Season Three: Still Nefarious

The Nefarious Plot is back in business! We apologize for the long delay. Our gardening energy has been focused on organizing a new community garden with refugees, a church, food bank, and high school in Tukwila. But after the delightful “2nd Annual Community Garden Summit” in Tacoma, we have returned to our roots, and are growing again.

We planted one plot so far – with strawberries (from a coworker) and kale, broccoli, and lettuce (from the Summit). It’s exciting to be growing again, and all the plants are doing well.

Stay tuned for Plot #2 (and maybe even Plot #3)…

Broccoli, kale and strawberries!

Fully planted with lettuce, a few days later!

Harvest!

Yum! Lettuce, peas, and radishes have all reached harvest time. This is remarkable since I have not watered them a single time since planting! Instead, the alternation of sun and rain did all the work for me.*

peas gone wild

Close-up on some peas and lettuces…

mmmmm

And so I’ve had some delicious salads, and homegrown lettuce on the last of my Thundering Hooves burgers…

Yum.

didnt last long in this form

* A couple days ago, Rachel told me she and Rosie watered them a couple times… so my story is not quite true. But I maintain the plants would be fine even if they hadn’t.

Sprouted

Great things happening in the garden! 2 rows of peas, beans, radishes, lettuce, and tomatoes are all coming along strong:

peas, peas, beans from above

A side view:

beans, peas, peas, lettuce

I spent the day in the yard – mowing the lawn with our old-school manual lawn-mower, weed-whacking with our old-school hand shears, weeding, and planting more lettuce. Who needs power tools?

So, dear reader – what of your plants have sprouted?

Garden week

So I got (re)inspired last week at the Tacoma Kickoff for the new community gardens. Kristen (the city’s facilitator) was talking about how gardening is an amazing way to experience an intimate connection with the earth – the best – and it sunk in. I try to achieve that through running long distance over trails, or skiing down mountains – and those work – but there’s something even deeper about sitting in one place and being with plants as they grow from dry seeds into harvest. So, as soon as I got back from our trip to Smith Rock and Mt Hood… I got back into the garden.

peas on tuesday

I planted the 2nd row of peas, put in a row of beans, scattered some radishes where the lettuce didn’t grow, and then mowed the whole yard (with an antique “acoustic” push-mower) and weeded Plot #2. Picked up some more Cedar Grove tonight… ready to plant Plot 2 tomorrow with Rosie’s tomatoes and more lettuce.

Plot 2 ready to go

Next week: Plot 3 gets last year’s broccoli (still flowering exuberantly) taken out, compost added, and planted with squash. Yum!

Plot 1: peas & lettuce

Peas!

The weather’s been crazy – spring in February, winter in March, summer in April, spring again… and I was afraid all the cold might have killed the peas before they even sprouted.

Every time I plant a seed, he say
Kill it before it grow
– “I shot the sherriff”

Anyway, a couple weeks have gone by and the peas sprouted! They’re even bigger now – leafing out and a few inches tall. All the drizzle and rain has been good for them.

Rosie planted the tomatoes, but the weather hasn’t been helping them out… hopefully they’ll survive and I’ll have photos of them soon. We also have a ton of seeds for other fun plants… and are taking suggestions for what cool veggies to grow this year.

Community garden work in Tacoma is going well – we had about 80 people at the New Community Gardens Kickoff last Wednesday – and folks are organizing on all 7 new sites around the city (let me know if that link to the map doesn’t work)… in addition to 3 or 4 other non-city-sponsored sites like this Eastside collaboration between the Puyallup Tribe, city, and neighbors we’ve been working with. Exciting!

Oh, and I don’t think I ever posted this final harvest photo from last season…

harvest 2009 yum

the nefarious plot thickens

welcome back nefarious plot readers! viv may be gone in china, but the garden must go on.

spring!

spring came a month early to seattle this year – february 20 the cherry trees were blooming all over the city. march 20 real spring sprang, and we celebrated with a community garden summit in tacoma. i love my job – i get to organize people and start community gardens. over 150 people came, the mayor surprise-announced that the city is creating 7 new community gardens, and we had a rocking local lunch. (photos here!)

i was so busy with the Summit that i fell behind on my own garden… luckily i learned a ton from the amazing folks in tacoma (and seattle), and am now linked in with some really cool work. (there’s talk of a local food campaign…!)

the good news: the infrastructure is already in place. last year we dug the grass, built the beds, rigged bamboo structures, and added compost. so last month i pulled the weeds, and composted last year’s fruit-vines…

Last season’s fruit is eaten
And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail.
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
-TS Eliot “Little Gidding”

and so… on Sunday I bought more cedar grove compost & seeds… and on tuesday I added the cedar grove, spruced up the bamboo, and planted a row of peas!! rosie’s been growing tomato sprouts & herbs inside too…

garden plot & joans house

updated plot at left; my house behind

beans, green.

We got our first green beans today, ou comme les gens Francias dis, nos premier haricots verts! They are kind of skinny, but that’s how I like ‘em.

Leaving for the East Coast tomorrow so we will see what surprises the garden will bear in a week unsupervised…

cat in a bag … homebrew … and a contest for peas!

our cat loves going into bags… even cat-trap bags that somehow fly away!

can i has LET ME DOWN?!

a recent dinner included lettuce from our garden and our CSA, oxbow farms… along with salmon from pike place market, asparagus from PCC and beer mikey brewed!

yum!

and finally, some wildflowers from our climb up silver peak last weekend. fresh peas to anyone who can successfully identify them! (click photos to enlarge)

lupine? ... and viv

red & purple?

red...? and abiel peak

pink...? and malinda

trillium!

post your IDs as comments!

how do you spell tomatoes?

tomatoes? tomatos? either way, we have one!

baby tomato + flowers!

and the peas are splendid! i have eaten many… its funny how the taste gets so much better when they’re fatter. i usually have at least one on my ride to work in the morning…

big peas! lots of peas!

the pea plants are getting so big they’re threatening to pull the whole structure down. time for some reinforcements.

oh and the beans are getting fiesty too. they need some serious upward-heading strings, if they are to become pole beans…

first fruits!

the tomatoes and peas flowered a few days ago…

flowering pea plants!

and then yesterday i looked at the garden and WE HAD BABY PEAS!!! TONS! And big ones too! 1-2 inches long. Yum yum yum…

baby peas!

first peas!

who wants to help eat them?