Garden Update

[bethzylla]

After my back-breaking first day of stump removal, I decided taking it slow was the best course.  I also had a little luck on my side, seeing many of the remaining stumps were significantly smaller (and less rooty) than the first few.  I've still got a few more big ones to get out, but they're lower on the priority list because they're in a shadier area which won't support my tomatoes.

Speaking of those tomatoes, I have 18 plants in the ground now!

Yes, there is a chicken photobombing in the corner.  Also, I need to get the fence put up so that the dogs and chickens can't get in there and wreak havoc.  I burned the crap out of my arms and chest got some sun during the planting, so I've been playing it safe in the house these past few days.  I may work on it tomorrow morning before it gets too sunny.  I've got a few more plants to find room for and a little more tweaking to do to the irrigation setup, and then it'll just be maintaining what I've got.

On the sewing front, I need to get something together for our Fantasy picnic this Saturday.  I had an amazing idea for a fire sprite costume, complete with ombre fire-tone wig, but it got too expensive and complicated for the time I had.  Maybe next year for that one.  So now I'm torn...do I go as a lady hobbit, with portions of the outfit possibly doubling as Ren faire garb?  Or do I visit the costume shop up the road from me, get prosthetic elf ears (if they have them) and make an elf dress?  Or, do I go with the crazy plan I thought of earlier today and try to make fairy wings from heavy wire and cellophane, plus a fairy outfit to match?  I've been trying to mentally engineer the wings to attach to a corset (or maybe tuck into it) instead of the typical harness so they're less likely to shift around and get wonky.  Three and a half days isn't much time, but I think I could probably do it...

Comments

[virginiadear.livejournal.com]

Many years ago, I came across a paperback book called, "The Apartment Gardener," by Stan and Flo Dworkin, two horticulturalists living in New York City. They taught horti classes and had a radio show and wrote in a lucid and actually a very entertaining as well as informative style.
Because of these folks, I have a vastly better understanding of what light requirements are and how readily they might or might not be met indoors.
They devoted an entire chapter to growing salad on the window sill, and they meant indoors. Remember that for them, most "houses" are apartment buildings, cheek-by-jowl, and tall enough that light is going to be a challenge a great deal of the time.
The book is out of print and if you can find a copy it's almost certain to be found going for a price most of us are neither able nor willing to afford.
My copy is being held together by several repairs and some delicate handling. It's my indoor gardening bible; I've reasoned that most of what works in our dry, centrally heated indoor air in this country will stand me in good stead in houses, too.

If you get round to second-hand shops, however, and you find it, I urge you to snap it up.
ETA: Found it on Amazon-UK. £4.47, used.

There are bound to be British equivalents, however, and I think you'd be able to find those.

Beetroot and beetleaf can be grown in window boxes, too. The big question is light. Well, light and deeper containers for beetroot.

From the photo you posted of your garden, I understand what you mean about light and surrounding buildings. I lived for years and years on the lower level of a highrise on what you'd call the first story or first floor, which in the case of that building was on a level with a rooftop "garden" situated over the garages of the building I was in and its sister building across the garage rooftops. Since my apartment/condo unit was on the west side of the building, people tended to assume I wasn't bothered by early morning sunlight, but the east side of our "sister building" reflected it right into our west-facing windows! I'm an early riser, but I've always preferred not to have the first direct rays of the sun slanting into my eyes at the literal cracking of dawn!

I am delighted for us to friend each other! I shall add you directly I post this comment.

I'm not on FB, no. Perhaps some day. I'm a complete techno-Luddite, and very much behind the techno-curve. LiveJournal, a private Dreamwidth account solely for me to track my projects and sometimes mutter darkly under my e-breath, and e-mail, and that's about it. My Google searches have improved considerably over more than ten years, and they're still nothing to get all excited about. %^S