I went to the orientation last night to become a volunteer at Seattle Tilth. On the down-side, the late season garden crew is all filled up. On the plus side, they did take me very seriously and are going to see where they can fit me in for the Garden Intern Crew. They are hoping to expand some times/days for the intern crew to work on evenings and weekends.
Right now, I don't really care. What I care about is meeting people, getting involved, etc. I figure the more I get myself out there--the more opporunities will be available to me when people get to know me. And really, as long as I'm out in the gardens with them--I'm going to learn SOMETHING. Maybe not formally, but I will learn each and every time.
It was interesting. There were only 3 of us there for the orientation. They said some months it is only a few people, other months it is up to 40 folks. We had to talk about what we were interested in and, you know, there is always that one broad. You know what I'm talking about. The one when they ask, "What are you interested in?" (meaning--what type of stuff do you want to do here, not wank all over everyone) she goes on a 10 minute tangent about how she is an artist, her life-crisis at the moment, and goes on and on about some magical ideal she has about what she is going to get from the volunteer experience which always includes something about healing herself. Really, she is just saying, "I'm doing this because I've ran through my current friends and so I need new people to people validate meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Validate me!!!! I'm going to be high-maintenence and an emotional vampire! Feeeeeed meeeee!"
There is always at least one of them and it never, ever changes. As soon as she said, "....and I'm an artist", I thought "oh boy. Here we go." And we totally did. And it was like it always is with these people.
Too bad I didn't have a High Maintenance Bingo Card because she would have hit all the points. meh.
For me, I just said that I wanted my hands dirty, wanted to learn as much as I could so that I could then teach others. I would happily do grunt work. Because I am. I just don't care what I'm doing right now with them. I'd just like to get connected and start to travel deeper into my own self-sufficiency and the self-sufficiency of my community.
Later on talking to folks one-on-one I talked about sustainability, urband agriculture, my real interest in wanting to be in a place where I could teach economically disadvantaged folks in the city how to grow and store their own fresh produce and help build little neighborhood vegetable gardens for communities that didn't have fresh vegetables available.
That's when I learned about Marra Farm. And I gasped in utter delight. Not only Marra Farm, there is a ton of stuff related to making sure that there are fresh fruits and vegetables available to folks. I'm astonished that it has all been right under my nose forever and I had absolutely no idea.
I also learned that I can donate fresh fruits and vegetables from my garden to the food banks. This makes me crazy happy, especially since there is a food bank within walking distance. As of last night, I made the executive decision that at least 1 square of each/any raised bed (i do square foot gardening) I build or have built will be soley for growing food for the food bank. Most likely it'll be leaf-lettuces, callions, bush beans or something that I can hopefully harvest a fair amount of and be not so worried about crop failure . I'll have to see if they'll take fresh herbs as well.
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Oh, for f*cks sake. Can I divorce myself?
Can I just sit in the corner with the Dunce's cap on my head?!? Can I? How about just getting it all over with and receiving the "Worst Vegetable Gardener Of the Year".
I have screwed up SO MANY THINGS this spring and summer that I just want to punch myself in the head. They are all such obvious things and now that I know--I feel like such a dolt. Like my poor leeks that I didn't realize until a week or two ago needed to be divided individually. They are finally springing back--but not without having a lot of the green leaves totally burnt off because I obviously can't figure out how to freakin' water properly.
And now? You know what it is now? Now I've figured out why I'm not having ANY success planting from directly sowing seeds into the ground. It's a seed, yes? Yes. You put it in the dirt and a little water and...voila! a plant, right? I mean, nature does that all the time. It can't be rocket science.
But it is obviously rocket science because I have been doing it totally and completely wrong. Yes. Completely and utterly wrong. Planting seeds. Me. Doing it. Or, rather, not doing it.
Here is a checklist of how to plant seeds and I will list out whether I followed it or not:
1) Have dirt check
2) Have seeds check
3) Make sure temperature is right to start seed check
SO FAR SO GOOD, RIGHT?!?
4) Wet down bed before planting seeds nope
5) Wet down a few times to really get the soil wet nope
6) For tiny seeds, just plant it on top of the soil nope
7) Lightly rake dirt over tiny seeds with your finger nope
8) Lightly pat down the bed with your hand to decrease air space
so the water can actually reach the seed nope
9) Keep the bed moist by watering daily/twice a day until sprout nope
10) Maybe put a row cover on top of the bed to keep moisture in nope
As you can see, I got down the dirt and the seeds and that's about as far as I went with it. I guess I should just be thrilled that I knew that you had to have seeds to plant instead of thinking the magical vegetable fairies just put them in there for you.
I hate myself right now. I really do. We could be swimming in carrots and lettuces and spinach right now.
I learned all of this and a ridiculous amount of information on my Winter Garden class today. It was the most informative 2 hours of this whole gardening process. It was amazing and fantastic and I totally can't wait to get out to my garden tomorrow and start trying to plant again.
Floating row covers are going to be my new BFF from now on and as soon as I get the poor zucchini plant cured of the white fungus/mold growing on it's leaves because I've been a jerk to it and watering the leaves.
I can't belive I started this process absolutely sure we'd be eating like kings this year out of my garden. Really, we'd be dead from starvation at this point and it is all boneheaded.
In happier news, I'm so blown away by Seattle Tilth and the class I just was in that I've just now signed up as a volunteer and will hopefully be going to an orientation on Tuesday.
I even said that I was interested in the Master Soil Builder/Composter program. I'd be surprised if I actually got into that one. I'd have to go to 6 sessions of education and then be required to teach outreach classes for at least 40 hours for the rest of the year. I'd be happy to, actually.
The last part is...eh. There is a Comprehensive Organic Food Gardener Program that I've been dying to join. I just found out that they are having the program again September 27-Oct 13. There are 4 evening classes for a couple of hours and 3 all day classes/hands-on on Saturdays. The bummer is that 2 of the Saturdays occur before and after our anniversary...which falls smack in the middle of the week. :(
Awesome Husband isn't happy about it, but he also knows that I really want this training and can't get it again until Spring.
I feel like a jerk because I'm happy to celebrate the anniversary a week late if we want to get out of town. I hate that I seem to be lacking any romantic bone in my body. Or, at least that my romantic bones resembles anything remotely "normal". The second anniversary seems a bit early for me to want to go running off to do something else instead. sigh...
I feel terribly selfish and I'm not sure how this is going to be resolved without someone being mad. I should try come up with at least a fabulous alternative that would make us both happy. eesh. This totally blows. I want this class so bad.
I have screwed up SO MANY THINGS this spring and summer that I just want to punch myself in the head. They are all such obvious things and now that I know--I feel like such a dolt. Like my poor leeks that I didn't realize until a week or two ago needed to be divided individually. They are finally springing back--but not without having a lot of the green leaves totally burnt off because I obviously can't figure out how to freakin' water properly.
And now? You know what it is now? Now I've figured out why I'm not having ANY success planting from directly sowing seeds into the ground. It's a seed, yes? Yes. You put it in the dirt and a little water and...voila! a plant, right? I mean, nature does that all the time. It can't be rocket science.
But it is obviously rocket science because I have been doing it totally and completely wrong. Yes. Completely and utterly wrong. Planting seeds. Me. Doing it. Or, rather, not doing it.
Here is a checklist of how to plant seeds and I will list out whether I followed it or not:
1) Have dirt check
2) Have seeds check
3) Make sure temperature is right to start seed check
SO FAR SO GOOD, RIGHT?!?
4) Wet down bed before planting seeds nope
5) Wet down a few times to really get the soil wet nope
6) For tiny seeds, just plant it on top of the soil nope
7) Lightly rake dirt over tiny seeds with your finger nope
8) Lightly pat down the bed with your hand to decrease air space
so the water can actually reach the seed nope
9) Keep the bed moist by watering daily/twice a day until sprout nope
10) Maybe put a row cover on top of the bed to keep moisture in nope
As you can see, I got down the dirt and the seeds and that's about as far as I went with it. I guess I should just be thrilled that I knew that you had to have seeds to plant instead of thinking the magical vegetable fairies just put them in there for you.
I hate myself right now. I really do. We could be swimming in carrots and lettuces and spinach right now.
I learned all of this and a ridiculous amount of information on my Winter Garden class today. It was the most informative 2 hours of this whole gardening process. It was amazing and fantastic and I totally can't wait to get out to my garden tomorrow and start trying to plant again.
Floating row covers are going to be my new BFF from now on and as soon as I get the poor zucchini plant cured of the white fungus/mold growing on it's leaves because I've been a jerk to it and watering the leaves.
I can't belive I started this process absolutely sure we'd be eating like kings this year out of my garden. Really, we'd be dead from starvation at this point and it is all boneheaded.
In happier news, I'm so blown away by Seattle Tilth and the class I just was in that I've just now signed up as a volunteer and will hopefully be going to an orientation on Tuesday.
I even said that I was interested in the Master Soil Builder/Composter program. I'd be surprised if I actually got into that one. I'd have to go to 6 sessions of education and then be required to teach outreach classes for at least 40 hours for the rest of the year. I'd be happy to, actually.
The last part is...eh. There is a Comprehensive Organic Food Gardener Program that I've been dying to join. I just found out that they are having the program again September 27-Oct 13. There are 4 evening classes for a couple of hours and 3 all day classes/hands-on on Saturdays. The bummer is that 2 of the Saturdays occur before and after our anniversary...which falls smack in the middle of the week. :(
Awesome Husband isn't happy about it, but he also knows that I really want this training and can't get it again until Spring.
I feel like a jerk because I'm happy to celebrate the anniversary a week late if we want to get out of town. I hate that I seem to be lacking any romantic bone in my body. Or, at least that my romantic bones resembles anything remotely "normal". The second anniversary seems a bit early for me to want to go running off to do something else instead. sigh...
I feel terribly selfish and I'm not sure how this is going to be resolved without someone being mad. I should try come up with at least a fabulous alternative that would make us both happy. eesh. This totally blows. I want this class so bad.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Garden Update
GStill riding high from the Ballard Edible Eating Tour yesterday. I spent all today working on the garden.
* Decided to just give up on the broccoli. The two other plants were about to bloom with the main head of broccoli being about 1/4 of a cup of actual food. It has been shading all of my other plants that actually need some sun now, so it's time to go. I kept 1 in just for an expirement
* Found out last night that the 6-pack of leeks that I planted earlier weren't a six-pack. I should have actually seperated each individual leek. Which I didn't do . My 6-pack held over 100 leeks. Yanked up all the poor guys and carefully seperated them. 100 leeks is wayyyy too many--especially since I'm the only one in the family who eats them. I settled on doing 4 squares of leeks. That's still 36 leeks. Hopefully that means I'll be eating them all fall/winter if I didn't just stress them too much by diging them up and dividing them.
* My thai pepper plant is looking very stressed. :( I'm not sure what is wrong with it. I may not be watering it enough, is the only thing I can think of. Leaves are yellowing and dropping off. There aren't any more at the nursery, but if it looks like it might be a goner, I'll pick up another hot pepper (althought that might not be necessary with the chili I just bought. I just sorta want the huge yield a thai pepper plant will give me) and maybe a medium-hot plant.
*Finally mulched the herb garden. Wish I would have done it years ago. Hopefully it'll keep the weeds down, keep the moisture in, and add much needed nutrients to the soil when it breaks down
*Bought the connectors I need for the 2nd raised bed on the side of the fence that currently doesn't exist. It's just a big pile of dirt right now. I plan to build the bed this weekend. While I would love to plant in it this year, I think I'l just worry about amending the soil and give it a cover crop this winter.
*From seed, planted more carrots, radishes, arugula, watercress, and trying again for some summer spinach
*From starts, I planted: 1 zucchini, 1 eggplant, 1 Bolivian Rainbow chili, 6 chard, 1 Thai basil
*Making final plans for the winter garden. Ordered seeds and seed starting gear (no lights or heat mat. Just these nifty self-watering containers for seeds and for starts.)
I'm loving that I now have a mini-container garden happening. I hope to actually take some photos of what I'm doing next week. I have some original photos of how I set up the garden when it was still empty. It's still not full now--there are probably 7-8 squares that are bare. I'll be planting those up sooner or later with more radishe, carrots and leafy greens.
* Decided to just give up on the broccoli. The two other plants were about to bloom with the main head of broccoli being about 1/4 of a cup of actual food. It has been shading all of my other plants that actually need some sun now, so it's time to go. I kept 1 in just for an expirement
* Found out last night that the 6-pack of leeks that I planted earlier weren't a six-pack. I should have actually seperated each individual leek. Which I didn't do . My 6-pack held over 100 leeks. Yanked up all the poor guys and carefully seperated them. 100 leeks is wayyyy too many--especially since I'm the only one in the family who eats them. I settled on doing 4 squares of leeks. That's still 36 leeks. Hopefully that means I'll be eating them all fall/winter if I didn't just stress them too much by diging them up and dividing them.
* My thai pepper plant is looking very stressed. :( I'm not sure what is wrong with it. I may not be watering it enough, is the only thing I can think of. Leaves are yellowing and dropping off. There aren't any more at the nursery, but if it looks like it might be a goner, I'll pick up another hot pepper (althought that might not be necessary with the chili I just bought. I just sorta want the huge yield a thai pepper plant will give me) and maybe a medium-hot plant.
*Finally mulched the herb garden. Wish I would have done it years ago. Hopefully it'll keep the weeds down, keep the moisture in, and add much needed nutrients to the soil when it breaks down
*Bought the connectors I need for the 2nd raised bed on the side of the fence that currently doesn't exist. It's just a big pile of dirt right now. I plan to build the bed this weekend. While I would love to plant in it this year, I think I'l just worry about amending the soil and give it a cover crop this winter.
*From seed, planted more carrots, radishes, arugula, watercress, and trying again for some summer spinach
*From starts, I planted: 1 zucchini, 1 eggplant, 1 Bolivian Rainbow chili, 6 chard, 1 Thai basil
*Making final plans for the winter garden. Ordered seeds and seed starting gear (no lights or heat mat. Just these nifty self-watering containers for seeds and for starts.)
I'm loving that I now have a mini-container garden happening. I hope to actually take some photos of what I'm doing next week. I have some original photos of how I set up the garden when it was still empty. It's still not full now--there are probably 7-8 squares that are bare. I'll be planting those up sooner or later with more radishe, carrots and leafy greens.
Friday, May 29, 2009
BBA challenge, Garden
I'm very unmotivated to keep this blog up. Most likely because I have blogs elsewhere.
BBA
Made the Anadama bread last weekend. Photos forthcoming. In the greatest putz move yet, I forgot to oil the bread pan before I put the loaf in. So, when trying to take out the loaf...well, I don't need to tell you. It's a shame because it was the most gorgeous loaf of bread I've made. Nice sized holes evenly spaced, a crunchy, caramelized crust. Only half of it sorta stayed in the pan when I pulled it out. :/
Anadama bread totally rocks it when you toast it and put a schmear of peanut butter on it.
I was going to make bagels this weekend and just skip the Greek celebration bread, but realized that I'm missing 2 vital ingredients in bagel making: high gluten flour and non-diastatic malt powder. Sure, sure--he says that they are optional but...uh, no. This is not optional for a true bagel and I aim to make a true bagel.
So, a jaunt over to the King Arthur's site and purchased said ingredients. And maybe about $50 in other things that I just simply had to have. Like a nice spoon set for measuring spices.
I'll flip through the book tonight to see what grabs my attention and go from there. I've decided that I'm definitely not going to bake all the recipes. I'll bake bread weekly, but I just don't really want to bake bread that I don't really want to eat. That seems foolish.
Garden
I've now got everything I need (well, everything I can have) for the garden. This weekend I put out : 3 basil, 1 marjoram plant, 2 French tarragon, 1 chive into the herb and general garden. In the general garden, I also planted another sauce tomato plant, planted more carrots (NONE of my carrots have come up! gah! It may just be a bad package of seeds? I don't know. If nothing comes from this crop, I'll wait until late summer and try another type of carrot I have for fall harvest), 1 rainbow chard plant, 1 rainbow chard seed, kale seeds, a whole square of breakfast radish, 1 square of New Zealand spinach seeds, 6 bush bean plants.
Against impulse, I've decided to keep my bazillion pepper plants and eggplant inside for at least another 2-3 weeks. The weather right now is GLORIOUS, but that could be a lark for Seattle. Nothing gets truly summer-time until 4th of July. I've got 2 red sweet pepper plants, an Anaheim chili plant, a Thai pepper plant, and somehow a habenero plant got snuck into my cart. I actually don't need 2 plants that are THAT hot---especially because the Thai dragon plant produces HUNDREDS of peppers. I guess we'll see. I can always give away hot peppers..at least I hope. I'm expecting my kitchen will become filled with dried chili peppers hanging everywhere.
Picked up a zucchini plant, but now I'm not so sure that I actually want to plant it. :( It's a "regular" zucchini plant and I've now got 2 hybrid plants for containers that are growing strong in the windowsill. I'd actually almost prefer to plant the hybrids than the regular zuchh. I didn't really realize how fast zucchini plants would grow or that I could have just started it from seed without the transplant. I hate to waste the plant, but 2-3 plants are going to yield more zucchini than I am prepared to handle. Even with the 2 hybrids, I'm most likely going to figure out ways to prepare zucchini blossoms so I don't' make myself sick. Eh, maybe a nice neighbor will take the regular zucchini off my hands.
So, after this all goes in, I'll wait until the mesculun (which desperately needs to be thinned now. It's out of control with the warm weather we've been having) bolts and I've got some compact romaine lettuce seeds I can put in there. I'm looking for poc choi seeds as well. It looks like I'll have 2 remaining squares after that and...I'm not sure. Maybe I'll shove some green onions in there.
The micro tom plant is setting fruit. 2 itty bittsy fruit so far. I'm astounded how tiny they are...literally pea-sized. The plant itself doesn't seem so happy. I'm not sure what it needs.
Home
I spent the weekend completely re-arranging the kitchen cabinets and actually organizing my pantry. I'm so happy with the pantry right now that Sunday I woke up, placed a chair in front of my pantry, and just looked at how marvelous it all was. Hooray for buying containers for all my grains and rice and baking supplies and labeling them! I love it! I can actually FIND things again! (And I found out I have like 8 cans of coconut milk. oops.) I actually need a couple MORE containers for things that I'm currently out of. I had some older containers that I'm still using, but I gotta say--I'm a fan of my new square containers over the round ones.
BBA
Made the Anadama bread last weekend. Photos forthcoming. In the greatest putz move yet, I forgot to oil the bread pan before I put the loaf in. So, when trying to take out the loaf...well, I don't need to tell you. It's a shame because it was the most gorgeous loaf of bread I've made. Nice sized holes evenly spaced, a crunchy, caramelized crust. Only half of it sorta stayed in the pan when I pulled it out. :/
Anadama bread totally rocks it when you toast it and put a schmear of peanut butter on it.
I was going to make bagels this weekend and just skip the Greek celebration bread, but realized that I'm missing 2 vital ingredients in bagel making: high gluten flour and non-diastatic malt powder. Sure, sure--he says that they are optional but...uh, no. This is not optional for a true bagel and I aim to make a true bagel.
So, a jaunt over to the King Arthur's site and purchased said ingredients. And maybe about $50 in other things that I just simply had to have. Like a nice spoon set for measuring spices.
I'll flip through the book tonight to see what grabs my attention and go from there. I've decided that I'm definitely not going to bake all the recipes. I'll bake bread weekly, but I just don't really want to bake bread that I don't really want to eat. That seems foolish.
Garden
I've now got everything I need (well, everything I can have) for the garden. This weekend I put out : 3 basil, 1 marjoram plant, 2 French tarragon, 1 chive into the herb and general garden. In the general garden, I also planted another sauce tomato plant, planted more carrots (NONE of my carrots have come up! gah! It may just be a bad package of seeds? I don't know. If nothing comes from this crop, I'll wait until late summer and try another type of carrot I have for fall harvest), 1 rainbow chard plant, 1 rainbow chard seed, kale seeds, a whole square of breakfast radish, 1 square of New Zealand spinach seeds, 6 bush bean plants.
Against impulse, I've decided to keep my bazillion pepper plants and eggplant inside for at least another 2-3 weeks. The weather right now is GLORIOUS, but that could be a lark for Seattle. Nothing gets truly summer-time until 4th of July. I've got 2 red sweet pepper plants, an Anaheim chili plant, a Thai pepper plant, and somehow a habenero plant got snuck into my cart. I actually don't need 2 plants that are THAT hot---especially because the Thai dragon plant produces HUNDREDS of peppers. I guess we'll see. I can always give away hot peppers..at least I hope. I'm expecting my kitchen will become filled with dried chili peppers hanging everywhere.
Picked up a zucchini plant, but now I'm not so sure that I actually want to plant it. :( It's a "regular" zucchini plant and I've now got 2 hybrid plants for containers that are growing strong in the windowsill. I'd actually almost prefer to plant the hybrids than the regular zuchh. I didn't really realize how fast zucchini plants would grow or that I could have just started it from seed without the transplant. I hate to waste the plant, but 2-3 plants are going to yield more zucchini than I am prepared to handle. Even with the 2 hybrids, I'm most likely going to figure out ways to prepare zucchini blossoms so I don't' make myself sick. Eh, maybe a nice neighbor will take the regular zucchini off my hands.
So, after this all goes in, I'll wait until the mesculun (which desperately needs to be thinned now. It's out of control with the warm weather we've been having) bolts and I've got some compact romaine lettuce seeds I can put in there. I'm looking for poc choi seeds as well. It looks like I'll have 2 remaining squares after that and...I'm not sure. Maybe I'll shove some green onions in there.
The micro tom plant is setting fruit. 2 itty bittsy fruit so far. I'm astounded how tiny they are...literally pea-sized. The plant itself doesn't seem so happy. I'm not sure what it needs.
Home
I spent the weekend completely re-arranging the kitchen cabinets and actually organizing my pantry. I'm so happy with the pantry right now that Sunday I woke up, placed a chair in front of my pantry, and just looked at how marvelous it all was. Hooray for buying containers for all my grains and rice and baking supplies and labeling them! I love it! I can actually FIND things again! (And I found out I have like 8 cans of coconut milk. oops.) I actually need a couple MORE containers for things that I'm currently out of. I had some older containers that I'm still using, but I gotta say--I'm a fan of my new square containers over the round ones.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Post from yesterday that never got uploaded. oops.
The weather outside is GLORIOUS. I have been out in the sun all day trying to come up with things to do that involve being out in the sun. Basically, I'm just mucking around my yard and took the dog for a walk up to the library and back. He was out the door earlier than I was this morning and basically has spent the day sprawled out on the deck and soaking up the rays.
Planted some more carrots and radishes. Tried to come up with what more I can plant. I've got about 10 empty squares right now. I'll most likely put in some bok choy, 2 sweet red pepper plants, and....I'm coming up blank. I'd like to wait awhile before I plant the kale, endive, and radiccio for overwintering. Maybe I'll just throw in some annual flowers in there for a bit before I decide. I want to do the zucchini and eggplant in a container and I'd like to have the hot peppers in containers as well. :/
I realized that it wasn't the spinach that the bugs were eating. It's the radish tops. Way to go for mislabelling. None of my spinach came up and I'm thinking that it might now be too hot to plant what I've got. I need to pick up some New Zealand spinach as that is a slow-bolting for summer. I may have to put down some more swiss chard too as only 1 plant came up out of the 2. I'm still not exactly sure how many plants I really need.
The herb garden is lookin' a little bare so I think I'll add some marjoram and summer savory. The basil will be going in with the tomatoes, but I may sneak in a lemon basil and a thai basil in the herb garden.
I'm garden-crazy right now. We've started harvesting the mesculun and crazy impatient to get more food on the table--stat. I have a feeling that come August, I'm going to be drowning in produce. Fine with me. I'm all ready to do some canning and freezing this year.
Other than that, I'm overly-tired and cranky. Dont' want to go to the grocrey store and won't go to the grocery store today and I'm out of coarse cornmeal AND whole wheat flour. Which means that not only does that thwart me starting the BBA challenge until next week, I can't even make any whole wheat breads. Which would be fine, but ever since I thought about making a sandwich-type bread this week, I've been CRAVING a sandwich with hummus and sprouts, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I'm not going to be happy until I can eat it every day this week. Hopefully I'll get my ass in gear after dinner.
What I'm trying to say is, life is really good. I love the sun. I love my garden. I love my dog. I love my husband. Not in that order. I'm really blessed right now in my life and I appreciate all the goodness around me.
Planted some more carrots and radishes. Tried to come up with what more I can plant. I've got about 10 empty squares right now. I'll most likely put in some bok choy, 2 sweet red pepper plants, and....I'm coming up blank. I'd like to wait awhile before I plant the kale, endive, and radiccio for overwintering. Maybe I'll just throw in some annual flowers in there for a bit before I decide. I want to do the zucchini and eggplant in a container and I'd like to have the hot peppers in containers as well. :/
I realized that it wasn't the spinach that the bugs were eating. It's the radish tops. Way to go for mislabelling. None of my spinach came up and I'm thinking that it might now be too hot to plant what I've got. I need to pick up some New Zealand spinach as that is a slow-bolting for summer. I may have to put down some more swiss chard too as only 1 plant came up out of the 2. I'm still not exactly sure how many plants I really need.
The herb garden is lookin' a little bare so I think I'll add some marjoram and summer savory. The basil will be going in with the tomatoes, but I may sneak in a lemon basil and a thai basil in the herb garden.
I'm garden-crazy right now. We've started harvesting the mesculun and crazy impatient to get more food on the table--stat. I have a feeling that come August, I'm going to be drowning in produce. Fine with me. I'm all ready to do some canning and freezing this year.
Other than that, I'm overly-tired and cranky. Dont' want to go to the grocrey store and won't go to the grocery store today and I'm out of coarse cornmeal AND whole wheat flour. Which means that not only does that thwart me starting the BBA challenge until next week, I can't even make any whole wheat breads. Which would be fine, but ever since I thought about making a sandwich-type bread this week, I've been CRAVING a sandwich with hummus and sprouts, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I'm not going to be happy until I can eat it every day this week. Hopefully I'll get my ass in gear after dinner.
What I'm trying to say is, life is really good. I love the sun. I love my garden. I love my dog. I love my husband. Not in that order. I'm really blessed right now in my life and I appreciate all the goodness around me.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
S-M-R-A-T!
Sooooo, uh, I knew I was going to dig 6" of soil out of the garden bed and I was going to put that soil near the northern side of the fence. Got it all planned out. Soil from *here* going to *there*. Thought about it all week. Here. There.
What I didn't really think about at all until last night was exactly how I was going to move the soil from here to there.
Which, you can probalby guess, is a pretty important step in both the planning process and in the execution.
Especially if you don't have a wheelbarrow or even large buckets.
What I didn't really think about at all until last night was exactly how I was going to move the soil from here to there.
Which, you can probalby guess, is a pretty important step in both the planning process and in the execution.
Especially if you don't have a wheelbarrow or even large buckets.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)