a friend in Sussex who works with a wildlife org. So, after my shower, I read the instructions, pretty easy and peanut butter and honey would do, no need to buy Marmite (yuck). So I made a peanut butter and honey sandwich, cut it into 6 pieces per the instructions applied the meds and took the pieces to the garden. I left pieces in various places along the path I saw the fox take across the lawn. It went in a semi-circle, stopping a couple times to stretch, sit and scratch. Repeat twice then trotted off into the back of the garden out of my view. So for good measure I left the last two pieces of sandwich near the compost. I'll keep doing this for a couple weeks and hope that I also see the fox (or foxes) more regularly.

Now, the thing about the foxes is that there are foxes all over London. Most people consider them pests. But not my neighbor JW and me. We appreciate the critters, they are part of the little eco-system of the garden(s) and, like the neighborhood cats, are good predators. There have been a few generations of them out there. And he's used some of the branches from tree pruning to build a sheltered den for them in the back corner of his half of the garden. So, he's left me the medicine to help the one or ones who visit our garden.

I hope it works.



UPDATE (a few minutes later): Good news! the fox (a fox) is out in the garden and seems to have found the medicine sandwiches. No lights, just saw some movement and heard rustling bushes, heard one little yelp.

The Roses and The Jungle

Ahhhhhhhhhh. Finally. Finally. Finally. Some of the roses have started to bloom.

This morning I set up one set of garden shelves outside and moved the transplanted beans, okra and zucchini outside. It's warm enough at night now. I wonder if the birds will eat them all before I wake up tomorrow. Or if the foxes will knock over the shelves and nibble them.

This evening, I attacked the jungle of neglect that is the garden proper. My landlady left me to tend her beautifully cared for garden and I have neglected it since last fall when it started getting cold and very, very wet. Today, I fought back the madness. I borrowed the mower from my neighbor across the brick wall. Lovely man! That made taming the grass a breeze.

Then I took the weed-wacker (they call them 'strimmers' here) & the limb cutter to the profusion of comfrey that is taking over everything. Some is fine but this was too much. It has taken over the little slate walkway. So, a bunch of it had to go. So too, a few fat-stalked weed/bushes, some of the ivy. The ivy is gonna be a project all it's own. *sigh*
Now I can bring the table and chairs out and have folks over for dinner outside. Ah, joy. Pure joy.

Anyway, you get the idea. Gardening joy. And the roses have started blooming.

Last night I started transplanting my garden sprout-lettes. Before that I had collected and clean an assortment of bigger plastic pots from the garden house.

Then I counted the zucchini and realized that the pots I had were not enough for each to have it's own pot much less to transplant the okra and beans into. Since the pots were varying sizes doubled and tripled some of the bigger pots.

Then there was the matter of dirt to transplant them into. Last weekend, I whacked the bee hive that was hidden along the wall of the compost. I could never see it but knew it was there and was always careful when adding my kitchen scraps to the pile. I thought I was being careful last week, too. But I was standing on one section of the pile and turning the other section with a gardening thingy (not a shovel, I know that word). Ok, so that meant leaving it alone for this past week. Of course, now it's not really possible to get any compost from there for a bit. I need to leave it alone, plus I'm afraid they will recognize me and attack! Seriously.

Fortunately, (sort of) my neighbor, JW, bought tomatoes in growing bags last summer but didn't grow them, so there are three bags of rich tomato dirt in his garden house. And fortunately, he's very nice and is letting me have it for my growing jungle.

So, last night I started transplanting my garden sprout-lettes. I started with the beans then the zucchini. I finished it up this afternoon with the rest of the zucchini and okra then I ran out of pots and dirt. Back to the garden house for more pots (not many left) and old tomato soil.

Now, my front room looks like a gardening center or some crazed, slightly Victorian bent. Plants on the bench in the front window, plants on the airless camping air mattress covering the Middle Eastern rug on the floor across the floor to within 12 inches of the cream-colored sofa. That's where I sit -- on that little patch of me-shaped floor with water bottle, lime green plastic bucket of tomato dirt, pots and seedlings in their growing trays all within arms reach.



I'm going to have to find someplace to put these. I'm running out of space and they aren't ready to go outside yet. We've only had 3 days Spring in the past month.
And one of snow.


Oh, and I think I've killed my wonderful creeping rosemary plants. I think I overwatered them and caused the roots rot. but I'm going to transplant them into a bigger pot anyway. Just in case.
Hey ho.

Cameras on the cheap & garden goodness

I had a lovely day. The weather was Spring-like for the first time this week. The consistency of the sun made me happy. I felt a happiness I haven't felt in a long time. I didn't realize it was missing until today when I felt it again. Interesting.

In the morning mail, I received a surprise --- a funny, friendly card from my friend Toni. AND a package -- the small camera I bought over eBay. It cost me 9.91 (about $18), including postage, the camera itself was 4.99 (~$10). It's a pretty good camera, will need a tune up to be in top working order, but as is it's in surprisingly good condition. It's from the last half of the 50s, a medium format folding camera but the size of my hand and about the weight of a decent-sized paperback book.

I put in a roll of film and headed to Portobello Road Antiques Market. The market is literally along the road and only on Saturdays. The rest of the week there are many, many antique shops along Portobello Road, well, part of it. I'd never been and was curious in general but particularly to see if there were any camera dealers or just cameras and such. I only found one specialist dealer and a about 3 others w/ old cameras.

On the way out I stopped into a little shop that did not have antiques. It was a refreshing change. Surprisingly, they had a downstairs (basement, ground floor) which had some very inexpensive terracotta garden pots. They were half price. I bought two, one for my rosemary (which seems to be dying) :( and another a little smaller for temporary transplant and later for something, maybe flowers or oregano. Anyway, they were a bit heavy but since there's a bus that comes almost to my door (1/2 a block away) getting home wasn't too horrible. I might ask someone to drive me home so I can get more in one trip next time. I know one person who lives near there.

So then it as home, a quick trip to the grocery store, cooked dinner: bok choy, pasta, cider, bread. Then I settled down in the front room and started transplanting seedlings. The beans, zucchini and okra really need more space. I got the beans done, started the zucchini. I'm going to have to find more pots in the garden house tomorrow, I'll have used all I have just with the zucchini. I also have to try to turn the compost to get at the good stuff at the bottom.

Without enraging the bees' nest that I dislodged last weekend while trying to turn the compost. YAY me! They aren't happy and sort of homeless, since the nest is now in a section of the compost where we'd put our kitchen scraps. Not sure what to do about that. I'd like to move the nest but can't see that really happening this century.

OH! And on the way to Portobello Rd. I stopped in the French cafe a block away and asked for their used coffee grounds for my plants. He (the owner who is French) agreed to let me have 3 days worth!!! I'm to pick it up on Monday afternoon! That will be great for everything.

The success so far of the beans, zucchini, carrots and okra is wonderful but I think I'm most happy about the progress of the tomatoes. They are very tiny but many of them seem to be sprouting. Maybe pictures tomorrow. Happy Day.