The GreenRoost Blog

The thought of spending money and resources on watering useless grass had been bothering me for a while, and about 5 weeks ago the decision was made to take the plunge and convert the back yard into a garden. If I am going to water something, it’s better be edible (or at least should look pretty).

A friend mentioned that we should rent a tiller (we live in Texas where the soil is not that fun to dig due to it’s rather clayish properties). On a Sunday morning we headed out to Home Depot, rented a tiller, and full of excitement - got started.

I did suspect that tilling would be a workout, but I did not expect THAT! Never mind me - the tiller seemed to have a mind of its own, wondering off down the hill, refusing to cut anything but the grass tips and dragging me behind like a useless appendage. I think a drunk elephant on speed would have been way easier to control!

Luckily (for me!) my husband grabbed the tiller. He managed to handle the first half of the planned garden area quite well, but just as you start feeling confident about defeating Texas gumbo - it lets you know where you really stand:  one of the tiller blades broke.

We returned the useless tiller back to Home Depot and got busy with a pitch fork. Surprisingly, digging clay with a pitch fork seemed way easier than trying to handle a drunk elephant on speed (at least it wasn’t dragging me around the yard). Slowly but surely we turned the dirt, mixed in some compost and landscape mix, set up the beds and laid the stones around to keep the beds in shape as well as to keep the weeds from growing back into the beds.

Results?

Well, now - 5 weeks later - I am so happy (and deep down - pleasantly surprised) to see things grow. Radishes should be ready to be harvested in about a week (I was worried about them because the roots looked like little match sticks, but now I see a few finally swelling up). Spinach, lettuce and beets are going. Squash, cucumbers and a few cantaloupes seem to be growing, but very slowly (must be the cold fronts that came by a few times recently). Peas are about a foot tall, and potatoes are growing like crazy! Carrots - not so much. Most of them seemed to be stuck in the baby-leaves stage for 3 weeks (must be the TX clay!), and I decided to replace them with other edibles whose growth pattern is better suited for my patience level. Basil, parsley and dill are finally coming up (they did take at least 3 times longer than what the seed package promised). And surpringly - garlic (it won’t be ready for harvesting this year, and I planted it for organic pesticide purposes only from garlic I bought at Central Market) is doing really well. (Central Mark-Up could be worth it after all!)

Here you can see beets, lettuce, spinach and radishes in the middle bed. The next bed to the right has cucumbers (can’t see them too well.. just yet), potatoes to the right, and peas and squash on the back. A few petunias for color and as prevention from potential complete failure (if everything else had failed, I knew petunias would be the true troopers!)

The potatoes! I am used to gardening in colder climates, and I can’t believe that its only the begining of April, and they are so huge!

And a view from the porch. Here you can see hops (on the front). My husband is big into home brewing, and due to the recent shortage of hops (partially because of the ethanol production) we are growing our own. More peas to the right, and beautiful blooming irises on the back.

Oh - and the semi-green house with the stone floors. (In my motherland, green houses are built on top of beds, and the glass/clear plastic is covering up the dirt, not stone floors). The previous owners built this green house for growing orchids. But since then the orchid-growing system has been broken, and since I don’t care about orchids that much anyway, I am using it now for container gardening and starting plants from seeds for transplanting. I’ve been putting the egg shells into the tomato containers for calcium, and - they are loving it: 3 small yellow tomatoes already (and it is only early April).

We took the plunge and converted part of the front lawn into the garden as well. Next post with pictures is coming up.