Saturday, May 21, 2011

Roof Update

The tomatoes are finally in!
The peppers didn't do so hot due to the bugs or whatever got hold of them in the greenhouse box, I planted the ones that still had a leaf or two hanging on, added a few fresh seeds and I'm hoping for the best (and a few spare plants from Amy...)
The tomatoes, despite being really leggy, seem healthy enough. The cool thing about tomatoes is that they will grow roots on the stems if you bury them. This means that since I put them in deep enough pots, I was able to pull off the lower leaves and plant them so that just the bushy tops are above ground. Don't try that with most other plants or you will rot the stems in a matter of days!
I am following my mantra this year. I gave them each a handful of food, made sure that there was plenty of dirt in each bucket, and didn't overcrowd. Most pots only have one tomato and a few onions or a little marigold or basil plant. Hopefully this will result in tomatoes that receive enough sunshine, airflow and water and produce the best yield yet!
It's back to watching, waiting and yelling at the little plants to grow faster or face being thrown in the compost pile!!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Getting dirty...

Many a day I get home from work, drop my lunch bag in the sink and head to the back yard for a little fresh air and sunshine. Enjoying the sunshine often leads to seeing some weeds that need pulled, pulling the hose out to water a thirsty plant, trimming off some dead flowers and generally getting dirty. Previously the fact that I am often wearing jewelry and clothes that don't look good with dirt and grass stains would lead to the garden going un-weeded or me standing later at the wash tub, scrubbing dirt from under my nails and off of the cuff of my dress pants. I have since solved this conundrum. It started with my habit of leaving a pair of clogs or flip flops near the door so that I could go out to the compost pile without having to take off my socks or get my feet dirty. My husband like the idea so much that a pair of slip on shoes in his size soon joined mine on the mud rug.
After the laundry room/mud room was renovated I had a row of hooks perfect for leaving a pair of slip on pants and a t-shirt that I didn't care got dirty. Now any time the mood strikes I know there are grubby clothes handy and the garden gets weeded! When I got engaged and had no desire to scrub my ring with a toothbrush every time I came in from the garden, I would leave my ring on the window sill. Not the safest place in the world for a diamond ring in a household with 4 kitties -2 of whom are kleptomaniacs.The solution: this is one of 4 decorative boxes and bowls throughout the house, strategically placed so that when I offhandedly decide to garden, wood work or wash dishes, I have a safe place to deposit my jewelry. I have still occasionally panicked and not remembered where I left my ring, but a search through the depositories always results in its recovery.
After adopting these few little habits, my clothes have never been cleaner and I have never had less panic over losing valuable jewelry. So to borrow LaVar Burton's phrase "But you don't have to take my word for it!" (no idea why that popped into my head! and now I will go to bed singing the Reading Rainbow song...)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

first flowers

I love this time of year. It is still cool enough to wear a jacket most mornings. The ice and snow have given us time off for good behavior. The sun is up long enough to wear sunglasses to AND from work. And my garden finally has enough flowers in it again to provide me with a lovely bouquet.
Charlie Cat made sure that they smelled (and tasted) as nice as they looked! Since it is made up of pansies, chive flowers, thyme and geranium, all but the geranium are not only edible, but tasty! (I'm not sure about the geranium. I lost the tag and so am not sure if it is one of the "scented" ones that are good to eat or not)

Here's to a happy gardening season of tasty and beautiful things!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Update

So I believe that my decoys are doing their job. My cabbages look gorgeous!
I actually witnessed a Cabbage white fly into the bed the white noticed the decoy and seemed to fly backwards. It was comical.











So here are my experiments. The first image is my potatoes in a bag. It looks really happy but I won't know until fall if its making potatoes.









This next one is ground cherry. They are the dessert of the tomatillo family. Last year we bought some of the berries and they tasted just like canned pineapple. I really hope these are as good.










Here is Bryan's strawberry patch. We put it in a window box to try to keep the wildlife away. So far so good.