November 30, 2008

Sorry to all the folks out there that have checked back over the last few days looking for a post from me.  I've been sick, spending quality time with the family and not gardening until today.  In short, there was nothing to say, so I was silent.  For some reason I'm not as creative as my pal EG at coming up with innovative things to do and say.  That man is always doing something interesting!

Anyway, today I went out to water the garden and get some chores done outside.  As I'd said, I've been fighting a cold and have tired easily.  So all I planned to do was water, take some picutres and then mow the leaves as I had a clearing of the fog for an hour or two.

Frankly it had been a few days since I actually went out to the garden at all.  Shame on me, but the weather had been damp, almost assuredly keeping the soil under the covers hydrated, and a few extra days of mushroom growth couldn't hurt.  So what the hey, I relaxed (and helped my folks some). 

The first thing I noticed when I went out there is that the wind had toyed with my hoop covers a bit.



Of course they still worked, but not nearly as well as they should.  If the results of my temperature tests had shown that the sealed covers kept the inside temperature higher than the outside, I would have been worried.  The plastic had come out from under my bricks in front, so the air would flow freely.  Ah well, it hasn't froze in the last week, so no harm done.  Of course the proof would be inside the covers.

Since the most discheveled cover was on Bed #3, I started there.  As expected, everything was fine. Look at the king cauliflower holding court over his subjects. 

 

After I picked all the mushrooms out, I moved finally to the back of the bed where the rotting remains of the cucumber plants.  The vines were nearly gone and one of the three cucumbers I was leaving to save the seed rotted.  Oops.  But I saved one good one and one so-so one.  Let's hope I can figure out the right way to save the seeds.  Of course with my luck they'll be hybrids so the children won't stay true to the parent.

But the cool part is that the back of that bed is now clear and ready to replant with peas early spring.



I figure the roots will decompose in place and be fine for the soil.  Either that or they're part of the onions next door. /shrug

Next I moved to Bed #2 and watered.  See, here's me watering for grins.



As you can see, the proper spacing for wild mushrooms is not being followed here. Mel would not be pleased.  That and some of those spinach leaves could be used to play tennis with.  I realized this weekend when I wanted to make a salad that our dressing is expired.  We like the sprays that are minimal calories per spray.  I use so little dressing with our scrumptous veggies that it's perfect for me.  Too bad they don't have much of a shelf life.  So tomorrow I'll pick some up from the store on the way home.

Look at these radishes!  They're in great shape.  Gotta keep my mother away from them or she'll harvest them all for radish and butter sandwiches.  Don't ask. hehe.



I'm skiping the spinach, which on close inspection is showing much less leaf miner damage than I had originally thought.  That's good news, both for this harvest and hopefully future plantings come spring. In the back of the bed are my stunted pea plants.  Theses are the ones that are supposed to get 30 inches high but are at most 18 inches, and others have reported them growing 5-6'.  Not for me.  Think next time I'll try the Cascadia variety and see how it compares.  Anyway, lookie what I found on close inspection...



Peas!  Sure they're small and few in number, but I'm hopeful that this is the first of many to come.  I actually saw two emerging from their flowers.  Not a meal, but a good taste test to share with the kids when they've gotten a bit bigger (the peas, not the kids, hehe).

Next I moved on to mow the leaves.  Thankfully I had enough gas in the mower to do the job without having to fill it again.  I hate to leave much gas in the tank over the winter.  I ruined a mower like that once.



Boy, if only I had more time today (we had a dinner date with my folks to get ready for) and was feeling better, it would have been a perfect time to break out my pitch fork and mix all this up to get some more aeration and possibly some more heat and decomposition of the leaves, which had some decent grass clippings mixed in.  I could tell that by the funky patterns I was making in the grass, which really should have been mowed completely or not at all.  Oops. Well, we've been having great fall weather (really pretty dry), so you never know.  Maybe next weekend I'll have the time, weather and energy to do a proper mowing.

Anyway, while I was out doing zig zags around my front yard to catch all the fallen leaves, I noticed something odd about my sidewalk area.  It was right about when I was figuring out that there was something wrong with my grass where it meets the sidewalk that my neighbor came over.  If you recall from the summer, two of my neighbors had mentioned in conversation that my yard was the only one on the block to not have my sidewalk edged.  See, my family has an edger, it's just that none of us can figure out where it is.  Each of us says the other has it, which normally means I do, but I've looked multiple times. 

Well, my neighbor explained that while he and my arborist neighbor were edging, they both decided to take pity on us less fortunate neighbors (in the edging department).  Each of them edged their neighbor's yard.  Of course my neighbor had 250' plus of edging to do as my pie-shaped lot is far bigger than my neighbors.  So after profusely thanking him for his assistance, I felt compelled to remove the sod from the sidewalk.  So, under the weather, with the fog rolling in, light fading and time creaping along toward when we had to be over at my folks for dinner, I started scraping the sidewalk.  Some of it came up really easy, such that I could just coil it up like an electrical cord.  Some I had to get down and rip it out with my hands.  When time, light and energy ran out, I had done just over half of my sidewalk.  At that point my neighbor brought over his blower and I blew the sidewalk clean.  Boy it looks good now.  I just need about an hour to finish it up next weekend.  Here's really hoping for good weather!

Well, I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving weekend.  If you shopped like my wife did, here's hoping that you found deals and maybe kept some of the struggling retailers afloat.  If you recharged like me, I hope you spent more time in your garden than I did.  Enjoy!