Winter Derailment, and News From the Landlord

So the guy that talked to me about the "free compost" from the City? You know, the leaves? Well I don't know if I'm doing that next year. I had ONE LOAD of leaves (hereafter called Huge-o Pile) delivered at the beginning of December--which only leaves two months to compost over the garden before you're supposed to be planting sugar snap peas (February). Hmm. Who thought that up? That's not enough time. Especially when two snow and ice storms come during the Winter, you have to borrow a wheelbarrow to haul the leaves because the pulling them through the yards on a tarp didn't work, and it takes you thirty minutes at a time to haul three miserly batches to the garden. Those huge heaps-o-waterlogged-leaves in the wheelbarrow don't cover very much garden space. About a 2X2 foot square I'd say.

Complete waste of time.

I still have an enormous mound of them in my driveway (making it so Ali can't park there), and it's the end of February. I've got two writer's conferences to get to in the next two and a half weeks, and my 40th birthday party to plan. Planting peas isn't going to happen anytime soon. And what am I going to do with pile?!

Move them to the garden, of course. BUT, it'll probably take me until July. No worries though, because it's looking like I'll be needing to move after all.

Landlord decided to sell, and I'm not eligible for a VA loan like I was hoping. Plan B is in force, and now I'm just at the waiting stage.

Which is my very favorite part.

Or, since I didn't do my Spanish practice today (or yesterday, or the day before): mi parte muy favorito.

This also means that, once again, I'll either be planning a move--or moving--during the planting/gardening stage of the year. Harrumph!

Ali says not to worry, We'll container garden.

Spreading the leaves seems superfluous now, but still needs to be done before moving, I figure. I'm sure the landlord would have something to say if I didn't move them. Plus, having the "garden" composting under leaves means that I don't have to weed-eat the area. Win!

Moving, or maybe not moving (probably I won't know for months--which is highly irritating because I can't pre-plan anything), prevents me from starting on the permaculture model I wanted in my back yard. I'm not going to work on the garden or chicken fence now. Nor get chickens. And I'm certainly not going to plant any fruit trees. Or collect rain water in giant barrels I haven't acquired yet.

I could still prune the roses and the blueberries and raspberries. And it's possible to get a $40 "green house" from BiMart and start tomato and pepper plant seeds. I can plant them in pots and give away the  extras I won't need. And I can plant annuals in my flower box in the front yard. I can plant herbs in the kitchen, too.

I'll keep it smaller than I anticipated (by a long shot), until I know where we'll be living. Then the garden/permaculture planning can start anew! Other ideas: if I can't buy a house, or find a rental that has garden space, I will container garden the whole way (a bunch of pots all together look really cool),

and/or garden in Ali's space (if he hasn't moved in with us by then.)

Yeah.

It's sounding like container gardening is where I'm going this Spring/Summer. I have a reference book on it I bought years ago. I guess it's time to check into it. Start thinking about, anyway.

Look back next week for a post on Mason Bees and Container Gardening Plano Numero Uno.

Prepping My Oregon Yard

Somehow I think that planning a garden, and readying the backyard for Spring, will be a far more enjoyable task when I live in the Costa Rican jungle. A cold, wintery Eugene, Oregon doesn't instill the necessary oomph. I am simply not inspired to rake wet leaves and mow and fill the yard waste bin.

Fifteen minutes a day. Just fifteen minutes a day. That's what my boyfriend, Ali, says. So last Sunday we spent a short amount of time on the front yard. He loaded up the yard waste bin with tree limbs and blackberry bramble vines that had been stacked under the now-naked cherry tree from last summer's pruning, and I raked about a quarter of the yard's leaves into the street for pick up -- careful to avoid the water run-off drain.

And I felt good. I mean, Yeah, the front yard doesn't really look like it's been touched, but I know it has been. And I know it's fifteen minutes closer to being done.

A recent snag in the homesteading efforts includes my landlord telling me he wants to sell the house I live in. (Sigh.) I had envisioned staying at this house that I've grown to love, for all the years until I moved to Costa Rica. The back yard is huge, and full of edible landscaping. There's room for chickens and a garden. I like the neighbors across the street, it's near a playground that both my older children like to go to -- for separate reasons -- and I have a great dog-walking route I use in the neighborhood that I really like.

My landlord has offered the sale of the house to me, and it is possible if I can qualify for a VA loan. Paperwork must ensue. And that means finding the necessary documentation from the attic, filling out forms, and waiting. Lots of waiting.

Which is my very favorite thing to do.

Also, it means waiting on the gardening plans. I don't want to have garden beds made, and soil delivered from Lane Forest Products, and seeds purchased from Territorial Seeds -- not to mention the time and energy of planting and weeding and caring for a Winter/Spring garden -- if I can't buy the house and it's sold out from under me.

I haven't told my children about any of this. I don't want them to either worry, or get their hopes up.

One step at a time.


One thing is certain though. I will have a garden. Even if it's in containers, or at my boyfriend's house. I've used the excuse before that I was moving during the growing season, and so couldn't have a garden. But not this time. Even if I do have to move this summer, I'll at least plant some strawberries in a strawberry pot, and grow some flowers and a tomato plant. Plus, in the Willamette Valley, there are loads of local farms where I can U-Pick a grand harvest of blueberries, peaches, apples, corn, or strawberries and can or freeze them. If I can't grow more than a pot or two of something, I can at least share in the local harvest and preserve it.

There are blackberry bushes everywhere in Eugene, and I can pick for free and make blackberry jam, and freeze any leftovers for making blackberry crisp, pie, and yogurt. Mmmm.

Every year I have such great plans for growing, harvesting, and preserving food. I don't even feel like they are out of line, or over the top, goals. Sure, challenging, but definitely doable. And every Summer and Fall I forget that I need to stop socializing or taking on ANY new projects until the harvesting is over. That's how they did it way back when, and that's still how it needs to be done today.

Despite the pattern stated above, I have a good feeling about this year. I really do. I could not qualify for purchasing my house, and I could have to move my little family yet again. But I'll have help through all of it, and whatever happens isn't a giant roadblock. It just might mean that my urban homesteading efforts will be summarized into a couple of terracotta pots with basil in them, instead of the growing little suburban farmstead I envisioned.

But that's okay. Everything happens for a reason. So, we'll just wait to see what transpires.

And then I'll figure out why it happened.

~~

In Costa Rica news, I got an email today with a new YouTube video that Christian Mena made. (He lives and works at Osa Mountain Village, and is helping to get Serenity Gardens Eco-Village up and running.) The video is ... amateur ... but certainly better than I could do. It's not of great quality, but I loved seeing the potential of the place, and the work they are starting to do on it.