garden addition: fire pit

My blog had a drought the entire fall season, but that doesn't mean I wasn't doing anything in the garden; I was just too busy to write about all that was happening! One of the garden projects we tackled was the addition of a fire pit.

This ended up being a fairly simple and economic project. Supplies purchased at the Home Depot, totalling $50, included: river pebbles, lava rock, and the 'decorative' concrete block surround. I already had a shovel at home, and Whit provided 95% of the labor.

We did not use 'fire-rated' concrete blocks, rather we opted for the type used mainly in constructing decorative retaining walls. Not being 'fire-rated' means a few pieces may crack over time and need to be replaced. The angled edges of the concrete block made the circle easy to achieve without any gaps in the border.

The location we selected is in the middle of our tiny back yard, which is slightly sloped. (Any fire pit should be at least 10' away from exterior walls) Our fire pit is approximately 2.5' in diameter, with a portion set into ground to accommodate the slope while keeping the top of the concrete surround level.

Once the 10 concrete blocks were placed along the edge, Whit dug down several more inches and we started filling in the pit with one bag of river pebbles followed by one bag of the larger lava rock. The lava rock was purely an aesthetic choice, but I think adds some authenticity.

The final elevation of the rocks sits several inches below the top of the concrete blocks. The fire pit works great! But if Whit had to do it over again, I think he would have made the pit even deeper, to accommodate larger pieces of wood. We will probably add another course of concrete blocks to achieve the same affect.

With the addition of a few camping chairs, our new outdoor entertaining area was complete! Of course, Whit wishes that our fire pit were larger (probably a guy thing). We were limited mainly by space and proximity to the house. I think the size is just perfect.

We had several fires throughout the fall and in to the winter. My hope is that this outdoor space will be used year-round. It will be interesting to see how the moss holds up to the foot traffic and heat, since it is too shady to grow grass in the back yard.

Garden Year In Review

It has been months since I blogged about my garden so there’s lots to catch up on; and I thought I would review this year’s garden successes and failures. By all accounts, I was far more productive in 2010 than I had been in previous years. I may not have weeded as much as I could/should have, but I had a modicum of success with the hollyhocks, veggies, and herbs. Also, I hope to have some quality compost to add to the garden at the start of the next growing season.

Into the fall we enjoyed tomatoes, peppers, and fresh herbs. I definitely plan on growing Romas and Cherry tomatoes again, but I may look into other beefsteak and heirloom varieties since Big Boy and Mr. Stripey didn’t perform as well. Although by all accounts, this was a difficult year for growing tomatoes in my area. The unseasonably hot nights prevented the tomato flowers from pollinating and ergo many folks had smaller yields this year.

My tomato staking system worked well; at one point all of the tomatoes were taller than me and I had to attach them to nearby shrubs and walls for support. Just before the first hard frost, I harvested all of the remaining (green) tomatoes and brought them inside to ripen. We had home grown tomatoes ripening for almost two months after that!

I plan on growing more peppers, especially more hot peppers next season. The jalapenos were very successful. I may try my hand at a few other varieties including Serrano, Poblano, and Banana peppers too. The red peppers fruited so late that I wasn't able to harvest a red pepper, instead I plucked the ripening (green)peppers off the plants and made stuffed peppers with them. All of the homegrown peppers proved far superior to their store-bought counterparts.

The last of the parsley was harvested two weeks ago, as it was snowing; and I'm frequently cutting sprigs of fresh rosemary for various recipes. Next year I will keep cilantro seeds around to plant every few weeks as they will inevitably bolt before I’m able to make my homemade guacamole. Thanks little sis for my new mortar and pestle!

This fall’s garden maintenance mainly consisted of cutting back all perennials, veggies and taking out the tomato and pepper supports. This was made slightly more cumbersome by the mesh fencing I installed mid-growing season. Using two of my favorite garden accessories, West County waterproof gloves and Felco pruners, this task took about fifteen minutes.

[It’s important to note that like rose clippings, tomato plant refuse shouldn’t be composted because there is a high likelihood of diseases outliving the composting process. I have decided to burn such debris in our fire pit.]

The reason the West County gloves are worth mentioning is that not only are they waterproof and washable, they’re warm. It is still easy to grasp things and do slightly detailed garden work year round. Also, the insulating material makes pruning tasks blister free!

The Felco’s are garden essentials and with proper cleaning and sharpening should last a lifetime; all parts are replaceable. The ergonomic Felco 6’s fit my petite hand very well and are the best pruners I have ever used. This size easily cuts through branches 3/4" thick. But one should be careful, they are very sharp and powerful; I have inadvertently cut through a small rock with these pruners before.

I have daffodil bulbs to plant if I could find the time when the ground wasn’t frozen. October through December is the best time to plant spring-blooming bulbs. The two varieties I have to plant are ‘Ice Follies’ and ‘Mount Hood’. 'Ice Follies' is a large white daffodil with a bright yellow center. 'Mount Hood' opens up a pale yellow, and then quickly becomes an all white giant trumpet. Both of these naturalize readily and perform well in the south.

Typically, I like to see daffodils planted in large swaths (anywhere from 500-1500) to create a bold statement in the spring. Since my gardening area is so small, I will be planting mere handfuls of them here and there. Van Engelen is an economical source for large quantity orders; another daffodil source I use is Brent and Becky's Bulbs.

corn, corn, everywhere, but not a kernel to eat

Freddie and his siblings flew the coop a few weekends ago. On Friday night, all four were in the nest. On Saturday morning, there was only one baby bird. By Saturday afternoon, there were none. Thus concludes our short stint as baby bird guardians. I wonder if bluebirds come back to where they were born to lay their eggs?

Just when I think the garden is winding down, my red bell pepper starts fruiting like crazy. I think this was caused by my pinching it back a few weeks ago, I was tired of it growing and growing without setting fruit. I hope there’s enough time for them to mature.

The ‘Black Cherry’ tomato is doing well and still producing lots of little tomatoes. The ‘Roma’, ‘Big Boy’, and ‘Mr. Stripey’ are still producing fruit, but it has been weeks since we were able to harvest a tomato (tomato thief). If they get close, I may just pull them off the vine early and let them ripen inside.

In the last big storm we had, the top of my large Butterfly Bush toppled over; so I had to cut it back and it looks a little unsightly. That hasn’t seemed to discourage any of the butterflies, luckily. I’ll have to do a better job of pruning this fall when I can really see its structure.

The Roses Of Sharon are completely hitting their stride now. At first I was disappointed in the lilac blooms; but now I’m overjoyed because I have three different colors at once. The white blooms which I love and remind me of my grandparents are now flowering alongside the lilac and pink blooming shrubs. It’s a beautiful palate of colors.

The Evening Primrose is STILL blooming, especially now that our evening temperatures are cooling off. That plant has got to be near the top of my “no maintenance required list.” Other no maintenance all-stars include the Oakleaf hydrangea and catmint that I have in the front beds and have basically neglected all season, but you’d never know!

Summer is definitely winding down. We’ve had a few evenings where temps dipped down into the low 60’s! I love the cooler weather, but I’m missing the long days of summer already. However, fall is one of my favorite times of the year; what with grilling out and college football, does sit get any better?

I’ve started reading ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’, by Michael Pollan. This has been on my ‘plan to read’ list for sometime. I had read Pollan’s ‘Botany of Desire’ years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Despite the craze, I had put off reading ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’, mainly because I thought it was an anti-meat eating campaign. So far though, the focus has been primarily on corn.

Turns out corn is in almost EVERYTHING: it feeds our livestock, fills our gas tanks, creates our processed foods, sweetens our sodas, and on and on and on. Corn and its cheap (government subsidized) products have a lot to do with our country's obesity and diabetes issues too. Not to mention our dependence on petroleum...

And while it’s not altogether new information, it has reminded me why it’s such a good idea to buy organic when possible. I prefer grass-fed beef (I felt like they were probably happier cows than feed-lot steer); but it wasn’t until reading this book that I was faced with the health and ecological consequences associated with the feed lots.

I’m finished with the first third of the book, having mostly to do with corn. The following are some of my notes from the book in the hopes that I may interest others in reading it. If you eat meat, shop in a grocery store, or have concerns about our reliance on fossil fuels, it’s a must read. Needless to say, I’ll be abstaining from chicken nuggets and reading more ingredient labels in the future!

 Government subsidies acct for nearly half of an Iowa corn farmer’s income.
 Without humans to plant corn every spring, modern corn would disappear from the earth in just a few years because it physically cannot reproduce on its own.
 Fritz Haber, the “father of chemical warfare” discovered how to synthesize ammonia while working on dirty bombs for WWI. His discovery, which won him a Nobel Prize, allowed us to fix nitrogen to the soil and completely revolutionized our industrial food chain.
 It takes more than a calorie of fossil fuels to produce a calorie of food in our industrialized agricultural food chain.
 Cargill is the largest privately held corporation in the world; Cargill and ADM combine to purchase 1/3 of all American corn.
 3/5 of our corn ends up on American factory farms, being eaten by primarily cows, who are not corn eaters by nature. Corn fed cows are problematic; this diet makes the cows sick, creates antibiotic and acid resistant bacteria, and creates a toxic waste dump of their feces.
 1/5 of America’s petroleum consumption goes to producing and transporting our food.
 From birth to slaughter (1200 pounds), a cow will consume the equivalent of 35 gallons of fuel, that’s a nearly a barrel.
 1/10 of our corn crop ends up in our gas tanks.
 The chicken nugget, invented in 1983 is the reason chicken has surpassed beef as America’s favorite meat.
 Of the 38 ingredients in a chicken nugget, 13 can be derived from corn.
 The most alarming chicken nugget ingredient: TBHQ; this toxic preservative is derived from petroleum and is a suspected carcinogen and known mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector.

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