the poet in you

This summer was our first year gardening in Austin. Our garden started out as a very modest endeavor; it still is but we have visions of grandeur. We've enjoyed some success considering the record-breaking heat. It just seems like it is always hot. Most days are over 100 degrees so we've had our challenges. Michael and I took a stroll this morning and visited each little bed all the while discussing what we did right, wrong and what we would do different in the future.

Basil
The basil was very satisfying. We started with 4 small plants that we bought at the nursery. We now have a jungle of basil. We've had LOTS of pesto and a few dishes of roasted zucchini-basil. You really can't tell that I've clipped at least 6 cups worth of leaves from the plants. Not all at once but so far this summer I've probably collected a solid 6 cups. I added another 4 basil plants that I started from seed and they are also enormous.

All of the basil plants are mature and growing in a mixed 4x4 raised bed. The roots have made their way into the neighboring square foot plots and have grown so densely that they choke out anything else that grows close. I thought that with the raised bed the roots would want to travel downward, not sprawl out but that hasn't been the case with the basil. Next year we will grow all the basil from seed (no need to spend the extra money on plants) and we will "quarantine" it in it's own bed.

Peppers
The peppers have been under siege by ants and aphids for weeks now. I was slow to identify the pests and I think that the peppers are pretty much stunted now. I may be wrong, wouldn't that be wonderful?
I didn't realize that the ants and aphids had such a special relationship. The ants are like little cattle ranchers and the aphids are their herd. The ants enjoy the sweet excretion that the aphids release. They accumulate around the pepper blossoms. I was afraid to kill anything beneficial so I let them be but now that I know who's taken up residence in my pepper plants...Well, it's all out war.

Tomatoes
Hybrids vs. Heirloom. Simply put, I was seduced by the heirloom. I relished the thought of growing an open-pollinated  plant (pollination by insects, birds, wind), a plant that had been passed down through a family for generations, a plant with a history. I liked the imperfections that I saw, the cracking, the irregular skin color. Some, I imagined, probably had a natural hardiness specific to their geographic area. The hybrids, I thought, would be like growing clones. No variation, one just like the next. My plants would be exactly like my neighbor's, whose plants would be exactly like his dad's, whose plants would look exactly like his neighbor's. Little clones growing all over the country.

I've learned that there is something to be said for hybrids. They are hardy and disease resistant. They may even produce under adverse conditions such as unrelenting heat. We just picked our first tomato today from our Early Girl. She's fairly unassuming in her foliage. Not especially dense, not especially tall. But she produced for us a perfect little red globe of fruit. It is even in color with no cracks, no insect infestation. Our heirloom on the other hand, is very tall, leafy, lots of blossoms that wilt and die. She has not produced a single tomato. I still have hope. She reminds me of me last weekend when we took the neighbor's chicken coop apart. I can practically hear her panting and heaving in the heat. She just wants to sit a minute in a shady place to catch her breath. She's full of good ideas and intentions but just needs to summon the energy. Perhaps when it cools down a bit.

Zucchini/Squash
The zucchini/squash bed is beautiful. Unfortunately the plot has been invaded by enemy combatants. I looked out the window yesterday and saw that one of the squash plants was completely wilted and hugging the ground. I went to see what would have done this and found a vine borer in several stems. I don't know what to do about this. I removed the stem and hoped for the best. This morning it looked good but I can see similar looking holes in several stems and am preparing for the worst. Complete annihilation.  I'll have to do some reading and see what, if anything, can be done to prevent this in the future.

Miscellany
The marigolds are beautiful and growing strong. Next year? More, more, more. The cucumber vines and cantaloupe vines are just that. Vines. No fruit yet. We'll have to be patient. The eggplant leaves are regularly gobbled up by something. I never do see the creature, just the gnawed leaves. The cardoon seedlings have yet to get past the cotyledon stage. Next year I'll grow them in containers until they are more mature and a little stronger before putting them in the ground. I won't spend money on begonias again. We don't really have a good place for them and they look washed out. I'll put marigold or purple heart in their place.

In Summary

• Throw any preconceived ideas out the window. Gardening is organic, not fixed.
• Plant science in not all bad; hybrids are workhorses.
• The internet is a good place to gather information, a fellow garden is very often an even better source of information.
• What you learn in the garden is cumulative. You can apply what you've learned this season to next season.
• Worms and frogs are for good, not evil.

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

A few weeks back Michael and I went down to Boggy Creek Farm. It is shamefully close, there is no excuse for not having made our way there sooner. But better late than never. The setting is so idyllic, you really feel like you are in another world and another time. The claim is that it is one of the oldest still existing homes in Austin. The family settled at the farmhouse in the 1830's.  It is a whitewashed Greek-revival design and currently occupied by the newest owners who purchased the home and farm in 1992. They have a market day every Saturday. You can see the work gloves are strung across the length of the porch and chickens roam everywhere. Enjoy the photos! I'm new to Flickr and still trying to work out all the kinks.

This last weekend was unexpectedly busy. I gathered up a notebook, pencil and camera and told Michael that I was going to go  to our neighbor's house and ask if I could take some notes and measure their chicken coop. I also confided that I had a secret wish that they would say, "Measure it? Why not just take it?", the coop, after all, has sat empty since they moved in several months back. The previous home owner built it but he up and moved to California, formerly known as The Land Of Plenty.

I knocked on the door and introduced myself. I asked if I could buzz around the coop for measurements and some note taking to which she replied, "Measure it? Why not just take it?" I couldn't even believe it. The stars must have been perfectly aligned. Why YES!!! Let me just tell my husband. And I did. Promptly. I told him I was just going to go back over to take the door off and see how the roof was attached, etc. I was going to take little steps, taking it down little by little over the course of several days.  I didn't expect that he would wholeheartedly join in. I kept telling him that we could do it in the morning when it wasn't 100+ degrees out. Because one thing you have to know about Michael, he doesn't stop in the middle of anything. He focuses and forges ahead until he has completed what he started.

Mind you, I was still getting over side affects of antibiotics, antibiotics with a warning in all caps, STAY OUT OF SUNLIGHT WHILE TAKING THIS MEDICATION plus, I was in the throes of anxiety about my most recent self-diagnoses of developing thrush.  And let me state right here and now, I am not a hot weather girl. There is nothing about the heat that I enjoy. And Michael had quite simply stated, "I'm not stopping once I've started." So there it is. We/he mostly, took the coop down Saturday afternoon. We made several trips back and forth between the two houses. We spent Sunday, taking every screw, staple and hinge off of each piece of lumber and ran a bristle brush over every length. It now sits very neatly stacked in our back yard, waiting to be transformed into a new coop.

That silly worm bin post took forever. I lost the post TWO TIMES! Once when I was uploading photos and the second time when I tried to use the Publish On feature for a future date. Finally it got done. I did that this evening and wrapped up some sold books. Of course I have a surge of book sales when I should be resting but wrapping books is hardly any work at all. I sold my signed and numbered Stanley Kunitz book, The Wild Braid. It made me a little sad to part with it. It is a beautiful book, a deep green linen covered hardcover with a natural color slip cover. Some if the excerpts made me sad and I couldn't read much. The man was 100 when it came out I think. He talks about his leaving his garden behind after he's gone.

Other than that I am just waiting waiting waiting to go to the doctor. I am hoping to get the antibiotics changed. Is it possible that they are what caused a severe migraine last night? I have never in my life had a headache like that. I thought my head would split. Even today I felt "bruised" from it, a headache lite lingered all day. And I am determined not to stop taking the meds mid-course. I called in sick from work so I could continue on. I won't take the Flagyl anymore but I am taking the metronidazole, and I am not taking it on schedule but as I said, I am determined to get some antibiotics in my system to rid myself of this blasted, this damned diverticular flare-up. It makes me feel old, like my body is failing me. I felt like I'd die last night and sleeping on the bathroom floor didn't help any. The dogs are a great comfort. I can't imagine life without them.

I still haven't been able to tell my mother that I have worms in my kitchen; that I intentionally put them there in a bin next to the counter. Part of the reason is because I won't be available for damage control when her imagination runs rampant and she proceeds to tell my brothers and sisters that I've gone off the deep. That I'm living with creepy, crawly things; that I have invited them in and made a little home for them. Really though, they are the perfect "pet". They don't smell bad, they require very little care and are very quiet. What's more is that they help me to reduce the amount of garbage that I generate and in a few months I will have some very nutrient rich vermicompost (worm castings - ok, poop) to use in the garden.

There are all sorts of sources to learn how to put together a worm bin. I followed the instructions from the video Apartment Composting in my sidebar. It is broken down into simple steps. And as far as having something on hand just in case something should go awry, Worms Eat My Garbage is a great book on the subject. It just may be the "bible" on worm composting. Since I've been so involved with my worms and bin over the past several days I thought I'd share my process. It is easy breezy and doesn't take long at all to put together.

The first thing that you'll need is the bin, or plastic container with a lid that snaps shut. I bought mine at the local grocery for $3.97. It looks like it's about 5 gallons, maybe a bit more. Here's a picture of it...



The worms need air, moisture, food and darkness. To make sure that they have plenty of air you need to drill holes into the bottom of the bin, along the sides and in the lid. For the bottom I used a 3/8" drill bit I believe and put a hole in each corner and then in the center. Since the worms are surface dwellers there is not too much threat of them sneaking out any of these holes. I'm sure it could happen if they aren't happy with their environment but so far I haven't had any escapees. So, in the immortal words of Sarah Palin, "Drill, Baby, drill".

After you've completed this step you'll need to prepare the bedding. You can use something as simple as newspaper but be sure to remove the glossy color inserts. Then just shred it into strips, lots and lots of strips.



You are going to soak the shredded newsprint in water and wring out the excess water. It will look a little like paper mache pulp. You don't want it sopping wet because you can drown the worms. Wetting it simply provides a little moisture and humidity to the bin.

Layer a good inch or two on the bottom of the bin and you are ready to put the worms and food in. Remember not to feed meat or dairy products. I tossed in a coffee filter, some leftover cooked white rice and some potato peels to start. The worms don't actually eat the food directly, it has to break down a little first then they will be able to ingest it.

It's been a few weeks now and our worms seem to have settled in nicely. I am looking forward to worm babies. I started out with a little more than 1/2 pound and would like to get a solid pound or a tad more. We divvy up our vegetable scraps and put half in the outside compost bin and half, probably less than half really, in the worm bin. We've given them plain toast, asparagus trimmings, tea bags, coffee filters, eggshells and basil trimmings.

Since we've started doing this I've become so much more aware of what goes into the trash. We always used the city recycle bins for paper and plastic but food scraps always went straight into the trash. Now I notice just how much food scrap we were tossing. So much for the quickie how-to lesson. If you're interested in a much better step by step video, check out the sidebar  and under the DIG IT column you'll see Apartment Composting. It couldn't be easier.

I haven't posted since my most recent bout with diverticulitis. It was a pretty severe episode, at one point I thought that the only thing keeping the blood pumping was my anger at having a really, really bad health insurance plan. The last trip to the ER back in February cost me $2,000 which I had to put on a credit card.  It went towards my $7500 DEDUCTIBLE!!!

The best thing to come from that visit was that the ER doctor wasn't sure what was causing such severe and prolonged abdominal pain. The best he could figure was that it was either an ovarian cyst that had ruptured or maybe, just maybe a bout of diverticulitis. He sent me home with a course of antibiotics for diverticulitis that I frugally tucked away should I have to duke it out with the real thing. Once you have that pain, it is unmistakable and I knew that the February visit was something else entirely. I'm going with the ovary theory.

Diverticulitis is a bit like appendicitis in that when it ruptures it is pretty grim and yes, it really is an emergency. I had a rupture in Madison that opened towards my back as opposed to my abdominal cavity. Still, I spent three days in the hospital. After three days in the hospital and follow ups with various doctors I probably spent no more than $500 out of pocket. That was 7 years ago. Compare that with a 3 hour visit at an ER in February which cost $2k. I was really in a bind. I knew that I could not go to the ER again.

I started the antibiotics that I had tucked away and it helped a lot. I was taking metronidazole and cipro (aka flagyl). After about 12 hours I noticed a difference. After a few days they started making me  really sick. I don't know what was worse, the original abdominal pain or the side affects from the meds. But  the jewel in the crown is that we are so short staffed at work that I could not bring myself to miss any more than a few hours. I felt like I had to stop the meds so I could show up at work. I didn't want to but I only work part-time as it is and I didn't want to put out my co-workers. I hated having to stop the antibiotics. I really do NOT want to build a resistance to them. So I stopped taking them after only three days. I am really worried that the infection is still active. I'll have to talk to my doctor next week when I go for a visit.

The most frustrating thing was trying to get any clarification about my insurance plan. The office manager has no real managerial experience or training or higher education. She's a mom which, as we all know, is a job in itself. She can deposit checks and call vendors with a grocery list of things that we need for the clinic. But choosing an insurance plan for a small business? No. She left a message with the insurance agent but of course the insurance agent is in no rush to call her back. He's taken his payment and any inquiries at this point can only mean a problem or discontinuation of his services. He's in no rush to call back. So a week and a few days later, there is no resolution regarding insurance. What I am dealing with here is the office managers utter disbelief that the deductible is so high. She doesn't know "what happened". What happened is that there was no idea as to what was being agreed to. Once she hears from the agent about the deductible, and not the CSR at Blue Cross, then maybe we can get a new plan.

At this point I feel like I've been tithing for years to an insurance behemoth. Money is deducted every week from my paycheck for something that I cannot use. The best I get is a yearly well woman exam and a drug co-pay. I've paid thousands of dollars over the last few years and this is what I get out of it. I am wholeheartedly for health care reform. Tax me. I've already been paying for a plan that I cannot use. Take the same amount of money out and give me a plan I can use. Call it socialism, call it what you want. I don't care. I don't see either of our parents complaining about depositing their social security checks - another federal plan. They are happy to use Medicare. Thank you federal government. So why not a health plan that everyone can use? I'll be first in line.

I didn't forget Part II of the worm bin set-up. I am going through a particularly bad flare-up of diverticulitis. On a more exciting note, I just received a book I ordered through Amazon Marketplace, Worms Eat My Garbage. It covers everything vermiculture. I recommend it!

Finally. The worms no longer exist only in my imagination. They're in my kitchen! I've been playing with the idea of having a worm compost bin in the kitchen for some time now but all the unknowns kept haunting me. I, for one, do not want the fragrant aroma of brewing coffee mingling with the pungent stink of rotting fruit and vegetables, nor do I want to see worms creeping along the walls and floor of my kitchen and  I do not want to attract roaches in any way, shape or form.

I'm pretty comfortable now that none of that will be an issue. I put together a really simple bin and will share the process in the next day or two. So if you want to follow along go get your tools. You'll need:

• a charged drill, or electric drill
• at least two drill bits, 3/8" and 3/16"
• a plastic bin with lid that snaps on, approx 5 gal. or larger
• shredded newspaper
• water to soak paper
• some kitchen scraps
• possibly some peat moss
• red wigglers, approx. 1 pound

Make sure you use the red wigglers. They look small but the smaller the worm the more efficient. In the Austin area Wybo's Wigglers is the go-to source. Gordon's been in the biz for 31 years and knows his stuff! 

Check back soon and I'll explain how to put it all together. If you can't wait, check out my sidebar under Dig It and follow the link for Apartment Composting.

I was paging through a few Jeanette Winterson books this evening. I was a serious fan in my early 30's and leafing through the pages of Sexing the Cherry and Gut Symmetries reading excerpts, I remembered why. Here's a little snippet from the first chapter of Gut Symmetries:

"What is it that you contain?
    The Dead. Time. Light patterns of millennia. The expanding universe opening in your gut. Are you twenty-three feet of intestines loaded with stars?
    The Miracle of The One that the alchemies sought is not so very far from the infant theory of hyperspace, where all the seeming dislocations and separations of the atomic and sub-atomic worlds are unified into a co-operating whole. This is not possible in three spatial dimensions or even in four. Ten, at least, lure us out of what we know.
    Star-dust that we are, will death lose its sting? Theoretically there will be no death, only an exchange of energy into what is likely to be another dimension."