Considering a Temporary Sunshine Snatch

[primsong]

Our next-door neighbor rather suddenly passed away a little bit ago and the house now stands empty... it's a half-acre, not a starter home, so who knows how long until it even ends up on the market much less sells to anyone? I'm eyeballing the garden area, which she never used but I always coveted -

She just occasionally had a yard-guy come by to blow-and-rake around the old raised beds. I get so little sunshine that I can barely grow peas and cherry-tomatoes, but over there... well, it isn't Sunshine City, but it's better than I have.

Read a blog entry where a fellow said an easy way to use a neglected raised bed was to simply plop the entire bag of planting mix down on it, cut away the top of the plastic, poke holes in the bottom and stick your seedlings right into it. Think I'll give this a try with something easy like summer squash and green beans.

This way even if the house fills up before harvest time, I can share - it makes it look less neglected and empty and I get at least one year where I can maybe grow some veggies that actually...you know... grow. :-) Fruit I have in spades, but veggies are another matter.


Maybe it will be a zucchini-bread year. Are any of you making plans for springtime planting yet? Anything new going to be tried?

Comments

[lothithil.livejournal.com]

I hope it is zucchini... mebbe I'll get a visit from the Zucchini Fairy on Leave-A-Zucchini Day! :D

[primsong.livejournal.com]

I'd heard of Leave-A-Zucchini Day but had forgotten it - right now I would love to have extra zucchini, yes please. Well, maybe unless it was one of those that got forgotten under the leaves and grew to the size of a jumbo whiffle-ball bat before being discovered...

[estellye.livejournal.com]

Who would have a problem with somebody using neglected beds in a vacant home to grow veggies? Certainly not whoever actually owns and wants to sell the place, since you'd be providing free staging for them. I say go for it! If I owned the home, or even was the person who bought and moved into the home, I would grant you unlimited gardening access in exchange for a loaf of zucchini bread. ;)

[primsong.livejournal.com]

What's funny is that's essentially the deal I had with the lady who lived there - I picked her blueberries in exchange for getting to keep some, made jam from her plums and gave her a couple jars, etc. We just never got to the potential vegetable aspect because I thought dragging my hose over and squirting over the wooden fence seemed a bit much with her often right there on her deck.

And I have a killer zucchini bread recipe with miniature chocolate chips...ooo, yeah...

[stellastars]

Currently my family is having a huge debate just about the location of a garden. Our old spot needs to rest a bit... I'm personally supporting the idea of planting random patches of veggies amongst the landscaping, but that's mostly cause I don't feel like having to be the one to clear a whole other area for the garden!

It's a great idea about planting right with an entire bag of mix... I might have to keep this in mind -- thanks for sharing that tip!


Also, sorry to hear about your neighbor! :-(

[primsong.livejournal.com]

Amen on the not wanting to clear new area, such backbreaking work - I saw a garden magazine recently that was advocating people with those little postage-stamp backyards plant vegetables and such in planters and among their shrubbery to make it more productive, why not? It might even be pretty. :-) And yeah, I like that bag idea, definitely going to give it a try, I'm plotting now how many bags I want to haul in.