the gardenr

As of last night at least one worm is still alive. I saw him wriggling around in there. It’s hard to know how much I should or shouldn’t bother the worms. It is also hard to take photos of them because they are buried down in their bedding. Next week I will add more bedding and mix the whole bin up to make sure it’s evenly moist, so maybe I will be able to take some photos of actual worms then.

I need to fix up a system for keeping fruit and veg trash until it’s time to put it in the bin. I have a giant pickle jar that I got from my grandmother that I think I’m going to use. Right now I have a pile of banana peels sitting on the counter, which is gross and sad.

If you haven’t noticed, my blog description says “no money, time, or experience” and that is not (much) of a joke! It is even less of a joke on the money and time fronts. Because of work and other obligations I have a lot less time than I’d like to work on my house and yard. But! In a little less than an hour I will begin a three day weekend, which means an entire extra DAY to do things! Here’s what I’ll be doing:

• weed crepe myrtles
• buy mulch and then mulch crepe myrtles to prevent future weed growth
• pull weeds in strawberry bed
• get a free compost bin from the county (more about this next week!)
• finish the cinder block planter already!

I know this doesn’t look like much but there’s a good chance I actually won’t finish it all. Home or garden projects always takes a lot longer than you think they will. As Chris once said, “If we knew how long this was going to take we never would have done it.”

To send you off into the long holiday weekend in style I have included here a photo of mac n’ cheese with arugula pesto that I got from the CapMac food truck for lunch earlier in the week. Arugula is one of the things I have already planted in my cinder block planter. I didn’t even know you could make pesto out of it, so this meal was a delicious revelation. Have a good and productive weekend!

Through diligent googling, I figured out that my mystery flower is Lychnis coronaria alba! It’s common name is white rose campion. It sounds like a great little plant and I am going to order a ton!

seedaholic.com says:

It is an all round tough plant suitable for problem areas. It tolerates full sun and sandy, drought-prone soils but produces the best leaf colour in dry soil. Suitable for exposed coastal planting, this is a superb plant for a sunny border.

So I assembled and planted the cinder block planter on Friday and was feeling pretty pleased with myself. Then on Sunday I glanced out the kitchen window and realized there were three to four MORE cinder blocks hiding next to the shed. Back to the drawing board!

Pictures to come soon, if it ever stops raining.

Some local kids have put together worm composting starter kits for $5 as a way to make money this summer. Their mom put a message on our neighborhood listserv about it and without really thinking I responded that I would buy one! I have been wanting to start composting for awhile and I guess this thing is happening now.

She’s also giving away some tomato and pepper plants but I bet I was too late in responding to get those. We’ll see.

So, worms? Worms! I feel like the universe/god wants me to have these worms so I’m just going to go with it.

I have been planning for quite some time to plant some big clumps of citronella grass along the back wall of the house as a passive mosquito repellant. We have a crazy mosquito problem in the backyard and I like the way the citronella grass looks, especially for that space (I’m going to post pictures of the yard with some tentative plans about what I want to plant where, soon). I thought maybe I’d pick some up on my trip to the nursery tonight, started doing a little research, and realized citronella grass is a tropical plant, so it will die in the winter (according to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map we are zone 7a and citronella grass needs zone 10 at least, which is like, Miami). This is a total rookie mistake, right? At least I didn’t actually buy and plant it!

But, all is not lost. There are other plants that repel mosquitoes, like marigolds and catnip. Alternately, we could plant the citronella in a few big planters and move them inside at the end of the season or just re-plant every year.