Put to Good Use

My new compost crock...

is actually my mother's old bean pot, which I've always loved.  My mom used it to hold sausage balls for community meals, and that's all I've ever done with it, too.  Until this morning, I had it sitting on top of my cabinets next to a ceramic rooster and an old oyster tin for decoration.  

For five years, I've been re-purposing plastic containers (usually margarine tubs or milk jugs) to hold my veggie scraps.  Not the most aesthetically pleasing choice, but being free and reused counts for a lot in my book.  However, I'd finally decided I could justify buying a more attractive container as a permanent fixture next to my sink.  It only occurred to me yesterday that I had the perfect crock right under my nose!

Hunting for Inspiration

I see yards and landscapes differently now as I drive around.  Wide open lawns just seem like wasted spaces where neighborhoods could grow so much food!  And beautifully, too!  As much as I love my gardening books, I love seeing the way "real" people garden next door and down the street.  It inspires me to see what is possible, what can be grown successfully in my climate, how small and odd spaces can be used.  This weekend, I drove around to some points of inspiration in my neighborhood.

This entire carport is so beautiful! Proof that small and odd spaces can be transformed, giving people without gobs of land a way to grow food.

There wasn't much growing here at this point in the year, but the remnants are still inspiring. This twisty raised bed is in the middle of a typical Fort Worth front yard.

 My picture does not do this yard justice. This home is on our trick-or-treating path, and is the real-life yard-garden that finally made Evan a believer in beautiful, edible front-yard landscaping.

 

I have a lot of work ahead of me and a long way to go in re-imagining and re-purposing our yard into a productive, edible space.  My two current gardening book favorites are "Edible Landscaping" by Rosalind Creasy and "The Edible Front Yard: The Mow-less, Grow-More Plan for a Beautiful, Bountiful Garden" by Ivette Soler.  And I'll keep hunting for more local inspiration.

Silly me

I was under the laughable impression that colder weather would mean I didn't have to battle pests for a little while.

 

This morning I decided to take a close look at my backyard pea plants. I'd noticed some yellowing around the base of the plant, which was the beginning of the end for my peas last year. So I perched on the edge of my raised bed in a very unladylike squat and began peering through the leaves.

Aaaargh! The dreaded discovery of pest leavings!

I plucked off the worst bitten leaves to take a closer look... flipped one over... Can you see that tiny little green worm?

Hello, who do we have here?

I take great, and I suppose sadistic, pleasure in disposing of bad bugs. I have not arrived at the point where I can smile benevolently at these pests and acknowledge their place in the world. No sirree. We squish bugs at our house with fervor.

I'm still figuring out what I'm dealing with - cabbage worms, cutworms, or something like. In the meantime, I've sprayed Neem as thoroughly as I can, I'm going to go handpick bugs off of every leaf during the baby's nap, and then I'm going to consider cornmeal traps, DE and an investment in nematodes or something.

Let the battle begin!

In happier news, my broccoli plant is growing.  I'm determined to learn to grow things from seed, and so far most of the things I direct sow grow at a miserably slow pace.  But I can actually see progress in the broccoli and it makes me happy.