Spring-1, Kelly-0

I'm prone to poison ivy and have gotten it nearly every summer for as long as I can remember. Normally a couple of trips to the swimming pool dry my skin out and clear it right up...but this time something much worse has happened...poison sumac!

Last weekend, just after my idiot neighbor cussed me out for standing on his property while I raked the dead weeds out of the fence line (c'mon dude, grow up!) , I started hacking away at dead vines that had wound their way around my fence posts. Those suckers were thick and wrapped around and around and around, and it took me a good five minutes just to release one vine from one fence post. I called it a day and put up all of my tools.

Skip to two days later...and I have a full blown allergic reaction and I can not pin point what the hell caused it...until my best friend Brandon told me that the vines I was cutting were poison sumac, and "Don't you remember, the last time we came out here I told you to watch out for that poison sumac..." oh, yeah...now I remember...

I have been taking a prescription steroid called Prednisone, Calagel (bc I don't want to go out with pink calamine lotion on my face), anti-itch spray for poisonous vines, and Benadryl. You can't overdose on Benadryl, so I have been taking them every time I start feeling itchy again (although it can make you sleepy, so be careful if you are driving). The Calagel helps immensely. A lot of people suggested bleach, which I will only consider as a last resort. Until then, I have researched some safer alternatives to putting bleach on my skin. Hope this helps if you ever find yourself covered in poison sumac.

1) Only rinse with cool water, hot water spreads the oils
2) Oatmeal bath for your body, oatmeal mask for your face
3) Get plenty of Vitamin C to aid the healing process
4) Cold goats milk baths, or place rags soaked in cold goats milk to affected areas
5) Lye soap
6) Don't scratch! Obviously because this will cause the irritation to spread, but it makes the itching even worse!

IT IS FINALLY SPRING!!!!

Last year I started my first vegetable garden and kept a handwritten journal to keep track of my progress, what worked, and what didn't. This year I have decided to keep a digital copy! Lucky you. 

I don't plant any vegetables until mid-May, just in case the ground freezes during the early spring. In order to get through the next four weeks I have been keeping myself occupied cleaning up the yard, designing my garden layouts, and preparing the soil. 

My boyfriend Joshua is not what I would call "outdoorsy"...unless he has a skateboard in his hand, he is normally playing guitar and saving the World of Warcraft. He is in for a real treat this year. The first "warm" day we had (51 degrees), I set him straight to work trimming bushes and prepping some old flowerbeds that are overgrown with weeds and other junk plants. 

Doesn't he look thrilled?!

I don't have any experience with flowers and other inedible plants, so this will be my first year. I am going to start small since I am making so many changes to my vegetable garden, including doubling the size and adding an herb garden. I have six deeply rooted shrubs that I need to remove in order to finish prepping the flower beds and herb garden. The Plan: Borrow Josh's grandpa's truck and pull those suckers out with a chain. I should be able to have the flower beds excavated by next weekend. 

I have four dogs. They make yard work a challenge because they LOVE to play, and Trip (the baby) likes to be in the middle of everything. I was able to get a great snapshot of my "extended family" because I was working on the opposite side of the fence and everyone just had to know what I was doing. 

Twinkie, 12, Dolce, 9, Trip, 10 months, Samwise Gamgee, unknown

Since I can't actually plant anything for another month, I decided to start designing the garden I want to create this year. Last year was my first year, so I opted for standard rows for my vegetables, and I was working with about 125 sq. ft. 

Year 1: Babies....they're BABIES!!! (TMNT)

This year I decided to design my garden to not only be functional, but aesthetically pleasing. I stumbled across the term "potager garden" which just means functional and ornamental. I looked around online for some free programs in order to start designing my garden, but I quickly decided to use Microsoft PowerPoint because it is SO easy. It took me about two hours to design my vegetable garden to-scale, and here is what I have come up with:

16'x16'

When I began designing the garden, I decided to put the taller plants on the outside walls and corners, and the shorter plants towards the center in order to create a "secret garden" because the tall plants should just about block the view into the garden from the outside. 

I: sweet corn, 2' green bean tee pee, and bell peppers

II: sweet corn, 2' pea trellis, big juicy tomatoes

III: cucumber trellis, cherry tomatoes, carrots, banana peppers

IV: asparagus, jalapenos (jalapenos will only cross-pollinate other pepper plants, but I still needed to allow plenty of space for the asparagus to mature since it grows up to 4 ft. wide and 5 ft. tall and can last for up to 20 years)

I included an apple tree in the center of the garden because I LOVE cooking with fresh apples, and I included some bench seating and walking stones in order to avoid the mud after a heavy watering. The entrances to the garden will have overhead grape trellises. 

GARDEN ENEMY NUMBER ONE

Trip "Arooo" Murphy
 Alias: Giant Mutant Puppy
This picture is a few months old, but Trip is currently 10 months old and 70 pounds.
Trip was last seen in the vicinity of my strawberry pyramid. 

Don't let that sweet grin fool you. Trip is 50% Boxer, 50% Australian Shepherd, and 100% TROUBLE! I had to abandon my composting efforts last summer when he came home because he immediately starting eating the pile. This year my plan is simple: build a fence out of livestock panel to secure the vegetable garden (sturdy, 5'x16' panels for $20), and compost in a compost ball that normally costs around $200...luckily my neighbor sold it to me for $20! That should show Trip! Right......?

In addition to the vegetable garden I also have melon gardens, a strawberry pyramid, and I will be creating an herb garden this year for the first time!

As the season progresses and I begin building trellises and getting things in the ground, I will try to post step-by-steps for everyone trying to figure out this whole gardening thing. It is a time consuming job, but it is the most rewarding job I have :)