Chronicles of a city plot, Spokane

[resonanteye]

i like to do so many different things and space is really my big struggle. i think if i was very rich i would buy out the houses all around me and move friends in or let my neighbors stay but take over and make the whole row of yards a big group garden and orchard.

i get too many good ideas, i think. and i don’t have the physical ability to put some of them together! it’s getting better though, cleaning out and organizing is a massive task. the previous owners left a lot of stuff, my partner was here doing it half-assed for ten years before i moved in and got serious about the outside of the place.

some photo updates just because

the smoking area/family reunion- my great uncle’s cigarette case, my great aunts ashtray, an ashtray my grandfather had on his work desk for years that i had bought him when i was maybe 7 years old with my own chore money. he smoked 3 packs a day and really piled it up on the desk full. it’s been broken and repaired multiple times.

the free little libraries came with black roof pieces that are SO badly painted i don’t think they even primed. the parts i painted are fine but I’ve got to refinish those tops before i mount them out front, another chore before a chore…i have this sealant I’m going to put on after i refinish the paint and hope for the best.

also we had two days of rain, amazing, i would like that once a week all summer long. maybe twice a week. it was good for everything that’s growing

killing yet another sapodilla. why!?!?

two grafts on that sand cherry both took! the trees I’m trying to bend into hobbit paths are all finally touching this year.

the sitting spots, hammock, and the potting bench place by the side.

the remaining chores: cleanup, cardboard breakdown and trying to get chip to put on top of what’s there, getting rid of junk, emptying the tumbler and finding it a new home (i built a pile instead).

tobacco, tomatoes, herbs, purple peas. there’s more but it’s enough pictures jeez

edit, no wait. more

blue prarmain you are a year old, calm down. smoke house apple that i thought was done for, took!

a greengage on last year’s graft; it can keep one.

i tamed the grape vines and pushed many through the fence and pulled many back through, it’s gripping and holding that fence in place pretty firmly already and there are some grapes outside as well as a lot of grape leaves, for passersby. plus a lot for us inside the fence of course.

[resonanteye]

Broke that blue pearmain graft climbing in that area. nooo

cleanup breaking down cardboard and getting rid of junk is going well. potting bench getting better and nearly usable! progress

then the garden

overview, mock oranges in bloom, sunflower jail.

early for all but pepper, squash, golden berry, etc all starting up.

propagation efforts underway, still trying to get the old aquarium set up. there’s a center piece of glass inset on the top in the middle that i can’t get out. i may have to break it to remove it. i can’t get my arms in and out of the thing to build until it’s gone. so I’m using trays and such for now

good things, pawpaw happy, my partner’s radish in the path project looks good, purple peas, and zephyr nect & toka taking on a sand cherry rootstock

i really, really need help with strawberries. they just do not make berries. the wild ones do, lots of tiny tiny red dots but the big ones don’t. going to try that “Bloom” fert with low N this week in that patch. the patch by the asparagus is overtaken with garlic right now and hollyhocks but those will come out this year, begone interlopers. the bed is meant to have rhubarb, asparagus and strawberries only! other photos: Herb garden, garlic main crop, cabbage is heading finally, and an herb grow bag that needs too much water really. i should move those into the ground somewhere

sapodillas dying again, new pawpaw seedlings doing good, the onion and garlic jungle under the tree lines, and a PERSIMMON! growing well for now.

picking food daily but oh, gods, I’m so tired of greens. the amaranth are new for me but the tips are delicious i never knew. like nuttier lambsquarters. i fry them crispy, good as chips. will plant more next year or allow them all to reseed like the orach does.

walkways and unused areas are weed heaven i badly need a load of chip. chipdrop won’t bring any to the spot as they say wires are too low suddenly. I’m stewing over it. compost bin built. got to empty the old one. potting bench is getting there, rain barrel area condensed a bit, and I’m eating a lot of walking onion tops and bending about half down to the ground to regrow. some i plucked to start in little pots to give away too.

that’s the news for now I’ll try to get side and front updates this week coming up sometime.

edit: excuse the several repeated photos, I’m just worrying my head over those cleanup spots

[Katie_didnt_Z4b]

Your greens photos are so satisfying and pretty. I know you said you’re sick of them but man they’re lovely to look at!

[resonanteye]

i do love them but after years of them being the only constant, edible and reliable food for months…I’m just tired of them in general. i don’t really plant them much anymore, they just keep coming. kale and orach most especially. delicious but oh please, variety

[Dflanmod]

For your strawberries, what variety are you growing?

You could try Sweet Sunrise. I believe that’s what they grow at Siemers out in Green Bluff WA.

We tried planting some random ones we got from a local farmers market in Hayden Idaho. I called them Russian roulette strawberries. One might taste great and the next might taste like soap. I was never able to figure that one out. They were some sort of ever bearing variety. I really need to revisit that project and try the sweet Sunrise.

[resonanteye]

a bunch of different kind people have sent me, none are making berries. so it’s not the variety. it’s something I’m doing wrong

I’m tackling irrigation today and it’s awful. my mind does not work mechanically this way. I’ll need help i guess

[Dflanmod]

Yeah, irrigation can be a pain

When we got our place it didn’t have any irrigation. Now we have 19 zones on the electric system.and 6 manual zones. Went through soaker hoses then to drips and micro sprays then mostly went back to broadcast sprinklers.

Always having to fix something with the irrigation, seems like the maintenance never stops.

[Katie_didnt_Z4b]

I bought some irrigation stuff but gave up on it my brain also does not easily make sense of that sort of thing. I have a feeling you’re going to get it though. Cheering you on.

[Eme]

Post an update with how you get it to work! I’m hoping there’s something easy to figure out because, I too have a hard time with things like that requiring patience and going step by step with instructions. Yet, was hoping to set up irrigation next year.

[resonanteye]

what i ended up doing was, i got 1/4”” soaker hose. a roll of it. i laid it throughout each raised bed and used 1/2” tubing to connect all the beds to the main hose. i have 4 regions in the back garden, two in the front, and one on the side of the house.

out back, one is all the little raised beds. one is two long mounds. one is the fence line/trees and mushroom patches. one is the raised beds by the greenhouse and the figs along there.

out in front there’s one on each side of the walkway, one long one reaches along the side the other is smaller. then I’ve got one soaker hose along the driveway where there’s new grapes and berries planted and a quince.

photos of what i used

splitter in a raised bed, 1/4” soak off one and the tube to the next bed on the other

each bed has one of these in it. the black soaker tubing is a loop that connects back to the thing. it’s one tube not two. I made one loop in each bed. the clear tubing is 1/2” and proceeds from here to the next bed. and so on

the 4 “zones”. the little drip one is unused at the moment but I’m going to attach a soaker to it for the asparagus and strawberry bed here in the next few days.

the only drip attachments are on one strip of regular 1/4” non-soaker tubes that go to the potted figs, each has its own dripper.

i made a huge mess doing this I’m hoping i can blow it out and leave it in place over winter and not have to do it again at all.

updates to the thread in general, got the fire pit burning for the first time this year and it was cozy. watched the stars come out.

cabbages are heading, things are starting to grow in. nothing big yet but it’s early.

and then the trees. bless this mess i guess

and then in addition flowers and mushrooms. the winecap are recalcitrant this year. i got a few handfuls of Italian oyster and this old block of yellows flushed again.

i usually don’t plant many flowers just for flowers’ sake but this year i started a bunch of old seed and there they are.

then the cane fruit. gooseberries dropped a bunch, black raspberries are gonna need cut back in the fall. currants and service berry are doing good

then there’s the rest, just a photo dump. but I’m a “visual storyteller” or however they say it

the propagation and seedling area is working its magic and my partner has been using the pots and trays for all his squirreling activity so far as i can tell. i set up a whole lot of trays and pots for him. he’s also babying several radishes that came up on the pathway that I’m now tripping over constantly, he "wants to see how big they’ll get” (they are cherry bell radish! they’re HUGE! what?)

some of the propagation and seeds are mine, the pawpaw and persimmon, the gooseberries and figs. all the rest are his seeds or “don’t want to waste a stick that might grow”. i even got a picture of the guy after he helped me tighten up some hoses, hard to do that with one arm.

a few of his random sticks seem to have roots, which is crazy to me. a plum. many of the grapes. all his and my mulberry sticks died though.

tobacco is going to crop well this year, I’m making herb pots to sell next month when everyone local is pulling their garlic up, and my sorghum is up and running.

overall views with the wide angle. that’s the back. potting bench works well enough and it’s…partly organized i guess.

whew. enough for another week or two. but it’s the time of year i post too much in here, there’s always something going on.

[crater]

Gotta love/resent the big box full of “drip stuff”. I always tell myself “at least now I’ve got anything I could need” but somehow still end up running out all the time. Those little timers are cool.

A thought if you can’t overwinter the drip, you might be able to carefully roll it all up including the mainline and put it in the boxes. I’ve done that with moves and it mostly works, if I was an ounce careful I bet I’d have avoided breaking a few emitters, though that might not be an issue with the soaker

[Eme]

Wow! Everything looks amazing.

Did you really grow that pink coreopsis from seed this year? That is amazing for just a few months old.

[resonanteye]

yes i did, i started very early this year. i had the winter blues. my zinnias are blooming too.

the boxes of drip stuff I’m going to sell EVERYTHING that isn’t the exact same kind of pieces i used- I’ll keep backup for spare parts but I’m not keeping any of the rest of it. might try for a yard sale this summer sometime. I’m done storing “just in case” stuff here! no more!

thought I’d add in the few trees i didn’t label, for my own date reference next year

Chicago Hardy by the side

hunza apricot that’s really in the most exposed bad place, but it’s making fruit.

florea.

[resonanteye]

pruning out water sprouts and such in the plums and things. black raspberries need cut back heavily this fall, they’re a big mess. grapes too.

took some pictures today. okra actually growing!. flowers for a change. making herb pots to sell on. planted Titan sunflowers to see if they’ll add more height to my landrace that come on their own.

helper. the salad bed. rhubarb. tobacco patch, sorghum. fig alley.

the olive trees, the view

[resonanteye]

another week, things are going well. except cucumbers, which i sowed again today.

all things are covered in fruit. well except the gooseberries which are finished now. fennel is a screen!

corn, tobacco, sorghum patch mound and a singular tobacco plant in a bed

seedling, propagation and starting areas. to replace:

cabbage, mustards, early greens, lettuce, garlic and onions and peas mess.

have had a few ripe figs and now the main crop are coming. lots of flowers somehow. fruit on the trees. herbs. a giant leek flower. dogs that are being camera shy. tomato row with winter squash climbing. comice and pawpaws alive but not productive this year.

himrod and van buren grapes went wild early and i ignored them and now there will be SO. MANY. those and the raspberries are taking over this entire fence

eggplant with nz spinach around it, orach, a welcome guest.

[Tiirsys]

@resonanteye

the winecap are recalcitrant

Recalcitrant, that is a new word for me. Nice.

[resonanteye]

i like these kind of personality words for my plants. i guess I’m an animist or i just anthropomorphize everything. like my grapes are valiant this year, my plum tree is sulking.

some parts of the garden are already in jungle mode. i intersperse everything so all things are scattered together in different spots. the onion flowers with a tomato in there (i don’t remember putting it there but it’s actually labeled! it’s a trifele). things like that. i do plant vining squashes on the same panel as the tomatoes, the big leaves get there the same time the tomatoes want a little shade.

corn, tobacco, sorghum. a patch of each. and a crookneck or something up front. sunflowers come up on their own all over the place here. in the back is the sad dead little fir tree that’s the scarlet runner bean tree now. a few are just starting to climb on it.

behind all, the fence, eaten up by grapes

the staghorn sent me two suckers so far this year with another forming. i may replant these out by the side of the house which is a desperate dry hot place with the road there- the house needs more shade on that side. there’s a creeper vine in the smaller sucker, but it can live with them too. i don’t mind

last fall’s backup figs. i did ten propagation pots and there’s 6 still going strong, i sold two and two died.

my partner picked out geraniums at the nursery several times for his plant of the day, and i have propagated so many of them now that I’m spent. i think we have ten of them now that are big and blooming and there’s at least 10 or 20 babies like this. using up all my clay pots. i don’t really like them

the tobacco is rolling in, starting to get the full sized leaves at color cure stage. a good feeling. credit in the spirit world.

garlic is a 4 foot rope this year and it’s only about two thirds of what is out there to be taken. my sittin place view is good. the first headed cabbage, taken while i was thinning. i want a big savoy this year and this was in between two that wanted to get bigger.

and

a large leader broken in the mulberry tree. we did have a big wind but i had a bending thing on this branch and pushed it too far.

i didn’t leave enough pathway between these raised beds. again, jungle time is beginning.

spinach going to seed, lettuce been cut back multiple times, onions and a few peas still going in one of those metal beds though.

the pawpaw/mushroom/damp zone is going ok. those currants grew a lot but didn’t make many fruit this year. i may cut them out and propagate the cut parts to sell, it’s taking up some real estate that could be gooseberries i think. which i like a lot better anyway.

[resonanteye]

finally seeing some of the winecap. not many but.

schoolhouse plum. hope they don’t ripe up all at the same time as the Italian plum tree.

nectarines are looking bad. not sure what to do about that.

every graft but one on the sand cherries took off wild. pretty happy about this! toka, zephyr, and a peach graft

a few jungle shots. will be getting parsley seed. almost cabbage time

fennel and flowers doing well.

spent the day struggling with soak hoses and timers out front. it’s almost 90F. I’m sweating.

first ripe trifele tomato today. first ones always look bad, but all of them taste good.

[Eme]

Do you fond parsely self seeds all over if you don’t dead head? It’s the first year I’ve let them stay and go to seed, and a bit concerned.

[Tiirsys]

I have parsely in a pot. It has been growing there for years. I always bend the seedhead back into the pot. Comes up as it will.

Edit: geowing. Hehe