Bean pole teepee update

Well, we did attempt to do a beanpole teepee, but we failed miserably.

We planted some seeds inside and were thrilled with how quickly they grew so tall. But they were much too tall before we were ready to plant them. We created a teepee structure out of twigs cut from trees in our yard but we didn't take the time to properly prepare the patch of ground where we placed it. Some of the plants broke during the transplanting into the ground so I planted some seeds directly into the ground to replace the broken plants. It did start out pretty good but it was quickly overcome by weeds. I did try to get rid of as many weeds as I could and I did add some bags of soil around the poles but I didn't do enough weeding or add enough soil. I also had trouble distinguishing between weeds and plants. The final blow was when we had a big wind storm and the structure fell over. I was disappointed but I will try again next year.

We're going to try to do a BeanPole TeePee!

I'd read about BeanPole TeePees years ago and always wanted to do one but didn't have the garden space for it.  Now I do!  In this video Anna shares a book that I used to introduce her to the idea of the BeanPope TeePee.




We have been working on our beanpole teepee and will be posting some updates soon!

Seed Planting Updates May 2012

Before I revived this blog I had started posting some videos to YouTube. I was hoping to do a video series with my 6 year old daughter about our attempts at planting seeds indoors and then eventually transplanting them into our garden.  Unfortunately I ran into some technical difficulties so the videoing came to a halt, but I am hoping to be able to restart them again soon.

Here are the videos we did so far about our seed planting attempts:







Episode three of Gardening with Anna wasn't about our seed planting but about a visit we made to a local greenhouse and garden store.

Come Tour My Yard - May 2012

Back in May I walked around my yard with my iphone in hand and did some videos of what the yard looked like at that time.  It is the first of I hope many video journals that will document the transformation of our yard.  I also have some pictures of what the yard looked like even before these videos that I am hoping to find and post.  Anyway, for now I'm just going to post the three videos I took in May.  At some point I want to edit these all into one video but I just don't have the gear to do that right now, so, I invite you to tour my garden in these three videos.

New home, new community, new gardening opportunities

After laying dormant for almost four years, I have decided to revive this blog.  In August of last year I moved to a new community and into a new house with a totally unlandscaped yard.  Our land measures 75x200.  Lots of space for a lovely garden.  I have hope that I may finally manage to develop a green thumb and be able to trade in my greenhorns.  I have the space to work on it and I have decided to document the process here.

I have no illusions that it will happen quickly.  I know it will be many years in coming for many reasons.  One of those reasons is my own lack of knowledge and experience but another reason is the state of the land at the present time.  While it is a big piece of land, at least in my eyes, it is also a big mess. The house is on some built up land but there are many sloping banks around it and they are not gentle slopes.  It is apparent that there is a whole lot of garbage under the ground as there is a whole lot sticking out of the banks.  Not a pretty scene. We are doing our best to clean it up but it will be a while. 

So, this sleeping blog is waking and it is here that I will share our attempt to turn our yard into something beautiful.  I am writing this for me, because I want to document the journey, but you are welcome to follow along if you want.