UberlootsGardening with a Gaming Perspective

One of the things I want to do is write down the resources I find most helpful to me. One of the things I do most with my free time other than game is read books. Some of them stand out and as I fished for my copy of “The Bountiful Container” by Rose Marie Nichols McGee & Maggie Stuckey, I realized I had come to rely on this book a great deal.

The core of the book is to learn to be able to garden out of anything, even old milk jugs or old butter bowls. They take you step by step through the information needed to succeed as well as recommend space saving varieties and they highlight each species individually. There are themed gardens throughout and it is very easy to read straight through or to skip around and read what interests you most.

They even bring edibles together for beautiful displays and every single thing I have tried from their book has worked marvelously. I even often use it as a reference for my in the ground gardens too. Also, they cover a wide variety of things I never would have even heard of without them. Things like the saffron crocus, or delightful pineapple sage.

Beginner or veteran, I recommend to you this book. Of every gardening book I have read to date, and that is a lot of books, I have never found one as complete as this one. I urge you to check your local library or gardening buddies to find a copy to flip through.

One last thing to keep in mind, they do garden in the north so keep your local planting dates in mind. They show you how to grow just about anything in a container so if all you have room for is a window box, you can still enjoy fresh produce and they explain how to make it eye appealing as well.

Well alright, after about ten minutes of reading and fidgeting I got my new water timer up and running and I like it quite well. Now I just need to see how it does over time. I do know that after I set it up last night it felt like Christmas. The first thing I wanted to do was wait at the door to see if it came on like it was supposed to. Now I just have to get the rain gauge that can be attached so it will only water the plants when they need it.

A timer isn’t for everyone but it helps me out a bit since I know I will be gone for a couple weeks straight this summer and without the timer my poor garden would shrivel up. I still am working on the best solution for the many containers that will need watering during that time when I am gone. That and how do I keep my adorable little four legged friend from eating the plants in my absence as he has quite the history of doing. It seems the poor onions I started indoors are never going to see maturity. Every time they are looking as though they are about ready for the great outdoors he chews them down to little nubs! I have even tried giving him his very own container of kitty grass. He will eat that and then eat the other plants too or if there is too much for him to eat he lays on it until it rots. So I am still looking for something that safely keeps him away or I may just have to fill the house with so many plants that are kitty safe that it does not matter if he chews them or not. Though I do not know that James would go for that. Also I have been watching a pleasant surprise in one of my compost containers for a couple of weeks now. Potatoes! During tax season things got so hectic we had some potatoes get too old and not enough to make a meal of, so they were tossed into the compost. In all the hectic craziness the compost was not rolled as it normally is and then I noticed these beauties growing like wildfire. At first I debated whether or not to keep them but I read an article not long ago about letting a little serendipity enter your gardening plans. These guys are growing so fast and look so healthy last night I decided to help them out a bit and see what happens. I just hope the hot weather is not too much for them, for now they are just so pretty I cannot help but be excited!

My Healthy Tomatoes

I also got a chance last night to finally get some fertilizer out there for my poor plants. The MicroLife spreads easily enough, now I just need to see if it lives up to the rave reviews. I’ll let you know. It is nice that a slow release organic fertilizer is available locally. I know back where I was, it would have had to have been special ordered.

I also planted my new transplants last night and I just cannot wait to get a few pictures. This morning they were all looking pretty good. That tri-color sage is just so pretty, I can’t wait to use it. I may just have to make some roasted chicken with home made stuffing this week.

I had my first real foray into Houston proper this Friday. It was pretty fun and a whole lot bigger than I had imagined. I still want to go and see the Galleria area instead of just looking as we go past. The reason for this trip was to go to Condon Gardens and get some MicroLife fertilizer. It is a fertilizer I have read about from several sources as a good slow release organic fertilizer. I am going to try my very best to keep all of my gardening completely organic. I just know my plants are going to appreciate having some fertilizer finally! So we found the place no problem using directions from Google maps and after being there for about 2 minutes it started sprinkling lightly but still I wanted to look and see what all there was. They had a very nice selection of landscaping plants and flowers but I was more specifically after vegetables and he did have a couple varieties. I was extremely surprised to see transplants of, such as bright lights swiss chard. I behaved myself fairly well, but just could not help getting an absolutely gorgeous basil, mustard greens, 8 ball squash, thyme, and tri-color sage. As soon as it is dry enough out I will plant them. It started absolutely pouring so we loaded up the plants and fertilizer and ran inside. They have a beautiful kitty named Juliette there that was pure white, a nice contrast to my solid black one. There were pots there that were as big as my breakfast table and statues all around. None of the nurseries in Missouri I went to were anywhere near that fancy! It was sort of like wandering into a secret garden. I cannot wait to go back! They also had some books just for Texas on gardening so I had to snag one of those too.

I don’t know if any of you were out but we had to dash through torrential rain to get back to the truck and a few minutes later the hail started. We pulled into a parking lot to avoid the worst of it and hoped the hail would not dent the truck. We were fortunate that the truck did not get dented that we know of and that I got to go to Ikea. That place is not as cool as the nursery was but it was pretty friggin’ awesome! I think I could spend an entire day there just looking at stuff and on the bottom floor before the big boxed furniture they have real plants! Definitely a lot of cool stuff I do not have the money for. I can look and write down the names of cool things and dream though.

Oh, it seems I have gone off on a bit of a tangent there. Back to Condon Gardens, they do have a website: http://www.condongardens.com I definitely recommend giving them a visit if you get the chance, they are not that far from Ikea. I loved all the statues, I cannot wait to see the place when it is not raining like mad.