The Experimental Garden - Stage 2

As described in a previous post, I decided to plant a long distance garden - long distance since I live 1000 miles away. Yes, I know it was a crazy scheme. So, I returned to the garden two months after planting to see how things went. I admit that I should have gone back at least once before this, if only to weed, but this is the way it timed out.
When I arrived, at the end of August, it was the beginning of chile harvest in the north. I thought that if there were any chilies to be had, they would be on the plants by then, since the site is much farther south. I wasn’t too worried about actual harvest because I could always leave the chilies to ripen to red, or even longer to dry on the plant. Well, happy days!, there was chile to be harvested.

The most shocking aspect of the garden upon arrival was the immensity of individual weed plants. Many were alfalfa, a good nitrogen fixer (natural fertilizer), so I wasn’t too worried by that. The concern was the size of the plants (6'-7' tall), which easily shaded out the chilies and other vegetables. Next year, I’ll definitely use a weed barrier.



before weeding - scary!



after weeding - whew























I had planted six different varieties of peppers with varied levels of spice and adaptation to climate. I thought it would be a good idea to experiment to see what would grow well under the unusual circumstances. Interestingly, some varieties just died, while others did really well. The winners were a new hybrid (NuMex Conquistador from Seeds of Change) and the old standby Espanola (which is adapted to a northern NM climate). In any case I had a suitcase full of chile to take home with extra to distribute to relatives in Albuquerque.

NuMex Conquistador

Espanola

A beautiful sight!  Fresh roasted chile.

The beans were a huge success; the plants had died by August, but the pods had dried and were full of lovely beans. I planted two pumpkin plants (Winter Luxury Pie, the best!) and had one baby pumpkin. There was some deer damage earlier in the year, so the plants had a traumatic start. Th corn (strawberry popcorn) seemed ok, but they had been heavily shaded out by the massive alfalfa, so I don’t know how many little corns I’ll get.

A lovely young pumpkin

Overall, a huge success! Next year, more chile, more beans, and I think I’ll go with native blue corn instead. Probably a pumpkin or two. Definitely weed barrier, and perhaps less water and more manure for the chile plants. Live and learn; happy gardening!

The Finishing Touch

Two completed drawer pulls

 The cabinets for the kitchen were installed recently and the final touch was my handmade knobs.  The cabinets themselves were a small chunk of money (if you've purchased cabinets, you will sympathize) and I wanted to save a few pennies here and there.  When I went to look at hardware, I was shocked at how expensive knobs and pulls are.  The designs that were interesting to me were in the $25 range (each!) and I couldn't bring myself to spend $500 on knobs (I have a lot of drawers).

So, a-searching on the internet I went.  Either the attractive items were expensive, or they were mass marketed - which means everyone would have the same hardware in their new kitchen.  I didn't want someone to look at the cabinets in 15 years and know they were installed in 2010.  Also, I wanted something that looked natural & elegant, and had some meaning relative to the place itself.

After more searching, I went to Etsy and found an artist who makes lovely drawer pulls with vintage images decoupaged onto knob hardware.  I examined carefully, read the descriptions, and thought I could give it a try - I already had many of the materials.  I copied some beautiful line drawings of local plants onto ivory paper, tinted them with colored pencils, and proceeded to decoupage onto button covers and epoxy onto pulls.

In the end, each knob cost about $3, definitely a cost savings but it did take a lot of time to make the set.  I used quick-set epoxy, which probably wasn't the best choice (frustrating to use), and the knobs aren't perfect (a small wrinkle here and there, some uneven placements), but they are beautiful.  Each is different, but they look similar enough that you can tell it's a set.  The color of the paper makes them look like scrimshaw on ivory and they work very well with the simplicity of the cabinets. 

The entire set of kitchen drawer pulls

close-up view

Floor mosaic - part 1

Between the kitchen and living room is an archway - very pretty.  Under the archway, on the "floor" is a horrible semi-fractal cement mess with a thick electrical cable sticking out (won't discuss that here).  On one side is my beautiful hand-stained concrete floor.  On the other side is a beautiful brick floor.  The cement mess derives from the process of building the adobe walls (won't get into that here), not bricking over it when the living room floor was done and a variety of other factors that give me mental fatigue.

I made the decision to make lemonade out of lemons and put a tile mosaic under the arch.  I figure that would be the easiest solution to the problem.  The space is about 11"x45".  As a design motif, I chose Avanyu, the guardian of rivers and streams (like the one that  ocasionally floods 100 yards from my house, sigh).

The process itself is pretty straightforward.  First, obtain the matierals.  The floors on either side of the mosaic are reddish brown (brick and stained concrete).  Luckily, I found a nice terra cotta colored ceramic tile at the local Home Despot.  The design itself will be in white with accents in grey.  At first, I thought I would have a border in black, but decided against that after starting the project.

Ready to sketch the design onto one long piece of paper

The basic process for creating the mosaic is as follows: 1) sketch the entire life-sized design on a piece of paper; 2) cover the sketch with plastic wrap; 3) stretch nylon mesh over the plastic wrap and 4) glue your tiles onto the mesh over the appropriate part of the design.  I decided to use a very uniform layout of tiles for the background color and a random assortment for the design.  By doing this, the design itself stands out a bit more and emphasizes  the dragon-ness of the design.

Finished! Looks great

Notice in the picture above that the mosaic does not go to the edges of the sketch.  I wil fill this in during installation on the floor.  You can see the plastic wrap (pink), but not the mesh (it's there!).  After letting the glue dry, the whole thing is ready for the next step

A view of the entire piece

If necessary, and it was here, cut up the mosaic into managable 'tiles' for easy movement and installation. Even though the glue is only basic school glue, it is strong enough to hold the tiles onto the mesh.  The mesh is flexible (I used nylon tulle for this project, cheapskate that I am), but it will hold, trust me!

Cutting into pieces for shipping to NM

Close-up of cuting; mesh is clearly visible.

The next step is to package it up and ship it to the cabin.  Stay tuned for a future post about the installation and grouting.