Postal fun and games cont'd; gardening

[ewt]

eBay seller extremely polite and apologetic over the behaviour of UPS; I feel kindof bad now because it isn't really her fault they suck, but thing.

I'm thinking raised beds for the garden this year. I'm thinking raised beds made out of plastic commercial newspaper/vegetable shipping crates; there are about six of them in the empty lot near where I live and it should, in theory, be easy enough to saw the bottoms out and put them on the ground and fill them with soil. Except I probably can't saw much at all right now without knackering my arms.

I will probably organise a "help ewt tidy/plant/weed her garden" party at some point, I'm just not sure when. I'd like to order a huge amount of soil and mulch to be delivered, but that isn't really on the list of financial priorities right now; I can't buy it little by little and carry it home because even the smallest packages are too heavy for me right now. Maybe some of the compost has actually composted enough to be used, though, and there are always the free coffee grounds from StarBuck's (if you are there please pick up a bag for me!), and there are leaves and stuff that blew into the front garden that can be used as well. I don't think that's going to be enough to fill even very modest raised beds, though. Arse thorns. And I also want a much bigger potato stack this year, and that takes a lot of soil.

It would be No Bad Thing to put newspapers over the veg patch and weigh them down with rocks or something, before the weeds completely take over. I think I can probably manage that on Monday without hurting myself. Actual tidying activities, as opposed to mess-prevention, will have to be concentrated on inside the house for the time being.

It's time to start starting off plants indoors pretty soon too. I'd like to do this somewhere other than the kitchen counter this year, as that was pretty unpleasant for mstevens and doesn't really have as much space as I'd like anyway. Also I need to re-pot the hydra aloe vera plants AGAIN. I swear I hardly look after them at all and they just keep on growing. I don't understand.

Comments

[crankles.livejournal.com]

That's a cool idea, the wooden produce boxes. I have also seen pictures of people who did it with old dresser drawers, which are easy enough to find. I can't wait to get better garden space so I can try raised beds. This year, I'm afraid it will mainly be container gardens and a few snap peas and sweet potatoes in the tiny little garden area. I need to find a list of good shade vegetables that will grow in my region.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

My aloe vera plants all DIED. I suspect this is because I droughted them and then gave them lots to make up for it, which then made them rot, but anyway. You clearly have aloe vera green fingers.

I will help to saw things and stuff. I am good at breaking stuff.