lydia : an urban crunchy mama

The garden continued to grow and thrive while we were away.

  Blue Lake Beans emerge from the soil near the tepee.

  Various lettuces emerge at the foot of the tepee too.

   Rainbow dinosaur kale (foreground) and basil (background).

  Taylor’s Kandy Corn plants continue to do well. Rosemary has been sequestered to its own pot (background).

  Blackbird Spinach (foreground) and Rainbow Dinosaur Kale (background).

  Italian Flat Leaf Parsley

  Big Max Pumpkin

  Zucchini

  Strawberry

  Blue Lake Bean

 The basil plants in Taylor’s room are certainly appreciating the warmer indoor temperatures.

Taylor and I planted some Broccoli di Cicco seeds today, and they’re enjoying Taylor’s sunny window as well.

It feels so good to say that we haveour very ownvegetable garden. Carey (who teaches wokshops for Garden for the Environment and was recommended by Thais) came over again and helped us with proper seed and start positioning and with getting the vege in the ground. Yes, the tasks themselves were simple enough, but it feltreassuring to receive guidance from an expert. If I would have planted the seeds and starts by myself, I would be sitting here second-guessing my decisions and anguishing over how I may have inadvertently and prematurely killed the plants.

I also appreciated how mindfully Carey interacted with Taylor. Carey is grounded and easy-going, and from what I can tell, an amazing mom. She knew just how to get Taylor involved and authentically validated Taylor’s contributions. Her son and daughter are two very lucky chickadees.

What’s next? Well, we’ve gotta water the garden at least once (if not twice a day). A border and some bird netting are probably in order too.

We planted…

• strawberries
• beans (pole)
• corn
• carrots
• lettuce
• kale
• spinach
• basil
• parsley
• pumpkin
• zucchini

We’ll see what comes up.

Jan Tritten, midwife and Publisher/Editor in Chief of Midwifery Today, is one of my Facebook friends, and in place of a status updates she sometimes shares nuggets of wisdom around the subject of birth. People have responded well, so she is in the process of creating the “Commandments” of birth. I’ll share them with you as she adds more invaluable advice to the list.

1. A good midwife is worth her weight in gold if you’re wanting a good birth experience. Shop carefully and pay her well.
2. Thou shalt eat a healthy diet; 80-100 grams of protein, salt food to taste and lots of fruits and veggies and eat seafood and be happy.
3. Trust Birth. Trust yourself. You can do it.
4. Prenatal care is what you do between your visits to your care provider. Eat well. Love lots. Reduce stress. Your baby will appreciate it!
5. Homebirth: the gold standard. If possible, stay home for your birth. Birth centers are a good option too. If necessary, hospitals save lives. 

We visited a local nursery yesterday and loaded up our car with bags of soil, seeds, starts, and basic gardening tools. After six hours of rock-breaking, shoveling, hauling and layering, the garden bed was still not ready for planting. Exhausted, I gave the top layer of soil a drink of water and happily retired to a hot meal and a shower. Boy, did I sleep well last night.

We enjoyed Easter morning with Jim’s family today, and as some watched the final round of the Masters at the tail end of our gathering, I picked up a few more essentials — more soil and a wheel barrow. What the hell have I been doing?! Shoveling and hauling hundreds of pounds of dirt, one shovel load at a time! Insanity!

We returned to the City by early afternoon, and I immediately started filling the bed with layers of water and old and new soil again. An hour into working, I set a few minutes aside for an ovulation predictor test. After Taylor was born, I began charting my fertility signs, anticipating that the information would come in handy down the road. Here we are at that point in the road.

Based on past charts and on observing subtle changes in my body, I expect to ovulate some time in the next couple of days. To make doubly sure this guesstimate is somewhat accurate, I’m giving these ovulation predictor tests a shot. However, the tests do not detect ovulation itself but only impending (within 24-48 hours of) ovulation. It’s still not an exact science, but between my observations and the sticks, I think we’ll be good.

I might have not thought to mention my fertility in this post except that I brought the predictor stick with me to the backyard, so I could wait the appropriate number of minutes to pass as I continued to work. I found a level surface in which to place the stick in a cardboard box (pictured above) and noticed the pairing of veggie starts and the stick side-by-side.

In so many ways, the building of this garden symbolizes and synchronizes with my journey to this next pregnancy. I look forward to working very directly with the earth and feeling more connected to nature’s cycles as the coming moons wax and wane. More on this another time…

No time for pretty pictures today. Immediately after meeting with my gardening consultant, I started digging again to increase the width of the plot from three feet to four feet. The extra foot will accommodate more veggies (of course) and the all important bean tepee at the northern end of the plot.

The soil under the backyard lawn is a bit sandy but not a complete loss. Carey (who will hold my hand through this process) suggests that I aerate the clayey, rocky layer I hit at the 9-inch mark to allow for proper drainage. From there, I’ll add some water and mix in new soil with our existing soil. The bed will be raised slightly but not high enough to necessitate a permanent border.

Then, I’ll move on to researching and buying seeds and starts and begin planting. Exciting stuff! Carey mentioned an optional soil analysis, which would provide information on whether or not lead is present and identify nutrients our existing soil may be lacking. I’ll Google it and decide from there.

Can’t wait to buy some proper gardening tools and get started…

Taylor is 39 months old.
Taylor : Can you hold my baby while I do something?
Nate : OK.
Taylor : I’m vacuuming while Nate holds my baby.
He’s the daddy. 
While having a playdate with one of her friends.
* *

When Taylor utters new and amusing words I’ll post ‘em here.

Jim brought home a bouquet of flowers as part of my birthday gift the other day, and I asked him what the guy’s equivalent to flowers is. He said,  ”Beer,” so as part of his birthday gift today, I bought three cartons of beer and created a bouquet out of the packaging.

I didn’t have the slightest clue about how to create a paper flower, but this where the Internet did not disappoint. I modified this how-to to fit my needs, and voila! Taylor and I planned to find sticks in the backyard for the stems, but I decided to use chopsticks instead (as I was running out of time).

Not bad for a not-so-crafty gal.

I dug for I-dunno-how-long today and have finished digging for now. The plot is 14 feet long, 3 feet wide, and about 9 inches deep. I would have dug another three inches, but I hit clay and rock. The last few cubic feet of digging were especially rough. My body had had enough, but I was determined to be done today because I’ll have access to a hot tub all weekend long at cabin we’re renting in Healdsburg.

So what now? Well, I think I’ve gotta good lead on someone who can support me in this journey, and she’s up for helping me (even after reading my previous post about digging this hole and not having a plan or any experience with gardening). Brave woman.

No, really. I think we’ll both enjoy the process. I’m gonna write her back and take it from there.

After talking myself into and out of starting a vegetable garden for at least a year now, I bit the bullet and actually dug a 14-foot by 2-foot by 1/2-foot hole in our backyard lawn today.

Does this mean I have educated myself in that year of indecision? No. Does this mean I have a clear plan laid out before me? No. Does this mean I have a team of people waiting in the wings to do it for me? No.

You may be wondering, “So what the hell *are* you doing?”

To be honest, I have no friggin’ clue. I have been romanced by Thais’ Victory Garden and by the sight of Mikey and Taylor eagerly tending to it and eating its bounty. As we were about to part ways the other day, Thais scrawled a six-point list of to-do’s to get this garden started. I immediately drove to Sloat to buy a child-sized shovel (just like the one Mikey has and Taylor has come to love). But they were out of stock.

Instead, I bought a copy of Golden Gate Gardening (also on Thais’ list) and returned home without plans to dig that day. A few pages into GGG and with mounting anxieties about how green my thumb really is, I called Sloat’s design team and scheduled an appointment for someone to come out next week and give me some pointers.

In the meantime, I charted the sun exposure in our backyard, making diagrams of light and shadow throughout one day. Where’s the best place to plant the garden? Smack-dab in the middle of the lawn. Somehow feeling more confident by this finding and in reading more of GGG, I actually cancelled my appointment with the Sloat designer and plunged a shovel into the lawn this morning while Taylor and Mikey played nearby.

So here were are, with a 14 cubic-foot trench in the middle of our lawn and without a next-step in mind, other than to dig this trench until it is also 3-feet wide and a shovel deep.

What will I do next?