Yawn

Still sleepy in Alabama.

I had a pretty nice harvest last autumn. Lots of lovely tomatoes and basil. The kids and I were cooking up a storm. It was nice to have tomatoes right off the vine. We enjoyed it all immensely.

We were looking forward to planting this spring, but as the wind blows, we won't be able to do so. Sadly, we're just not going to make it here. Like so many others, we're displaced and unable to find work. Even knowing people isn't helping me get anywhere. It is just so frustrating.

I do have a job, just not a well paying one. I know, I know, I should be thankful and I am. I still have a car. However, I can't do anything but pay for the car. I don't work full time. After months of struggling and trying not to get so far behind my credit is damaged, it appears we're looking at another move.

Several friends of mine are going through this very thing. Moving from one place to another where you know someone and maybe, just maybe, you'll get something. The temp agencies here are actually closing. It is kinda bad.

I do so hope that perhaps I can get a work at home gig. I know a couple of folks that are doing it and they love it. With another impending move to where my family is located in Louisiana, I will give it a try. I just can't work from home where I am, a three year old prevents it. So I'm going to try again.

Near my dad, gardening won't even be a problem. He lives on five acres and has a garden every year and he is very much looking forward to us coming because he wants a garden buddy. And he is dying to work out an aquaculture system with me. We've talked about it before and if I end up moving down there (I've set a March deadline, no full time job by then, we're moving to another area to try again), we're going to do it.

Not to mention, I inadvertently set my deadline to parallel the serious garden starting down there. I'll be moving from zone 7b to 6b. Not too much of a difference, only a slight difference in first and last frost, but those couple of weeks can make all the difference.

With luck, after we're settled, I'll be able to blog regularly again. I do so miss it.

Red Magic Lily

I really like this flower. It's so lovely and unusual. I found it over at tulipworld.com and they have a lot of very lovely and very unusual bulbs there. I'm looking forward to going back to the site, unfortunately, while I was browsing, I got a "Site Upgrade" message.

Oh well. There are other places to search.









Today was a really good day. Lots of sunshine and the mini dwarf orchard is doing very well. Hydroponic carrots are growing big and strong, too!

I have one great giant one, and a lot of sprouts. I was afraid of the rest being shaded so I turned the pot to help get them more sun. The growth on these little guys has improved. We're very excited! The kids think this is just fabulous and we're looking forward to a continued harvest down the road.








School has started, things are starting to calm down from all the chaos. The kids are excited about being back in school. We've had out little bumps in the road in the first days of school, but we seem to be straightening ourselves out. Happily, the bumps we small. I think the dog has taken this harder than anyone else. Everyone runs off and leaves him at home alone, the poor pathetic little thing.

Even with our busy schedules and our active lifestyles, we still manage to sit down to the dinner table and have a meal together. We may not cook elaborate meals every night, but we make it a point to have that family time together. It is amazing to me, and at first was quite novel. I think this is because of my generation.

Being of Generation X, I was a latch key kid. My generation was very self reliant because most of us only had one parent and they worked. At an early age I cooked full meals, I handled my own laundry, I took care of the house, animals and garden and my homework without being told because I had to grow up faster than the previous generation. I am teaching my children these traits (or at least I'm trying to teach them these values). I want them to handle their own cleaning and they help me cook. The older they get, the more they do. So it is family time the moment we walk in from school and work. We work together to get the meals made, the table set, and then dishes done when its over. We are trying to teach them to do as much of their homework as possible before they get home from the sitter so that we can have more family time (and work on that math problem we just couldn't quite solve on our own).

We are trying to instill face time. Where Traditionalists and Boomers need that face time, my generation is comfortable with face time or just an email. Generation Y doesn't do so well with face time as they are more dependent on technology than X. What will my little one's generation be about? Video conferencing? Face time in another manner, I guess. But that doesn't take the place of family face time. This is where we are trying to uphold the dinners together. If we do not have dinner together, everyone knows something is very wrong.

I was quite ill not too long ago with a rather nasty virus that had me in bed for three days sipping every herbal concoction known to man trying to find the energy to just get out of bed. The first two days, our family meal was very much on hold because my husband didn't get off work until much later and I could hear the children at the table as their made their sandwiches for dinner talk about how much they wished we could all be at the table together. I managed to pull myself out of bed day two and my oldest son made me his best rendition of a PB & J and then helped me back to bed when I couldn't sit up anymore. He tucked me in and stayed around long enough for me to start dozing again before he went back out and took firm command of the clean up process. His sister made sure the pets were fed and cared for in those two days, periodically coming in to fetch my dog who rarely left my side while I was not well and took him out to do his business. My youngest child was in and out checking to make sure that I was comfortable and asking me if he could do anything and laying with me for long periods and telling me how miserable I looked. Hehe. Those moments made me very proud because even though I can't always see that what we are teaching is sinking in but it came through when it really counted. Family time means something.

Lilies and Tulips

I just love flowers. Tulips and lilies are perhaps the easiest to care for. Plant and go. The only real problem I've had with them is that the bulbs are eaten before I have a chance to do anything between the deer and squirrels diging them up. But there are ways around that!

Biltmore Estate Lily Bulbs: Landini

The Original Big Orange Tiger Lily

Red Tiger Lily

Stargazer Lily

Darwin Hybrid Tulip Bulbs: Design Impression

Biltmore Estate Tulip Bulbs: Prairy Fire

Lily Flowered Tulip Bulbs: West Point

Lily Flowered Tulip Bulb: Pretty Woman

Tulip: Virichic

Garden Update

Aside from running around and helping to tend to other gardens, my little container garden is doing well. I'm excited that I've been able to start a new project. I got the idea to do this from the archives of Aerogarden Mastery page. It is very easy and very basic so I hunted down a self watering pot, a big one, the one I have is 20" around and perlite and vermiculite. I thoroughly mixed the two bags of medium together, watered it thoroughly and then planted my carrot seeds straight into the moist medium and then gave it a nice spray of water with a spray bottle.


The medium and the bottom reservoir held nearly two gallons of water without overflowing. The reservoir was only about 1/2 full. It will be very interesting to see if this little experiment will work. The link above actually have pictures of how it worked out over several weeks and so I thought I'd give it a shot.

The kids had a great time!

My tomatoes are doing fantastic!

The sauce tomato came up first, but isn't producing as fast as the black plum tomato below. Both are doing very well except for some expected fungal problems that I expected after it rained nearly every day in the late afternoon for three weeks. I handled the fungus problems and we've been doing pretty good ever since. Though, there are just a ton of suckers that I'm having to remove.

Black plum tomatoes are a lot larger than I thought they would be. They are actually a nice good size. I've see blushes of color on the sauce tomatoes, but nothing as of yet on the plums. But very excited because there are just a ton of flowers.

But they will be red and ripe.

The tiny little banana's I got have exploded into these beautiful long wide leaves. It's amazing how much growth they have! Right next to them is the orange and it has tripled in size itself.

The blueberry (left right beneath the orange) took a pretty serious hit in a storm, losing half the plant to hard winds, but it has finally come out of the shock and is starting to grow again. The lemon is the only one that doesn't seem to have bushed out, the very light green one in the middle, but the leaves are just growing large. The pomegrante in the red container, has a lot of blooms and has long branches. The lime on the other side of the large carrot container, has also tripled in size and has a lot of new growth.

Everything is growing so well and there have been no set backs so far. I'm just waiting for my cherry tree to come in this fall so that the last empty pot that doesn't seem to want to stay up right anywhere can be filled with its own tree, too!

Alstroemeria, commonly called the Peruvian Lily or Lily of the Incas or Parrot Lily is a South American genus of about 50 species of flowering plants. Isn't it just beautiful? This blooms from late spring to early summer and comes in a virtual rainbow of different colors. This is a plant meant for cooler climates as it will stop flowering if it gets too hot.

January Garden

Patti Moreno and Mel Bartholomew of Square Foot Gardening bring a series of videos by month!

Another Year..

2008 is almost over. I look back over the year and see wonderful things. My children are growing up and most of all they have an active interest in growing their own food and that leads to them being more healthy eaters. I've learned a lot about my family through gardening, successes and failures have contributed to a closeness that we would not otherwise have. It is interesting to think that this small thing endears us so to one another and it is becoming more important to me.

Our seed stock is becoming rather respectable, a plethora of new things to grow and try. This has sparked off the need for new ways of cooking and offers a wonderful addition to the palate that would otherwise be stuck statistcally in 10 alternating meals. We are a family that spends 80% of our time together in the kitchen and at the table. Another amazing everyday activity that keeps us close.

This coming year will see the upheaval of a major relocation. And then another after we've found a place to buy. It is going to be a hard road to walk for a while, with most of our lives in storage until we can break free from rental properties and into our own house with our own land. It has kept us from buying all those trees I keep pointing at and jumping up and down over, and that is going to take a toll, too. The prices are rising and it is frightening to think of what the cost will be initially be. That is our only fear in all of this. It just seems that nothing can outrun the rising costs, including our want to return to a simplier lifestyle. Especially our absolute longing for the land we've dreamed of having.

I'm a tad put off because I won't be able to garden this year like I'd planned. I will only be able to do the bare minimum which puts my teeth on edge. Our grand plans for a year of growing, harvesting and preserving are on the backburner until this entire mess is back to flowing easily. I'm looking forward to getting this over with as soon as humanly possible.

On a lighter note, my seed swaps have, indeed, put me in a much better position to be a good gardener next year. I'll definately have a choice in what to grow and will be able to expand gradually over the course of the growing season. I'm looking forward to getting to know each of the plants we intend to grow and taking endless notes and pictures to share here. I'm also looking forward to finding a garden mentor to help unlock some of what I already know but have not recalled so far. Growing up on a farm, I spent a good time in the garden, I remember from seed to harvest. Endless hours of shelling, shucking, dicing, canning. But those memories are through a childs eyes and some of it doesn't fit into what I "know". So I'll be hunting for garden buddies and mentors in the Portland, OR/ Vancouver, WA area.

Very exciting!

I started with Jack-o-lantern pumpkin seeds and some carrots and through seed swaping I've come up with:

Carrot, Danvers #126
Broccoli, De Cicco, Organic
Chives, Garlic
Corn, Sweet, Early Golden Bantam
Cucumber, Miniature White
Honeydew, Earlidew
Leek, Summer
Lettuce, Organic, Mix
Mesculin
Mix, Carrot, Lunar, Solar, Cosmic, Atomic
Mix, Salad Greens
Oregano, Greek
Paprika, Capsicum Annum, Szentesi Pincos
Parsley, Italian Flat Leaf
Pepper, Sweet, California Wonder 300 TMR
Pepper, Sweet, Orange
Pepper, Sweet, Orange Sun
Pumpkin, Jack-o-Lantern
Radish, Altaglobe
Sunflower
Tomato, Black Cherry
Tomato, Black Moor
Tomato, Black Plum
Tomato, Cherry Red
Tomato, Gold Nugget
Tomato, Green Grape
Tomato, Health Kick
Tomato, Heinz 1439
Tomato, Hong Yuen
Tomato, Red Pear
Tomato, Roma Giant Paste
Tomato, White Currant
Tomato, Yellow Lemon
Tomato, Yellow Pear
Watermelon, Sugar Baby
Watermelon, Yellow Doll

With more on the way. I also have a lot of flower seeds that I'm looking forward to getting out there. That list is about as large as this one and I started only with cypress vine and ended up with a lot more from swaps and newbie freebies.

My seed box needs to be replaced soon, I'm running out of room.

I have been very blessed with generous amounts of home grown seeds from good people who want to help us get started.

I want to experiment with growth lights and aeroponics since I won't have a lot of land for a few months, it seems the easiest way to do things for now. I'm looking forward to having a nice salad before meals and later growing most or all the vegetables that we cook with on a regular basis.

I just have to get over that potato hump. My husband thinks I'm crazy for wanting to grow two or three different varieties at the same time, but he is thinking on too large of a scale. He'll just have to wait and see.

2008 was a year for planning, 2009 will be the year that we get through one project at a time.

Plant Research

Cornell University has the right idea. There is a massive plant list available there to browse before you grow some several thousand varieties. And it is user rated, not just University rated. Named simply Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners, it has mostly commercially grown items with a few heirlooms thrown in. I've been browsing it for the past couple of hours and have learned things about several varieties that I'd intended to grow. It isn't terribly complex, but is packed with good information.

Harvest

Lots going on this time of year. Tomatoes are getting ripe. Cucumbers are producing like made. Vegetables in general are coming into full color. But that never stops the reading.

Thanks to Patti Moreno, I've been introduced to Susan Harris' site on gardening. It's a great place, be sure to check it out.

National Gardening Association

I really enjoy this site. Regional reports, plant finder, weed library. This is a great place for gardeners at all stages.

http://www.garden.org/home

Pumpkins and Carrots

The little container garden we've started is in full swing! We have blooms on every pumpkin plant we have! If this is any indication of how well these guys are going to produce I'm certain our first year with a fresh veggie/fruit stand will do quite nicely.

We do pumpkin decorating contests where I work and my boss offered to purchase my pumpkins instead of going to the store when I went into work babbling about the lush green that is coming out of these guys. Not a single pumpkin on the vine yet and we've already got some business.

The carrots finally have true leaves. I'm thrilled about the success we're having. Its a good feeling to do this. I know exactly what is going into the soil because I'm the one putting it in. My children are excited to be involved in this. Seth, my oldest, is the one who sparked this by asking me what I did when I was his age. I told him I grew up on a farm and that was when the barrage of questioning came. I think its really awesome that my 6 year old wants to have a garden and is the one that makes sure to always remind that we need to water and asks if it is time for the kelp fertilizer. My youngest doesn't get as vocally involved, but he knows automatically that he needs to hunt down the water can so we can get it filled up. I know this will sound strange, but they argue who gets to do the work.. and that is certainly fine by me! I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Unopened blooms, true leaves on the carrots, I've got bell peppers ready to start hardening off. We're just moving right along with seeds in the freezer for a spring planting.

I'm trying to start off small and slowly work our way up. With the help of the kids, we make sure to take notes on our garden, to see what reactions we get in container gardening. Next year, pumpkins, carrots, bell pepper and tomatoes will be a breeze and we'll tackle new additions and start all over again.

I really think this is a plan that more newbies to gardening should take. While I grew up on a farm and we grew most of our food on that farm, I know some things about gardening already but I didn't want to overwhelm us with all these plants either. This is a mistake that a lot of new gardeners take and its why some of them fail. They take on too much at once and can't keep up with multiple issues because they just don't know how and it takes so long to solve some problems by the time the problem is solved, the plants have sustained too much damage or are already dead.

Everything in moderation, right?

Saving Private Benjamin

It's all about the Benjamins and keeping his face firmly planted in my pocket. Gas prices, food supply costs going up, everything is getting much more expensive. It's frightening. For those of us that are cattle owners and chicken raisers with fresh eggs aren't safe anymore. Now they have to contend with the destruction of their property and the theft of their only ripened foods with every thing that hasn't ripened yet torn off the vine so that it never will. These types of sabotage are beginning everywhere. My father was going off on this very subject the last time I talked with him. Then another friend in a different state on the other side of the country complained of something similar.

We're already feeling the heat. I know in my own household we have a side of beef, enough chicken to feed a small country... twice and canned and dried foods hanging out in another room other than the kitchen (my kitchen is barely large enough to handle what we eat in a week. Virtually enough to get us through a year without having to pay higher and higher prices. And also being close with a community of people that have a cannery that we can use and purchase what we want to fill those cans with here. (Did I mention that networking is the key? I don't think I did, network, network, network!)

Point being that not everyone magically knows that there are systems out there that aren't government driven and thus don't need a list a mile long of things that prove you're you after you've been sitting in an office that doesn't have air conditioning waiting to give your story to someone that doesn't really care they just plug in some numbers and tell you that making $9.00 an hour is too much to get day care aid and its too much for full benefits, but they'd be more than willing to give you the whopping $35 for a month. Of course you took it because it would mean that is one more meal on the table and one night less that you had to worry about if you could serve anything more than just smoother fried potatoes.

But there are places out there that can help out!

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/ I've personally done this one and still do it. I have a friend that is a high class lawyer and she gets two. The idea here is that you spend $25 for a box of food that changes from month to month. The box has pasta, canned veggies/fruit, frozen pizzas, meatballs, breakfast stuffs. They have side boxes that are $17 to $18 a piece that are grill packs during the winter months and alternate stuff like 15 lbs of breaded chicken nuggets and a 5 pound bag of chicken. Steak. The list is long, so go look at their site to find out which church is handing it in your area. The $25 spent would be doubled for the same items at a normal grocery store. And if you need help to the car, that have handsome little boys and girls push the dolly out to your car. There is no obligation to do this service other than the funds. The only drawback on this is you have a small window to pay and then you have to wait for 3 weeks before you get it. So look it up, and get some help, and be happy!

Another program is called SHARE is similar to Angel Food. Angel Food is hosted by the Baptist community here, Share is done by Catholic Charities. I found a site that has them listed.

Support your local farmers! The Farmer's Market is something to be praised and cherished. Without those wonderful souls toiling away for several months growing the food they wish to share with others, we would always be stuck with getting foods that are solely stored at the grocery store. I certainly don't want that!

Buy in bulk. You can buy a pound of this or 10 pounds of that, invest in a seal a meal and vacuum them up and tuck them away in your freezer. I buy all my culinary herbs in bulk. I have pounds and pounds and pounds of this stuff separated out in more manageable sizes because we cook with herbs and spices so much that it didn't seem feasible buying a tiny jar of it at the store when I could order it by the pound for the same price or less for a pound a piece.

Buy a freezer. Please. Buy one. They aren't that expensive. I have a 5 cubic foot one that ran me less than $135. I bought another one a 7 cubic foot and I spent $180-ish. I make fewer trips to the store, spend less money on full priced items and more on sale items because I can afford the luxury of not purchasing it if it isn't on sale because I have dinner sitting in the freezer at home. But to keep it filled, I have to buy. I just make the choice to go only when I know the sales are going on.

Having said that, buy a side of beef. Mine came pre-vacuum sealed so all I had to do was load it into the freezer. It will take a family of 4 (with several large bbq's going on) about 9 months to eat one 12 depending on the size of the beef. I immediately thawed out the a bunch of hamburger and started making meatballs as my first set of prepare ahead meals.

Buy on sale: I buy 16 ounce bags of frozen vegetables when they are on sale like that, I can't pass it up. I cook up several bags at a time and can what we don't eat (or just vacuum seal it and drop it back into the freezer in family serving sizes).

Plan your meals before you shop. If you do this, you will buy what you need instead of just tossing stuff in the buggy that looks good. Planning gives you a game plan. Your in, your out and you spent only what you needed to spend.

Check out the farms in your area. If any of them are apart of a co-operative, buy into it. It will enable you to get the freshest foods during the growing season and most of these will have more than just fruit and vegetables. Eggs, honey, milk... it just depends on the farms in your area. Once you've researched and picked out one, talk to them about your needs so that you can come up with a way to make not only you happy, but the man that is toiling away in the hot sun, too. He gets capital you get fresh food. Not a bad way of buying locally and helping to keep a farmer on his farm.

Check with your local extension. They will usually have information on farms and such around your area. Check with your local government who probably fund such things so they would be able to point you in the right direction.

And still there is growing it yourself. It is not as expensive as some people think. Dwarf citrus trees go for about $12.99 a piece with breaks if you buy two or more. I've seen all sorts of dwarf varieties: Blueberries, orange, lime, lemon, tangerine, pomegranate, fig, banana, cherry, apple, etc. None of the dwarf varieties I list here get above 6 feet tall and can remain in their planter. Container gardening in general is fairly easy to do and with some trial and error, can yield immense crops in small spaces. If you're pressed for space, grow your favorite ones or perhaps the ones that are most expensive so you are paying that much less every month your garden produces.

Happy living!

Go Go Gadget Carrots

Ten more sprouted! I know its silly to keep up with exact numbers but we were all out there surrounding the container jabbing our fingers at the tiny leaves and contradicting each other on how many there were really in there. At least it was a family event.



It's amazing, though. I was worried that my green thumb had truly turned black, but the carrots have sprouted, now we'll see if we get nice straight carrots. I'm certainly keeping my fingers crossed.



Something I've learned from container gardening is that it is limitless. If the place I've chosen to put my crop turns out to be less than ideal after the plant is actually put there, I can move it. If there is a threat of extreme weather, I can bring them onto the covered deck until the threat has past. There are a few disadvantages, however. More attention must be given. Ants tried to move into the nice loose, moist soil that my carrots were planted in. I had to stop that, they killed my mums last year that I had set out front by moving in. I wasn't paying enough attention.



The pumpkins are taking over my kitchen! We had a severe thunderstorm today so I couldn't put them out or else the wind would have pulled a Wizard of Oz on my plants. I was mildly disappointed, but the cooler weather when the storm first rolled up more than made up for it. It was hot out there today until the storm showed cooling everything down. We lost power. Again. For the hundredth time. This time it wasn't for hours so that was pleasing. But once again, it came while I was washing dishes and dealing with food on the stove and in the oven. It didn't happen when the worse of the storm rolled in, oh no, it waited until after the major chaos was over and it was merely sprinkling.



But I will run off on that tangent for page after page. I'm going to get off that soap box now before I get out of control.

We finished our shopping today. It was so bright out, the sky clear but we could see the black on the horizon and just wished for the relief that we knew was coming. But before we got that, we all stopped and bought sunglasses. It's funny to watch kids fuss over which ones look the coolest. We all preened over our chosen sunglasses and then the serious shopping started. I was out of spray bottles for my kelp solution so we hunted everywhere and walked by them twice before we realized. So we got some nice big spray bottles for the kitchen and the garden. I made up a batch of the kelp solution and got to work on the plants and the kids felt pretty good about helping out with that.



I got the rice all sealed up with no major disasters. I'm looking forward to getting my meatballs made tomorrow and probably some stew, too. I'm worn out so the rest may have to wait until a little later in the week. I have back problems so I'm battling some pretty serious pain at the moment. That is what I get for stomping around on concrete for the evening Friday. I've had just the worst leg cramps, too. So my husband has demanded that I relax, even going so far as to massage the knotted muscles into submission, something he rarely does. So my hopes of mass meal preparation have been thwarted by a man that will physically pick me up, put me in bed, then tie me to it without thinking twice. He has threatened to do this in the past and feed me through a straw that runs from the kitchen so he doesn't have to listen to me whine. I believe him.

Yep, My Dog Needs Help

Friday was an interesting day. Daddy had to pull a really loose tooth so we're excitedly putting our tooth under our pillow tonight. My oldest is shedding teeth faster than the tooth fairy can beat her wings. My youngest is looking at him waiting patiently for when he'll make his fortune. Now if I can get them to pay more attention to their teeth with a brush as they do when it comes to some change under the pillow, I'd be sitting pretty.

I was pleasantly surprised that our seed purchase came in Friday. I was met by excited children jumping up and down, which means excited puppies jumping up and down. After we got everyone calmed down, we had a look at the already opened box and had to contain the excitement even more when we read the seed packages for the hundredth time that day for the kids, for the first time for me.


And while toiling away in the soil and sand today, my pup, Majere, decides that it is a good idea to yank a branch down on the plum tree. This, of course, snaps the tree limb. His reason for doing this? To pluck a single plum from the branch, bite into it, then promptly spit the unripe fruit out.

*sigh*

I got my carrots planted though. Unfortunately, Majere decided he was going to drink the water that my son was pouring in. I was trying to get him to stop and Seth was paying attention to me instead of to what he was doing, Seth drown one side of the tub. And so it is entirely possible that Majere drank my carrot seeds on one side. He spat out the peat moss that was covering the planted carrot seed all over the place.. including my leg.

Interestingly enough, my ten foot tall and bullet proof bodyguard has decided that I may not walk any inch of the yard without him. Ever watchful and always at heel, he is constantly protecting me from the dangers of our yard. Bugs, birds, the cat, other dogs are all hard pressed to harm me with Majere around! I'm just pleased that it is never hard to get him back if he wanders around checking stuff out. He comes when called, does as he is told. It isn't hard to train him to do what we want or need him to do. I'm blessed to have such an intelligent and loyal dog.


When we first brought him home, he was all attitude. This is December last year. I can scarcely remember him being this small. Thankfully, Jake picked the dog. I would have chosen the dumb as a box of rocks one. I'm not allowed to choose shopping carts either.

Now he is much much bigger. Thank god he doesn't have milk teeth anymore, those daggers are evil. I mean Dark Lord of the Sith evil. Though, his adult teeth are just as vicious if unchecked. Luckily, he understands "No bite".

Very Very Yay, Baby!

Chocolate Bell Pepper
























Ivory Bell Pepper

Red, Green, Orange, Yellow and Purple

White Cucumbers






Solar Yellow Carrots












Cosmic Purple Carrots

Atomic Red Carrots

Lunar White Carrots

Black Cherry Tomatoes

Green Grape Tomato

White Cherry Tomato

Yellow Pear Tomato

And of course, Red Cherry Tomato

Not a bad little expansion from our tomato and pumpkin (plus herbs I'd been growing in the kitchen window for over a year). I have two different salad mixes, too. Man, this is going to be the best salad. We're looking forward to expanding on our salad year after next, too.

New Take on Raised Beds

I was here looking at this guy's idea for doing raised beds and he has a fairly good idea I think. He put his bed down and then stacked used cardboard boxes on top of the existing grass, then applying wet newspaper, then a layer of Lucerne Hay, a layer of manure, then straw, then putting a handful of soil and your seeds. No dig garden.

And you know, I have plenty of cardboard available. I might just have to try this one out!

Compost Continued

I've dug around the internet and built this list of compostable items:


Alfalfa
Apple cores
Aquarium plants
Artichoke leaves
Bagasse (sugar cane residue)
Banana peels
Bat guano
BBQ'd fish skin
Bee droppings
Beet wastes
Bird cage cleanings
Bird guano
Blood meal
Bone meal
Bread crusts
Brewery wastes
Brown paper bags
Burlap coffee bags
Burned oatmeal (sorry, Mom)
Burned toast
Cardboard cereal boxes (shredded)
Cattail reeds
Cardboard (shredded)
Chicken manure
Chocolate cookies
Citrus wastes
Clover
Coconut hull fiber
Coffee grounds
Cooked rice
Cotton balls
Corncobs (takes a long time to decompose)
Cover crops
Cow manure
Crab shells
Date pits
Dead bees and flies
Dirt from soles of shoes, boots
Dolomite lime
Dried jellyfish
'Dust bunnies' from under the bed
Dryer lint
Egg shells
Electric razor trimmings
Elmer's glue
Expired flower arrangements
Feathers Animal fur
Felt waste
Fingernail and toenail clippings
Fish bones
Fish meal
Fish scraps
Flower petals
Freezer-burned fish
Freezer-burned fruit
Freezer-burned vegetables
Fruit salad
Garden soil
Garlic skins
Gin trash (wastes from cotton plants)
Goat manure
Granite dust
Grape wastes
Grapefruit rinds
Grass clippings
Greensand
Greeting card envelopes
Grocery receipts
Guinea pig cage cleanings
Gum
Hair clippings from the barber
Harbor mud
Hay
Hog manure
Hoof and horn meal
Hops
Horse hair
Horse manure
Houseplant trimmings
Ice cream containers (cardboard)
Ivory soap scraps
Jell-o (gelatin)
Kitchen wastes
Kleenex tissues
Leather dust
Leather wallets
Leather watch bands
Leaves
Lees from making wine
Limestone
Lint from behind refrigerator
Lint from clothes dryer
Liquid from canned fruit
Liquid from canned vegetables
Lobster shells
Macaroni and cheese
Matches (paper or wood)
Melted ice cream
Milk (in small amounts)
Molasses residue
Moldy cheese
Moss from last year's hanging baskets
Nut shells
Old beer
Old leather gardening gloves
Old or outdated seeds
Old pasta
Old spices
Old, dried up and faded herbs
Olive pits
Onion skins
Outdated yogurt
Paper napkins
Paper towels
Pea vines
Peanut butter sandwiches
Peanut shells
Peat moss
Pencil shavings
Pet hair
Pickles
Pie crust
Pine needles
Pizza boxes
Popcorn (unpopped, 'Old Maids,' too)
Post-it notes
Potash rock
Potato peelings
Powdered/ground phosphate rock
Produce trimmings from grocery store
Pumpkin seeds
Q-tips (cotton swabs: cardboard, not plastic sticks)
Quail eggs (OK, I needed a 'Q' word)
Rabbit manure
Rapeseed meal
Rhubarb stems
River mud
Sawdust
Seaweed and kelp
Shredded cardboard
Shredded newspapers
Shrimp shells
Smoke Chips (used)
Snow
Soggy Cheerios
Soy milk
Spanish moss
Spoiled canned fruits and vegetables
Stale bread
Stale breakfast cereal
Stale potato chips
Starfish (dead ones!)
Straw
Sunday comics
Tea bags (black and herbal)
Tea bags and grounds
Theater tickets
Tobacco wastes
Toenail clippings
Tofu
Tossed salad
Tree bark
Unpaid bills
Urine
Vacuum cleaner bag contents
Watermelon rinds
Wedding bouquets
Weeds
Wheat bran
Wheat straw
Wine gone bad
Winery wastes
Winter rye
Wood ashes
Wood chips
Wooden toothpicks
Wool socks

Most of this list came from this lady. Good site, nice newsletter.

Dwarf Crazy

I'm going dwarf crazy. I keep coming across dwarf varieties that are affordable, will never get so tall that I can't harvest from them, and I'll be able to either keep them in containers or plant them in the ground.

I found this dwarf cherry tree. The name cracks me up. Mighty Midget Cherry Tree.
And this Northpole Red Apple. It doesn't have branches, the fruit is on spurs.
Then there is this graphed tree, it has plums, peaches, apricot, nectarines on one trunk. Unfortunately, they will only sell to retailers.
And I struck gold when I found this site, they have dwarf varieties of lime, orange, lemon, tangerine, pomegranate, fig and banana. They also have an apple tree that produces four different types of apple at different times in the year. And they are very affordable.

The cool thing about the citrus varieties is that even if you don't live in Florida or California, you can still have fresh citrus (not that you can buy from a catalog and have the citrus trees sent to you in those states). You just must take care to get them in before a killing frost hits. I was thinking of a green house just for the citrus trees would be a good idea.

I found a dwarf variety of rosemary and seem to have misplaced the link. And then there is just the ton of dwarf varieties of all manner of flowers, gardenia and the like.

For the urban backyard gardener, space is everything. Fruit and nut trees tend to be tall and shade most of the yard. But that isn't a reason to not have fresh fruit every bit as much as fresh vegetables. The dwarf trees solve this problem if one can make the space inside during the winter so as to protect tender citrus trees.

The Growing Challenge

It's a dangerous thing having back problems. Mine happen to be minimal most of the time, mostly restricted to having a few bad days where I'm moving a little slower than normal. But when it isn't at that level, its debilitating enough to bring tears to the eyes of a woman that had two natural child births without sheding a single tear. It's also enough to eject a string of colorful language strong enough to make any sailor blush through gritted teeth. It was bad enough today to have me sent home from work. Yes, that's right, in a day and age where that sort of thing doesn't happen in large companies because of the legal reprecussions, I managed to get myself sent home. The sad thing is that it started because I coughed. Yea, that pissed me off, too. A perfectly good day in an airconditioned building with a fan blowing my hair as if I were on a sunny beach, ruined because I coughed. God. Is. Not. Funny.

The dangerous thing about my particular back problem is that my husband, who is a strong man only when I don't cry (because I rarely do), waits on me hand and foot, fetching laptops, having kids refresh iced drinks... the only thing missing here are leaf fans and bon bons and that is corrected by him having my children brush my hair (which sooths me, I know stupid, but I am what I am) and making them available to me whenever I need or want. This spoils me. I rarely allow such things. I'm not an idle person by nature so this is difficult for me to accept.

The other dangerous thing is that it gives me time to surf!

I know that I'm a little (ok a lot) late getting this posted here, but I felt that I needed to add it. The Growing Challenge is a challenge that this lady started when she threw down the glove to get people to grow a little more than they did last year. I support this way of thinking because it means less strain on dwendling resources and overworked land.

By overworked land I mean: In the 80's Spinach was found to have 75 mg of iron. Now it has 5.

The more you grow, the less you have to depend on the system.

And, of course, it's stickin it to da man.

I discovered this by accident and wanted to share it no matter how late in the challenge it may be. It doesn't matter if you live in an apartment or on 40 acres, have never grown anything in your life, or you think that your thumb is so black that you'd kill the seed by touching it. This challenge is something from which we can all learn.


You'll see the pic posted on the right.

Get off your duff and plant something!


I've also added a link to Square Foot Garden. I love Judy's site and her forums are starting to get filled back out after a nasty crash that left her with nearly nothing.

I discovered Garden Desk, too. The Soil Blocks are interesting and I'm still reading through it all. I'm looking forward to new ideas!

Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl, has new video's out!

Tomatos and Pumpkins

Our planted pumpkin is doing well in its new home outside in the ground. We had a cause for concern when one of the true leaves whithered and died, but the rest of the plant is thriving and just moving right along. All the rain has been helpful for this. The tomato plant is slowly growing. My neighbor who swore he wouldn't plant tomatoes this year, planted two little plants and they doubled the size of mine in a week. I know this could be due to the type of the plants he has are different from mine but I can't help feeling that with mine being upsidedown in the pot and getting less sun due to it being hidden under the pot during the noon hour is the reason mine isn't as large as his. It is definately healthy and I expect that it will produce well, but next year, I'm thinking a four way post with long hangers for the hanging basket will do better. More sun, better thriving plant. We shall see next year!