Botany 103: companion planting

The Great Bean Bakeoff

Raised bed #4.  During installation, MacGyver uncovered a massive decomposing palette.  This may have been to store treasures off the ground when house storage was no longer an option.  It also may explain why the pecan tree looked so sick/thirsty.  After spending an inordinate amount of time with  companion planting quick reference, I decided to plant all 6 heirloom bean varieties (bush & pole) from my apocalyptic readiness kit in conjunction with garlic, shallots, carnival carrots (multicolor), and zucchini which I received as gifts (thanks!).  This builds off lessons learned from raised bed #1:  different varieties of the same plant perform wildly differently (see: cherry tomatoes) and one trellis of peas doesn't yield enough to make a persistently harvestable full serving of veggies.  I've also heard horror stories about prolific zucchini, so I started a few of them in a potting tray to avoid an Audrey II type situation.  I tried to plant the purple podded beans towards the less-accessible side and center to streamline harvesting.  I used the companion plants to designate the boundaries.  We threw some chicken wire on top to keep the tunneling Klee Kai from messing up the plan.  

Bitter Greens & Beer

The mixed greens we planted in front of the spinach took on a life of their own.  We tried clear cutting them and juicing them, but the ones that were thriving were the super bitters.  No amount of banana, OJ, or chocolate protein powder was going to make that smoothie palatable.  I clear cut and composted most of it.  To fill the void, I started a couple basil plants from gift seeds.  Our last basil in molecule garden got decimated, so I want to plant the replacement where we can keep an eye on it.  Fortunately, basil plays nice with its future neighbors (pepper, lettuce, tomatoes, and spinach).  To free up space in the potting tray, I transplanted the 7 globe artichoke starts to be ground cover under the Reed avocado tree.  These guys are doubling as landscaping since they take a year to mature. 

MacGyver also ordered myriad hops varieties for Operation Home Brew.  Maybe they should grow up the house after it gets repainted.. or maybe the final fence when it's installed...  we're weighing our options and testing out how much sun these guys need with some planter prototyping.  

Finger Foods

Raised bed #3 is a petite triangle of snack food.  We started with edamame (which is finally sprouting). Strawberries are also starting to sprout.  The hope is they will be low-profile edible living mulch.  If this batch doesn't work out, we've got gifted seeds (w00t!).  We set the triangle up on the major thorough-fair between the gate and the backdoor right by the mega hose, so we can stay on top of it. 

misc Epic innovations

• Office Yacht desk converted to back porch work table (aka MacGyver's junk drawer)
• Upgraded front room theater keyboard and mouse to ones which are more responsive
• Sleeping bags in bed to minimize draft (now with bed buddy bed warmer)
• El cheapo paintbrushes for wood stain crevice application and paint stripping (better finish, less chemical burns)
• Lil victorian dog door concept (implementation was all MacG). 

Dead bushes and phones.

Well my Nexus-S smartphone bricked (when attempting to write a DIYKai last week) and took its pictures with it. We have had a lot of progress go down in the last couple weeks. Here are some highlights (no pics for obvious reasons):

Tree trimmers came through, and while they did a lot of work on the trees and yard they were a bit indiscriminate about their destruction. The other side gate was knocked off its hinges and probably needs to be replaced (hey I know exactly how to do that). The avocado tree and pepper plant mentioned in the previous post were killed mere days after by reckless trimmers. :(. We also just discovered a massive palm tree stump where hideous bush version 2 lived. Suck, that thing will be a PITA to remove.

Some walls have been patched! I suck at mixing plaster, too thick and it solidified in 5 minutes first time, too thin and took forever to fire second try. Wallpaper in the bedroom is being scraped.

I did some stripping in the office, and then stained one of the window frames to match the built in bookcase. Stripping/sanding off the 7 layer dip of (probably] lead paint is not an easy task nor a clean one. Apologies to the lining of my lungs and stomach. We are sampling some paints in the office, and thinking about colors for the bedroom too! If the office window is an indication the redwood will look fantastic once restored.

The homeowners insurance company has already threatened to drop us if we do not make repairs. Shockingly the issue they have is with the roof??? The roof that has been replaced within the last 5 years and that, I, PaGyver, our awesome home inspector and everyone who has looked at the place said is fine. Ok so Belle calls them up and it turns out the issue is just that there are leaves on the roof and one flashing is bent up, not that the entire roof needs to be replaced as their documents indicate. /whew, much easier task. 20 Gallons of water down the roof (told you it was fine) cleared the leaves, and I will figure out how to get a hammer to the flashing asap. Is it a bad idea to tie off to the chimney and rappel down to the edge of the roof? It must be at least 30-40' high so my ladders are out of the question unless I can convince PaGyver to bring down his 40' extension ladder.

Other things:
*Bathtub removed from downstairs bath to prep wetroom install. A clawfoot from 1923 is sitting in our backyard.
*Belle built some cool cactus planters for the front.
*Installed a wireless doorbell with ringers at both gates.
*Belle started cleaning the bomb shelter rations from 1973.
*Mounted a hose rack and added spray nozzles.
*Found the rest of the seller's realtor's lock.
*Took a load of yard waste to the dump
*Brewed a hazelnut porter -- first homebrew on ye' olde' stovee
*Adventures at the garbage dump.
*Filled a bagster. Actually these suck, if you are considering them think again. The cost compared to hauling stuff to the dump yourself just sucks 140 bucks vs 48. Also it is smaller than expected (same size as my truckbed...), you cant fill it higher than the bag (4', but feels more like 3) and you dont get the bag back after they dump it (bag costs 39 bucks then 100 to dump). I almost feel like emptying the contents into my truck driving to the dump then returning the bag to homedepot and saying it was too small for our job.