In article ,
Pat Meadows wrote:

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.

Well, a ton of pea gravel here is 10 dollars. It's kind of a luxury
item that I have stashed away some change for. I hid it so we don't
spend it on anything else. It may not be a luxurious thick path of
gravel but it'll help with the sog.


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.

No, we can't afford it, but in our area there are a LOT of tire stores
who will be HAPPY to give us tires for free.


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.

*trimmed of the amazing stuff Pat has done to prepare for winter*


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

Well, your "hope" is pretty awesome. I'm continually amazed by all you
do.

Heather H.