How does your garden grow?

We're getting a little more settled here in the new house. I finally have gotten the kitchen unpacked and had told myself that my reward would be letting myself start a garden in our back yard. I'm really excited, but I'm trying to start small. I've been preparing a little plot that's just 5 ft x 4 ft or so.

I tested our soil which appears to be kinda red and clay-ish. It's ph scored very acidic so I went over to Snow's Landscaping and Gardening center which is an AWESOME nursery here that's owned by a family in our ward and got some organic compost called "Gardener's Gold."

I was talking to the owner (who is a really nice guy) about how all the plants that I buy from Lowes and Wal-Mart have just gradually died in my possession and stated that I'd come to the conclusion that I'm not THAT bad at gardening, their little plants are just pitiful! (and when I hang plants under the AC vent, it doesn't help), but he assured me that they make even bad gardeners look good. So here goes nothin'!

I'm planning on planting some summer squash (we love zuchinni), cantaloupe, carrots, green beans, and maybe strawberries. I'm going to plant some herbs in pots, and if they flourish, then I'll eventually add them to the garden. It would be so great to have our own basil, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, oregano, and chives. I also bought some bulb flowers to plant in front. I'm really excited. And Calla Lillies- My favorite! I've been working at intervals during the day (when it's not sleeting outside. What up Charlottesville?).

Eliza plays on a square of cement that I put an outdoor carpet on, pushing (while walking!) around her walk-n-ride toy and playing with her new giant bouncy ball and laughing at the pets as they run criss-cross through the yard. Or she LOVES crawling up and down the back patio/wheel chair ramp. It's really fun to see and hear her thump along the ramp enthusiastically humming to herself as she goes!

I hope I'll have some great pictures to eventually show for this work. It's really exciting to finally have some land to garden in! Steve and I have lived in various sized apartments since we got married, none of which had a place to garden in. Not that we really had time while we were in school or interning.

The other interesting thing I learned this week was that down in the park by our place, Azalea park, the city or county rents out 30' x 30' plots for residents who would like to garden but don't have the space where they live. How cool is that? Eliza and I visited the garden area, and some of the plots are really impressive and inspiring for me to get my gardenin' on! So if any of you C'ville apartment dwellers are yearning for some more outdoor time and missing the gardening opportunity, this might be the thing for you!

I think it's an awesome idea and opportunity that I think many cities offer! If people are growing and harvesting their own veggies and fruits, that cuts back on all kinds of gas and resource-burning transportation from South America or from across the country and saves you money too!

I plan on starting our own compost pile somewhere in our backyard too to help fertilize (eventually) our little plot. Hopefully that and the fact that the city will now pick up our recycling from our curb will really help to cut back on our family's waste output. (We were lugging our recycling across town in our little car to the recycling center before, but I know some things slipped through the cracks that way, and we were using gas to get there.)

Another item of interest in this green related discussion is Charlottesville's Free Cycle which Katy told us about! People just post things they want to get rid of and people respond if they're interested. Fortunately for us, Katy was watching the posts on their site and managed to nab us a free drier for our place! Isn't that great? So instead of this drier sitting in a landfill, we can be using it! (Although the newer models might work more efficiently which can be more environmentally friendly).

This site is such a great idea in the big picture, though, because the more people learn about this and the general concept of recycling junk, the less new production will be necessary. So in the big picture, hopefully we're helping to reduce consumer consequences. I actually wrote the site URL down on a sticky note and stuck it on the clients' computer at work because many of my clients are financial unstable and sometimes moving into new apartments.

I don't claim to know that much about carbon emissions, consumer consequences, and how to truly "go green" or whatever. However, Steve and I took Environmental Biology before we left BYU (it was actually the only class we took together during college), and if I learned anything from that class it was that:

-we do all kinds of terrible things to our soil with run-off, especially from land-fills. (Don't throw away your batteries!! Take them to a recycling center.)

-that our love of cow meat is tearing down the rain forest to clear fields and fill them with cattle which actually are a significant contributor to the methane gas in our atmosphere with less trees to then absorb the carbon dioxide.

-my teacher's hissing cockroaches are still really creepy

-it's sad how many animals we've killed off to near-extinction/extinction... and I can't believe that people really club baby seals!

That's all.

So maybe you didn't actually read through this whole post which is okay! I'm rammbling because I can't sleep this morning, and I don't want to make any noise to wake up Steve or Eliza.

But most of what I learned in the application of attempting to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! was visiting my Aunt Joan and Uncle Dean's for Thanksgiving in 2006 (while I was pregnant with Eliza). They were some of the first people I actually could see living practically applications of trying to recycle. They were revolutionary to my college paper plates and plastic cups, pizza and root beer eating ways, to say the least. And they were really nice about me throwing up every morning, noon, and night-- I still don't know how I made it through that last semester pregnant!!

And on my theme of How Weird are Nursery Rhymes, lately I've enjoyed this one:
I must confess, I love that Mary had the luxury of being contrary and someone still wrote a poem about her. One can really get some pent up anger out slinging that hoe! When I was little and read this poem, I used to think that "Quite Contrary" was Mary's last name... it only recently sunk in that she was Mary the Contrary. Sounds powerful.