#first garden

[verses-of-the-dark-mother]

Then Lilith did darken, and her rage rose like sand in a strong wind, and it scoured the place where the Trees would not grow, where the seeds lay fallow in the earth, and she cursed Jehovah for his pride. Then she cursed herself for her pain, and for the love she bore for he who betrayed her. And her first garden was swept away in her wrath, until it stood no more.

- The Genesis Fragment; The First Garden of Lilith. P.47 Revelations of the Dark Mother, Vampire the Masquerade

[comfortspringstation]

Gardening Tips For Beginners

[rae-redacted]

In other news, a fungus decimated most of my seedlings, so I repotted the ones that still had viable roots. I think the hyacinth will make it. The tomatoes are doing great though, and they're the most important ;) !

[verses-of-the-dark-mother]

Lilith chose a rich and fertile land, with three rivers making up its borders. And she did drape her garment of Night over this land. From her garment, she plucked a handful of tiny stars, and she did scatter the stars across the land. And those star-seeds did bear wondrous plants and fruit trees and all manner of growing things but these growing things were not those of Jehovah's Eden, for they would only grow beneath the shelter of Night, and beneath the light of Lilith's moon. And Lilith walked often in her Garden, and she did feed the growing things of her own life's blood, and they flourished and grew heavy with fruit.

- The Genesis Fragment; The First Garden of Lilith. P.47 Revelations of the Dark Mother, Vampire the Masquerade

[desireeceleste]

Today’s garden check in!

I harvested 2 of my adult kale plants for a hominy based green chili soup today. The kales stunted out because of the heat so I had to pull them before they fried. I also grabbed the baby kales that I had densely planted in a planter box and some chives for an omelette this morning.

The potato plants are thriving so hard that one is setting flowers. I also moved one of my basil baby pots to the potato side to see if they’d like that spot better. The arugula in the pots behind the potatoes finally sprouted and are popping up with some fervor. Those pots went from seeing only dirt to seeing a ton of sprouts in a day.

The side that is almost entering shaded by the tree. My hollyhocks are blooming and the babies seeded last fall are growing steadily against the right side fence despite never seeing the sun over there.

I transplanted some bush bean starts from pots to the ground and they had a rough time adapting but are starting to push out new leaves now. And the bush bean pods I direct planted a couple of weeks ago just start coming up! So let’s see if we get any bean production from over here.

Aside from the green, I laid down a layer of kitchen veggie waste and shredded junk mail then topped with wood chips to help amend this side before trying to plant again once the leaves drop from the tree in fall. I’m debating building protective hoops to try to extend the growing season so I can grow on this side when it sees the sun again in fall. The mustard greens and spinach LOVED this spot in spring when the tree was still bare.

The salad greens are almost ready! And the arugula I set in the little green planters and in ground are finally sprouting. Everything takes much longer to grow back here since I get only a few hours of sun, but I’m excited that stuff is coming up! I start everything from seed so it’s less of a waste if things don’t grow and the seeds that can tolerate germinating in low sun tend to have a good success rate staying in low sun.

The chives are still going strong, the basil and cilantro are doing ok given that they get maybe 2 hours a day, and the beans are all just hanging out. Even if I don’t get a harvest from the in ground beans, they’re helping to amend and aerate this packed, clay soil. I have succession planted salad greens, as well.

This is the hollyhock on the back fence’s first year blooming and it’s having a rough go of it but it does have little tiny baby hollyhocks coming up around it so even if it doesn’t come back heartier next year, we have fresh ones that might thrive a little better already lined up. The hollyhocks that are going wild on the other side also had a rough first year of blooming so we’ll see that happens with this one.

We’ve been trying to figure out watering cadence back here. I put down a bunch of seeds after mulching so we’re sprinkling those areas twice a day but trying to not overwater (or underwater) the rest. Some of the pots drain better than others, so the basil and cilantro pots hold a ton of water while the bean pots need their twice daily sprinkles. We carry around a hydrometer every morning and evening to help guide us but are finding what each plant/pot likes and doesn’t like in real time.

And, finally, here is me showing off my kale bouquet because I love kale and am proud of how large these got despite their growing conditions.

[desireeceleste]

Garden check in time.

I finally got mulch since temps are reaching mid 90s already. The snap peas are slowly producing, the red noodle beans are growing steadily, my kale babies and adults have decided to THRIVE, the spinach I seeded a few weeks ago bolted thanks to this heat, and my arugula, basil, and cilantro are plooping up. I decided to not thin the green onions in the planter and instead eat them as chives, since I’m impatient and greedy. The salad greens are coming at stages and I have some that will be lunch today! Every time I tie up the pea plants I have to make a comment about my Blair Witch ass backyard.

And my potato bag garden got their bags rolled the rest of the way up today and topped off with soil. No more rolling potato bags this season! Now I can stop annoying the sweet spiders who inhabit the bags and let them live their lives. I love using these grocery bags and the rice bag, it feels like I’m ensuring they fill up with taters.

And, of course, these hollyhocks are MASSIVE. I’ve come to terms that the dirt closest to the fence is too shaded and too damaged from our neighbors leaking, chemical ridden kiddie pool to grow anything but rogue hollyhocks don’t seem to mind that. We have a bunch of baby hollyhocks coming up despite the challenges, so I’ll leave them there and have a full fence line of flowers next year. I was super disappointed about it a few weeks ago, now I’m stoked about it.

Finally, my partner and I discussed the possibility of starting a Bokashi compost bin using our extra refillable cat litter buckets. I’ve tried different compost methods before and failed miserably with them, so I kept telling him to not let me try compost again. It’s too smelly and there’s too many bugs and I get too grossed out to keep them going. But I did weeks of research on Bokashi and feel like we can give it a try with very little start up involved. We already have a lot of litter buckets and the only purchase I’d need to make is the Bokashi grain stuff. I know I’ll need to fret about this for another week or so before committing.

[desireeceleste]

Today I pulled out the last few radishes, since they were shading my little sprouts. And moved two potato sacks from the front to join their thriving potato buddies in the backyard area.

Getting up at 6am on my day off to crouch for an hour, pulling out the only weed I hate (the vining one that grows like 5 inches a day and suffocates my plants), talking to spider friends, sticking my hands in dirt, and then running from wasps promptly at 7:20am is what I look forward to all week. The backyard is very shaded, very small, and this is my experiment year, and I love everything about it.

The tomato plants will migrate to join their friends by the front door. They just don’t get enough sun back here.

While I absolutely love living in a townhome, I love being close with my neighbors and knowing someone I care about is always around, I wish I had more space and more sun. I started a garden journal and take weekly notes about what I’ve seeded where, what date I seed, what date they sprout, what date they get harvested. I know these notes will be hella valuable next year but I’m impatient to know what will work now! Sometimes I worry that I’m wasting my time with the work I do this season. What if the harvest’s not worth the work? But the reality is that in learning and having fun and this is so effin good for my mental health that it doesn’t matter if the garden stays exactly like this all season. It’s already been worth it.

Thinking about this garden and my time in it makes me so introspective and full of love. I’ve already dragged one of my neighbors into my yard to show him what I’m growing. I excitedly told him that when things come up I’ll be at their door to share. Now I’m like, ‘what if nothing comes up and I disappoint him?’ As if he and his family would be disappointed that my garden didn’t produce enough arugula to share? Silly. I just like worrying about things. Like my indoor plants, my cat, my partner, and my haunted dolls. Worrying, for me, is love. And it’s nice to get another reminder of how I love my neighbors.

[desireeceleste]

First snap pea of the season. After months of helping these vines along and monitoring their progress, I’ve got a baby snap pea!

My first season trying to grow food in my very small, very shaded yard and I still maintain low hopes. This is truly an experiment year. So this feel huge to me!