garden give-away!

okay, technically i am not giving away a garden, but thanks to blog reader jamie’s great suggestion, i am doing a little garden-y give-away…

the last few weeks have been insane around here. my community has been going through some stuff, which i will probably post about at some point, but it’s been sucking away my brain space. so, sorry for the absence from the blog.

the good news is, i thought i would come back with jamie’s idea, and that is to do a contest of some sort and to award a prize (yay!!! who doesn’t love prizes?!?!?!?!?). the first contest, since my brain is on hiatus, will be to ask you to come up with an idea for a contest (hahahaha- evil blog laugh! it’s a long-standing teacher trick to pass off your work onto other people while making them like it! straight outta tom sawyer and huck finn… anyone want to paint a fence???)

anyway, the coolest idea wins a prize package of delightful seeds. they are either organic or heirloom or both (depending on the individual packet) and all are non-GMO. since they come from botanical interests, and some were gifted to me, i think it’s only fair to include them as a co-sponsor of this contest

you will receive:

sweet meat winter squash
delicata honey boat winter squash
napoletano basil
italien red of florence onion bunching/scallion
kentucky wonder pole beans
crimson giant radish
carnival blend carrots (these are SO pretty!)
confetti california poppies
there is a fair chance that as i look at my seed collection, this list will grow, but i promise you that you will get at least this many for your prize

and if the mood strikes me, i may even include a surprise of my own…

obviously i will like all of your ideas, but i will be forced to choose just one…

so, think on it a bit, and then hit me up. if you had a blog and could do a garden-ish give-away, what would your contest be???? and don’t forget to thank jamie!

you know you’re getting old when…

on sunday i went to an engagement party for a young couple who will be moving to our neighborhood. the girl is from LA, so i was telling her how hard it was for me at first to find my way around seattle. she was looking at me blankly, so i explained, “you know, all the hills. and the streets sort of end in one place and then pick up somewhere else. so it took me a long time to get used to. and i couldn’t even get to the store without panicking that i’d get lost. i remember the first time i realized that i’d actually made it to target on my own it was, like, a major milestone!”

so she says to me, rather incredulously, “um, GPS?”

and i literally scanned through my mental rolodex: GPS???? CPS? KFC? QFC? gaps? gups? what the heck is she talking about?????

and it took me a good minute to realize that she meant the thing that tries to talk to you in the car while you are trying to concentrate on driving and not getting lost.

and that, ladies and gentlemen, is called a generation gap.

what the cluck, indeed

holy cows alive- i’m so incensed it is taking a supreme effort of self-control on my part not to rip the guy to shreds who is being interviewed against Randy Zeilinger (a man in garden city, Michigan who want to keep a few chickens). my first instinct was to take notes as I watched this news clip and to write you my blow-by-blow, but-as always- I am trying to keep this blog family friendly, so I will let you form your own opinions. meanwhile, I am off to draft a respectful letter to city officials in garden city (what the heck is it with government officials in Michigan?!?!?!?!?!?!?!) and try to get in touch with randy and give him contact info for my former attorney. once more, I count myself so lucky to live in seattle, and once more, I find myself so incredulous at how petty/nosy/ignorant/obnoxious/etc etc etc people can be…

ugh…

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/22148903/garden-city-man-could-get-locked-up-over-chickens

http://ferndalechickens.com/2013/05/02/garden-city-mi-man-sentenced-to-jail-time-on-the-criminal-charge-of-keeping-chickens/

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/convicted-criminal-chickenkeeper

toto, i don’t think we’re in detroit any more…

a few nights ago i was in a gardening class sponsored by the city of seattle. the presenter was talking about places you could put a garden, and of course he mentioned the very commonly under-utilized front yard. he said, with a bit of disdain, “some people have lawns that go all the way up to the front of their house, but that’s just not pretty at all!”

and i cracked up laughing, remembering the city planner from oak park, proudly puffing out his chest and telling the media that a nice lawn and some bushes or shrubs was what they wanted to see in front yards in oak park.

what a difference, and what a contrast!

another thing that struck me: in oak park, the “beautification committee” had a paltry 6 members, although it was completely free, open to anyone, and well-advertised. one of the members was in her 30s, but the rest were all elderly grumpkins who all wanted to sit around and complain about their neighbors whose yards weren’t as beautified as their own. they only gave awards for flower plantings, and those only if they were planted “neatly” and “attractively”. they sat around and schemed ways to give out less awards than the year before, despite the fact that the city wanted these awards given to encourage the citizens to spruce up their properties.

in seattle the gardening class was packed. i literally had to wait in a very long line to get in, even though everyone who was there had registered in advance. they provided free snacks and went out of their way to get engaging and knowledgeable speakers. they offered prizes at the end of the class, drawn by raffle, and enter you in a grand prize drawing if you go to all four classes in the series. they gave really cool handouts, packed with valuable information, and repeatedly told us about a free hotline we could call for more advice or to get step-by-step instructions for more complex endeavors. they are passionate about people taking responsibility for their land, even if it is only a tiny parcel, and they actually walk the walk, with city policies that encourage you at every turn. they WANT you to take initiative and be creative and just rock out with your garden- the cooler the better!

oh, and at least one city worker thinks lawns are not so pretty and gardens are a much better use of your front yard space

i was tempted to warn him that he should be careful before coaching people to engage in illegal activities, but i figured i would let it ride and just enjoy the class… and wouldn’t you know- i DID enjoy the class!

so, go seattle!

i can’t remember what the next class is, but the last class in the series is about setting up rain barrels, so *h better get his tools out!

exciting stuff here- what’s going on in your neck of the woods???

some pics from the garden

these are long overdue, and they are before i put up the trellis (aha! suspense! so now you have something to look forward to… )- but here are some pics from the preliminary garden…

here is one of the planter boxes that people thought was for feeding horses in detroit. do you remember it?

here are agnes, madge, twinkle, and ruby, hanging out near the garden, trying hard to decide whether or not they can eat the seeds i just buried…

this is a shot of some of the formerly criminal raised beds. don’t they look frightening????

and here is the compost pile, delightful buffet platform for all chicken meals and snacks. doesn’t it look yummy???

if i can’t have an alpaca…

friday afternoon I started out looking for a sheep to eat my back lawn.

if you know me, you can probably guess where this is headed. I couldn’t find quite the right sheep, but I did find some promising alpaca. (is the plural of alpaca still alpaca?) not only do they eat grass, but they enjoy blackberries, and their supplemental feed is pretty cheap. they choose one spot to go potty, so clean-up-wise, you can’t get much better than that. they are completely adorable, and if you can get past the fact that they sometimes spit when they are frustrated- and c’mon, who doesn’t???- they are downright good companions. add to that the fact that they get along with dogs and chickens and you have yourself a winning combination.

but my kids boycotted the idea.

why do they get a vote, you ask? quite frankly, I wonder that sometimes myself.

meantime, I will have to content myself with enjoying alpaca/s from afar.

or, in this case, their near cousins, the wacky llama:

you’ve probably already seen this…

but I think we can all use a good laugh, and this absolutely had me cracking up!!! I was almost in tears (in a good way!)- enjoy!