October 2, 2008

Where has the year gone? Fall is here and it is time for winter planting and prep.  So this weekend, despite being crappy weather, will be busy in the yard.  But before my promised to-do list, a couple of things to mention.

The first is a great honor that my friends bestowed on me.  It started with Granny's Blog getting an "I Love Your Blog Award" which you have to pass along to seven more blogs, but she passed it on to a good mutual friend EG's Blog who generously passed it along to little ol' me.  /bush.  These two are great friends and extremely knowlegeable.  So I guess it's up to me to pass it along.  I don't normally do chain letters, but this is a worthwhile cause! ddf

It's a really really hard decision, I like so many blogs that I try to get to at least weekly.  But I think I have to go with one that couples both decades of gardening experience, well written prose and an amazing friendship and desire to help others, something gardening is ALL ABOUT!  Drum-roll please... A big thank you and endorsement to DoubleD's Blog!!!  She's local, she's always around to talk gardening or finanical news. She's a homesteader and the CFO of a major municipality in the PNW.  Who'd have thought a person like that would have the time!  She's nothing short of amazing!

 

 

 Boy was that a hard decision. If you could only see the blog section of my bookmarks, it's amazing!  I look forward to the weekend when I have time to cycle through them all.

Another difficult decision... I get a ton of spam.  Thankfully Judy fixed it so I have a spam stopper program, so it's much easier to control it.  They're easy to spot, a few words and a half-dozen URLs from places nobody would want to go.  However, today I got a different sort of spam comment.  For one it didn't get caught by the spam killer. For another, it was well written and polite.  Finally, it's an advertizement for not only a gardening product, but an organic one.  They wanted to give away organic bug spray to one of my readers.  I looked at their site and found that they sell at Albertson's down the street, so they're legit.  All pluses.  So, do here's the message she sent.  What do you think of it? Do you want to participate?  I could have them send it to me and then I'd forward it on to you so you didn't have to provide your address.  I'll leave it up to you.  Doesn't matter to me.

"Hi there!

My name is Alyssa I am with Branding Brand, an online marketing firm that represents EcoSMART, an organic bug spray that is 100% safe around children, plants & pets.

Given the interest of your blog, we’d love to give your blog readers the opportunity to win an EcoSMART product by randomly selecting someone that comments on any of your blog postings. It’s a great way to generate more interaction with your blog.
All we ask for in return is a link to our website (www.ecosmart.com/household) and for you to provide us with the address of the winner so we can send them their free can of EcoSMART (or we can send you the product to send to the winner).

If you’re interested please let me know.

Thanks!"

Ok, that done, here's my to-do list:

• Plant garlic in the blueberry bed.  I couldn't find out if it companions they dislike each other, but they companion with raspberries, so I'll give it a shot.  I plan on planting six inches apart with I think 4 inch spacing.  My brother will set me straight and provide the seed from his 2008 harvest.  Keep it going in the family.


• Plant more lettuce, successioning it in October for late Winter harvest.  My existing lettuce is doing better such that I may even get some to harvest soon.


• Harvest final cukes and tomates for storage and ripening. 


• Rip out the beans, cukes and tomato plants.  I think the only ones I'll compost are the beans because the rest have succumed to blight or mildew.  I don't want to take the chance that it'll carry on in my compost.


• Remove the trellis and install my old tiny 2x2 trellis with jute twine that I had up when I first started.  It will fit nicely under the hoop cover and be my only trellis this winter.


• Buy the corregated roofs for my compost bins and install them.  The rainy season has started!


• Consider covering the beds. Not sure.  Maybe DoubleD will chime in to help me decide.


• Buy a few bags of beauty bark and mulch the new blueberry bed.  Maybe install landscape fabric under it to keep the weeds and trees from creaping into it.


• Help my aunt transplant plants to wherever she wants them, including the one into my front yard.

Well, that's about it for my to-do list.  Another busy weekend. Let's hope Mother Nature cooperates.  Doubt it.  But that's what why we PNW gardeners have webbed feet, hehe.

Lastly, I have not been so happy with Master Gardener Smith and his Edibles column in the P-I.  Not particularly useful to me despite my love of fruit/veggie gardening.  Instead, this week's article from Ann Lovejoy was great!  It talked about composting and mulching with leaves, something we used to mulch last year and I plan on using for the final push for composting this year before it goes dormant for the season.  But then she mentions garlic and lettuce planting (two things on my to-do list).  Great article!

Enjoy your garden!