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By Alyssa, March 29, 2010 7:51 pm

I finally ordered my seeds!  Well, I ordered them last week and started to get excited about surveying my garden space when it snowed 10 inches.  Gotta love Colorado.  I have a few friends that are interested in what I’m ordering, so here’s the skinny.  I tried to pick out plants advertised as extreme condition survivors.  The old saying in Colorado is that if you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes.  It’s sure to change.  I prepped the garden area today amidst snow drifts in a tank top.  No kidding.

I ordered all of my seeds online from Seed Savers Exchange.  The following vegetable and herb seeds should be delivered within the next week.

Vegetables:
Provider Green Bean
Detroit Dark Red Beet
St. Valery Carrot
Parade Cucumber
Bronze Arrowhead Lettuce
Gold Rush Lettuce
Black Beauty Zucchini Squash
Golden Zucchini Squash

Herbs:
Genovese Basil
Giant from Italy Parsley
Greek Oregano
Thyme

I also ordered Nasturtium (Empress of India) and Marigolds (Jolly Jester) in order to strengthen the soil and deter pests.

Instead of tomato seeds, I selected transplants that will be shipped the middle of May.  Colorado is a tough place to grow tomatoes, I’ve heard, because of the short season.  I’m hoping these two plants (Hungarian Heart and Stupice) will make it through our summer hail and extreme temperatures.

I’ve put a lot of research into everything so far and I’m extremely excited to get started.  I wish I had this plan during my moving military years as a garden would have instantly made me feel at home.  Feel free to comment if you have any questions about my selections.

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By Alyssa, February 23, 2010 11:03 pm

Seed Catalogs

Missed Part I?  Click here.

I almost broke the first rule of beginning gardening.  START SMALL!

As the seed catalogs came in the mail, I found excuses to visit my backyard and dream about my future plot of greenery.  With every visit, I had a new idea. I’d build this and then move that and then buy this and… yeah, I got a little out of control.  Thank goodness I’m married to the most logical, non-emotional decision maker I know.  Hubby looked over my plans, listened to my ideas, gave small suggestions, and then, when I mentioned the cascading ivy, wild flower sanctuary, and waterfall, he put his foot down.  One vegetable garden this summer, one, uno, that’s it.  I persuaded, then ranted, then threw a mini-fit, followed by a major fit… and, well, did the only thing I could do in this type of situation.  As the mature one in our relationship, I stormed out like a teenage girl, thought about everything for a bit, and, decided he was right.  I’m such a great wife.

If I want to set myself up for gardening success this year, I have to force myself to start small.  This means no herb garden and half the garden size I originally intended to grow. Check out the new plan (Yes, I used red to show my bleeding ideas, killed until next summer.  Can you say, Drama Queen?):

I’ll still be building the kid’s sandbox (well, er… assisting Hubby in the construction) and moving the doghouse, but everything else is going to wait until next summer.  I know at the very least I want to grow cucumbers, tomatoes, and squash, but I’m still rethinking the smaller garden.  I did narrow down the seed catalogs to heirloom seeds only and decided to use Seed Savers Exchange.  To be honest, the only reason why I chose Seed Savers is because Barbara Kingsolver, my absolute favorite author, uses their seeds in her garden.  Quite the logical decision, right?

I may have lost the war on my ridiculous garden plans, but I did win one battle.  Hubby’s buying me a pretty sweet composter from Costco.  It’s his logical answer to yet another one of my crazy ideas.  Wait, did I just put sweet and composter in the same sentence?  I’d say it’s time to go to bed.  Garden plot plans coming soon!

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By Alyssa, January 15, 2010 8:37 pm

Now that seed catalogs are on their way in the mail and I’m fully committed to this garden, I decided it was time for a plan.  I’m a planner so I totally geeked out in the process.  I measured every square foot of our southern lawn and bark area.  I printing a grid on the computer and designing my future garden area to scale.  Here’s what the current area looks like:

Looking east from the fence gate

And from the other side:

Looking west from the grass

Yes, there’s still snow on the ground and I know it’s January, but I’ve got a lot to do prior to planting.  I’ve never liked the river rocks by the fence since the bark is constantly blown into them and I’m sick of the monstrous dog house in the middle of nowhere.  I want my final product to look like this:

My Nerdy To-Scale Garden Plan

First thing, find a way to move that dog house to the northwest corner of the garden area. This task sounds simple, but my engineering hubby built it.  The dog’s house is literally a scaled down home completely framed and roofed to withstand WWIII. Don’t get me wrong, Hubby’s an incredible engineer and I’m proud of his workmanship, but it’s over 400lbs. No, I’m not kidding.

Anyway, task one: Move dog mansion.  Task two: build sandbox.  What??  That’s right, before I can even start landscaping and gardening, a sandbox must be built.  The reality is that I have a four-year-old and one-year-old and these boys are not going to entertain themselves while Mommy’s out messing with the vegetables.  Wait, they probably would entertain themselves, but dumping everything out of my dresser drawers and unrolling all of the toilet paper in the bathrooms is not my kind of entertainment.  So with my garden planning, I had to include outdoor boy entertainment and a sandbox surfaced at the top of the list. I’ll leave you with this “before” picture as the area will soon include a sturdy WWIII-ready sandbox.  Have a great weekend… I’ve got river rocks to move.

See that big pile of river rocks? Imagine a sandbox in the middle.

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By Alyssa, January 11, 2010 5:23 pm

I’m going to go through with it this year.  I’m becoming a gardener. The concept of going into my backyard and picking green beans for dinner sounds delicious, but the whole “gardening” thing has me a bit overwhelmed.  I’ve decided to share my trials here as I try to get things to grow.  Here’s my super geeky gardening profile:

Name: Alyssa Aarhaus

Location: Denver, Colorado

Gardening Zone (wow, I already sound professional): between 5 and 6

Prior Experience:  Despite three moves and leaving it in the car for a few days, kept a house plant alive for seven years (Plant name: Epipremnum aureum… oh yeah, I just threw Latin out there).  Continues to keep basil, parsley, and oregano alive in planters on the kitchen window sill.  O.K., honestly, the basil’s looking a little weak sauce lately.

Gardening Goals: Grow a small raised bed garden in the back yard to teach the boys about vegetables. Hopefully grow enough cucumbers and tomatoes to can relish and stewed tomatoes in the fall.

Resources:  1. My Internet researching addiction 2. All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew and The Backyard Homestead edited by Carleen Madigan 3. Gardening friends that are patient enough to answer a barrage of ridiculous questions

Yes.  I’m a nerd, but I’m NOT a gardening nerd so we’ll see how it goes.  My first gardening discovery was the importance of seeds.  You can buy seeds from the supermarket, but better seeds produce better veggies. I went a little nuts and ordered the following recommended seed catalogs that should arrive in the mail within the next few weeks:

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Burpee Seeds
Johnny’s Seeds
Park Seed Co.
Seeds of Change
Seed Savers
Stokes
Thompson and Morgan Seeds
Vesey’s Seeds

I told you I went overboard!  I also found Botanical Interests, a Colorado company, on Twitter and I’ve been reviewing their online catalog.  I haven’t decided if I will be purchasing hybrid seeds or heirloom seeds yet.  Hybrid seeds are professionally cultivated seeds, while heirloom seeds are from plants that have been passed down many generations.  You can’t save your hybrid plant’s seeds, but there are certain heirloom plants that provide seeds worth saving for the next gardening year.  I’ll report back when seed shopping begins.

Until then, I’ve got to convince Hubby of our essential need for a outdoor 55-gallon drum composter.  I mean, I’ve got to convince Hubby to buy the drum, build the composter, and, oh by the way, build the wood frame for my garden bed.  Wish me luck!

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By Alyssa, January 8, 2010 11:57 pm

If your first response to this post’s title was “Ewwwwhhhhh,” raise your hand.  When a friend asked me if I was going to use washable diapers, my response was exactly that.  Of course, my view of cloth diapers was somewhat jaded at the time.  At eleven years old, I was considered mature enough to change my youngest brother’s washable diapers.  Several times a day, I wielded two-inch safety pins near my brother’s abdomen trying fasten that darn white cloth and struggled to pull his plastic bloomers up.

Cloth diapers have come a long way since my childhood.  It took my friend throwing a “diaper shower” for me to do the research.  The plastic bloomers have been replaced by a micro-fibered diaper shell that attaches to itself with snaps or Velcro (No more pins!) and the liners are either biodegradable or washable depending upon the brand.  After seeing a few friends use them and realizing I would save money (You’ll see this cheapskate… ahem, frugal theme throughout my posts), I decided to find a brand to use.  Here are my results after comparing a few:

BRAND	PRICE*	PROS	CONS
Blueberry Blueberry	$32.95	Diaper shell is a one-size-fits-all snap system with a variety of shell colors and patterns. Snaps are more durable when laundering. Includes a micro-terry/hemp combo insert.	Way too expensive for me, but top of the line when it comes to cloth diapers. Snap system can be confusing for care-givers unfamiliar with cloth diapers.
gDiapers gDiapers	$16.99**	Great compromise between disposable and cloth diapers as the shells fit either disposable, biodegradable inserts or cloth inserts.  Shells come in a variety of colors and patterns.	Expensive as new shells must be purchased as baby grows and shells are sold separately from liners (Liner packs cost $12-50 depending on type). Velcro tabs may wear down with laundering and scratched the skin of my friend’s baby.
Fuzzy Bunz Fuzzy Bunz	$17.95	Diaper shell is a one-size-fits-all snap system with a variety of shell colors. Snaps are more durable when laundering. Includes a terry cloth insert.	Expensive as new shells must be purchased as baby grows. Snap system can be confusing for care-givers unfamiliar with cloth diapers. Every friend of mine that used these said they leaked horribly.
Happy Heiny Happy Heiny	$18.95	Diaper shell is a one-size-fits-all Velcro and snap system with a variety of shell colors and patterns. Includes two microfiber inserts, one large and one small.	Velcro tabs may wear down with laundering. Every friend of mine that used these said they also leaked.
BumGenius BumGenius	$17.95	Diaper shell is a one-size-fits-all Velcro and snap system with a variety of shell colors. Includes two microfiber inserts, one large and one small.	Velcro tabs may wear down with laundering.
* Prices found on diapers.com
**Shell Only

After reviewing my options, I decided to purchase BumGenius 3.0 diapers.  I’ve been using them for over a year and still love them.  Zeke’s slight diaper rash disappeared immediately when I made the switch from disposables and the small insert with the larger insert works perfectly overnight.  I didn’t think about their ease of use until dropping him off at the church nursery a few times.  Some of the snap diapers literally come with an instruction manual, but my diapers are as simple as disposables.  My Velcro fastening tabs do look a little worn at this point, but they are still functioning so I’m not complaining.

My reason for switching to cloth diapers wasn’t the environment, but my budget.  Sure, disposable diapers only cost about $.30 each, but at an average of six diapers a day for a year, that’s $657 out of my pocket! After shopping around for a deal on my cloth diapers and receiving a few as gifts (Thanks, Grandma!), my total cloth diaper expense was $150 and Zeke can use them until he potty trains.  I wish I hadn’t waited until he was 3 months old to make the change because according to my calculations (10 diapers a day cuz newborns poop a lot), three months of disposable diapers cost me over $270.  I know if we have any more kids, I will be requesting a diaper shower to boost my current supply.

Feel free to ask me your questions, as I’ve probably researched them. Here are some additional notes I couldn’t fit into the post:

-Most diapers require laundering with perfume-free, dye-free detergent and washing with an extra rinse cycle.  I find my homemade detergent and our front-load washer’s “sanitize cycle” works beautifully.

-Cloth diaper micro-fiber shells do not work as well at deterring waste if diaper rash ointments are used.  If you do use an ointment, place a cotton rag in between baby’s bottom and the diaper shell.

-Disposable diapers sit in landfills for over 500 years.  Yikes!  Using cloth diapers gave me the relief that my great-great-great-great-great grandchildren won’t have to deal with my kiddos dirty diapers during their lifetime.  Hubby, on the other hand, feels no guilt when buying a pack of disposables for camping trips.  I guess 30 diapers in the landfill is better than the 2,200 we would use in a year.

-If one of you brainiacs comes after me for an incorrect budget analysis after calculating the water and electricity cost for each load of cloth diapers I wash, well… you may find yourself with a load of baby poo on your front porch.  Just sayin.