More Uses for Old Materials

As the garden is just plugging along doing its late summer thing, there’s not much to write about. So, I’m going to go back in time almost a year and tell a tale of recycling.

It used to be a pool, now it’s an arbor.

As I’ve detailed in previous posts, my Shaker garden was created almost entirely with materials salvaged from an old pool that was in the backyard. The only things we had to purchase were plastic to line the plywood and soil for the raised bed. Extras like mesh netting to keep the rabbits out and all the nails, screws and other fasteners were repurposed from previous projects. There was quite a bit of wood left over from the pool after the garden was built.

Still some wood waiting for another project.

My husband was able to make work benches in the basement and the garage from pieces of the pool. He also made a wonderful grape arbor. Behind the garage there is a pair of grapevines. They were just growing on the ground and climbing the nearby trees when we first moved in. So last October he decided to make an arbor for them. He took some of the longer boards from the pool and made four uprights and a top frame. He then used his circular saw and a chisel to make notches for the crossbeams on the top of the arbor.

He then dug four holes at the back corner of our garage and we worked together to square the thing up. The vines themselves were more toward the center back of the garage so once the arbor was set he guided them to the nearest upright. Then we waited through the long winter until spring when the dormant vines woke up again. The vines must have liked the arbor. By the middle of June, they had crested the top and began winding their way through the crossbeams.

First grapevine buds of the spring.

Little leave and grapes in early May.

Look at those vines go!

We let the vines grow with little care. We tucked them up into the arbor occasionally but otherwise did nothing special to them. We found that Japanese beetles really liked the grape leaves. Since we had no plans for the vines and the beetles seemed content with the leaves rather than chewing up other plants around the place, we let them go. The leaves are a nice shape for dolmas, though. I’ll have to get on them next year before the insects do.

Japanese beetles are destructive but rather pretty.

The grapes themselves are nothing special. If we really wanted grapes to eat or make into jelly or whatnot, we would probably pull out the vines and plant different ones. As it is now, the vine is more of a decorative thing and I like it that way.

Past-ripe grapes.

A lovely sight from my back porch.

And the birds like it too!

A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That

When people ask what I’m planting in my garden, I tell them “everything.” They laugh and I laugh and it’s all great fun but it’s also sort of true. I am planting a lot of different things this year. There are two reasons for this: 1. since it is a brand-new garden, I want to see what actually grows well in this climate with this soil and 2. I have accumulated a lot of seeds over the years and I want to use them.

I am taking inspiration from the Shakers so I’m planting vegetables they would have traditionally planted – beans, beets, carrots, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, cantaloupe, onions, parsley, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, sage, spinach, squash, tomatoes and turnips. I’m also stepping out of the Shaker model a bit and planting soybeans, kohlrabi, fennel, kale, chard and pak choi.

The bulk of my garden space is devoted to annual vegetables but I also planted some perennial favorites - asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, horseradish, chives and thyme. I have always wanted a strawberry patch, especially since I haven’t been able to make my annual picking trip with my grandmother. She’s still alive and well at 90 and still picking strawberries but I’m a couple hundred miles away now. After her hip replacement some years ago, one of her physical therapy goals was to be able to get down on her knees and back up again to pick strawberries; a goal she achieved, by the way.

With the gorgeous, warm (almost hot) weather of the past few weeks, I found that all the garden stores were out of things like asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries so I had to order them online. I don’t like ordering live plants like tomatoes and peppers, though. I would rather have a good look at the plants in person. So, even though it is still too early to plant such things, I went to the greenhouse this weekend. I worried that if I waited I would not get the varieties I wanted. It was a successful trip. I got a Juliet tomato plant (my favorite), as well as, a Beefsteak, an Early Girl and a yellow pear tomato. I got peppers and eggplants, too, and some perennials for around the house. Now, we just have to keep them alive until it’s time to put them in the ground. At least with the humidity up we can use the water from the dehumidifier in the basement to keep them watered.

Plants from the greenhouse waiting to be planted.

I’m afraid I was rather short on pictures to illustrate this post but here are some photos from this weekend.