Wintergarden Update

I decided to up my game after my previous write-up; so, I thought another update might be in order!

Compost, Anyone?

In mid June, I asked my stepdad what was going on with his backyard firewood holder that had gone unused for the last ~15 years. He said he had no plans for it; so, Athennia and I took a Friday-night trip to Lowes so I could grab some supplies to turn that bad boy into a compost frame...

First, we had to go out to the garden center to grab a roll of chicken wire. Athennia had the riveting experience of being dive-bombed by a dragonfly, which dragonflew right into her mouth and prompted some lovely spits and shrieks of surprise to come out of her. The guy at the opposite end of the aisle got a great laugh out of it (but at least he saw the thing fly at her, and thus had some context for why she just melted down all of a sudden).

Then we had to grab some lumber so I could construct some gates for the frame. No one in the store could find eight-foot pressure-treated 1x4s, despite the inventory-control system saying they had something like 242 of them in stock. Special thanks to Gabriel and George—and also camo-pants guy and cowboy-hat guy, whose names I didn't get—for searching every inch of the store and its vicinity.

We finally went with the 10-footers, which I'd seen almost immediately but didn't feel like dealing with the headache of holding them the entire way home so they wouldn't go flying out the back window of the car. (I'd had it in my head that no one would want to cut wood for us 15 minutes before closing time; but, after our patience while half the store went on a wild goose chase for nonexistent llumber, George was more than happy to cut the 10-footers down to my exact specifications. So, that actually worked out in our favor.)

It rained all weekend, so I didn't actually get to "construction" (stapling chicken wire and screwing some wood together) until 14 June. But, it all went as planned, and I finally had a place to dump the two full compost bins and eight overflow cans of shredded leaves I'd vacuumed up from my parents' lawn back in the fall!

Garden Variety

The garden is still positively jamming, thanks in large part to Richard saving the day with a bunch of extra plants (mostly tomatoes and peppers, but also some basil and Vietnamese coriander) when some of mine gave up earlier in the season:

The lettuce and herbs in the basement are also jamming, thanks in large part to those new lights Athennia had bought me:

The Grandmasters Arrive

I guess everything was going too well—because then the universe said, I see your impressive gardening game, and I raise you three grandmasters!

It turns out that the fat rabbit I kept chasing out of my garden back in June had finally left, just as I thought he had... only, he turned out to be a she, and she ended up settling down in the flower bed directly across from my garden—where she apparently gave birth to Hoppy Fischer, Magnus Cottontail, and... oh, I don't know... Pentala Harekrishna? Garry Carrotsparov? Take your pick.

At any rate, I've been battling three world-class garden-destroyers this past week or so. Surprisingly, I was able to outwit Hoppy Fischer and sent him packing to Reykjavík (some bushes on the far side of the pool, where he'll be safe from predators but hopefully far enough away from my garden to care).

Magnus and Pentala continue to evade me, and I'm starting to see evidence of their growing-boy appetites. (One of them munched an entire pepper plant down to a three-inch stub yesterday.)

But, even so, we're doing... pretty okay on veggies:

Still Mostly Winning

So, that's that. We're not going hungry anytime soon... and we've been giving away produce to every family member, friend, and neighbor we can!

I'm hoping to have a fall garden and do another round of peas, carrots, and whatnot next month. We'll have to see if time permits and whether I've managed to checkmate Magnus and Pentala by then. In the meantime, all the groundwork is laid...

And, let's not forget the silent heroes munching (and pooping) away down in the basement: One man's junk mail (and food scraps) is another man's nutrient-dense vermicompost, and this stuff is far superior to anything on the shelves at the local gardening stores :)