October 24, 2008

Well, I came home at a reasonable hour today.  Not early, but only after 10 hours, hehe.  It was enough time for me to race around in my work clothes to get some garden stuff done before it got dark though. 

Unfortunately I was too busy to take pictures, so you'll have to check back tomorrow, but I hacked down all my corn stalks.  I tried to pull them but I ended up with way too much dirt with the tentacle root system corn has, so I bagged it and got out the machette.  I'll figure out how to dig up the root systems later.  Likely it'll take a pitch fork and a sore back to not step in the beds.  Not sure when I'll have time to do it though. 

So anyway, with all the stalks, I bundled them together into 3 bundles.  One I leaned up against each side of a tree in the front yard and put a cheap scarecrow we picked up to decorate with.  The third I laid in front on the ground and placed a couple of pumpkins at its "feet".  Very Autumn celebrationish, hehe.  Save the spiders for when the kids are older.

Then I had time to move my temperature gauge to a better sealed hoop cover, but it's still showing a 2 degree difference the wrong way.  Grrr.

To answer some questions, here rather than in a comment, because I'm not done with this experiment.  Darn it it HAS to be better to keep the hoop covers on the beds than not!

Dan:  Good thoughts, but the temps been the same for days.

EG:  The temps got closer together when I put the outside gauge on the gravel ground, but the one in the bed is laying on dirt in the middle, 16 inches above ground, so slightly higher.  Good thought on the moisture in the air though.  There's no way for me to completely seal the plastic.  I have it pretty taught, but nowhere near air tight. Not going to happen.  Still should keep some heat in.  Maybe it's warmer toward the top of the hoop, but that's not where the plants are, so who cares, hehe.  And yes, I get heat.  I still say cold though, nerd...

Granny: The wind does blow through there, and it is in a relatively secluded pocket of air, so that may have something to do with it.  I suppose I could block the air from passing over the outside one, but I want to keep it under the eves to stay dry.  It's not water proof.

Cheryl: Yeah, pretty wierd huh?

Sandy: Will do! I'm not beat yet...

Carolyn: Nope, good thought though.  I would have thought the temp would be higher inside the "car" also.  Can you tell I went to a liberal arts college too? hehe.  That's it garden gnomes keep switching out the two gauges so I think that #2 is inside and #1 is outside.  Then when I go out to check they switch them back. MUAHAHAHA!  Um, maybe not.

As the Fed Chief that wasn't perfect after all used to say... "It's a conundrum!"  And on that, even I knew Sub-prime and AltA mortgages were going to drag down those banks that did more than dabble in them, DUH!  But who knew it would kill the economy?  Certainly not Greenspan. 

Ah yes, gardening.  Sorry, I'm not doing much of that but doing more of the latter lately.  Sorry.

So, tomorrow is more painting, and then a party tomorrow night.  BUT, between those two things I think I'll get an hour or two to play in the garden when it's actually light out! Picture time!  YAY!  I'll get to see better what's growing.  For some silly reason I didn't check when I was racing around.  Ah well, how do you keep a turkey in suspense?  Tell ya tomorrow as they say...  Gobble gobble gobble...

Enjoy your garden!