On beer, plants, Zoo Doo, and endings

I am sitting on my front porch, drinking a beer, enjoying the end to a rather lovely day. That's right, my friends, I am drinking a beer. Football and baseball buddies rejoice, for I have rediscovered Fat Tire, and it is good. I am looking forward to further exploring the world of barley, hops, and microbrews. My tastebuds must have changed in the last couple of years.

Beer is good. And now that I have tasted what my friend Brian calls the "gateway beer," it's going to be all downhill from here. Who wants to go to Hopscotch in Fremont next weekend?

My guy friends who are reading this are probably cracking up. I can see Jeremy, Ryan, and Steve all saying "well duh. We could have told you beer is good a long time ago." I always just thought I didn't like it. I rediscovered beer at a Mountaineers event a couple of weeks ago. They were out of hard cider, so, in typical Anna fashion, I asked the bartender what he had that was closest to Fat Tire.

"Fat Tire," he responded. Thank God I know how to laugh at myself. This comes in handy on many occasions. He poured me a tall glass of Fat Tire, and I got hooked.

But I digress. This is supposed to be a blog about gardening, yet it really has turned into a blog about life, the universe, and everything.

Yesterday, I put some carrots in the ground, reseeded my chard, and put a few more radishes in as a succession crop. If I haven't added the pictures yet, I will soon. My fava beans are getting pretty tall, and I am wondering how soon they will yield real beans. The peas are reaching for the trellis. They send out small tendrils, searching for the twine. The oregano is growing like crazy, and a ladybug has taken up residence on the plant. I really like ladybugs. Not only do they eat things like aphids, but they're also pretty. The one radish I did not pick for a salad last week has turned into a giant radish. I am planning on pulling it up tonight and putting it on a salad. Although I kind of want to see whether or not radishes act like zucchini and just keep growing.

I met Dr. Doo the Prince of Poo (no joke) at the Woodland Park Zoo today. I picked up my Zoo Doo this afternoon. They still have an amazing pile of compost left. It makes me smile, thinking that what was once elephant poo will be fertilizing my garden. The Zoo Doo program is fantastic. They take poop from all the vegetarian animals and turn it into compost, which they then sell to happy gardeners like myself for incredibly cheap. Believe it or not, there are more gardeners who want the compost than there is compost available! Dr. Doo called me on Monday to let me know that I could buy Zoo Doo this year, and now there are three garbage bags of it sitting in my backyard.

My parents have this great story involving using manure as fertilizer. When they started dating, my mom had a garden. Dad had an old truck, which my brother and I have nicknamed "The Grapes of Wrath." (He still has the truck, but it no longer runs.) Anyway, Mom wanted to grow some zucchini, and thought that cow manure would be the perfect fertilizer. Dad fired up The Grapes of Wrath, and he and mom drove out to Duvall to get some manure from a farmer. The guy put two tractor scoops of manure in the truck's bed. On the way back, they had the windows down, oblivious to the smell. It was a hot day in Seattle, and everyone around them also had their windows down. Dad said that he started to notice, at stop lights, people pinching their noses and rolling up their windows. They drove The Grapes of Wrath all the way to Mom's house in Greenlake. Mom's backyard may have smelled like crap all summer, but she grew some gigantic zucchini!

After my trip to the zoo, I went over to the P-Patch to take out the strawberries, pull up the crops, and put my garden to bed for the next person to use. I felt a little sad. As I wrote in the last post, I'm a terrible quitter. I like to finish what I've started. Yet I could also tell that I was getting in over my head. I need some free time to follow my heart and really step into my next adventures. It's spring, and the mountains I can see from my back window call out to me each day. I need free time to go find something to climb, to find a new trail to love, to get back to nature. And it's a lot easier caring for a garden next to my house.

So now, my little 4x8 raised bed is all I have. But I think it will be plenty. With the addition of the strawberry plants, my raised bed is now full. I hope my landlord doesn't mind all of the containers I am surrounding it with. Giving up the P-Patch all but ensures that I started way too many tomato plants, so if you would like one, let me know. Otherwise, my porch will be covered in tomatoes this summer. Although that's not sounding like such a bad thing right now.

And on that note, it is time for some food! I'll let you know how the big radish tastes. (And guys -- I did, in fact, finish my beer.)