Container Gardening

There are two primary types of full timers. Those who are in it for the travel, crisscrossing the country and spending 2-4 weeks exploring areas they visit. Then there are those like Champ and I who work camp, staying in an area 4-5 months. We dream of taking a couple of years to lead the nomadic style at some point, but for now we can’t imagine being gone during the summer months after hiding from winter in the southern states. One of the biggest advantages to staying in Iowa all summer is the ability to grow my container garden. 

I made my 4^th and 5^th trips to the greenhouse last week. I went back with my daughter in law and granddaughter to help them pick flowers to grace their patio, then again, a couple of days later to buy the rest of my own things. As usual my trip was also a play date with my friend Joyce who shares my green thumb and love of the smell of a greenhouse. 

Nora picking out her flowers

Pot all planted and ready to take home

 Planting time with the girls

Everything is planted and flourishing in the daily rain and warm temperatures that Iowa has delivered to give the seeds, and newly transplanted seedlings a good start to the growing season.

This year in addition to some new flowers, in my shaded baskets, I have both of my Pollinator habitats off to a good start with the perennials, up and growing and new annuals getting established. The pots have my herbs, Cucumber, Tomatoes, Sweet and Hot Peppers, Carrots, and Butternut Squash. I amended the soil in another spot for a Zucchini patch and separated it from the pollinator bed with a bed of Zinnia seed harvested from last years flowers that have germinated and are on their way to being the big sun loving rainbow of colors they will be by July.

The boys raised garden growing like crazy. Hangers have spinach and lettuce coming up

Cilantro, Sage , flowers and an experiment growing lettuce from the leftover stalk

Rumex, Tarragon and Oregano cut back in Texas and growing agan in Iowa. Basil and Thyme soon to emerge

Cucumber and pepper plants

Hutner's Chocolate Cherry tomato plant with Marigolds for pest control in the small pots

East drive entrance with Polinators getting a good start

West drive entrance polinator habitat, back bed is the zucchini . Zinnia coming up in the patch in between the plots.

My posting tonight was interrupted by a trip to the storm shelter as a nasty Thunderstorm with enough rotation to prompt a tornado warning popped up. It left with no impact, hopefully it will be as innocent as it passes over areas in its path as it moves northeast from here.

It is definitely spring-time in Iowa!

Until Next Time…

Growing Food with Kids

Perhaps the hardest factor of selling all our property and living full time in our RV was the thought of giving up my yard and gardens. For most of my adult life gardening has been my preferred form of therapy.  Indeed, one of the best surprises of this lifestyle is how much I still garden. I do it as part of my RV Volunteer work quite often, I do it in friends and family’s yards and I do it on a level at my site that I never dreamed of four years ago.

We are truly fortunate to have a regular summer gig that brings us back to the same site April to October. Our little volunteer community out of the public eye gives us all unique opportunity to plant in the ground and has allowed me to create a vast container garden each summer. Our first winter I bought a book call The Bountiful Container and read all about the intricacies of growing food in containers vis a vis in the ground. I have learned a great deal the past summers and am getting the process down. In addition to the vegetable containers I also established several square feet of ground space with perrenials at the entrance of our site as official Pollinator Habitat and registered it with Plant -Grow- Fly. A program that tracks habitat that is being grown around the country specifically for caterpillar hosting and feeding, butterflies and other pollinators.

I still comb through garden magazines, and seed catalogues too early in the spring.  I even grow herbs and greens in pots on my patio at our winter gig, wherever that ends up being. The only thing that has changed is the volume of food that I grow. My canning equipment is at my daughter’s house in case she ever wants to start canning. These days, I grow enough for us to eat for the summer months and to satisfy my love of eating right out of the garden. There is nothing more delicious to me than a salad that was in the garden just a few minutes before I eat it.

A little dream came true for me. Two of our grandkids said they wanted to grow a garden with me this summer. We spent last Monday repurposing a volunteer neighbor’s old steps into a raised box in an area of our site that has great sun, but poor soil. Problem solved. 

Turning Don's steps into a planter

During an overnight visit this past weekend, I took them to my favorite greenhouse. Neither had ever been to a big greenhouse.  Given the circumstances we are all in, they hadn’t been anywhere in weeks. I got permission from my daughter to take them and called ahead to the greenhouse to be sure they were aloud to come in with me. The answers were “Yes and Yes” Yay for all of us!  I don’t know what excited me more, watching them marvel at the acres of plants and stunning variety that Goode’s always has or realizing how utterly happy they were to just be out and about. We had perfect weather for the greenhouse trip and subsequent planting when we got back.

Shopping for plants at Goode's Greenhouse

They chose their favorite veggies to eat, Cucumbers for Isaac, they both agreed on carrots, so I bought seed for the fun Kaleidoscope variety and Tomatoes. Hunter chose a Big Boy (grandpa’s favorite) and a Chocolate Cherry one I have had before and remember being delicious in salads or just as finger food. Hunter found some small rose variety and asked if he could plant it in one of my flower beds. I couldn’t resist. He was thrilled!

Marigold's for Pest Control

Peppers for Grandma

Sewing Carrot Seeds

Isaac planting his cucumber

All planted and ready for growing season!

The weekend is over, the rains have come, and the plants are happy in their containers and new raised planter box. The kids will have a project to tend each time they visit and will get to enjoy the fruits of their project by mid-summer.

I have my sights set on Wednesday when I have my next day off and a date with my friend Joyce, to go back to Goodes and buy the rest of what I want to plant to round out my vegetable and flower containers.  Add to that my new summer job at a local Garden Center and I think it is safe to say my green thumb is happier than ever.

After a difficult past few weeks trying to get settled and not knowing from one day to the next what our summer would look like, things are finally starting to feel comfortable. All I seemed to need was site # 7 the sun, grandkids coming over and things growing in my containers. It really is the little things.  

Until Next Time…

Back In The Nest

We are one step closer to feeling a sense of normality. We moved to our site at the lake we work for this morning. As we drove back to town to do the curb side pickup for the new walking shoes I bought online we both commented that driving from the lake into town, made us feel like we were finally home accept that home doesn’t feel right this year.

Good ole Site # 7

There are still several relatives and friends that we have not seen because of social distancing practices. We have seen some of the grandkids a little, but not nearly as much as we would in the pre-COVID 19 reality. We are at our site ready to start our fourth season but have no idea what this year holds.

All of America is living the same angst filled existence of uncertainty and constantly changing circumstances. We are lucky to be at our usual summer place. Many are still in limbo or have had to find other last-minute arrangements. I heard from one of my office co-workers from our winter job, who reported that he had migrated from his normal job in Missouri,  that didn’t work out this year, to an amusement park in Des Moines who employs many workcampers each summer. We did not think we would see him till next winter and now 5 weeks later he is just a few miles away. Some of our other summer companions who have been waiting in their southern destinations are now on the road making their way back. What we have come back to remains to be seen. Flexibility is the number one quality one must possess to navigate the full-time work camper lifestyle, but the summer of 2020 is bound to stretch everyone’s limits for constant change.

I have started a new part time summer job in the garden center of a local home improvement store and am feeling better having a purpose at least some of the days I get up. This past seven weeks of doing nothing has been torture. Not knowing where we would ultimately end up for the season delayed my job search till last week. I have worked part time more than not and it has never taken me more than a week or so to secure a part time job when I decided I wanted one. I am becoming an expert at first days at a new job. This job like my past years summer gig at my friend’s shop offers the ability to return each spring. They told me in my interview they even have a specific seasonal leave designed just for snowbirds like me. I watch the news and hope my friend can reopen his business soon. 

Going into work and smelling the greenhouse aroma's, playing with plants and talking to other garden geeks is going a long way to lift my spirits even with a face mask on. After a career of dealing with the public in one way or another, I have to admit it is really strange engaging with people and not knowing what they look like accept for their eyes. On the other hand I am saving money on lipstick since no one can see my mouth. It isn't nearly as strange as it must be to those in my former career in the banking industry. If someone walked into the bank wearing a mask in those days, I would have been searching for the magic button under my desk!

We can finally start nesting in our site along with the birds that are busy building their nests in the timber that surrounds us. I am trying to breathe a sigh of relief, but it just won’t come this spring. I wonder if it will ever return as we all navigate this strange new world.  

Until Next Time…