Spilling the beans

Or, more accurately, why there are no beans.

Big changes are on the horizon for K's garden.

The garden - July 26th

We're moving! No, we're not moving to an acreage in the country, but we are moving to a house with a much bigger yard.

We weren't really planning on moving, but at some point in May, we started looking at what was available in our area and found some things we liked. The next few weeks were spent painting, cleaning, and generally finishing our current house to get it ready to go on the market. Knowing we likely weren't going to be around for the full garden season this year, I decided not to plant everything I'd originally planned. I never planted beets or beans, and I gave the sweet potato plants to a friend.

There have been a lot of ups and downs along the way, but we now have less than two weeks to go before the move. The garden gets a little sadder every day.

The hugel has been deconstructed. I didn't want to leave a big mound filled with logs for an unsuspecting buyer.

The sickly Amish paste tomatoes have been completely cut down, and the worldly tomato jungle has been given a good trim.

Since I don't want to leave my tomato cages behind, I'll be cutting the tomatoes down completely right before we leave. Until then, I'm going to savor every tomato I get. To date, that's been two for me, while the tomato thief has had five.

The cucumbers, zucchini and squash are still very much taking over the garden.

I'll have to cut down the cucumbers, so I can take my trellis, but I'm leaving the zucchini and squash for the buyer. It looks like I might get one zucchini before we go, but the two squash I've been watching won't be ripe in time.

I have no idea what our buyer thinks about gardening. She didn't ask us to get rid of the garden or the fence, for which I'm grateful, but that doesn't mean she's going to keep any of it. I've started a note I'm going to leave for her that tells her a little about what's planted here. I think she should know that she may have strawberries and rhubarb next year, but she'll have to wait until 2017 for asparagus. She also needs to understand that the bluejays and squirrels will be counting on her for their daily peanuts.

One of the hardest parts of this whole thing has been not composting. I didn't want to leave a huge pile of unfinished compost for the buyer, so I've been bagging all of my yard waste, weeds and other garden stuff for more than a month. It's such a bother and feels like a huge waste. Oh well, it's temporary.

I'm very excited for the new house. Part of what started us looking was the idea that we might be able to find a bigger lot in the city, and we did just that. Our current lot, which isn't terribly small by urban standards, is 7500 square feet (a little more than 1/6 of an acre). The house we bought sits on a lot that is 14,000 square feet (almost 1/3 of an acre). There are some flower beds and a couple trees, but there is so much room for me to plant whatever I want. I've got lots of plans already, but one of the first things I'm hoping to do is plant a couple peach trees.

Since I'll basically be starting from scratch, I'll have a lot of things to share along the way. I'm very excited for this new chapter.