July 31, 2009

Wow, time sure flies.  Long ago my mother called to say she was treating the family to an Alaskan cruise in recognition of all the hard work we put into rennovating their home.  Of course we were in the middle of the process so it didn't register at the time.  Then, over the next few months my sister-in-law who works for the line was trying to excite folks and get us to do what was necessary to book the cruise.  Again, I was apathetic.  It was the start of the hellish period in the renovation.  Time to pick excursions came and went and I still couldn't wrap my brain around it.  Finally the house was done and I had time again.  Alas, things needed to be done around the home and the weather got scorching hot, so I still didn't do anything. 

Well, it's time to head out tomorrow. I packed last night and am continuing to pack for us and the kids tonight, so I wanted to post my last blog entry for a week or so. I'm sure when I get back I'll snap all sorts of pics of what has matured, been harvested or bolted.  But for now, let's get into a marathon post.

First off, I wanted to show my stunted corn stalks.  For some reason they only got 3 feet tall rather than the 6 feet they got last year.



Despite the short stalks, I'm getting corn.  Unfortunately I think my Aunt (who will be watering) will be harvesting them.

\

Only two stalks have corn on them as I type, but this one has two ears and others show signs of growth.  Who knows if I'll taste home grown corn or not.  Someone will at least, hehe.  I recall you only have 10 days after the silks die or something like that.  They may last for a week. Not sure.

Oh, I found this shot on my camera, just to show how hot it's been here, look at this.



The top is the garden and the bottom is inside the house.  Makes me sweat just looking at it.  Oh, and the barrometer isn't calibrated right. No rain for several weeks still. Very odd for us (global warming ahem).

Speaking of the heat, that record 103 degree day did a number on my cauliflower.  This was just about ready to harvest one day and the next...



Destined for the compost when I get home.

The lettuce however hadn't shown much signs of distress despite a week of temps in the 90s.  In the back of my mind I knew I should shade them, but I left them as is.



As you can see, some of the leaves wilted due to that day.  A day late and a dollar short, I did something about it.  I removed the wood between the beds and replaced it with one of my trusty window shades and PRESTO!



Gotta love keeping junk from our window replacment project last year, hehe.  Not only will the shade protect them, but the 16 inch bed sides will help them get just over 5 hours of sun a day.  Should do the trick.  When I get home I'll plant more I guess.  Maybe I'll have time to throw some seeds in the ground tonight or tomrrow morning.

Lastly, for the grand finalle before head off into the sunset for a week on the high seas, not everything is hating the heat.  No, it's not the tomatoes, they lost all their blooms due to the heat.  It's acutally my cantaloupe!



I actually have 3 growing bigger than they ever got last year, with more on the way, but I believe you can only see two in this picture.  Can you spot them? 

Something interesting about this 31 gallon Self Watering Container.  Sure it's only got 3 cantaloupe plants in it, but it never runs out of water.  Seems like these plants don't need much water.  Very odd.

Well, that's it for me.  Sorry I haven't been around much lately, and that I'm going away again for a whole week, but I can't wait to get back and see all your blogs to see that you've been enjoying your gardens in my absence!

June 25, 2009

I guess this is a random garden tour-like post.  I've been accumulating pics of things that struck my fancy for a while and just haven't had opportunity to work them into posts.  After chatting with Judy on Facebook tonight, I commented on my freaky corn and I promised her I would show it in my blog post tonight. 

I've been trying to get it to grow fast by side dressing with fish emulsion every week or two.  That may have had something to do with these side shoots...



I went out today and those V side shoots are thicker and looking like more stalks.  It almost looks like the stalks that the ears grow on, but they should be mid-way up a 3 foot tall stalk, not coming out of the ground?  What do you think? Can I expect ears from each side shoot?  Very odd.  I'd wanted the nitrogen to help them grow tall, not freaky, hehe.

Ok, now I'm normally good at segwaying to the next topic and pic, but I'm not going to bother this post, sorry.  Instead I'll just jump from topic to topic to clear up my pics, hehe.

Here is a demonstration of what a few weeks can do for my peas.



I took that a week or two ago, and that same pea yesterday looked like this...



What do you think, snap peas ready now or should I wait?  I'm so nervous after waiting too long on my beans that I'm gunshy. hehe.

Now on to tomatoes.  I finally found another plant that is producing fruit. 



It's clearly a cherry, though not sure which one.  I'm kind of liking the mystery of it all.  Oh, and if you're wondering like I was, the grey thing at the bottom left is my wand, filling the SWC.  These plants are going through water very fast, much earlier than last year.  As a result, I may very well have home grown tomatoes by the 4th of July.  No, not these, but look at what I found when I last watered.



Yep, I've got two (Bloody Butcher?) ripening.  Pretty cool.

Next, I thought this shot was cool, so I snapped it.  It's a pic of my yukon gold potato patch.  Some of the plants are nearly 3 feet tall now, but some have dodged the crowd and are growing out into the path.



I remember last year I had a broccoli that did this, the stalk was leggy and in the shape of an S with the head growing two feet off the ground.

This next pic is yet another from my lone surviving Blacktail Mountain watermelon plant in a scrap SWC.  I'm just waiting for tomatoes to grow on it.  Very odd.



Lastly, I just had to take a pic today of one of my new blueberry bushes.  It's too small to allow it to grow a full harvest, but I like to let a cluster or two mature to taste them while most of the energy goes to developing a sturdy root system and strong canes.  This Jersey will be the first to mature a berry.  Look at them!



I'm worried that if those corn with the V stalks grows much bigger, they'll shade this plant, hehe.  Tough to do from the north, but it could create a canopy.

Anyway, sorry for the random thoughts.  Hope you've enjoyed my miscellaneous pics and have a big weekend planned in your garden.  I've got renovation and plumbing repairs scheduled. /sigh.

June 16, 2009

Well, the weather was much cooler today, though muggy. I think we're finally in for some rain tonight.  Of course that didn't stop us from having a great 3-mile walk sans youngin's tonight when we got home from work.  It was great.  The heart rate wasn't racing quite as much as pushing an old jogging stroller with 45 pounds of 5 year old, but it did allow us to spend a relaxing dinner at Subway mid-walk.  Splitting a foot-long ham and cheese loaded with veggies. Ah, the life. hehe

What does that have to do with a gardening blog you ask?  Well, it isn't really a stretch to say that part of the reason I started my garden was to eat better and live healthier so I can play with my grand kids some day.  Besides, the other reason I started the garden was for a stress reliever, and I can tell you I feel nice and relaxed after that evening.  Lastly, it's my blog and I'll ramble if I want to, hehe.

Now on to the garden.  After my walk today, I took the opportunity when we got home to wander around the garden and water.  I can tell you more broccoli is coming on strong all of a sudden, so I should really figure out how to encorporate it into more meals.  That or resign myself to the fact that I'll need to preserve it or give it away.  I'm sure I could give it away, but having freshish broccoli in the heat of the summer or dead of winter sounds pretty good (yeah, there's a good chance I'll have broccoli to harvest mid-winter, but you get my meaning). 

While I was watering, I decided to take a few snapshots of the other side of the garden for a change.  First is Judy's Minnesota Midget cantaloupe.



Why do you ask are all the plants bunched into the corner of a big 31 gallon Self Watering Container (SWC)?  Well, the third seed didn't germinate but the fourth that I just threw in did.  Anyone want to tell me if the little guy will transplant a foot away?  I don't want to kill it but it does look kinda runtish next to those big guys.  Anyway, I need to figure out a trellis for this area.  Now that I think the big tomato cages are doing fine to contain the tomatoes I really don't need to waste my big trellis on it, but it does need to be sturdy.  Maybe I'll build one of the sturdy conduit ones that Mel pushes and KitsapFG uses so well.  Who knows, I've got another month or so before these need a trellis.



Speaking of tomatoes, I think I mentioned that I took an idea from EG who pinches his suckers (the stems that grow from the middle of a V on a tomato plant) when they're decent size and plants them for succession or back-up plants.  Well, I decided to experiment myself with a decent sized one that I must have missed.  I planted it in the back of my blueberry bed where I had a ton of room in the corner of two fences.  Well, it seemed to take, but silly me, I forgot to water it well during that 90 degree heat we had last week.  I guess I'm spoiled by my SWCs, hehe.  It died of course, but I decided to water it regularly to see if I could revive it.  Sure enough, it looks like it may just pull through.  Wouldn't that be a resilient tomato plant?



Sorry for the poor quality picture, I didn't want to climb into the bed so I zoomed in.  However, you can clearly see new growth on top of the old dead leaves.  I'll keep checking back with this guy to see if it produces anything.

Hehe, continuing the unintentional segways, speaking of blueberries, the plant right next to this tomato is going to be my best producer by far.  Look at all those berries froming...



They almost look ready don't they?  Maybe this is one of my early producers?  It's a Blueray, which matures in July and August, so maybe... Yum!

The next pic is for my good buddy EG who already has corn growing.  I think I told you that I hit these with a shot of fish emulsion yesterday to help them along, hehe.



Notice that some of those stalks are growing side stems at a 45 degree angle?  I'm not sure what to make of that.  I mean last year the stalks did that but not until they were nearly 6 feet tall and the Vs were 3 feet up the stalk.  I wonder if this means I'll grow short corn stalks with multiple ears... wouldn't that be interesting?  I haven't grown this variety before.

Lastly, I wanted to share a pic of my lone watermelon from EG that germinated in a scrap SWC.  It seems to be doing pretty well, but I'm kind of curious about it.  It doesn't look at all like a cantaloupe or other melon plant.  In fact, it looks a LOT like a tomato plant...



I swear the seeds looked like black watermelon seeds, which matches the name, Blacktail Mountain Watermelon or something like that.  EG, you growing them?  At least I think it was EG that gave them to me, maybe Judy... hmm?  That reminds me that I should really lable the envelopes with who gave them to me, to thank them when I get a great crop or something... hehe.

Enjoy your garden!

May 31, 2009

Man, time flies when you're busy beyond belief, and this weekend was no exception.  We got a ton done over at the folks place, including painting most of two floors of the house, but I got squat done around the homestead.  Par for the course I guess.

I did of course water, since we had tons of sun and temperatures in the low 80s all weekend (horrible weather if your painting clothes happen to be sweats, hehe).  Most of my pics came from when I watered.  My garden has been on autopilot since I haven't had time to do much of anything to it.  However, Mother Nature has done me proud by setting a few broccoli heads growing this weekend.  Here is the farthest along.

 

I should remember to throw in something to give perspective, but I'd say this head is about a quarter diameter size.  I was excited so I looked and counted two more of my 8 or so plants with tiny heads forming.  Not long now and I should have fresh broccoli!

Yesterday after a long day working, we had plans to go over to our friends for a barbeque and Rock Band action.  I decided I should bring a salad, so I snipped 1/100th of my greens and four radishes.  I could do that every day for a month right now.  Judy, do you think it would ship Fed Ex well to you? hehe.

While I was out there my wife came to hurry me along (I always get carried away when I'm out there).  You see, my Aunt was robbing the old house of excess plants that she or we wanted at our homes.  My brother and I each snagged a Spanish Lavender plant.  We both wanted to put them into pots so they could be used to attract bees to our gardens.  Unfortunately I didn't have an ornamental pot to put it in and we were late for the dinner party, so when I got home with a bare root wilting plant, I threw it into the blueberry bed where my dead lavender was.  You should have seen me yanking that monster out of the ground with my bare hands, hehe.  Being later for a party will do wonders for your adrenaline. 

Anyway, after that I was harvestinga salad and my wife and I got to talking about tomatoes so I had to show her (and you) the progress babies.



If these are Bloody Butchers, they'll grow much bigger than that, but they could be some of my cherry varieties.  Not sure.  Regardless, these will have their seeds saved as the first to produce.  I understand that's a good way to get earlier maturing heirlooms.

Today's evening was spent with the whole family over at my folks so the boys wouldn't have to cook after a long hard day working at the old house.  After we got back both by brother and I needed showers to wash the paint off before dinner, and I HAD to get out and hill up my potato bins.  They've grown gangbusters in this great weather.  I swear you could watch them grow.  I didn't have time to take pictures of them, but safe to say I need to add one, maybe two more boards to each bin, I just didn't have time so they're hilled well above the board level.

When we got to my folks house, I took a moment to check in on my brother's garden progress, only to find he had the same idea I did.  Only he needed to plant some peppers and squash.



As you can see, he hadn't changed out of his paint clothes to garden either, you're just going to get dirty again, hehe.  Also, you can see some of his 10 plus tomat plants planted nearly as close as my SWCs.  Then come the newly planted peppers, followed by some really close zuchinni and other squash.  He says he'll thin them later, could you see how badly they take over that bed? 

While I was there I snapped a couple more pics of his garden. 



Here you can see part of his elaborate hoop house that he left up to provide support for his peas.  In the back of the bed he's got tons of cukes in a similar state as mine, so it looks like we may have a pickling party after all. Don't worry Jen, we can have one too.  Behind that bed you can see the explosion of mint that he can't kill. It just keeps coming back with a vengence.  He plans on harvesting it and making mint jelly and tea if his tea plant provides a harvest.  You can't see it well, but the tea plant is currently in a black pot between the cukes and the mint.

In the 4x4 bed, he's got 4 more tomato plants growing nicely.  And in case you're wondering, he's not going to do Mel's method and prune heavily.  We just let our tomatoes grow together.  However, he will use the spaces in between to grow carrots when he thins his carrot patch.  Like I try to do, he thins and transplants the rejects.  He's had better luck than I have, but I keep trying it.

The last pic I'll show you of his garden is a progress shot of his expansion beds.



As you can see in this picture, he dumped the rotting railroad ties that you can't buy anymore due to the chemicals used in water proofing them.  I think the bricks will look better myself anyway.  As you can see in the back of this photo, he's got two beds built just to make sure they were going to fit like he expected.  The back one is the 2x2 for the raspberries and the closer one is the first of three 4x4 beds.  He's chomping at the bit to get this project finished so he can plant beans and other summer crops.  Yep, he's a bit behind on planting them, but as you could see how crammed full his other beds are, he needs this space something fierce.  If only we had a weekend to ourselves, hehe.

Lastly, I'll share the cuttest pic I've taken in a long time.  We had corn on the cob and the boys had a blast shucking it (ours is 4 inches high right now).



I hope you had a great weekend and got to enjoy your garden!

April 27, 2009

Man, I was out of it last night.  I hate it when I publish before proofreading.  You see, I haven't been able to edit posts for quite a while.  I had wanted to link Judy's post on the webring. Also, it seems I've forgotten to classify my posts for the last few days. That sucks because it's good to be able to search for related posts. Of course, by the looks of my reader search requests, nobody looks at the categories anyway, hehe.

Mostly I wanted to post about two small things tonight.  The first is that my potato bin page just surpassed 25,000 hits!  It's amazing that I'm still getting hits on that page.  What's even better is that I believe I've convinced around 800 people to come back regularly.  Now that's cool!

The other thing is that it seems I made one mistake when labeling my tomatoes.  I've worked really hard to keep track of them so I would know what I'm saving seed from.  Unfortunately, I didn't think of this...



When I was potting them up last, I had forgotten a pen, so I had my eldest go get one from the house.  I forgot that his pens are washable.  Watering the plants got the labels wet and presto, green smears.  Drat!

My one hope is that I took good enough pictures when I was potting them up that I can recognize the containers for some of them.  It's a long shot, but otherwise I'm up a creek.  Grrr.

Well, this evening after work was gorgeous weather, perfect really at 65 and slightly overcast.  So the kids wanted to play outside, tag mostly.  While taking breathers I cut some more landscape fabric and placed my two remaining SWC scraps.  The big one will be used for corn and the small one will be used for watermelon.  Yes, you heard me. I'm going to follow my advice (that wasn't heeded) to EG regarding his 80 pound melon experiment.  I suggested planting the seeds in a scrap SWC and encourage the vines to sprawl over the ground around it.  Who needs dirt for them to lay on when they can get the nutrition from the vine that's sticking into perfect soil!?



Actually, the more I think about the placement I think I'll change places with the beige corn bed with the kids carrot beds.  That way, in the evening sun (which they get the most of), the corn wont shade the carrots.

Anyway, it's getting dark, so I had better get out and cover back up the bed and swap those out.

Enjoy your garden, and check out Judy's webring idea.  I sure hope at the very least my garden buddies can all join up so however it works we can be connected in some way.  It will make it easier for me to remember to get to your sites!

February 21, 2009

Wow, what a day!  The sun was out, the temps were in the upper 50s, maybe even the lower 60s, and I got a ton done.  Well, not a ton, but I had a lot of fun.  And boy did I need it!

While my youngest was at music class, my eldest and I set out to make some soil blocks and plant some seeds.  I really tried to get him involved, but being the first time for me, I'm sure he was bored a bit.  There will be other times, but at least it turned out very well.  Here's the setup.



I took John's advice and threw some blood meal, and wheat flour to hold the blocks together.  My son helped dig some Mel's Mix out of my left over bags and put it into the bucket and mixed it all in with water til it clumped in my fist.  Then came the fun part. Using John's soil block maker, I set out to make some blocks!



The blocks ended up between an inch and a half and two inches high and were very solid.  I ran out of soil mix and time so I didn't make as many as I needed.  I was about 7 short.  So I planted 4 each of 3 different varieties of lettuce, 4 mustard greens (I hope they're 4 per SF), and 2 each of broccoli and cauliflower that were presprouted.  I was going to do 9 spinach from my pre-sprouted seeds, but I didn't have the blocks for it.  So I went outside and planted them under the hoop covers.  I figure they can handle it.  Heck, the spinach I overwintered held up far better than anything else. We'll see.

So, after I planted all those seeds, I set them in the kitchen as high as I could find space, to germinate.



Hehe, I just thought of something.  The broccoli and cauliflower should poke through the dirt much sooner than the greens because they were presprouted.  Hmm?  I suppose they should be solid enough to move upstairs separate from the tray.  We shall see.

Another issue that my brother raised when he stopped by to see my light set-up (he doesn't read my blog) and pick up a bag of Mel's Mix to start his seeds (this is the guy that pooh-pawed Mel's Mix this time last year, hehe).  He asked how you water these blocks.  I will do some research, but if anyone uses soil blocks and knows, let me know.  We don't want to water them and turn the soil to mud such that it loses shape.  I'm sure it's a balancing act since you don't want it to dry out and lose shape either.  Hmm. I hope this isn't a bad idea. hehe.

Well, after we did that and played outside, it was time to head out for one of two birthday parties with grandparents for my eldest.  Hehe, he gets 3 birthday parties this year.  Don't ask me how that worked out.

Once we got to our friends, we decided to go to a park and enjoy the weather.  We went to a Redmond park where they have animals!  It was cool.  They had goats, bunnies, chickens, turkeys, cows and ponies.  Here are a few shots as they were being put in for the evening.



Chickens (I put this one in for Judy, who just got chicks!)



This pony turned around to face the camera.  Too bad my youngest missed that.  He just saw the back end, hehe.

It was pretty cool there.  They even had some raised beds.



And here's a closeup over the fence.



Several comments here.  First off, the wood these professionals used was pressure treated.  There are always arguments over what to make your beds over on GW.  Much as I'd LOVE to make them out of something healthier, anything less than pressure treated will rot in one winter here in the PNWet.  Secondly, they angled one of the beds to make room near the gate, similarly to my angling for the pathway.  Makes me feel better about my design.  Also, you don't see it here, but they left their corn in the ground through the winter, only cutting the stock off about 6 inches above the ground.  I wonder why they left the roots?  I composted mine.  Lastly, I saw a cool thing where they planted perennial strawberries down the middle of a bed and carrots on the outside.  It looked cool and seemed like a good idea.

It was a very fun outing.  I never knew it was there.  The kids loved it.  We got straifed by a turkey and saw a month-old goat!  I enjoyed also.

I sincerely hope you all had a relaxing, stress relieving day!

October 25-26, 2008

Well, this is going to have to count as my weekend post.  I didn't get in until after midnight last night and was exhausted so not post got done yesterday, though the pics were taken from then.

Of course Saturday started with painting at my folks house, but we ended early to get ready for each familiy's separate evening activities.  Thankfully mine wasn't until later in the evening, so I got TONS of time to work in the garden. Well not tons like a whole weekend, but several hours at least.  And the weather was a cool crisp fall day, so it was good for gardening.

I started by taking care of the mess I made Friday when I made my halloween decorations with my corn stalks.



The first thing I noticed was that the stalks didn't come out of the ground easy at all.  So I used my half-length pitch fork to lossen the root balls.  Then I pulled them up and tried to get most of the Mel's mix off the spider-web like roots before tossing them into my wheelbarrow.



When that was done I simply dumped them on top of my compost pile.  I know compost added to a compost pile is a good way to jump start it, but at the end?  Who knows.  Anyway, I didn't have time, nor the energy to fluff the compost.  I also didn't have a ton of ingredients to add other than the corn stalks.  So they'll just hang out until I get more fall leaves dropping and I mow them up to dump on top.  Should work nicely.



Once the bed was clear, I got 3 big bags of Starbucks grounds and mixed it into the top 6 inches.  I left some of the corn roots to compost in place because I didn't want to pick out all the little roots.



Then, it was time to do a garden tour.  Both figuratively and literally.  My sons' teacher stopped by for a garden tour, but before that I snapped some shots to show off what's been going on over the last week.  Get your fill of pictures now because next week's going to be another one full of late nights so no light for pictures.

Here is a shot of my hoop covers, all holding up very well so far.



I still don't have new piece of plastic to connect to the plastic mostly covering the bed in the foreground, but as you can see, I've figured out how to connect them.  I'll just clip both pieces to the back pipe with my binder clips.  Though I may order professional plastic clips.  They're about a buck a piece in bulk, so that's not bad. 

Now to show you what's in bed #3. 



It's cool to see the clear succession of the cauliflower, as well as the regrowth of leaves in the big middle one.  If you look close you can see the munched leaves on the bottom.



Here is bed #2, with the succession radishes in the foreground, the leaf miner infected mature spinach in the middle and the slow growing peas in the rear.  They should be much bigger by now, but they're growth has been slowed by the cold weather I expect.  What are growing well are all the mushrooms.  They like our soil here I guess.  Either that or my city compost's got them. 

Finally, here's bed #1...



In the foreground are the succession carrots.  You can't really see the sprouts in the row with the shroom in it, but they're there.  The next row is dedicated to my hoop cover temperature experiment that's going very poorly.  On that front, the temp difference is still holding true at 4-5 degrees difference, which would be great if it wasn't for the fact that it's colder INSIDE my beds then outside on the cold gravel covered ground. 



Behind the culprit of my garden anxiety is my succession lettuce.  I'm doing what Steve Solomon said to do for our region.  The big lettuce was planted in the first week of September.  I think it should be bigger than that but the weather sucked.  Next to that you can just see the sprouts of my October succession plantings of the same lettuce varieties.  Those are supposed to grow slowly, so as to provide winter lettuce in December and January!  I can't wait to be harvesting with an umbrella and a heavy coat!



Behind the lettuce is my cold storage for my mature carrots.  They're all ready to harvest, but we don't need them so we'll keep them in the ground until it's time to eat them.  Maybe if we do get colder weather they'll get sweeter, though I think the ground has to freeze for that to happen, and I will do everything in my power to keep that particular ground from freezing.

Lastly, I just love the fall colors, especially when they're all encompassed in my blueberry bushes.  Look how pretty the leaves look...



And of course between the two bushes I planted my garlic, but contrary to what I've read on the web with other folks, my garlic hasn't sprouted yet.  Not sure if it will. I'm doing the plant them and they will come method, meaning I'm not going to think about my garlic until next summer.

Anyway, now here are the new blueberry bushes.



Cool aren't they?  So that's the extent of my garden tour.  I didn't get out into the garden today, because I spent all day over painting. Then when I got home I just crashed and burned.  If I can't recharge next week's going to be hellish.  Thank goodness I can always grab a flashlight and head out into the garden for a few minutes.

Enjoy your garden.

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!

October 13, 2008

Well, DoubleD suggested that I take the day and relax.  It's been quite a while since I did that, and it will be quite a while before I get a chance to do so again.  So today I stayed inside, played with the kids and went on errands with the family. 

About the only thing I did outside was to finish dismantling the potato bin and once they dried out from the early morning rain, I put them away in the shed.



In a perfect world I would have labled them, but I'll just grab two of each length whenever I need to add a layer.  I love this storage place because it's up over the rest of the shed stuff on an old door the former owner used as a big shelf.  The boards fit perfectly and I can even stick stuff on top of it.  Not bad at all.  I can't wait to find time to organize the shed better. I know I fit things better in it.

I also took the time to can the salsa.  I didn't find anything good in the way of definitive proof of whether or not I could can salsa in a water bath or not, so I went with my mother's experience doing it years ago.  So I re-boiled the previously sterilized pint jars and lids and brought the salsa back to a simmer on the stove.  Once the jars were boiled, I removed them and immediately added the salsa using a ladle and a funnel.  In total I got 4 and 3/4 pints of salsa out of the batch...



Then it was time to clean up the edges, put the lids on and secure the rings.  Finally, back in the water bath for 15 minutes.  Here is a pic of the jars waiting to pop after their sealing bath.



Don't they look grand!?!  They're not as thick as I'm used to, but it's perfect how I like it.  See I don't like onions and such whole.  I don't mind the taste blended up, so that's what I did.  The only chunks in there are my tomatoes diced up and the cilantro coursely chopped. 

Hehe on one of our errands today I bought a bag of tortilla chips just to have with salsa.  Oh, and of the five jars, my brother got one pint, my mother got the partial pint and I have one in the fridge cooling down for chips and the other two in the pantry.  One will go with me to the guy's night out the "girls" set up for the husbands after all their nights out.  The other will go to the family that finishes their jar the fastest... likely my folks since they were planning on having tacos tonight just to use the salsa.  Hehe.  And my father called the salsa mild and me a wimp... bah!

Well, I'm well relaxed and content with where my garden and yard is leading into the week and helping my folks move.  About the only thing I need to do still is bundle a bunch of my corn stalks together and set up a display with the cheap scarecrow we picked up today.  My neighbor always has a festive yard and they don't even have kids.  I'm not one to keep up with the Jones' but the kids deserve some festivity!  Of course I can always do it in the dark on our covered porch.  And the kids are going to a pumpkin patch this week with their school.  Maybe they'll pick one up to round our our display!  Sounds like fun.

Enjoy your garden!