It has been a year...

Hello All!

I know it has been a really long time...and I have missed you all!  My computer got a virus that took out my keyboard on my laptop  in addition to some other miscellaneous items and programs...it was a three hundred dollar fix or buy a new laptop!

I never knew how much this blog would mean to me...or how much it would cost when I started it for the ladies on Rate My Space...I never factored it into my lifestyle or thought it would be so complicated to keep a form of trustworthy internet in such a rural place...my sympathies to the folks that struggle with that! I think it is the ONLY thing I agree with Mr. President Obama about...he had a wish to provide internet to EVERYONE!

I am not going into the details of the struggles I have faced in the last year...I survived and that is what is most important, Hee Hee!

I have persevered with my little hut and was hoping to just stay there and out of the big, wide world but it seems that that world just encroaches and seems to want to make me pay in big green dollars instead of living the lifestyle I choose!

Anyways...on to the house and garden...I am going to start where I left off...

Remember when I started talking about sheet mulch gardening? and how my front flower beds and vegetable garden were all started with this kind of "dirt making"?  In March of 2011, the snow started melting... I started with  taking the rest of the siding off the house and planting seeds in the basement under lights...

I had been throwing all the chicken manure and straw...and the household veggie scraps  in the compost bin...it was decided that I needed another bed..why mow when you can grow?

 There was an enormous wild rose bush...it must of been beautiful at one time...maybe...but it was a horrible eyesore and garbage collector! The thorns were so thick and the bush was so rampant it was 20 feet around and 3 feet tall in the middle of my yard!  I sent the Honey out there with a chainsaw...and then with a rototiller...and then...I piled 10 pallets on top of it and lit it on fire...it was STILL GROWING! Nothing killed that beast!  I collected cardboard for two weeks and decided to just sheet mulch over the top of it...I piled all the little rocks and broken bricks from the post holes I had dug.. tree trimmings, logs...anything I could find for drainage and then covered  rosebush, rocks and all...with 10 inches of cardboard....then grass trimmings...then 6 bales of moldy straw...then grass...then chicken manure...coffee filters, egg shells, veggie trimmings...ANYTHING!

 and I mowed around it to kill the little suckers the bush was sending out...and by June...I got this...a big, ugly pile of...stuff...it wasn't all decomposed...it looked like a compost heap but it smelled wonderful...like forest dirt..and you could still see the coffee filters that hadn't decomposed...the Honey had found an old coffee can of seeds in the cabin...from the late 70's and early 80's....pumpkin and zuchini mostly...and I was pretty sure they wouldn't grow...and I was NOT sacrificing MY precious seeds to an experiment...so I planted those old seeds in this pile...

Hmmmm...I had pumpkins and zuchini coming out my ears....and no more rosebush!  The best part about it? the snow that was melting left it so wet that I didn't have to water it...AT ALL...not one drop...

In addition...do you all remember the other beds I was making?

Well...those turned out even BETTER!

This is..was...the start of my tomato garden...the deer were decimating my crops...and I needed something they could not get into...same combination...alternating spoiled straw with grass...and some chicken manure/straw combo...same veggie scraps...coffee grounds plus filters...lined it with rocks and scored a truck load of wood chips from the city compost pile...

I scored old fencing from the back yard along the alley...it was buried in the dirt...and the posts are treated landscape timbers...they are 2 dollars a piece if you buy the crooked ones at any lumber store...but I got mine from the plywood plant for 1.00 a piece...scrounging chicken wire was another ordeal...I ended up buying a roll...to the tune of  $39.00...that just burnt my arse but it was worth it!

I had no fencing in for the first month, just the skeleton...but look at them go! After procuring the chicken wire..I could only afford one roll...but I did have a roll of orange construction netting...lol!

and a door...and a scrounged bunch of doo dads from the auto salvage place...he gave me an entire truckload of old wash tubs, enamel ware, hinges.....just awesome vintage ware for ....get this...TWO DUCKS!

And here it is at the height of summer...

It was tomatogeddon in there!

Pumpkins growing up the fence...

The vegetable garden revisited....

The vegetable garden exceeded my expectations for growth...everything I planted in that lasagna dirt was tall and lush and thick!  I even planted artichokes! They grew to immense proportions and pumped out little chokes starting in August, everyone was amazed....not as amazed as I, though! Everyone thought that our climate was too cold and too short...NOPE! I figure that with the right start in the winter...maybe a small greenhouse and some blessing from above...I can grow anything I want!

Squash!

Cinnamon Basil and Alpine Strawberries...um...and Cumin!

Tomatoes...these monsters grew 6ft tall and I had 5 gallon buckets full!

Cinnamon Basil/Lemon Basil

Bounty of first picked squash

The size of the tomatoes!

I truly wanted to finish my fence this year but Mother Nature decided that that was not going to happen...first, every where I wanted a post for the gate...there was enormous rocks...well...boulders! AND then...it rained...and rained...and guess what? rained some more! filled up all my boulder holes with water...they are three feet deep....

And the water did not recede for weeks, also...digging enormous rocks out of the dirt made me realize something...I am OLD..er......sooo...fence finishing next year!

 I even grew jalapenos...yuck! but I gave one to the neighbor...who loves hot stuff...and after his face turned purple...he spit it out...must have been hot? No Subway peppers for me! THESE babies WERE HOOOOT!

Next year I am going to can salsa with them...and pickle some for the brave people that don't mind their nose hairs incinerated...

I grew Okra too...it was gorgeous! I am putting it in my flower beds next year! It has the most beautiful yellow and red lily looking flowers I have ever seen!

Watermelons

All in all I am thrilled with my Vegetable dirt and the fact that everything grew in abundance! I have way better ideas for next year and one thing I am adamant about? I AM NOT MOWING GRASS! I am planting every square inch of this property and I want to try some grains...The garden was beautiful and I had a lot of visitors...people I would meet at the lake even knew who I was! They all thought I was crazy at first until it started to take shape and then they would drive by to see it progress....at least I am not known as the old lady with 50 cats! LOL! Just the lady with the "almost done" garden...

With my part time job I am going to purchase a food dehydrator to dry herbs and apples...oh...the apples around here! they are everywhere...applesauce, apple cider...apple crisp...mmmm...I am so hungry! Lunchtime here I come! See you all soon!

Repurposed, recycled, reused, free vegetable garden

I schemed and planned and dreamed of a vegetable garden all those months on that truck...I ordered seeds and carefully kept them under my bunk...I would take them out in my free time and sort them, look them up on the internet and plan my garden...

I looked up gardens pictures by the dozens....the one garden that stood out and really made me dream was a Potager(pot-a-jzay) garden...the kitchen gardens from France...they mix architecture and beauty...flowers and herbs in with their vegetables...

Well then...this did not look like anything like my saved pictures...how does one go about making a beautiful, picturesque Potager out of this mess?

I admit, it was really hard for me to get past the 3ft tall grass and overgrown shrubs and trees...the piles of garbage...

I knew for sure I wanted it close to the house...with a fence and arbors...I wanted it lined with flowers with scrambling vines growing up those arbors...I must have mapped it out ten times on graph paper during that long winter...it's kind of hard to see a bountiful garden thru 4ft of snow when you are looking out the window in December...it was hard to picture it growing out of the overgrown grass!

 The dirt here is clay with plenty of rocks...and improving soil takes a long time...so in my research I found an amazing technique called sheet mulching...now, in Montana, I was no stranger to using newspaper to suppress weeds, what I didn't know was that newspaper fed the worms who in turn, tilled up the soil and fed it...I also never correlated the fact that in a forest...all the fallen leaves, needles and debris turned into dirt that was rich and could grow anything! Sheet mulching mimics this process and in turn gives you a raised bed with terrific drainage...and in time, turns into rich, black dirt...well, I didn't have time...I wanted a garden now!

The spring in the UP came earlier than usual...by the end of March all of the snow had melted...much to my delight!  I got out in the yard and thatched, cleaned, mowed and dug! I was ready to sheet mulch with a vengeance! I had come up with a plan and laid out my garden with string and stakes...I studied the pictures and I wanted something unusual...I decided on U shaped garden beds....there was only one problem...sheet mulching takes organic material...a layer of brown(straw or dried leaves,etc) a layer of green (fresh grass clippings or chopped weeds,etc) and all this is alternated until you get to be about 24 inches tall...well, in March in the UP...nothing is growing and I was in the wrong season for leaves...I could probably get straw but I was loathe to spend any money...I really wanted to practice the principles I had started with the house...free, cheap, recycled, reused...repurposed....vintage...

More research...I found that the next town over had a city compost pile...it was worth a look...

The city compost pile was beautiful...you drive down a 1/2 mile dirt road in the middle of a heavily wooded parcel...complete with a large deer population and pop out into a clearing...there is a separate place for brush and one for grass and leaves...

I drove past the brush and came upon a 60ft x 300ft  pile of compost...this compost had bags and bags of "stuff" thrown all around the sides...looked like whoever didn't want to pay to dump at the transfer station dumped everything they had here...old windows, bricks, block, building material...piles of bark...bales of straw!  Oh man...I was in love....it was like hitting the jack pot!

I walked around the pile in awe...the plastic bags really got on my nerves...that is just plain wrong...you are supposed to dump them out and take them with you...but in this case? I was thankful!   I stuffed the back of my rig with bag after bag of leaves...they were already shredded! Bags of dried grass...corn stalks....everything you cold possible want to sheet mulch a raised garden bed...

I took the first load home and went back for compost....I backed my truck up directly to the pile and had to immediately go forward again...the top layer of the heap was mostly garbage and "new" material...I had to rake a space approximately 2ft deep and 4ft wide to get at the good compost underneath...I backed my truck up again and started shoveling...as I shoveled I sifted out bricks...bras, old pants...plastic bags...chunks of wood...even food containers...the compost smelled wonderful...it was steaming hot and black....I shoveled an entire truck load...

When I got home I dumped it all on a tarp...

at first, I had thought turning over the top layer of crabgrass and putting it upside down would help with breakdown since I wanted to plant in it soon...I did one side...that was enough for me...I am glad I did it on the one side, though,  because the ground was so uneven and it really helped to make the beds level...water was channeling a small ditch to the back of the property...I used a lot of the sod I dug up to put it that ditch..I filled the crevice with sod chunks turned upside down...it eventually broke down and now is just part of the lawn but it really helped with drainage...and that ditch is no longer there...

The ditch was where I wanted to put my fence...

I had asked the neighbor who was a chef in town if he had any cardboard...yes...he sure did! and he brought me cardboard until I said ENOUGH, Thank you! I had a whole trailer full...I layed down two layers of cardboard and soaked them with the hose...next came a layer of brown grass...soak with the hose...then a 2 inch layer of city compost..2 inch layer of shredded leaves...two inch layer of compost....of course, soaked with the hose...but I had no green...so...more compost...this process took me about 3 weeks...gathering and shoveling and finding things to make a raised bed...

it got to the point that my Honey and I had Friday date night...two little Ceasar pizza's and a cruise thru the city compost pile...I know, romantic, huh? THAT is when you know the honeymoon is over...but it worked for us...well, me...being a zealot about my garden and all...he was very accommodating...

I netted everything I needed from that pile...including bricks to line my front beds...the ladder, the flag pole...all of the "architecture" in my garden for my plants to scramble up...and fence posts...a new wheel barrow...

The rocks to line the beds  came from the back of the property...it is was common in the old days to line your property with rocks to mark boundaries but I think whoever owned this property before, used them to make a garden...there was Lilly of the Valley, Phlox and many other flowers growing in the 6ft tall weeds back there...and my Honey dug out big honkin' rocks for weeks and hauled them up to line the beds...

I had the compost tested at the county extension agents office...it came back deficient in Magnesium which Epsom salts scattered in the dirt took care of...you never know what someone has sprayed with or put on their plants....and after nurturing 600 of the little things all winter, I didn't want to plant them in DEATH dirt!

I planted seeds in this garden bed...I only planted the ones I didn't really care about...the ones that I could give up to experimentation...I didn't really think anything would grow in it...

My Honey built the Easel out of scrap...A masterpiece waiting for Mother Nature...

The strawberry/herb bed is made out of more of the garage...

I got this cute little garden cart out of pile destined for the dump...

Watching little green things shoot out of the dirt was extremely satisfying...and as you all know, I am inundated with produce this year! I had better get back out there! The finished garden tomorrow...