Source and Source

This is my entry for the Steemit Community Garden Journal for June being run by @simplymike.

I've been hanging out waiting fort this chance to showcase my growing garden... not many changes... but it's turning into something that I'm pretty happy with... my wife on the other hand, has much grander plans in store

The Front Garden

Well... we have found someone who will do our front garden. He is a gentle giant, over 2 metres tall and probably weighing about 3 times my weight! It's funny talking to him, I'm looking at the sky! Anyway, he is really nice and has been working away at our neighbour's place, revamping their garden... and it's really cheap and decent work! He's just waiting on us to finalise our plans and when he is finished next door then he can get started on our front garden plans....

So, our plans (as far as I understand it... I'm not the one in charge...) for the front garden is firstly to build a half underground bike shelter (similar to the photo above, that is not our garden!).... however, ours would be half sunken into the ground which would make it less high. Then we hope to have a garden bed on to or at least ivy covering it. Plus, we wouldn't mind putting up a hedge or some sort of higher bushes at the front... at the moment, you can see straight through our living room from the street... all the way to our back garden!

However, there was a bit of a question as to whether or not we would need a building permit (environmental?). for the bike shed. We had done the online checker... but as Dutch is not our native language, and these administrative things have their own "special" language... we were still unsure! So, a quick trip to the Gemeente (Town Hall) led us to realise that the law had indeed changed sometime in the past ten years... and yes, we would require the cheapest level of permit. Fine, no problem.... best to be on the proper side of construction law! So, time to draw up plans... and then we can get to work!

There is something that we do need to think about though... currently, we don't have a water outlet for the front... something that will need to be fixed... or we might need to buy a long hose to get from back to front...

Indoors

Our indoor plants are a bit of a disaster... it is my plan to try and start introducing more of them. However, they just seem to die quickly... probably due to our negligence. One possible solution is this cool Terrarium that one of my students gave me for helping her through her schooling in Mathematics. It's an elegant self contained ecosystem... humidity and nutrients are all self contained... if something grows too big, it dies a bit and all the nutrients go back in to the closed ecosystem to feed new plants! It's a really cool idea... supposedly, you don't have to open it up at all and it will all be fine... but in practice, my student said that it might need to be opened up once a month.

The Back Garden

The weather has been pretty decent recently... and now that school is finished for the year, I'm getting some help from the older kid. She's pretty interested in helping out for a little bit... before getting distracted by something else... like the neighbour kids... or just doing cartwheels. However, when she is helping... it's a nice way to spend time together!

The younger one is much much more keen to help out... although, her "help" is of slightly more dubious quality. However, it is the thought that counts I guess... and as long as they aren't undoing the work that I'm doing then there is no harm... after all, bugs need castles to live in....

One thing that she really does well though is carrying around the watering cans to water the plants... although, most of the time... she ends up getting more wet than the plants do.... at least, she isn't pouring it on me....

During the month, I imported some ladybugs from the school playground (which has so many ladybug larvae) in an effort to combat the aphid problem. Needless to say, I probably looked a little bit strange hunting down the ladybug larvae in the school playground... but in no time at all, I had lots of kids wanting to help out!

As for the intended effect, so far... I think it is working... at least there are less aphids... but I can't say for sure that it is because of what I did... however, like any shameless politician, I will take credit if it is there... regardless of whether or not there is a direct link or not. However, if the aphids come back... it is definitely someone else's fault!

With the great weather... comes great weeds.... or is that power and responsibility? I'm not quite sure... probably power and weeds.... anyway, to help combat that particular problem, I bought this huge hand pump spray. You pump the top... and there is enough pneumatic pressure to spray out the liquid for quite a while! For the weeds, I'm using a vinegar solution... I read that you can add salt as well... if you want to be particularly viscous... however, it can be a bit dangerous as nothing will grow in the ground then.... so, I've left it at the vinegar... I'm just doing the weeding, not trying to get Napoleon to over-extend.

Behold... in the hedge was the world's biggest weed (in Rijswijk...). It was pretty damn big... and I thought that the roots would be similarly embedded in the ground. So with a giant heave... I found out it really wasn't... the root system was incredibly shallow in sand... and I broke my arse!

Our little fruits have started to bear fruit... which means that this year... I'm putting up nets to keep the birds away. I did a pretty hack job on one set of strawberries... but in the end, I got some half hoops and did a much better job on this set of strawberries. However, strawberries being what they are... they started to sprout new shoots outside the net... sigh, you try to protect them... but they just don't want it...

... the cherries on the other hand, are much better behaved... and look like some really abstract sort of scarecrow... maybe I should put old clothes on it?

The kids have loved doing the plucking of the little bits of fruit that we've had.... I always have to wait until there are an even number of fruits to pluck... The strawberries and the cherries have done the best... but we are waiting patiently for the grapes and blackberries to pick up colour and be ready to eat. Both the grapevine and blackberry bush are really very heavy with fruit... just not quite ripened yet.... speaking of which, I really should net them....

As per my wife's orders... I have to try and train this climber over the door and around and down on the other side... so, I came up with this idea... which looks alright from the ground... but pretty hacky from above. However, it is only the ground view that is important.... plus, my wife is scared of heights... so she can't change it anyway! So, I know it will grow across at least... however, I have no idea how to get it down on the other side... plants tend to grow upwards... not downwards, and so this might be a challenge. Maybe I should have a UV ground lamp on the other side to encourage it to grow downwards?

... and last but not least... there is a new bug hotel in our garden! Just above the lavender and herbs. I'm not sure that it is the best place for it, but there was already a nail in the wall there.... it might be just a touch too exposed to the Sun and too clear for birds for it to be a very good place for insects. I'll see how it goes... if it doesn't work, I'll move it to the other side.