Garden planning, back corner

When we bought the house, there were already several kinds of plants in the garden, mostly flowers. Most of them were kinds we weren't familiar with, like this:



While very pretty and colorful, they took up a lot of space.



And they harbored and sustained the mortal enemy of the vegetable garden, the gastropod.



Sure, they look all cute and interesting, but they can get almost anywhere. We once saw a tv program about an escargot farm, and the snail farmers demonstrated that the snails are able to crawl over barbed wire and knife blades without injuring themselves (thick layer of slime, ftw!). I found this one



on this thorned berry vine (in the middle of the picture) hanging 20 feet or more down a stone wall behind our house.



Moreover, they ate the hell out of the plants I actually wanted in the garden. I tried using this "slug-away" gel, but it is a pain to encircle every single plant, and then it washes away too fast to really protect the seedlings.



Luckily, pumpkin plants can mostly grow fast enough to replace what gets eaten, but not so much the pumpkins themselves.



So last fall I spent a backbreaking half a day digging up those flowers at the top of this entry to deny the sluggy assholes a shady bower to snack on while they wait to denude my garden during the night. I am planning to put tomatoes in there instead, because I have been assured that they (as members of the nightshade family) repel slugs.

-Nee in Germany is planning while the sun don't shine

Happy Birthday to Me

I had a good 41st birthday. My family told me "Happy Birthday" first thing rather than "saving it up as a surprise" (John's excuse in the past). (News flash--not a surprise.) Hannah wasn't even all the way awake when she told me "Happy Birthday."

John and I went down the street and had steaks at the local German cuisine restaurant (Hannah was at a par-tay) on my actual birthday. The next day, we had a strawberry cheesecake.

My two punkin's were so sweet. Hannah bought me a card and put it in the actual mail to me.


John got me a sweater I had said I liked (I only had to tell him how to find the shop 3 times *g*).


And my seestor's gift came in the mail today. Behold!


She knows me so well.

-Nee in Germany likes the little things (especially socks)

Nee deep in the compost

We had a couple of beautiful sunny days but woke up to frost on everything this morning. I wanted to put some vegetable scraps on my compost pile on my way out, but I couldn't feel my fingers by the time I climbed all the stairs up to the garden.


Picture this covered in carrot greens and peels.

We are still talking about relocating the compost, but that would probably mean even more stairs. No bueno. Ah, well, we are still young and spry...

A little at a time, sweet Jesus

A little blogging, that is.

Rather than overdo it today and then blow it off for 4 months *cough*, I'm going to try posting just one thing a day, but for the whole week.

We didn't have a proper winter, just a lot of cold rain. Now it has warmed up to spring-like temperatures, and we've even managed to get a couple of days of sunshine--aah! That isn't supposed to last, but we are trying to enjoy it while we can. I spent a little time outside yesterday, planning my garden, and John is out there pulling weeds now.



Tomorrow: garden planning ideas