Back Where I Was Wednesday Morning--a mini-Trailer Park Homestead update

Working in the yard yesterday, this view struck me as extremely funny.  In the foreground, we have buckets growing tomato plants to feed a family (note:  this is rear view, so the view from the road, the buckets were pretty much solid orange), in the mid-ground there is a porta potty (for the contractors to use when working on the garages in the trailer park over the next few months), and in the neighbors' driveway in the background there are two beat up, wildly painted, undriveable cars.  Which did management find objectionable enough that something had to be done about it? 

Of course, it was the wholesome food growing in buckets.  This is America, after all, where food doesn't come from farms and gardens and dirt.  Instead, it comes from store freezer shelves (frequently in prepackaged meal forms) or fast food joints.

As I posted the other day, I was able to work a compromise with the manager, in that she'd let me keep the gardens, but the buckets had to disappear and the bricks that I had forming a border on the lot (that I would be able to pick up and move for the winter and when we moved, making minimal long term impact on the property) would have to be inlaid into the ground where they would then remain probably forever.

I can now report that all tasks given to me, including the ones the contractor needed done, have been completed.  Missions accomplished!

My dad built (edited to add: It was MOM who salvaged the wood, measured, and cut it. Dad put them together.) the "planters" for me (really, more of a facade, since they don't have a back) out of reclaimed wood.

I know you can see the orange in the pictures, but you can't really from the road, and that's what's important here.  My husband thinks the trailer park manager is going to try to make me paint them.  I pointed out that reclaimed wood is hot right now in design, so if I had bought planters like this, it probably would have cost a small fortune and there is absolutely no way they should be painted.  He was insistent that he thought she'd try.  I told him that, if she did, I'd go one of two different ways, depending on that mood that day.  I might bring it on, going to her boss and complain about her overstepping her bounds, harassing me, and causing problems with our family as tenants and then taking it to the media, for some mega-bad publicity, trying to keep a struggling family from having enough to eat.  Or, maybe I would paint them--bright orange!

So right now, I'm right back where I was Wednesday morning, trying to get the weeds under control in the border garden, what I was doing when the manager came up to me that day.

Help Solve the Mystery *****CONTEST*****

All three mystery plants together, taken yesterday

Last weekend, I posted a picture of a pair of mystery plants that cropped up in one of my tomato buckets.  I didn't want to toss them like weeds, because they looked too much like some of the plants I'd intentionally planted this year, so I think maybe a couple seeds got dropped in the tomato bucket somehow.  Rather than pulling them, I carefully transplanted them to a garden bed that didn't have anything in it yet.

The second mystery plant

The next day, there was another of the mystery plants in the same place.

I transplanted the third mystery plant and waited to see if they looked like they were going to survive the move.  Now, they've all grown since I moved them, so I'm pretty confident they'll live.

Here's your chance to solve the mystery!  Post what you think the plant is here (and be specific!  If you say "squash" and it ends up being zucchini, you won't get credit.  Say what kind of squash you think it is!) and when I figure out what it is, I will select someone at random from the correct responses to receive the prize, a couple of The Container Expert: What to buy and what to grow in tubs, pots, troughs, hanging baskets and window boxes!  I may end up throwing some other stuff in there and making it a prize pack, but for now, that's what's being offered.

The original mystery plants

Remember, you have to post your guesses HERE on this post, not the Facebook page, not on Twitter.  You can enter as many times as you like if you change your mind about what you think it is and you can ask questions to help figure it out (that you can do on Facebook or Twitter, but the actual guesses have to be on this page.  I assume all three are the same thing, but you are free to not make that assumption and guess that they are different things.  I will announce the winner on Facebook and Twitter though, so keep your eyes peeled to see if you are the winner!

If the plants die, the contest is null and void.  Good luck....to all of us!

My Potato Condo

When I tweeted that the potato condo fell apart a couple days ago when I was moving it or when people were reading about the extra challenges I've been dealing with lately on the Trailer Park Homestead and mentioned that I had to move the potato condo, I'm sure at least some people were wondering what the heck is a potato condo? so I figured I probably should address that.

Last year, I grew potatoes in 5-gallon buckets behind the shed.  I figured that was the best way to avoid a run in with the trailer park manager there, who, to put it nicely, is a mega-douche.  It may have kept him out of my hair, but I wasn't thrilled with the results.  The potatoes were small and few, and we ate the entire harvest in a couple of days.  While it was growing, I had to buy potatoes from the farmers' market.  There had to be a better way.

One of these times that was buying potatoes from someone at the farmers' market, the farmer I was buying them from told me about a potato growing method that he'd heard about where you build a box using slats and then you can harvest a few potatoes by removing the bottom slates before the entire crop is ready to harvest.

I was intrigued.

Then, I stumbled upon an article online about growing 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 square feet!  Wowsa!  And it looked to be the same kind of box that the farmer had told me about.  Definitely something worth looking into further!

And then I decided not to grow potatoes this year.  I had other sources of free potatoes for the year, so I let it go.  Still, I'd see other bloggers like Michael Nolan (whose name you may recognize as a guest blogger on this blog last month) blog about, their potato condos, and I got a little envious, especially when I saw this potato condo rock video (also by Michael Nolan.  He's quickly become one of my gardening heroes!):


I wanted a potato condo so bad after I saw that.  But I was going to be strong and hold off for this year.  After all, I have so many other projects going on around here, I really didn't need another!

Then, my mom gave me some seed potatoes she didn't need.

I stared at those seed potatoes for quite awhile, searching for answers.  Should I or shouldn't I?

Finally, I decided that, with so many hungry people in the world, it would be wrong to let these seed potatoes go to waste.

I was going to get a potato condo!  I got a hold of some reclaimed wood (I believe it was a farm fence in its last life), and convinced my husband to cut it to size and build it for me as a Mother's Day present.  My box is 2.5ft x 2.5 ft and will be about 3 ft tall when finished, so slightly bigger than the 4sq ft that is supposed to be able to produce 100 lbs of potatoes, but no where near as large as Nolan's.

Ta da!

He built up the back side of it, so I could set it right up next to the garage like I wanted (and why it had to be moved *sigh*) and not have to worry about putting the slats on that side.  I didn't bother tilling under it like Michael Nolan did though.  Too many wires and things back there to worry about (and I don't have access to a tiller).

I set a layer of newspaper under it (didn't bother with that part when I moved it) to keep the weeds from popping through while the dirt was at its thinnest.  Then, I put a couple inches of compost on top of the newspaper.  I set my seed potatoes on that layer of compost, then covered them with a couple more inches of compost.  I watered it and then started watching.  It seemed like it took forever until they sprouted!  When they did, I mercilessly covered the sprouts with more compost.  Every time those poor plants pop through, I bury them.  I'm cruel that way (I probably should back off and not be so quick to bury them actually).  When the pile in the box reaches the top of the current slats, I'll add more slats to make the box deeper and keep burying them until I run out of slats.  Then I'll stop pestering the poor things and let them live their lives.  After that, it's like any other method of potato growing, except that I don't have to wait until the end of the season and harvest all the potatoes at once!

The potato condo's new home against the house

I have the power to steal potatoes from the bottom before the season is over.  I can just take a slat off the bottom, reach in, and grab me some spuds!  Considering the slats were falling off when I moved it, I don't think this will even be very difficult!

I was worried that the move would stress the potatoes out and maybe even kill them off, but considering how many sprouts I've buried since then (while giggling maniacally, since it's more fun that way), I think they'll be fine!  Yay!  Some good news after my recent issues!

Oh, Shit--and not the compostable kind

It's all gotta go

Well, it finally happened.  The trailer park manager noticed my, shall we say, landscaping projects.  She was not a happy camper.  The words "over the top" were used several times.  The phrase "I wouldn't have approved this if you'd asked" was uttered (which is why I didn't ask.  Duh!).  Fortunately, she also recognized that I'd done a lot of work in the yard and respect that.  Finally, she decided that, if I got rid of the brick border "wall" I was so proud of (seriously, this is like the fourth post in a row I've alluded to it or mentioned it outright) were to either disappear completely or the bricks were laid into the ground so they weren't sticking up, she could live with that.  I also needed to draw out everything I'd done so it could go on record that she "approved" it, with the caveat that I'd plant grass and clean it all up when we moved, and I guess there is some other form that has to be filled out with that too.

Gotta go

The buckets were a major point of contention with her though.  She really hates the buckets and said they have to go, either planting them in the ground or putting them in a nice planter instead.  Since I'm afraid moving the plants in them would put them at risk for killing them, I really don't want to do this!  I could probably fight it, since I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually say in the lease anywhere that I can't have buckets in the yard, but I'd rather not kick the hornets nest, especially since I could tell she was trying to be accepting of what I'd done.  I asked if maybe I could just paint the buckets and take the handles off them so they would look more like planters.  She thought about it and decided that, if I painted them beige or something to match the house (seriously? Blech!) and took the handles off, I could keep up to six of them.  I had another idea for how to deal with the buckets--don't move them.  Instead, I'm going to get some reclaimed wood and built planters around them!  That should make everyone happy, well, except for it being something else to add to my ever-growing to-do list!

Gotta go

After she left my yard, I got cracking on drawing the picture of what I had going on for the approval form, like she wanted.  I got it done and handed it to her while she was still in the area, since she was just talking to a neighbor.  She reiterated that her main issue at this point was the buckets, so I assured her that I would make them disappear.  She seemed pleased with that answer and drove off.

As she left the neighborhood, I breathed a huge sigh of relief that she didn't notice the compost pile or the potato condo growing behind the house (Oops, I forgot to put those on the diagram as well!  Tee hee).  I'm pretty sure there would have been no compromising on those!  But my potatoes and the rest of my plants seemed to be safe, so I was more or less satisfied with the exchange, even if I was a little shaky from the adrenaline pumped in by the threat and a little upset about the additions to my to-do list.  All in all, I figured I came out more or less on top and didn't have to worry about what would happen when she noticed any more.

Gotta go

The a truck pulled up in front of the empty lot next to us and put a porta potty in the empty lot next to us.  I wasn't sure what exactly that meant, but it couldn't be good!  I sent the kids to investigate while I was still reeling from the last encounter, thinking maybe they'd be putting a new trailer in on some of these empty lots next to us.  I was quite concerned about that possibility, since that would put most of my garden in shade!  The kids were distracted by the puppy the man was carrying though and didn't find out what was going on that warranted a porta potty brought in.

I shouldn't have worried about not knowing what was going on though, since shortly, the man with the puppy came up to talk to me directly.  He asked if I got the notice yet.  ????????  Apparently, they are going to be cutting down the tree behind my house.  Okay, that's fine--but he didn't stop there.  Then he started to tell me that anything right up next to the garage would have to be moved.  They were going to do some major remodeling on all the garages, including painting, so my potato condo and compost heap would have to be moved.  Joy.

Has to be moved

It got worse.

He then asked if we got water in our garage when it rained.  I told him it did and then he told me that meant they'd be putting crushed concrete (I think that's what he said anyway) in the floor of the garage.  This meant that they'd have to drive something up to the garage about 30 times, crushing my garden in the way. %#% *&(% ^&$% #$%@ #$@& *%^&% ^$%% #$%@ #$@#$@!!!!!!!!!!!  After discussing the possibilities of me transplanting the corn, cucumbers, squash, melons, and beans that all would be destroyed by this procedure, he said "You know what?  We'll just save your garage for last.  That way, when we need to get in here, it will be time for you to have this stuff harvested anyway."  I was so relieved I almost cried.  He then went on to say that if park management had a problem with that, to tell them to talk to him and, since he owned the contracting company doing the work, it was his call, not theirs.  I gushed appreciation for that and told him I'd be happy to give him some of the yummy goodies from my garden for his troubles, but he told me he doesn't eat stuff from gardens, that he eats out every day.  I feel bad for the man, but I offered him some home cooked goodies instead then.  He just smiled and told me to have a good day.

So it looks like the Trailer Park Homestead is safe again, although my to-do list got a lot longer today!  These two visits put all of this stuff on there:

1. Move potato condo (need to figure out how to do that without damaging plants)
2. Move compost pile
3. Transplant the cukes growing between the garage doors, since they'd be destroyed by the garage project as well
4. Inlay brick border
5. Build reclaimed wooden planter boxes around existing 5-gallon buckets

And here I was starting to think I could maybe get caught up on things around the house soon.  *sigh*

Are You Kidding Me?--a Trailer Park Homestead update

Apparently, Michigan doesn't need a spring.  We went right from 40 degree days (maybe slight exaggeration...probably was lower 50s but raining so it felt colder!) to 90 degrees the past couple days.  My spinach is not a fan.  A lot of it is already bolting!

Here's what's going on in other parts of the Trailer Park Homestead!  There's so much here, I thought about dividing it into two posts!  Then I realized I wanted to show off all this cool stuff sooner rather than later, so tomorrow will be something else.

This is the view from my back door, looking slightly toward the garage.  The brick "wall" is the border of my lot. 

This is the back square foot gardening box.  After much neglect while I was trying to get in the remaining beds, I finally caught up on the weeding and tying up the peas yesterday.

I'm having to add a considerable amount of compost to the potato condo daily.  I probably should look into finding more, since I'm about out!

My "St. Patrick's Day" bed was also much neglected, but caught up for the moment.  Now that the spinach is bolting, I probably will pull it and stick some sunflower seeds in their place.

The front garden bed, containing (from the back left corner) pumpkin, tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, broccoli, carrots, and green peppers.  Behind it, snap peas are borrowing the strings for climbing, and behind that, there are ground cherry seeds planted in the orange buckets to replace the ones that died due to too much rain.

Berry bushes are looking good.  One of the blueberry bushes even looks like it's thinking about giving me some berries soon!

All three sisters are up now.  I'm a bit worried that the beans are shooting up so fast, since the corn isn't nearly high enough for them to wrap around yet.

A close up of the kinds of things growing in the bricked border area--blue jade corn, sunflowers, and a variety of vining things (squashes, pumpkins, cucumbers, or melons) will be forming a complex living wall once it grows up.