Home improvement, gardening, upcycling, arts and crafts: proving a streetcar-suburb homestead in the lungs of Seattle.
This is rarely a "How-to" blog and more of an "I did" journal, a record of the ideas, innovations, and renovations that go into my DIY-lifestyle.
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Almost ready for launch! All that is left is a few coats of varnish. Thanks everyone for all of your help!
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kiyo:
174 GRAND, BROOKLYN NEW YORK
The green roof has approximately eight inches of soil and absorbs rainwater runoff. (via Peek Inside 8...
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“I am inspired by vintage or used objects: records, books, furniture, anything that has a history.” —Mike Stilkey
Artist Mike Stilkey, whose...
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Suave Mediterranean Revival by jadalles1533 on Flickr.
738 North Tuxedo Avenue - DeLand - Florida
Architecture by Medwin Peek - 1926
This... -
Interesting bathroom…
via thestyleaddict
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Now that we finished planking the bow, we’ve decided that it would be fun to put another gaping hole in the boat. New shiny transom on the way.
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More pallet porn: Wine racks made from pallet wood.
Adding to our repurposed-pallet Pinterest board.
(photo via MyBrothersBarn on Etsy)
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How we eventually won the battle against slugs #happyherbsThis “summer” I learned the hard way that slugs and snails absolutely love basil and... -
I swear that I can’t go a day without putting another hole in the boat.
Tag Results
23 posts tagged broccoli
Ate my first broccoli tonight — steamed and plain, it was delicious. Looking forward to more!
Broccoli continues to thrive, though it’s not yet producing florets. A few of the plants seem to be getting munched on still, but overall it’s doing great.
In which I rant about gross things
It is earwigs eating my broccoli.
They were crawling all over the plants when I came home last night. I am so grossed out. I didn’t even realize earwigs ate plants — I know nothing about them except that they’re gross, and I know I should learn more about them (so that I can kill them), but I hate hate hate looking at pictures of bugs, earwigs in particular. Ew ew ew.
Also, Waste Management workers are on strike, so my curbside yardwaste wasn’t collected this week, which means my bin is full of maggots. Ew ew ew.
Also, my peppers and basil are being munched on by tiny slugs, as has happened previously. At least they’re drowning themselves in beer.
Beer trap among the broccoli. We’ll see what I get tomorrow. Incidentally, this might have been the first time I’ve purchased beer. I don’t drink it (I prefer cider), so I don’t know why I’d have purchased it previously.
Something is eating my broccoli and it’s not me. I’ve had several people tell me that they’ve had trouble with their brassicas getting preyed on, and to let them know my experience.
I know from previous summers that there are a lot of tiny slugs that come out at night to munch, so I’ll set some traps this evening (if I remember) and see what I find tomorrow.
Distributing more broccoli today: this batch is bussing in to work with me today for handoff during a regional coalition meeting.
Broccoli has perked up and started to thrive in its new surrounds, and I wasn’t even home to water midday.
Just direct-seeded a bunch of late summer stuff. I thought about making a fancy computer diagram, but I’d rather use that time gardening.
This is actually more or less to scale (graph paper is great!); the broccoli is the seedlings that I planted out a few days ago, which in turn is the Hybrid Broccoli Blend from Territorial Seed Company.
The Swiss chard is Bright Lights from Territorial Seed Company. I planted about half the package, and will plant the rest of it in a few weeks.
The beets are Red Ace Hybrid from Territorial Seed Company. Again, I planted about half the package.
One of the spinaches is Beaujolais from Uprising Seed Company. I have two packages of this, so I planted all of one. I planted Bordeaux from Territorial a few springs ago and loved it (before I neglected it too much), and this looks like a very similar variety.
The other is Tyee from Botanical Interests. It’s supposedly bred for the Maritime Northwest (and with a name like Tyee, I’d hope so), so we’ll see how it does.
The carrots are Autumn King by Territorial Seed Company. I may have planted them a little early for autumn/winter harvest, but that’s okay.
The bok choy is Toy Choy by Botanical Interests. I like bok choy, and this matures in less than a month.
I bought my seeds from Swanson’s Nursery here in Seattle this time (I try to do half my shopping at Swanson’s and half at Sky Nursery, since they’re both great local companies). I got lettuce, kale, and some other stuff to start inside, and fill in the gaps and the space from the broccoli. I’ll also plant more carrots later this fall — the Rainbow Carrot Mix from Uprising Seeds, if I remember to order it — and more beets: Bull’s Blood and Touchstone Gold from Uprising Seeds, I think.
Planting out the Broccoli
After a week neglected in the front yard, I finally had time to plant out the broccoli seedlings. The chickens helped clear the raised bed last week, and it only took a few minutes with a fork and a rake to finish the job:
The dirt is lovely, after almost two years fallow and no trampling, and needed very little working to loosen up. I make a goal of making dirt that I don’t have to use a shovel to plant in, and therefore this was perfect. I scooped some holes out, dropped some seedlings in, spread some mulch, and done:
The task did not end there, though, because I still had a lot of seedlings left over. I transferred most of the leftovers into newspaper pots, to give out to other people. I don’t know if anyone reads this in Seattle, but let me know if you want some broccoli starts; I have quite a few unspoken for:
But, the task was still not complete. This part is where I took a deep breath, made peace with the universe, and accepted one of the tenants of gardening: you don’t have to plant all the seeds that sprouted, and it’s okay to only devote energy and garden space to the most vigorous. This is paired with the tenant that there is no garden “waste” because anything not used goes on the compost pile. So, I transferred the best seedlings and didn’t weep over the less vigorous ones.
It’s times like this that I like to remember Elizabeth Zimmerman’s classic advice, given for cutting a basted armhole in a sweater: but applicable in so many different situations: “[do the task], then lie down in a darkened room for fifteen minutes to recover.” I think at another point she recommended having a stiff drink to soothe your nerves. Either way, I had to do neither in this case, but thinking of that advice helped the transition from “seedling I grew with my own hands” to “compostable material”.
Anyway, a day later, the planted-out broccoli is transitioning nicely, although I have to water it frequently while the roots recover; the plants get a little droopy in midday July sun:
Now, the slow march to harvest.
Basil and broccoli spend a few last nights inside before starting their life outside.
Setting out the basil and the broccoli again today. The backyard is mild and warm; I figure they’ll be ready for the hot sunny front by Saturday.
