"Getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter allows you to remember who you are. Simplicity doesn’t change who you are, it brings you back to who you are."

Friday, April 30, 2010

The Veggie Garden

We have crappy soil. 

We want tender delicious vegetables.

How do we get what we want?

We give the roots what they want.  Crumbly brown nutrient rich soil.

If we had been smart, we would have applied and tilled in manure and composts over the years into a selected area and let nature do it's thing. 

(SM spoke with a fellow here intown who has lived and gardened his plot for 20+ years and that is exactly what he does.  Now he's got the good stuff.)

I want his good stuff and I want it now. 

Immediate gratification.  Gimmie gimmie gimmie!

Well, if you want it, you can have it....for a price.  My price was $500.00

Every spring I get into a "project" mode.  Last year we re-tiled a bathroom floor and replaced the grungy old carpet in SM's office since he was now "self-employed" and he needed a nice workspace.

$500 dollars is what I consider a "doable" for our budget.  It's an "ouch" not a "yikes".

I started all my own veggie seeds and some flowers too.  This helped my sanity through Febuary as everyone knows Febuary is the toughest month to get through. Just watching those seedlings sprout made me a proud mamma.  "Go babies go!"

Along comes March with tons of rain.  I make a Home Depot run.  With raised beds on my mind, I start estimating wood and fencing.  Dogs and bunnies to keep out.  (Thank God no deer so far) I hit several $$$ without even touching the soil.  This won't do.  Where can I compromise?  I decide against the wood for now.

I plan to "dig out" and "backfill" with the good stuff.  I just couldn't see being sucessful with "raising" a bed on my hard concrete clay, but I thought we might do better digging in and (over the years) creating a deeper inground bed with wood frames (next year perhaps?) slowly raising the bed over time.

In 12 years I have never seen my backyard pond.  We had so much rain in March that I was concerned we'd never get the garden started.  I lucked out on one dry weekend and started the "big dig".

I managed 3 of the 4x4ish beds on my own.  (think pottery clay, soaking wet and heavy)  Once this stuff dries you'd need dynamite to loosen it up.

I was done.  Pooped.

SM (who'd been up to his eyeballs in work came out to investigate.)  He wanted lots of tomatoes and peppers and I wanted lots of beans and squash.  "My holes, my plants!  If you want more...get to work!"

So he did, God bless him.  (Food is an amazing motivator...smile)

He finished out 2 more 4x4's and a "landing strip...a longish 4x10 strip where, he announces, "the tomatoes will go."

I managed to get two plots backfilled with "Mel's Mix".  I planted Alaska peas, sugar peas, lettuces and onions and we barely got the fence around it and "here comes the rain again."

April has been drier and I've direct seeded and transplanted all my babies in the "good stuff".  (Just transplanted the peppers tonight.)

I like to think the roots are dancing in the soil now.  I notice lots of soil compression, so I'll be adding more compost to raise the beds when the spring garden is finished.  I do plan on a summer replanting and hoping for a fall/winter garden too.

Here's the show...



Thursday, April 29, 2010

My World...

"I'm out of my egg mix"  SM announces.  It's about 7:45am.  He's had his morning wake up coffee so stimulating conversation is about to begin.

"Oh,yeah?"  I respond.  On the floor, doing my morning stretchy thing...(it ain't yoga.)  "How about some oatmeal?  Or I could run to the store.  I think the store has eggs for a dollar."

"That's a pretty good price.  No don't bother.  I'll stop by Bojangles and get some breakfast biscuits."  He offers.

I secretly think  he wants to get the Bojangles biscuits, but I'm having none of that. 

"Nope.  Let me run over there and I'll get a couple dozen.  It'll just take a few minutes.

I've been up since 5.  I'm a morning person.  In bed by 9 / 9:30 up around 5 am.  2 miles with the dogs. A couple of glasses of diet Mt Dew and I'm ready to go.

I'm off this week.  My birthday week.  For the past 10 yrs or so I've always taken the last week of April off.  It's a perfect time of the year as spring in NC is usually over by May 15th with temps climbing in the 90's and me hiding in air conditioned splendor all summer, only emerging in the early mornings and hanging out under shade trees in the afternoon.  It's hard.  I love being outside.

So off to the store I go, forgetting about the school traffic.  But it's OK.  I admire the old houses along the way that have been there for years with huge lots dedicated to huge gardens.  Comparison shopping.  SM and I have talked about chucking it all and living in the "untry".  Problem is we like where we are right now.  45min drive to work but enough in the "burbs' for all of life's conveniences.  Like a grocery store 2 miles down the road.  With eggs on sale for a dollar.

Ha.

It's 1/2 a dozen eggs for a dollar.  16.6666 cents each. Ahhhh! What a rip off!

I buy a dozen of the "other" eggs at a 1.39 and head back home.  It's still better that Bojangles.  Even when I drop the eggs.  I don't think I've ever done that.  Add some JD hot sausage and some frozen pepper mix and my Baby has his egg mix for 4-5 more days. 


Mission accomplished!


My World

We bought our house 12 years ago.  Good bones, only one owner and built by the crabby old bastard (2 doors down and hates Yankees) who knew what he was about when it came to building a house. 

Does the house need updating?  You bet.  But, other than a new roof last year (insurance paid for... can everybody say $Ka Ching$ ?) and carpeting here, tile there, we haven't really put the big bucks in the house.  Yet.  But it's coming.

What offended me more than anything was that there was NO landscaping.  Or at least not the kind of landscaping that a house like this deserves. So for the last 12 years my need to make it pretty cost a penny or two.  But we did it all ourselves.  I'm way too cheap to pay someone for something I can do myself. Or make SM do for me.  (evil grin)

We built the deck, put in mulched beds with shrubs and trees that are native to the area.  We did have an awning put in over the deck and I surprised SM by having a shed built while he was out of town one week.  But all & all we made it ours.  Our home.  Take a peek.


So why didn't we have a vegetable garden?  I think we truly felt it was a waste of money.  Trying to set tender roots into the compacted clay we call soil around here seemed ridiculous.

But how many years have we complained of lousy tasting fruit and vegetables?  And the prices!  No wonder we're all fat!  "I can't afford $3.00 cauliflower! So lets make pasta instead."

Well, since my conversation with Dr T this past winter, I've been doing a bit of google-ing.  Call it whatever you want.  Square foot, intensive, raised bed...

What it's really about is finding solutions to the problems you have to achieve the goal that you want.

A challenge!

Ha!  I accept!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Ctrl Alt Delete

In December of 2008, SM was let go by his employer.

No real point in rehashing what millions of Americans experienced during the great reset of 2009.  Depression? Recession?  History will provide a definition for it soon enough.

SM went on unemployment, I survived our 3rd (and last) layoff...and life went on.  We cut back where we could...made excuses for the things we didn't want to give up just yet, and sat glued to TV and Internet alike to hear stories of people struggling to maintain their lifestyles. 

Of course we turned the microscope on ourselves.

Short story then.  We have a manageable mortgage, 2 older cars (paid off), our health and gray matter between our ears.  SM went back to what he's done before...being self employed.  We both still send out resumes to test the waters from time to time but no bites yet.

So a few lessons learned.  Ctrl Alt Delete.


Control what you can control. 

We hope to pay off our mortgage this year.  As this is our largest expense (6.25% interest) we recognize this "pay yourself first" philosophy will put cash in our back pocket.

Shop aggressively.  Yes, I shop Walmart along with three other grocery stores.

Maintenance.  Both for the home, autos and self.  I used to get my hair cut and highlighted every 3-4 months.  Now I go twice a year and I've accepted what SM calls my Broom Hilda look.  New tires for the Jeep.  A $10 seat cover to help with the cracking leather...etc.

Alternate.  Alternatives...choosing one over the other.

Making choices can sometimes be the hardest thing any of us can to.  It's too easy to give up and become stagnant.  Choosing a different path is exciting, liberating.  Like starting a garden (or a blog).

Delete

Let it go.  Let go of the anger and frustration.  Let go of all the things that suck up your time and deletes your energy.


Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The $500 Tomato

(Summer 2009)

Ever wonder why things that are supposed to be "simple" end up costing so much? I mean really...

It's just supposed to be a garden. You stick a seed in the ground, toss a little water on it and "viola"...a perfect delicious tomato appears. Only I've got a concrete clay backyard with something green (weeds?..can't be grass) and a few native bushes and trees to help provide some much needed shade.

We planted a Maple 5 years ago and we enjoy sitting in the summer shade most evenings, alcoholic beverages in hand, happily buzzing our way into relaxation.

"Look at that crack in the ground". SM points out. (It hadn't rained in days.)
"I almost expect magma to come oozing out at any moment".



"Damn big crack." I agree.

Such is life in the North Carolina Piedmont where natural disasters are few. (Hugo, aside) But daily adversities such as hard clay, intense sun and all or nothing precipitation make vegetable gardening a joke.

SM and I were both raised in the lush greenness and yummy black soil of Ohio. (Funny how things become desirable when they're harder to get.) The reality is, like most kids, working the garden was a chore handed down by Mom & Dad.

SM is one of 8 kids. Gardens had to happen back then. Dad worked in the coal mines. Mom fixed one meal, cleaned up and began the next meal. (Rinse/Repeat) I can only imagine how big that garden was. Sweet corn, wax and green beans, peppers, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes....

Tomatoes?

"BLT sandwiches" SM says with a happy faraway smile. "Mmmmmm" sounding like Homer Simpson.

"When was the last time you had a really good tomato?" I asked.
(Me? I don't eat tomatoes. I can manage chili, pizza that sort of thing. I don't even like katsup on my fries.)

"Not recently....nothing tastes good anymore, you notice that? Tomatoes don't even smell like tomatoes. Peaches, nectarines? Hard as a rock. And the prices! $1.50 for a green pepper."

"No wonder we drink." I smile.

"We should plant a garden." SM says.

"We did! Don't you remember? Over there..." I nodded my head to where the shed now stands.

"We did?!"

"Yeah...! Watered it twice a day cause that was the year we hit 100 degrees for half the summer!" I said exaggerating...(something I do quite well!) "All we got out of it was a few bitter green peppers and a petrified squash."

"Well, we should try again." SM points out... visions of tomatoes dancing in his head.

"Yeah right!" I kicked the ground with the heel of my shoe. "Hard as a rock! You can't even dig a hole in this stuff."

"Yeah...I guess you're right." He sighs.

(But somewhere a seed was planted. And if my Baby wants a tomato that tastes like a tomato, well then.... Fast forward to January 2010. The doctor I work with has built a home out in the foothills of North Carolina. Lots of land. And he's planning a garden....)

"Are you nuts? Or do they have different soil than we have around here?" I ask.

"No. Same stuff. I used a posthole digger, dug it out and backfilled it with 4 loads of horse manure. Let it winter over and we'll see." He says shrugging.

"I'm jealous. SM and I would love to plant a vegatable garden but our ground is as hard as a rock."

"You should try raised beds. Ever hear of square foot gardening?"