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Making a compost bin

Convinced by The Urban Homestead, by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, that I did not need to purchase a fancy composter, I bought a plastic trash can and drilled some holes in it using my electric screwdriver.  I put quite a few holes in the bottom so that the worms could crawl in from the dirt, and I drilled about 10 on the sides.

Here's my husband Matt feeding it the inaugural kitchen scraps.

Winter Garden

We moved into the Mint Mansion in November 2010.  My parents, who own a nursery in Houston called Maas Nursery helped us plant this garden.  Three months have passed, and we've made some amazing progress. We started with three almost-empty raised boxes in the front yard and a Meyer Lemon tree in the back.  We planted an orange tree to complement the lemon tree, and I've since revived a few feral beds.  Our yard is starting to make a very small dent in the grocery bill.

We planted this box on November 3rd. The lettuce looks beautiful. The beets are in. I thinned them a bit, but I think I might need to thin them more. The tomato was in the garden when I moved in -- I've cut it back a few times, but I think I might just need to get rid of it. I planted more cilantro from starts on January 22. I should probably be planting cilantro seeds every two weeks, but I got a little impatient.

Here is a closeup of the beets, cilantro and chives. The chives are surprisingly not thriving.

The second box is doing well. I've started to harvest the multiplying onions. A few of the bok-choy plants on the left started to go to seed, but I quickly started harvesting them, and they seem to be still growing. The celery is delicious. I ate a piece that I accidentally broke off when I was trying to lay down the soaker hose the other day. I'm still not sure about the soaker hose. It seams like I'm losing a lot of water to the sidewalk and the grass. Maybe there is a way to have it not drip in the grass by installing a small non-drippy section between each hose?

Here's another picture of the second garden. There were also two pepper plants in there when we moved in and they are looking better and are starting to bear fruit.

The smaller square garden had an established kale plant in it. It looked very tough and not particularly appetizing, but I harvested a bunch the other day, and it was very tasty cooked with soy sauce, almond butter, and a touch of maple syrup. The arugula behind the kale is also very delicious, but I'm going to need more, so I planted some seeds on the other side of the house. The herbs look good, but I think I will move them into pots or to a shadier side of the yard to make room for some sun-hogs I've got coming in.

Ugh, my weird soaker hose configuration. I think I need to stake it to the ground.

I found some old beds buried in grass next to the driveway. They face south and are shaded during part of the day by a large fence, but could be good for herbs.

I salvaged this bed, which my predecessors used as an herb garden. It was dug up to fix a plumbing issue and wasn't replaced. The soil has a bunch of clay, but the arugula and rainbow chard seeds I planted have come up. At the very end, you can see the mint patch that came back naturally after the plumbing catastrophe.

Here is a closeup of the arugula which I tasted today to be sure it was actually arugula. Now that I am sure of what's what, It's time to get some of that grass out of the bed.

Overhead shot of the arugula.