Of course I didn’t do as much in the garden over the weekend as I had planned to! I didn’t plant anything new mainly because my husband again refused to buy some old washing machine agitators. He also passed on a concrete laundry sink. Can you believe that! I’m sure it wouldn’t be that heavy to lift when we move. Three large guys could manage it I’m sure! Somehow it all seems harder when it seems that no-one else shares you enthusiasm.
I did repot my mint plant though (and I take it as a sign that I’m improving as a gardener that I repotted it before the roots started growing out the bottom). Once I did that I tackled a couple of pots of succulents where the roots were growing out the bottom. I made a little succulent rockery with the last of the compost and a pile of rocks I’d dug out of the bed when planting the tomatoes. It doesn’t look too bad. I can’t eat them, but they certainly look a lot happier out of their pots and the front garden looks a little less desperate. In true ditherer fashion though, I’ve decided I’d prefer the little rock garden to be by the front gate instead of the head-high weeds.
I guess I’ll move it next weekend.
I can’t decide what to plant in my garden or even where to plant it.
That’s pretty sad, isn’t it?
The latest NZ Gardener magazine says (in its Edible Garden column):
sow now: broad beans, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, corn salad, lettuce, onions, peas, radish, silver beet, and spinach but only if your soil is warm and well drained.
plant now: seedlings of all the above can be planted out now as well as leeks, brussels sprouts, celery and kohlrabi.
So even though I have a list I still dither. What, where, when? I’m not sure if I want to plant anything in the ground because I want to move to a flat which will get some sun before the Spring Equinox. I want to move soon, but haven’t convinced my husband yet. Maybe pots…but what will do ok in a pot? Where should I put the pot. The sunniest place in the yard has the winter washing line strung up at the moment. And I’d have to buy more compost and such which tend to come in plastic bags I can’t do anything with after I’ve emptied them. I could buy compost in bulk…but where do I store it? How do I keep the cats and children out? And what am I going to plant again? And so on and so on.
My friend John has a plot at the Common Ground communal garden at the Home of Compassion in Island Bay. He doesn’t dither. He digs, he composts, he sows and he harvests. He’s not always sure about what he’s doing, but he tries it anyway. I seem to have lost my enthusiasm for experimentation over the last couple of weeks.
Maybe it’s because I keep reading articles like this one about climate change which is valuable and informative but not very helpful when one is already feeling a bit glum about it all.
This is my third Car-Free Tuesday. I’m trying to decide if they are a good idea.
The first Tuesday was great. I had always wondered if I had it in me to walk the children to the library in the adjacent suburb and it turns out that I do! Usually it takes 5 minutes to drive down a fairly punishing hill (also known as the Incline of Doom) and along a road which is flat by Wellington standards. Our entire excursion, including walk to and from, library visit, cafe visit and playground visit took about 6 hours. It was a struggle dragging the children and their many, many library books back up the hill at the end of the outing but I actually felt really pleased that we did it. We’d talked more, thought more and noticed more on our walk than we would have if we’d driven and as a bonus we didn’t get back home until late afternoon which was fantastic because not only did the children have less DVD time, they had an early bed time too. Hooray!
It took two days to recover from the second Tuesday. A friend came by with her little boy and we went for a bush walk and picnic which involved about the same amount of walking as the previous week but also an awful lot of stairs. Stairs which a tired two year old needed to be carried up at the end of the walk. Happily for the planet this had the flow-on effect of making Wednesday car-free aswell because I was too stuffed to leave the house.
Today the struggle of dragging two spirited and strong-willed children up the Incline of Doom after four hours of solid sand-pit time at our Playcentre almost undid me. During the battle with my children (my two year-old son who didn’t want to walk, but didn’t want to ride in the pram either and my four year-old son who swung wildly between running away from us out of sight and lying on the ground refusing to move) I started thinking about the usefulness of a self-imposed rule such as ‘Car-Free Tuesdays’. When I decided to do this I hoped it would save a couple of car trips thus reducing our carbon footprint and stretching out the petrol money a little further. Do I really need a rule though? Couldn’t I just not drive the car so often?
My thinking hasn’t got very far because I’m stuffed. I might stay home tomorrow.
The problem (well maybe it’s just my problem) with being “green” is that as soon as you start thinking about things - whether it’s your personal contribution to the carbon in the atmosphere or the oil running out - it quickly gets too depressing to bother getting out of bed in the morning.
There’s just too much to do and often it’s hard work pushing against the cultural norms which we live with. Sharon has some interesting insights and I agree with her conclusion that the struggle is “worth undertaking, if for no other reason than the health of myself and my family, and for the little drop in the ocean (or atmosphere) that I can save for the future.”
Anyway, while I was wallowing in “what’s the point” thoughts, Rag Grrl posted a list of things she’s doing to green her life and world. And so, in the interests of my mental health, I’ve shamelessly stolen the idea:
Things I’m doing to green up my life and world
1. Cloth nappies. They’re just nicer in so many ways.
2. Reusable menstrual products (Mooncup and washable panty liners. Cloth feels nicer for me too ;>).
3. Minimise my use of commercial chemical-laden cleaners. Not difficult – I’m a bit of a slattern anyway. I use the more eco-friendly types of commercial cleaners but as they run out I’m finding you can often do the same job with hot water, baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice (not all together at the same time of course).
4. 1/2 flush toilet (easy because the tank is broken and the tap has to be turned on to fill it for each flush. With screaming children in the next room I don’t often bother unless I have to!)
5. Front-loader washing machine with cold water washes.
6. Short showers – often shared with one or more child!
7. Turned off the heated towel rail and all appliances in ’stand-by’ mode.
8. I use energy efficient light bulbs in all the sockets which will take them. In the 2 light fittings with dimmer switches I use normal lightbulbs but only 40W.
9. Resist the purchase of unnecessary appliances (easy when you have no money for such frivolous things anyway)
10. I try not to use my dryer too much. It gets a lot harder in winter with a small and sunless house.
11. I use cloth shopping bags.
12. Angst over packaging. I try to buy stuff with less of course! I try to make things like hummus and bread which bring unrecyclable packaging with them.
13. We compost our kitchen scraps and farm worms. More on my sad little worm farm later!
14. I’m trying to make more things from scratch and grow my own vegetables. Well, you know I’m trying.
15. I try to buy New Zealand made/grown.
16. I don’t eat meat.
17. I try to recycle everything I can.
18. I try to buy recycled stuff-clothes, furniture, books etc. Again, this is easy when you have no money for new stuff anyway…
19. I try really hard not to want new stuff.
20. I have a “No Circulars” sign on the letterbox which helps with the trying not to want new stuff.
21. I use the car minimally. It helps that we have a tight petrol budget and I always have an eye on the tank. Right now I’m pushing myself a little further – with Car-Free Tuesdays and walking to Playcentre more often.
Rag Grrl’s follow up post is a list of things she’d like to do next. I started one, but it quickly got too depressing.
I just want to bask in the feel-good glow of the “I’m doing” before I bog myself down with with the “I should be doing” list.
So, the pumpkin failed…but I have chillies!
Now I have only two questions: what kind is it, and is it ready to harvest?
Ok. Pumpkins are supposed to be easy to grow, right? After all, I’ve been told not to put pumpkin seeds in the compost bin because the next time you go out to dump your scraps a jungle of vines has covered over your bin and is starting to invade the neighbour’s yard.
So why is my pumpkin dead?
In its early days it seemed to be thriving and happy. So what went wrong?
Was it that I tried to grow it in a pot? But my book Organic Kitchen Gardening : a Guide to Growing Produce in Small Urban Areas by Barbara Segall promised me that miniature varieties of pumpkins would thrive in containers. This was a miniature variety called “Baby Bear” (chosen by my son for its orange skin-he only wanted “proper” pumpkins for carving into Halloween lanterns). Was the container too small? Was it the way that the pot tapers at the bottom? Would the pumpkin have been ok in an old washing machine agitator?
I did notice that when it started flowering the vine never opened more than one flower at a time and there were far more male flowers than female flowers. My Yates Garden Problem Solver describes this symptom in curcubits and gives the cause as “certain stress conditions (poor nutrition, low light, low temperatures, low water)”. To fix? “Ensure plants receive adequate nutrition and appropriate water”.
Hmm. I was feeding it with liquid seaweed fertiliser and my son watered enthusiastically every day. It was in full sun, and temperatures in Wellington, in February at least, were balmy.
Oh well, I’ll probably never know. All I can do is try again next year and try and learn something between now and then.
