Gardening – Kween's Krafts

Some of the best things in life are discards. That’s the reason behind the popular phrase:

“One man’s trash, is another man’s treasure”

As the child of a hippy I was ingrained with the principles of reduce, reuse, & recycle and I saw it in play at my great grandmother’s house everyday. She was a teenager during the Great Depression and that immensely shaped her way of life. It was the reason that even when she moved to a city she always grew a small vegetable garden. It was the reason she repurposed old card board boxes, and saved scraps of old fabric.

You never know when hard times will hit and your capacity to see the possibilities in different objects can be the difference between having what you need and having nothing.

When I started my garden this year I bought tomato cages for my tomatoes and also for my cucumbers because I experimented with vertically growing them last year and loved it! I was looking for large tomato cages and was only able to find regular sized ones.

I was super bummed. But as luck would have it a neighbor was wanting to get rid 2 super large tomato cages. These tomato cages are amazing! They are as tall as me, and are easily 20 years old, with these large stakes that you have to pound into the ground to keep them in place.

The holes are big enough to fit my hands through and easily pick the tasty cucumbers, even the biggest ones! The only problem they had were that they were rusted from years of use. But I knew exactly how to solve that problem!

So off I went to favorite home improvement store for some metal sandpaper (Yes, the sandpaper you use on metal is different from the sandpaper you use on wood. If you didn’t know this before, file it away for future use because it’s important!). While there I also bought a couple of cans of Rust-oleum spray paint, and I found a beautiful sage green color!

After about 2.5 hours of good old fashioned elbow grease and all the sandpaper I bought, I had some rust-free tomato cages, sorely in need of a pretty coat of paint. Add another roughly 30 minutes for spray painting and then overnight drying, just to make sure all the paint was set properly, and I had a wonderful climbing trellis for cucumbers!

I did the math on my project vs. the tomato cages I originally bought for the cucumbers. I spend about $15 on 2 tomato cages, that were not what I really wanted, while the other cage project cost me about $15 in sandpaper and paint, and 3 hours of labor, but were more perfect for my purpose than anything I could find to buy. I find that a very worthwhile investment because now I have have them and they are rustproof for years to come!

I know my grandparents would be very proud of me for not giving up on my vision and not shying away from the little bit of hard work that stood in my way. I also know that they would very happy with the pickles I plan to make from my crop of cucumbers this year!

Now I just need to wait for the cucumbers…

… I’ll try to be patient.

If any of you are gardeners or plant tenders than you understand that every garden, every year and every plant is always a work in progress (WIP). Everything, from the choosing where to plant to turning over the dirt, is a constant game of tweaking and changing.

I am always scouring books, websites and online videos for the more information on how to grow my plants as naturally as possible. This year I researched what I could grow along side my laundry list of herbs, veggies and fruits, that would keep unwanted, harmful pests away. As usually I found some useful information, some things I already new and some weird stuff that on further investigation was complete gibberish.

This year my biggest discoveries changed my whole approach to my garden.

I found out that my Cucumber Beetle (pictured below) infestation was so terrible because the garden patch had not been tilled in several years. So about 1 month before the last predicted freeze, I rented a lovely gas-powered tiller, and tilled my garden bed… a lot!

I also found out that several varieties of flowers and herbs work as bug repellent just by being in your garden and growing. I researched the flowers and herbs to find which ones would grow best in my climate and settled on Marigolds, Nasturtium, and Garlic chives as people the most beneficial to my garden.

Another bit of information I gleaned was that while a completely segmented garden area might be easy to navigate, it does not always make for the tastiest or most prolific plants. Several sources suggested planting based on how you use the produce, for example, who doesn’t love tomatoes and basil? It’s a classic pairing, great in soups, on pizza, in sandwiches or on a nice sliced baguette with a bit of mozzarella. So why not grow your basil with your tomatoes?

Basil is also a natural pest control, but I learned that last year, in my garden ravaged by Cucumber Beetles The 5 basil plants had the only untouched foliage in my entire garden, and honey bees were very pleased with them as well. So this year I grouped herbs with my vegetables to give them the best chance of success. Here’s the map of my garden I created before planting to ensure maximum yield while still preserving some kind of walkway to be able to harvest all the tastiness:

Not shown here are numerous garlic chives and scallions planted around the other plants.

This year is a test to see if this style of gardening is in fact better for the plants, and also to see how well the additional flowers and herbs (and all the tilling) worked to keep the harmful pests away. Also new for this season will be the addition of several hundred lady bugs to the yard! I’m anxiously waiting for them to arrive.

I am still researching more things about gardening. Please don’t think I am an expert, for I am surely not. This is only my second season, and my first real experience with actual gardening. Having been born and raised in a city, all my previous garden endeavors have been contained to pots.

What are some of your favorite gardening tips? Have you learned any garden related tricks from your own green thumbs? I would love to hear from you.

Category: Gardening

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