On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 10:53:31 GMT, Heather Husvar
wrote:

Our yard retains a lot of water
so I'm going to plan on container gardening. I'm almost certain we're
going to try using tired like Pat. We have a great spot that is never
used because it's behind the garage and off to one side and all the way
at the back of the yard so it's basically "perfect". We're going to
pick up some pea gravel to put in between the tires for the "aisles".

The gravel would be really nice - the aisles in our garden
get really muddy. We have heavy clay here, and it stays
muddy for a LONG time whenever it rains.

If I can ever afford gravel, I'll do that too.

I'm thinking that this method will work well for me as I had a lot of
trouble traveling to my IL's house and then weeding, especially when I
hurt my back this year and then followed it up with some horrible tummy
bug. I am thinking that we can put about 16 tires in the area so it
looks something like | || |.

This would work fine. Or - if you can afford it - you could
make raised beds out of lumber or cement blocks. You would
get a bit more planting area that way.



The only thing I know for sure right now
is that neither family is going to plant potatoes. We know a few other
families who plant excessive amounts of potatoes and think giving to
them to us is a GREAT idea. So, what is everyone else thinking about,
if anything?


Well, I packed the seeds in an airtight (I hope) container
and put it in the freezer.

Before that, though, I started some more seeds for our fall
(outdoors) garden - chard, lettuce, and mache. I already
have kale and Chinese cabbage that have been transplanted
outdoors. I started all these late - we had thought we were
moving (but we aren't). So they may or may not be
productive before real cold sets in. I'll cover them with
floating row cover and they'll probably do OK.

I also started seeds for my indoor 'winter' garden - this
will be on the big bay window ledge in the living room.
This is almost like a mini-greenhouse, it's a sticking-out
kind of window and consists of one huge window (8' x 6')
plus two regular sized windows at about 45 degree angles to
it. Gets lots of sunshine - from three directions.

For winter, I'll be growing indoors:

*my rosemary plant which spends summers outdoors and winters
indoors

* Spicey Globe Bush Basil - supposed to be a smaller basil

* Red Robin tomatoes - true miniature tomato, grows happily
in a six inch pot. I grew these indoors this summer and
they were surprisingly productive for such a little thing,
and the tomatoes had a great taste

* Yellow Canary tomatoes - another miniature, but
yellow-fruited

* Micro-tina tomatoes - yet another miniature. I got these
seeds from the developer, Utah State University. I don't
think they've been commercially released yet.

* Mini-bell peppers - supposed to be a very small bell
pepper

* Tom Thumb lettuce - small heads of Boston bibb-type
lettuce

* Succession plantings of cilantro

I don't expect the indoor garden to make a really
significant contribution to our food supply - it's just for
fun, and to see how all the 'mini veggies' do for me indoors
in winter. I hope to sell seedlings of these at the farmers
market next year.

We hope to be building our hoophouse in October - we hadn't
started it yet because we thought we were moving. I really
need it available by early next spring.

And I hope to get the main garden weeded and cleaned up
before the real cold weather.

You'll notice there are a lot of repetitions of the word
'hope' in the above... in reality, it seems we never catch
up with everything, but these are the things I hope to get
done this fall.

Pat
--
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry