Wednesday, June 25, 2008

progress


so i just reread my last post to myself and realized that i hadn't taken any pictures of the garden since i (finally) weeded it on monday. man, was it a MESS. it was like being in a jungle out there. when i weed, i have to do everything by hand because we have a fiber optic cable buried just beneath the soil on one side (i have almost cut it in half several times while gardening and finally swore off rakes and hoes because of that!) and a serious pipe on the other side.

anyway, i finally went out on monday after finishing the first of my 4 books (yay!) and pulled grass and weeds to my heart's content. even though it felt like 100 degrees and sweat was running off the end of my nose, it was great to be outside...alone...with no noise but the cars driving by.

so the picture at the top is of my garden now that i have cleaned it up. see that purple thing? well, i noticed about a week ago that my watermelons were all rotting--we have had so much rain lately (hence the overgrown weed patch!). so i have been trying to figure out what to put underneath the melon vine to cushion the fruit from all the water, and this happened to be unused on our back deck (along with a smattering of other random toys and broken beach items that i threw away--another bit of progress there!). it comes from a tent my daughter had used a couple of times at the beach, but now luckily for me the tent is broken, so i snatched this right up. it seems to be doing the trick so far, but we got buckets and buckets of rain this afternoon, so i'll have a better idea of the long-term solution to this problem when i check on everything tomorrow.

i have a sunflower that is taller than me. now, i have to confess that i am only 5'2" so it's not really all that hard to have something grow taller than me i guess. i always think i'm a lot taller than i really am--does anyone else who's on the short side ever experience this? guess that happens on my good self-esteem days. :) so i'm so amazed by this flower, and i will have to get someone to take a photo of me standing next to it so you can see the comparison. but for now here's the flower itself, taken just a few minutes ago (still raining...).


and i have been excited all week about our first vegetable delivery (yes, DELIVERY!) from lancaster farm in lithia. i was waiting to blog about it because i wanted to be able to show off the loot. it came in a cute wooden basket, but i put it all on a dining chair so you can get an idea of what all i got:


this was $28, and that included the delivery. at first glance inside the bucket, i thought it might not have been worth it. but after taking it all out and trying to add up how much this would have cost at the grocery store (not to mention actually GOING to the store) i think it's definitely worth it. not sure what i'll do with the cabbage, but this is part of doing a co-op after all, right? everything is organic. and did i mention they actually brought it to our front door? oh, right, i did. isn't that awesome?! reminds me of when i used to order a whole load of groceries in boston and have them ALL delivered to our door. oh, the wonders of living in a big, progressively minded city...

ok, so back to the weeding. if i really stop to think about it, this act of weeding my garden the other day could definitely parallel my life--i definitely feel "overgrown," with lots of things crowding the me inside. there are things that seem to be wanting, trying to take over, steal all my nutrients when i'm not looking or paying attention, or maybe i'm just sitting there, letting them do it, sometimes not even caring what is happening. but i need to strip away all those extra things, all those things that are crowding my head, my chest (which has been hurting because of all the panic attacks i've been having lately), and just focus on the real things. the things that matter. the things that are really important.

8 comments:

Amy said...

nice garden! and as for the cabbage, i prefer it boiled with some salt and peppr. you could also make cole slaw. or shred it and put it on fish tacos. can you tell i like cabbage? oh, and there was that weird diet craze with cabbage soup. makes you lose tons of weight apparently. i'll let you guess how it works :)

laci said...

i love cabbage as well, and am currently obsessed with any iteration of coleslaw. i have a peanut-based asian one that will knock your socks off...

sewtakeahike said...

your garden is looking great! I'm going over to a friend's early Saturday morning to help her do the same, weed her garden! I really cannot wait to get my hands in the dirt! Nice bounty from the coop, that's a mighty fine delivery you got there!

Kellie said...

Looking good!

Anonymous said...

Growing watermelons ? Thats amazing ! Glad you got some time to get out there.
I get an organic vegebox too, very local and straight to the door. There is always a nice variety and it makes me experiment more with veg I may not usually buy. It's one of my weekly highlights !(sad I know)

Amelia Plum said...

the garden looks wonderful. i'd love to see a photo of you under the lovely sunflower sometime. looks like a nice vegetable delivery you got there. we did that a couple years ago but wound up with so much lettuce and fennel (which no one here likes). let's just say we decided to pass on it the next year.

Anonymous said...

wow that sunflower is tall!
gardening is hard work but so gratifying.
i bet you need a back rub now
i miss getting food like that. we used to split a share before we moved
thanks for your recent comment

erica said...

hi kristi. i found your blog through our mutual friend, amy j. i just wanted to let you know that i completely relate to the feelings you describe (even the chest pains and panic attacks!). i only have two little ones but one is 11 months and climbing every thing he comes into contact with and i don't sit down all day long. i cannot imagine a third right now, though i know that in the long run, having a larger family would be so worth it. it sounds like you're doing a great job. i hope you're able to find joy in these challenging days, while knowing that it won't always be this hard!