we have a few animals that like to nibble on baby plant leaves. to keep the seedlings safe from their protection, we built some nifty little cages that are cheap, simple to build and easy to remove for watering and harvesting.

here's a quick run-down of how we did it:

supplies (for one cage to fit a 4'x4' box):
- 4 pieces of 10' pvc 1/2"pipe
- bird netting (this comes in a huge roll and is enough for at least 2, probably 4 boxes)
- zip-ties
- 4 pvc pipe 3-way connectors (1/2") (see photo)

total cost is roughly $20

instructions: - first you'll need to cut down two of those 10' pipes to 4 pieces that are 4' each. you'll end up with 2 extra bitty pieces, you won't need those.

- attach the 4, 3-way pipe fittings and connect your pieces to make a square - take one of your remaining 10' pipes, stick it one of the 3-way connectors and bend it to form an arc, securing it in the opposite connector (diagonally across from where you started). you'll need to have someone stand or hold the square down while you do this). - repeat with the last 10' pipe

- cover with the bird netting, i used zip ties to secure the net to the pvc pipe but you could use twist-ties or whatever else you'd prefer (fyi, i found this step to be the most time-consuming and annoying part of the process, be prepared to be slightly frustrated if you have any tendancy towards perfectionism)
- place on top of your box and you're done
if it doesn't rain this weekend, i'll working on our drip irrigation system. i snagged a few pictures of a pre-fab kit at home depot for some guidance. and after a very detailed explanation from a super helpful home depot employee (scott in plumbing at the high street location, thank you), it seems pretty straightforward. updates to follow....

just a few shots from around the garden. hard to believe that we planted most of this hillside just one short year ago. everything has established itself so nicely here that we barely need to water anymore.

here's the only photo i could find of the area freshly planted:

just found this photo of the garden from last year. this photo was taken one week later than the photo in the previous post.

we spent saturday working on getting the new and improved (take 4) vegetable garden up and running. it's mostly up at this point but no plants in place. sunday's heat wave threw us for a doozy and killed off our big plans to finish up the drip irrigation system. i hope to get a few plants in the ground this week.

more details on the garden coming this week. for now, we have the boxes, soil, tomato trellis and tent frames for the cages built. the cages will be covered with bird netting...

oh and just for fun, i dug up some of our earlier garden incarnations. same area....hard to believe what it used to look like!

sad saturday. ripped out the vegetable garden in a fit of rage over volunteer mushrooms. i've since heard they're fine and won't kill you if you don't eat them. we were more worried about our oak trees catching a fungal disease (sounds so gross).

the good news is the vegetable garden will be back, and better than ever (third time's a charm?).
plans so far (and these are rough):

(click image to enlarge)

the light gray areas are the walkways and the gardening bench doesn't exist yet, but you get the idea. we'll be adding a drip irrigation system.

the two smaller boxes are 4' square, the larger is 8' long. the round tubs are half wine barrels and we got our compost bins from the stopwaste program.

these are a few of the books, articles and websites i've been perusing for a little guidance: square foot gardening, sunset magazine, grow better veggies, you grow girl, companion planting...a little overwhelming but very fun. in the end though it seems the best method for learning about gardening is actually gardening.

C has continued to work in the front, which reminds me that i need to take some photos....the progress is really exciting!

above photo is of my delicious lunch, which i'm sharing with you because it contains beets and chard from our garden (other key players are walnuts, capers and yet-to-be-added goat cheese)! and there was enough to make 2 lunches, not just one (which in my head means that it's a real-honest-to-god-legit garden).

the following photos are of a crazy moth/bug/insect that hung out with us last night. any ideas what kind of moth/bug/insect this might be? it reminded us of "silence of the lambs". that's probably not a great reference...


ps- it was huge. it doesn't look huge in these photos, but it was. i swear.

we had a very special guest this weekend. my 9 (almost 10!) year old cousin comes every year for an annual girls-weekend. no pedicures or manicures for this one, we put her to work. last trip she learned about pouring concrete and leveling hillsides. this time we took it a bit easier and worked in the garden. she planted strawberries, harvested carrots and beets, planted a pepper tree, took in the sunset and made pasta from scratch....

carrots and beets and chard, oh my!
i squeal like a 5 year old every time i get to harvest something from the garden. i still can't believe things actually grow (thanks to the diligent watering of one very kind german).

the carrots didn't make it past the garden (straight into the gullet). i wasn't so great at thinning the beets when i planted them. the most bountiful harvest from that area of the garden might just be the greens alone. but goodness they are so darn tasty cooked up with some garlic and olive oil. throw a poached egg on there and i'm a happy girl.

oh and that's chard peeking out from under the carrots. i've been eating that fresh from the garden. too sweet to even throw in a pan!
soon we'll be eating apricots off the tree. look at those furry babies! i can't believe how much fruit this tree is putting out after just one year in our backyard.

and finally, our beloved "alien plant". i think it's actually a pride of madeira, but it's so nutty that we've come up with our own name. we brought this home in a little half gallon pot, it died promptly but we planted it anyway, thinking we had nothing to lose. after a week of watering and then months of ignoring it, look at that guy now! he's actually taken over the staircase. not sure what we'll do with him...