Thursday, October 1, 2009

He's going to a garden party. Of one.

So, we used to have a big garden in the backyard with tomatoes, herbs, and sometimes a veg or two but over the last couple years, we've been invaded by our idiot neighbor's bamboo and it's killed everything. Well, the bamboo and my lack of gardening skills, but I digress. He planted it and didn't bother to research the kind he planted (rumor is that he stole it. Seriously. He stole bamboo. CITY LIVIN', YOU GOTTA LOVE IT!) and as it turns out, he planted the kind of bamboo that will take over the planet in mere minutes. You can sit on my deck and watch this stuff grow. It went from invading a small corner of the garden to taking taking over the whole yard in 3 seasons. We've figured out how to reasonably contain it along the perimeter but there are still shoots coming up all over the yard and it basically killed the garden, not to mention almost killed me since I trip over the stupid shoots constantly. It not only invaded the planting beds, but it pretty much blocks all the sun so we haven't bothered planting much of anything anymore. However, I decided to plant peppers earlier this season just to see if anything would still grow and promptly forgot I did it. In my defense, I don't go in the backyard a ton because we are also unable to grow decent grass so it's a mix of dirt, twigs, rocks and clover and as you can see below, the bamboo also prevents the sun from getting to the grass and everything below it is DEAD. Because I am a sucky forgetful gardener, all the peppers that actually grew, and there were quite a few I believe, either shriveled up and fell off or the squirrels got them. Luckily for Max, they must have missed a couple because he found them yesterday and went a pickin'!
That's the one sad plant left. Even Max feels sorry for it.
But not that sorry! GET IN MAH BELLY.

He is clearly a budding P. Allan Smith, so I'm going to have him help me with it next year. BAMBOO BE DAMNED. If he's good at it, I might let him start mowing the lawn, too. I KEED, I KEED. I'll wait until he's at least 4.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't do great with stuff in the ground either, but we do a ton of containers. Tatum loves to dig in the soil, prep the pots, and pick out plants and flowers. We probably plant 20 pots a year and have very good luck with flowers and some vege. Maybe you could give that a try, the best thing is if you have one that is not getting enough/or getting too much sun you can always pick it up and move it.

Erin

Amy, Jeff and the kimchis said...

True, Erin. Although we planted herbs in pots this year and all that's left is a sad looking dill plant.