It wasn't the peanut butter

Whoo.  Crazy weekend. 

It was lovely; 60/80 degrees, partly sunny, breezy, and humid.  Perfect garden weather. 

I got up pretty early on Saturday, went to Foodtown, and got some groceries.  Some local slang refers to it as "making groceries". 

Well, God made them.  I just bought some.  I have a huge sack full of product for work, too. 

We came home, and I decided to do some yard work.  I weeded the garden, did some pruning, planting, planted my salad garden (spicy greens and lettuce), and started some seeds for my aunt and uncle.  Busy. 

After I finished on Saturday, I came in the house, took my shower, and got ready to go to a BBQ place.  I will not name names for reasons to follow. 

We got there, Ron ordered some meat, and I got a chopped beef.  It was good, but pretty fatty.  [Honestly, I would have rather had one of my cheddarburgers.  Oh, yum.]  We had a good ride to come home, but by the time I got to the house I was horribly queasy.  Then the lithium kicked in (it can boost the immune system), and I took a nap. 

When I got up, I had to run to the bathroom to avoid a "Code Brown".  This persisted, with horrendous cramps and bloating, for most of the night. 

I   blame the BBQ.  I was fine until I ate it.  I had peanut butter for breakfast, Saturday, and I ate more today - I was fine.  It wasn't the peanut butter.   Now, I ordered two sandwiches, ate one, and saved the other one.  You couldn't pay me to eat it! 

However, Ron doesn't believe it was the BBQ.  He likes the food and thinks I am just "delicate" (paraphrase).   We usually have Tuedays off.  So, he plans to eat it Monday night, "proving" to me the BBQ is fine. 

I'm glad I will be out of the house!  I'll put some powerade in the fridge. 

I was losing a lot of fluid, and I love powerade.  It has good flavors, and the zero has exactly that much sugar - zero.  It sure works for hydration.  I always keep some on hand. 

I can't exactly run to the grocery store like THAT, and it is very difficult for  Ron to go out on his own.  I always prefer to have that kind of stuff on hand. 

Sick?  OK, let's go open the cabinet.  Cough?  Vomiting?  Whatever, I've got it. 

Most of the stuff can be purchased at the Dollar store.  I mean, a real dollar store, not one of those $1 an item, and up, places. 

I went to bed very early last night, woke up pretty early this morning.  I felt pretty good.  I did my God time, ate a cautious breakfast, and went out into the garden.  Somewhere as I was lugging the half bale of peat moss, and the 40 pound sack of cow manure, I realized I felt pretty good. 

Today, I planted a lot of seeds and started work on the potato bed.  I have really excellent soil and sun exposure in Garden Bed One.  It is 4 feet wide and 7 feet long.  The length  runs north to south.  I have a gorgeous frilly purple kale at the south end.  I planted it back in 2009.  I'm extremely fond of it.  I put a few potted plants around the base so I won't disturb the roots.  Basically, salad greens, in those long, skinny, "windowbox" pots will circle the base of the kale.  At the north end, I want to grow potatoes.  Last year, I put some in Garden Bed 5.  That's when my world was completely gone to hell and it looked like I might have to move out. 

I planted them anyway.  They didn't get a whole lot of soil preparation, but I still got some nice looking potatoes off each plant.  It was a lot of fun digging them up - but I did freak out when the tops all died.  I thought I had killed them - but they are supposed to do that. 

This year, I decided to put a little more effort into the potatoes.  I have some nice red and white fingerling potatoes, and the yukon golds from last year.  I saved some for "seed", they're starting to sprout. 

I am, technically a "biointensive" gardener.  What does that mean?  Wiki link

In my case, I adapted various methods from different programs.  Firstly, I started by watching the yard, finding the good sunny spots.  You can't grow plants without sun. 

I grew plants, in large pots, to see how they did in the various areas.  They favored the north side of the yard, it got the most sun.  I have tree issues on the south side of the yard and it's always shady.  The pots tended to congregate on the north east side to the middle of the yard. 

Then I called 811 - I have underground utilties.  I had plants to dig up a lovely garden bed in the middle of the yard.  Then the nice man started putting flags in the yard, telling me "The gas line is only down a couple of inches here"  The electrical cut more footage, and pretty soon I had about 15x17 feet of prime garden area. 

I have "foiled" the underground utilties, in the summer the mid-yard gets plenty of sun so I grow things in very large pots, sitting on top of the ground.  This year, I had potatoes, and amaranth. 

I marked out my garden area, after compromise with Ron.  He didn't want "garden" near the house, but has since relented.  I can have large pots near the back door. 

I had about 20X20 feet, but I looked at my surveyor papers and realized I needed to watch my easement.  I lost about 3 feet on the north fence,  and 4 on the east fence (all the underground utilies run in from there). 

So, I marked out my area.  A few hundred square feet. 

Now, I did the smart thing.  I collected soil for the soil test.  I got my results back "Unusually high level of fertility, lacks magnesium, calcium, and potassium".  I got a lot more than that.  I got the organic reccomendation. 

I make a point of using kelp meal, gypsum, a dab of epsom salts, and a lot of cottonseed meal in the garden.  I like cottonseed meal because it is pretty balanced, a local product, safe, and cheap.  The garden loves it.  I go easy on the bone meal because my phosphorus is fine.  My Ph is near 7, ideal. 

Next thing, I dug up garden bed one.  Many, many garden books think people hate to dig (I love it).  They tell you, just pile up dirt on the ground, frame it, and start growing!

DON'T DO IT. 

A few of the things I found while digging my garden beds:  13 gallons' worth of styrofoam take-out trash.  Large sheets of shingles.  A huge piece of concrete, about 4 feet long and 2 feet thick.  Metal cans, a metal chain, a dog collar, and other assorted junk.  It wasn't a garden, it was a TRASH can. 

I dug it out, to about 3 feet.  I removed all the bermuda grass.  I put the soil into a wheelbarrow, and mixed in good things (you name it, old potting soil, compost, cow manure, leaves, grass clippings, pretty much anything organic),   Then I went after the soil, down about 2-4 feet deep.  I stirred all that up really well, added good stuff, and then put the wheelbarrow stuff on top.  Basically, "double digging", but I triple dug and am I glad I did.  Can you imagine trying to grow a tomato ontop of that giant piece of concrete? 

Of course I did all this when manic! 

I put in emerald edging.  Wonderful stuff, keeps all the bad plants out of the garden.  The pieces installed in 2005 are still fine. 

Then, I put mulch on top.  Kind of challenging, for a long time, getting mulch.  Generally had to pay someone to drive me to the store, I'd buy it, put it in the truck, and then bring it home and unload it. 

HOWEVER - I found a garden center that delivers anything I buy for $20.  Love them - actually doing it later this week. 

I have always tried to keep AT LEAST a couple of inches of mulch on top of the soil.  Generally used, grass clippings and wood mulch.  I do bring home coffee grounds now and then, spread them around.  Worms love old grounds.  The stuff rots down and improves the soil.  I just need to replenish, and I have great soil. 

That's it.  So, over the course of years I built my garden beds:
Bed 1 - 7x4 feet
Bed 2-3 - I joined them, so it is 4 x 11 feet. 
Bed 4 - shadier, not as good soil (I tried amending with large bark, instead of ground) 4x4 - good for partly sunny  to shade lovers who don't like a rich meal (Collards have been consistent)
Bed 5 - 4x4 - grew the potatoes last year.  Plan to grow sugar snaps, collards, and fava beans this year. 

Bed 6 is off outside the computer room, mostly shaded, I did that this year.  It is on a slope so I had to terrace it.  Leafy greens, an Acerola Cherry bush/tree, and a parsley.  The parsley in bed 5 died, this one kept going. 

I also have a small, ornamental flower bed out front.  It mainly has some jasmine right now. 

I have pathways in between the garden beds.  I need to resurface them, more landscape fabric and some of that rubber mulch.   I built a raised bed for the fig tree, in "Heatherworld" - what Ron calls my garden.  The bed is about 3 feet high, 4x4.  Built out of cinderblocks.  It was amazing, how much soil I needed for fill.  I was taking shovelsful out of the lawn! 

I will, most likely, be using Garden Bed 5 for a grapevine.  I would like some fresh fruit in addition to the veggies. 

Right now, in the ground, I have kale, collards, fava beans (planted),  a vine from the curcurbit family that has sprouted in my "mint" planter (mint is all dead anyway), and started running up a trellis.  The fruit is some kind of round, green, ball.  I am very curious.  I gave it some cottonseed meal the other day and it greened up.  Chard, a parsley, and that's it. 

In large pots, I have amaranth (lovely to look at and tasty greens), collards (that's where I put the "Vates" Heather!),  a gorgous purple kale (I have a weakness for purple kale).  The ones by the north fence (the soccer family) have tomato cages to protect plants from flying soccer balls.  In smaller pots, I have 3 lovely  red chard, scattered around. 

I have some long, windowbox planters, about 3 square feet total, planted in salad greens.  I'm partial to Oakleaf lettuce, and I got a huge packet at the seed store for $2.  I love a good bitter green in my salad but Ron does not.  I have my own planter, for me. 

The salad stuff is frost sensitive, so I can bring it in the house if we get some freezing weather.  The leafy cooking greens laugh at freezes.  The amaranth would not, but the pot is enormous (I could bathe in it), so I'd just harvest it.  I let it go to seed, on purpose, and it will resprout.  These are 2nd generation plants.  I'd get a 3rd. 

To plant, potatoes, sugar snap peas, and onions.  It's a little warm for the latter, so I'm waiting a few weeks.  If I can wear shorts in the garden, probably not their time. 

I have to go to bed early tonight, so I'm off.  I have a good free garden book I got off Amazon.  It's from 1911, and very entertaining.