Grape Trellis

Our new grape trellis

Among the many, many unfinished and half-finished projects I had left at the end of this season was the replacement of a makeshift grape trellis we put up last spring.  Last week I dragged the scrap 1x3's out from behind N's workbench, the scrap lattice pieces from behind the shed, and the good saw from the wooden footlocker under the baby bathtub, and laid out the pieces as I wanted them assembled.  This was enough momentum to make it happen.  Err, mostly.  N finally took his new router out of the box, and joined together a pretty nice little trellis.  Now, of course, I still have to paint it and attach it to the grape/asparagus bed.  Since I had to take apart the old makeshift trellis to construct this one, I need to get this finished soon!

A's first reaction was to walk behind it and try to knock it over.  Not a good sign!

Good Things in the Garden



Some really good things have been happening in the garden lately, so I thought I'd share.

1. R picked the first ripe strawberry from the bed in front of our house this afternoon.  It's fun to see how much he likes picking them, and exciting that he seems to actually remember it from last year.
2. 

   

   Happy grapevine (background) surrounded by floppy asparagus

   The new grapevine is growing!

3. 

   Broccoli plant, meet foot.

   The broccoli plants are huge!  And we picked the first head today, several times bigger than last year's disappointing pickings.
4. 

   

   Romaine lettuce head

   

   Valerie lettuce, and weeds

   The lettuce deluge continues.  But in new news, the romaine appears to be making heads after all.  After consulting my guinea pig - I mean taste-tester! - I have decided that commercial growers must discard those thick outer leaves I was picking before.  Which explains how they get the lettuce heads so darn clean!
5. 

   

   R really likes to help with picking

   

   Happy spinach, with interplanted peppers

   The spinach is looking great - better than I've ever grown, thanks to the lovely long spring we've had.  R and I picked a bunch on Tuesday and used it to make yummy pizzas.  This was the first time we've tried any of it outside of salads, and it was really tasty!  It has a very spinachy appearance, and I was expecting it to be too bitter or overtly spinachy, but it is lovely.  We definitely want to grow this kind again next year.  (If I know what it is; I think it's Melody.)
6. 

   

   One large celeriac - the rest are 2 inches tall

   The celeriac that sprouted last fall is quite large and is starting to make little flower buds.  Celeriac is a biennial, like carrots; it grows a bunch of foliage during the first year of its life, storing the energy produced by the leaves in a large root.  During the second year it uses that energy to produce flowers and seeds, so the best time to pick it is at the end of the first year.  (Don't ask me why I thought this was a fall crop, I honestly don't know!)  At any rate, I think I'm going to pull this one before the flowers go much further.  I don't know how much root it could possibly have grown over the winter, but I guess we'll find out!

7. 

   R helped find and photograph this ladybug

   I'm seeing so many ladybugs at the community garden this year!  R is fascinated by my claim that I like them because they eat other bugs.  He points them out to me every time we go and asks me if they eat other bugs.  When I say yes he replies, "I don't know why, dough," which is his way of asking for more information.  What can I say?  I don't know why, either!
8. 
   Another gardener at the community garden, M, planted a row of strawberries about this time last year.  It was too late to get any berries out of them then, but boy are they doing well this year!  I am definitely thinking about investing the time and space to plant some of my own.
9. I saw the first pea blossom on one of the plants at the community garden this morning. Mmmm...

Desperate Housewife?

I think I'm getting a little stir-crazy staying home with the boys.  I've been trying to spend a lot of time outside with them the last couple weeks, to suck up some vitamin D while the weather's been nice.  Last week, while raking the backyard for the third time in 6 days, I decided I needed a new outdoor project.  There are, after all, only so many leaves.

So, I dug these boards out from behind our shed and took stock.  N and I refer to ourselves as "junk lookers", which is to say that if we drive past a pile of someone's junk next to the curb, we slow down and take a look.  "Look, Babe, junk!"  Sometimes we then take things home.  That's where we got these boards, along with several other good solid boards that N used to build a little platform behind the shed.  So what did I do?  I spent two hours sawing wood, that's what I did.  (We really need a new wood saw.  Sadly, I never find good tools in junk piles.  But never say never, I say!)

N and R helped me assemble the cut pieces into two stackable boxes over the weekend, which I then painted.  They are 2' by almost-4'.  I cut a couple other wood scraps from N's workbench project to attach the two boxes together. 

The current plan is to put half (3) of my potted asparagus in there in the spring, along with a grapevine.  If the weather holds I'll use the trellis scraps behind the shed (more scavenged junk) to build a nice trellis to hide the side of the shed and the wire frame that will support the grapevine.  Stay tuned - this project may take a while...