4/19/11
The price tag
I forgot to mention, we did all of what you see in the previous post for under $1,000. The vegetable garden and this project took a weekend a piece. So when I see threads like this one on Prince of Petworth, I feel pretty good. Do it yourself.
Backyard nears completion
After some long days of hard work this past weekend, we've added two major new elements to the backward that really transform it into an entire garden.
First, I built a wood raised bed for shrubs. We installed it in the middle of the yard to act as a visual screen between the first third of the yard and the vegetable garden beds. I selected and planted some vertical-growing shrubs -- sky pencil Japanese holly and golden euonymus that I'll prune the crap out of -- for the effect.
If you remember, we decided against wood for the vegetable raised beds. This time around, without worrying about eating anything that comes out of the box, I was going to go with pressure-treated lumber. But what I found in wide enough widths was too thick (2") for my liking and looked like I was building a boat. I went with 1" untreated pine in foot-wide lengths to create roughly a 2x8x2 box. I then used the USDA wood preservative to treat it. The recipe for that is:
1 oz paraffin wax
1.5 cups of linseed oil
enough mineral spirits/paint thinner/turpentine to make a gallon total.
It was way more than I needed for this project. I followed an internet suggestion to grate the paraffin wax rather than melt it, as the recipe calls for, in a double-boiler. I like my kitchen gear too much for that. After a few days the sealant looked more emulsified, so maybe give it a day if you use the grating method before applying. Water beaded on the boards, so it looks like this may work ok.
With the box in place we then dug out much of the remaining turf in the back yard and put down a patio. There's a million places to learn how to do this out there so I'll spare you how we did it. Long story short, we pulled this off and without major disaster/killing each other. The hardest part was figuring out how the irregular-shaped pavers we had bought fit together (suggestion: take a picture of your dry run first). Also, you're gonna be seriously sore in strange places -- the hand tamper I rented to pound the base really made my hands sore the next day.Tamping is basically the same process the ancient Chinese used to build large blocks for fortifications and palaces, so now I have an idea of what conscripted labor was like back then. Except I got to stop and have a beer.
It's a little more sloped than I hoped for, but we ate on it last night just fine.
First, I built a wood raised bed for shrubs. We installed it in the middle of the yard to act as a visual screen between the first third of the yard and the vegetable garden beds. I selected and planted some vertical-growing shrubs -- sky pencil Japanese holly and golden euonymus that I'll prune the crap out of -- for the effect.
If you remember, we decided against wood for the vegetable raised beds. This time around, without worrying about eating anything that comes out of the box, I was going to go with pressure-treated lumber. But what I found in wide enough widths was too thick (2") for my liking and looked like I was building a boat. I went with 1" untreated pine in foot-wide lengths to create roughly a 2x8x2 box. I then used the USDA wood preservative to treat it. The recipe for that is:
1 oz paraffin wax
1.5 cups of linseed oil
enough mineral spirits/paint thinner/turpentine to make a gallon total.
It was way more than I needed for this project. I followed an internet suggestion to grate the paraffin wax rather than melt it, as the recipe calls for, in a double-boiler. I like my kitchen gear too much for that. After a few days the sealant looked more emulsified, so maybe give it a day if you use the grating method before applying. Water beaded on the boards, so it looks like this may work ok.
With the box in place we then dug out much of the remaining turf in the back yard and put down a patio. There's a million places to learn how to do this out there so I'll spare you how we did it. Long story short, we pulled this off and without major disaster/killing each other. The hardest part was figuring out how the irregular-shaped pavers we had bought fit together (suggestion: take a picture of your dry run first). Also, you're gonna be seriously sore in strange places -- the hand tamper I rented to pound the base really made my hands sore the next day.Tamping is basically the same process the ancient Chinese used to build large blocks for fortifications and palaces, so now I have an idea of what conscripted labor was like back then. Except I got to stop and have a beer.
It's a little more sloped than I hoped for, but we ate on it last night just fine.
4/7/11
Field to Fork highlights
For you DC readers, I highly suggest signing up for the Field to Fork newsletter. Some events that caught my eye include:
For pre-ordering, please contact us as soon as possible at NeighborhoodFarm@gmail.com
Ed. I love Community Forklift, which is a hidden gem for antiquing. I got some really great vegetable crate labels from the 30s for almost nothing that are beautiful and I'm going to put up in my kitchen once they're framed. We also bought a kick-ass mantel there that we put up in our living room as a faux fireplace for under $200, mirror included.
If you're looking for a CSA, consider this:
NFI & Community Forklift
2nd Annual Seedling Sale
Every Saturday in May
Every Saturday in May, 10am-1pm!
NFI will be partnering with Community Forklift to host our 2nd annual seedling sale! Featuring organically grown tomato, pepper, and basil seedlings!
All proceeds will benefit NFI, a non-profit educational urban farm project.
For pre-ordering, please contact us as soon as possible at NeighborhoodFarm@gmail.com
Ed. I love Community Forklift, which is a hidden gem for antiquing. I got some really great vegetable crate labels from the 30s for almost nothing that are beautiful and I'm going to put up in my kitchen once they're framed. We also bought a kick-ass mantel there that we put up in our living room as a faux fireplace for under $200, mirror included.
DC State Fair Seedling Swap
For all those new and experienced gardeners who collected seed at Rooting DC, this is a great opportunity to share the seedlings you are growing and your experience with neighbors!
DC State Fair will be hosting a seedling swap of vegetables and herbs for area gardeners.
Please start extra seed to share with your neighbors and bring them on down to Columbia Heights on May 14!
Get new varieties, share tips with new and experienced growers, and learn a little more about DC State Fair. If you don't have seedlings to share, come by anyway, we'll have extras to get you started on your DC State Fair entries for this fall!
Date & Time: Saturday May 14, 10 AM to noon (please arrive promptly!)
Location: 14th Street NW and Park Road NW (one block north of Columbia Heights metro at the Columbia Heights Community Marketplace)
Cost/Registration Details: Free! Please come promptly at 10 AM with your seedlings to ensure everyone is able to share information about the plants and see what's available during the swap.
Web Link and E-mail for More Information: Please visit dcstatefair.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/swapping-seedlings for more information or e-mail kenneth@thedcstatefair.org.
If you're looking for a CSA, consider this:
City Blossoms
We are so excited to announce that this year City Blossoms will be working with a group of children and youth at the Marion Street Intergenerational Garden to create our first ever Herb CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Project. This is an exciting chance for local kids to learn basic business skills and improve their garden and herb know-how while sharing very-locally grown fresh herbs with neighbors. Shares are distributed every other week & include 3-5 bunches of herbs, recipe ideas, usage tips, facts about the herbs and updates on the garden. All proceeds will go towards supporting the garden and youth gardeners.
CSA DATES: late April through October 2011
COST: $60/ Share for the whole season (that's less than $10/months for almost 7 months & can be paid in two $30 installments)
WHERE: Marion Street Intergenerational Garden, 1517 Marion Street, NW (near P Street) Washington, D.C. 20001
After February 26, 2011 the application to the CSA will be available online. To learn more about City Blossoms or to become a CSA member contact info@cityblossoms.org or call 202.870.8158.
Nothing Illicit
Although I've written a lot about the outside, the real action for the garden is happening in our basement. In early March we planted tomato seeds in leftover recyclables, plus one batch of red poblano chilies. All but one variety of tomatoes planted are cherry-sized or equivalent. I don't really like (raw) tomatoes -- like mushrooms, I prefer "expensive" varieties -- so the smaller guys are something of a compromise in that I'll eat them in salads. Bigger guys we'll still get from the DuPont Circle Farmer's Market - even if they're 5 bucks a pound.
We're pressed for space downstairs so we've set up our little nursery on top of the washing machine. Two full-spectrum compact florescent light desk lamps are providing the energy and they seem to be doing the job just fine.
The peppers are in the immediate foreground. The tomatoes are doing really well, as you can see. They will be ready for the outdoors at the end of the month. Most of them are going in pots we bought at Home Goods, which I highly recommend if you're looking for cheap pots.
The lights make it look like we're growing weed in our basement. I'm not too worried about drawing the attention from the fuzz, though. Some guy in Bloomingdale left his basement door open and a couple of cops on foot patrol walked by. Concerned about the security of the property, they stuck their heads in and discovered a large pot farm inside. So it's not too hard to figure out who's really growing weed in these parts.
At this stage, the plants are super-easy to deal with. We're using a washed-out spray cleaner bottle to water and have to rotate them once in awhile to keep them growing straight. The desk lamps are working well because the closer the light can be the better. Some straws and toothpicks hold the more top-heavy guys up.
Outside, lettuce, arugula, and marigolds are in the ground. We're training the dog to chase off the birds from the garden, but I fear they may have won round one.
4/5/11
Gardening and ennui
Anticipating poor weather two weekends ago, I spent an embarrassing amount of a surprisingly sunny Saturday staring out my back kitchen window at the backyard. I was looking for something to do with the garden, but there really wasn't anything to do. What could be planted at this point in the season had been, and our washing machine was entirely covered with sprouting tomato plants growing in leftover salad clam shells and yogurt cups. With straw still covering much of the raised beds, there were no weeds to pluck.
I couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to conjure up some new project, to make something from scratch out there. If all goes well, there will be plenty to do out there later in the summer. But much of the appeal of gardening for me - besides the part that stocks my kitchen - is satisfying my inner homo faber. Faced with significant projects of the mind, like my Sisyphean task of book editing, or simply figuring out how to reinvent my post-academic self, I have craved doing things that are concrete and finite in duration. Buying a house created a rush of all sorts of these little projects. A shelf is needed so up one goes. The kitchen is too small, so I screw up peg board and hang my pots. Going to Home Depot, once the utter definition of tedium for me, is moderately pleasant -- if still a time suck so profound that I think Home Depot exists on another dimension of space-time.
It's the same feeling that attracted me to cooking as a serious pursuit. In a few hours, the dish is done and the reviews are in from fellow diners. The tinkering I do takes hours instead of months, and the direction for improvements along the way is usually obvious to me at this point: More salt. Lower heat. More acid. If the dish disappoints, make it again or don't and move on to something else.
The garden is much cooler than cooking because instead of rearranging molecules a bit on the stove I'm producing something entirely new that wasn't there before. But it's living new things and I can't do anything in a Saturday to make them ta-da, done! That's fine. Patience is part of this game. But I hope this enterprise simply becomes another avenue to become impatient with myself.
My wife had a TA in college who got a bearded collie. Because this dog is a herding breed he felt sorry for the pup and bought a sheep for it at a local livestock auction. But he bought just one sheep, which probably didn't make the bearded collie feel any better or more inclined to herd in the first place. I have no idea what came of this guy's career as a scholar. I'm just glad I have a really small back yard.
I couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to conjure up some new project, to make something from scratch out there. If all goes well, there will be plenty to do out there later in the summer. But much of the appeal of gardening for me - besides the part that stocks my kitchen - is satisfying my inner homo faber. Faced with significant projects of the mind, like my Sisyphean task of book editing, or simply figuring out how to reinvent my post-academic self, I have craved doing things that are concrete and finite in duration. Buying a house created a rush of all sorts of these little projects. A shelf is needed so up one goes. The kitchen is too small, so I screw up peg board and hang my pots. Going to Home Depot, once the utter definition of tedium for me, is moderately pleasant -- if still a time suck so profound that I think Home Depot exists on another dimension of space-time.
It's the same feeling that attracted me to cooking as a serious pursuit. In a few hours, the dish is done and the reviews are in from fellow diners. The tinkering I do takes hours instead of months, and the direction for improvements along the way is usually obvious to me at this point: More salt. Lower heat. More acid. If the dish disappoints, make it again or don't and move on to something else.
The garden is much cooler than cooking because instead of rearranging molecules a bit on the stove I'm producing something entirely new that wasn't there before. But it's living new things and I can't do anything in a Saturday to make them ta-da, done! That's fine. Patience is part of this game. But I hope this enterprise simply becomes another avenue to become impatient with myself.
My wife had a TA in college who got a bearded collie. Because this dog is a herding breed he felt sorry for the pup and bought a sheep for it at a local livestock auction. But he bought just one sheep, which probably didn't make the bearded collie feel any better or more inclined to herd in the first place. I have no idea what came of this guy's career as a scholar. I'm just glad I have a really small back yard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)