I’ve spent a couple of weeks now cleaning up storm damage, so it’s REALLY nice to find something that is thriving in our yard – my elephant ear plants that my friend, Laufrain gave me last fall! I wintered them over in our dining area, then put them in pots on the front porch. They weren’t happy there and almost croaked. I transplanted them into this rebuilt brick planter in front of the house and they seem to like it here just fine!!!
Filed under Friendship, Gardening
Spoon University
We are now down to the dregs in our South Beach boxes.
We ordered pancake mixes a la carte to tide my husband over, but those are super-expensive. I fixed two packages for our breakfast this morning, realizing we are on a count-down until my husband starts to balk. Happily, I researched low carb pancake mix on the net and found CarbQuik, a low carb baking mix! It’s inexpensive, and can be used for things other than pancakes sometime in the future. I have it on our grocery list now.
I Can Has Cheezeburger? – DailySquee.com
This morning I made the SB pancakes, I made tunafish salad for lunch, and I have the makings for keto chili in the slow cooker for dinner. I feel like ‘Food Central’ right now, so I will get serious about making plans for the next week so I don’t face the serious culture shock of feeling I’m in the kitchen all day prepping, cooking, or cleaning up. I have my Simply Keto recipe book by Suzanne Ryan, and I will make my calendar and figure out a game plan so I spend as little time in the kitchen as possible in the coming week, yet try new recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I am grateful that the possibly severe weather from last night’s forecast once again bypassed us. We had a lot of lightning, but no damage that we have seen so far. Whew!
My next big project will be shutting down our raised bed square foot garden for the season. I turned off the automatic water system yesterday. I will harvest the onions, spreading them out on a trailer bed thingie so they can dry out, hopefully being good for storing in my net bags in the pantry. I will take pics to share. Part of the shutting down will be clearing the remains of the plants, intense weeding, then making Mel’s Mix and filling up each of the six 4′ x 4′ wooden boxes that are my planters. When that is done, I’ll cover each of the planters with a tarp to hold down weed production until I’m ready to start planting again. All this will take several days. Once this is done, I’ll continue my efforts to arrange things for seed sprouting on my garage counter.
I hope you’re having a happy Sunday.
forwarded email
My heart goes out to the people suffering from Mother Nature’s fury. So many good people are hurting, with physical and emotional damage on top of the pandemic concerns. We just need to concentrate on helping each other the best way we can.
We are getting to the bottom of our South Beach diet boxes. I am DIYing more and more as we run out of things, gradually making my way to the point where we will be on our own once again. The two month reboot for our keto efforts has been good in many ways
Unsplash
(I have ALWAYS been somewhat stiff and inflexible. I was in an exercise class in college. We did an exercise where we were lying on our stomachs. We were then told to lift our arms and legs simultaneously up as far as we could get them, and then move them down again, over and over. I did the ‘up’ just fine. The ‘down,’ not so much. I went up, something ‘caught’ in my back, not allowing me to bring my parts down again. I was yelling in pain. They finally got two big guys to lift me up over their heads, like the prow on a ship, and carry me to the infirmary. When they finally got me fixed, I had a waiver for that exercise. Being long-in-the-tooth only exacerbates my normal stiffness, so it’s more important than ever)
Otherwise, the ruined greenhouse is now empty. My husband and I have agreed that we will let the shell sit until things get cooler. (Today’s forecast is 98 degrees F. with a heat index of 112) Today I will concentrate on getting my seed-starting area in the garage workable, with things either stored out of the way or taken out to the shop, and things I need easily accessible. My husband fixed one of my lights over the counter. I found, and hooked up, my grow light, so I have a start.
I hope that you have a happy Saturday.
Since Tropical Storm Laura may be the last of our tomato vines, I harvested what was there a few minutes ago.
The larger tomatoes are no longer ‘pretty,’ but they taste really good. The cherry-tomato-sized ones taste good, too, though my husband turns up his nose at them and won’t eat them. That’s okay with ME. More for ME! :0)
We have had a really nice crop this year despite our weird weather. I am trying to be okay if Laura tears up what remains of the plants. One cannot be TOO greedy…
Filed under Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I’ve been cleaning out our ruined greenhouse for over a week now, gathering a wheel barrow full of salvageable stuff, plus a leaf bag full of ruined things each day.
On our way to town today, we noticed we have several broken or downed trees to the left of the driveway as we drive down. Thankfully, they are off to the side, and we THINK (hope) we can simply ignore them.
Today I gathered the last of the ruined stuff (6 leaf bags of ‘stuff,’) and they are safely in the garage now, awaiting trash day next week. I brought two more wheel barrows full of salvageable stuff, and that is in the garage, too, awaiting more energy from me to figure out where it needs to go.
We are left with a light that needs to be taken down and thrown away, plus the tables and saw horses. We need to take the tables apart for transport. We hope we can salvage the wood. It will take both of us to move the wood, but I can put the saw horses in the wheel barrow, I think.
It’s impressive what wind and rain can do. The ‘floor’ was was covered with really think black plastic weed barrier. Then I had put down used welcome mats in high traffic areas. When I was trying to pick up pails filled with supplies, they simply shattered into a gazillion pieces in my hands. I ended up scooping them up – kind of like they were pizzas in a professional oven with a wooden spatula – then either dumping them directly into a trash bag or trying to salvage the contents first.
It will probably take us a couple of days to get all the screws out of the front pieces of the wooden tables and transport them to the shop. We will let Tropical storm Laura barrel through here this afternoon, evening, and tomorrow, and then reassess.
If you are in her path, or you’re in California, worrying about the wildfires, I wish you the best.
Filed under Gardening, greenhouse, Mother Nature
My poor tomato plants are looking pretty sad now. I’m watering them, but the sun is just too much for them. I AM getting some good cherry-tomato-sized tomatoes, and I’m enjoying those on the side for lunch and in our salads.
My raised bed, square foot garden is almost completely done. I got the one weird green thing shown above. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but it was on a vine that was supposed to be yellow crookneck squash…. Maybe he didn’t get the memo. Anyhow, I will cut into it and decide if it would be good to use as one of my substitutes for pasta.
Our lovely weather is giving over to regular August now – hot and humid. The minute you go out, it’s like you are your own private shower. You’re immediately wet – head to toe. I wear a sweat band so I can see to do what I need to do. :0)
I’m STARTING today to empty out the greenhouse that was killed in our last storm. This is going to be a huge job. I’m not going to push myself in this heat. If I fill up one wheelbarrow load of things I can salvage, plus start a bag of trash today, I’ll consider that good. No time limits on this project.
A nice person wrote and asked me if my elephant ear plants were doing well.
(I received these as a gift from Laufrain, a really good friend, last fall. I kept them alive over the winter, putting them on the floor in our dining area.)
Then I tried to put them in pots on our front porch. They were not happy there, and were trying to croak. I moved them to one of the brick planters we recently rebuilt, hoping they would be happier there, with a bit of protection from the winds we get up here on top of our hill sometimes.
They seem to be really happy here. Even with the awful storm we had recently, they were fine. I’m delighted. I love these plants and I think they look good here. :0)
Filed under Friendship, Gardening
We had a bad storm overnight and into the morning hours yesterday, with a LOT of wind and rain. My husband says it was the worst damage we have had since we have lived here – over 30 years now. We lost a shutter beside one of our second floor windows, and there are branches and leaves EVERYWHERE.
The main loss is our greenhouse.
We have decided to take it down. The cost to repair it, plus our labor on it, is just too much at this point in our lives. We couldn’t afford to heat or cool it, so the ability to get seeds to sprout, grow plants for the garden, and over winter plants was disappointing. We will salvage what we can and dispose of the rest.
I am concentrating on cleaning up around the house and the yard first. I spent over an hour yesterday picking up branches and throwing them off the edge of the civilized part of our yard. My back is telling me about it today. I will concentrate today’s efforts on using the leaf blower to clean off the deck, sidewalks, driveway pad and front porch.
Lowes
I am giving myself a gold star for this work, counting the exercise in the heat as my elliptical practice. Today I will do the leaf blowing and then do my yoga to try to stretch things out afterwards.
I was so hot and tired yesterday I didn’t get up to my art room to work on the new earrings I have started. I will try to make sure I make time to get up there today. I have the basic solid colors on both sides of the wooden earrings, and am eager to start the decorative fun part as soon as possible. I will post pics when they are finished.
I told you recently that we bought a new filter system for our aquarium.
It has a three-medium system to filter the water: charcoal, foam, and a stuff they call biomax. The three media are changed at different times – charcoal every month, foam every two months, and biomax every three months. I have had to resort to putting these on my calendar as recurring items with the time differential to keep up. What I have learned to this point is that I will need to change the water once a month to keep the water as clean as I would like it. It has been a MONTH this time (!) instead of every week, but the water is getting cloudy now. This is quite a change and I am grateful. I want to take good care of my fish, but cleaning out the tank and changing the water is not one of my favorite activities. Once a month seems like a luxury!!!! :0) It’s on my list for today.
GMW.cn
Due to the South Beach diet and my exercising, I have now recently lost 9 pounds. (A total of 37 pounds and 41 inches since my lardiest.) I am hopeful to be able to report more poundage and inches lost by the end of Month # 2 on the commercial stuff. I am re-learning portion control and the fact that I don’t need to eat until I don’t want any more at each meal. I am re-learning to serve a SERVING – either as measured by the South Beach stuff, or in my recipe books on servings on my DIY meals each week – reminding myself that there is a snack coming mid-morning or mid-afternoon and I probably won’t starve to death today. ( I DON’T remind myself often that I could live off my lard for MONTHS, if needed, as I am trying to think positively.) :0) I am carefully planning DIY meals for each week, and my husband is cooperating by not throwing as many poor choices into the cart while we’re grocery shopping.
I hope you have an enjoyable day today.
Imgur
We had quite a storm overnight. We lost power for a very short time over and over. Our alarm clock went off at 3am, having lost its mind. I reset it and we were able to get back to sleep.
We looked around this morning. It looks as if the combination of wind and rain was something we don’t see often. We don’t think we have any HUGE damage. There are leaves and branches all over the yard. The biggest thing I have found so far is my greenhouse.
BEFORE –
AFTER –
I will send pics to our insurance agent to see if we can get any help on rebuilding this. I’m a bit ambivalent on the subject to be honest. We built it with high hopes. We would have gotten a lot more use out of it it we could have afforded to heat and cool it. As it was, it was too hot or too cold most of the time to extend the growing season the way I was intending. I’m just not sure what we’ll do now.
I’m getting ready to leave for a much-needed massage. It looks like I’ll get a second shower, too, as it’s dark outside with thunderstorms predicted. I’m not water-soluble, so I’ll be happy if there is no hail associated with the storm.
I’ve been working hard lately cleaning, so I’m hoping to reward myself with time in the art room this afternoon. I have a new design for earrings in my head, and I would like to see how it goes. :0)
Our irrigation system brains in the well house keep getting zapped by the various short power outages we’ve been experiencing lately. We ordered a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) lately and my husband put it out there and hooked it up. Hopefully, now we won’t have to reset the thing over and over again. Fingers crossed.
I gathered some tomatoes yesterday. Most were the size of cherry tomatoes, but I will happily use them in salads. Nothing else from the main garden at this time, except some good-looking weeds.
I hope that your day is filled with fun.
Soul Alchemy
We were very lucky not to be affected by the derecho storm that hit yesterday. So many good people are dealing with damage from the hurricane and now the derecho. I hope that you came through both well, too. We have the possibility of strong, gusty winds and hail with storms this afternoon and evening. Hopefully, they will just be the ‘normal’ summer variety. Mother Nature seems to be in a snit – and on top of the pandemic problems and troubles in some of our big cities. It seems we are having more than our share of character-building exercises lately. May we give each other strength.
Today is one of our DIY dinners for the week on the South Beach eating plan. I got some stew beef in the crock pot this morning. I will serve this with a bit of rice for my husband and spiralized squash for me.
We have several errands, plus appointments this afternoon. By the time we finish those and my exercises (elliptical and yoga), the day is almost gone before it starts. I will check for ripe tomatoes (fingers crossed) this morning and will try to get up to my art room this afternoon to at least start my newest earring blanks with my new design ideas. (Fingers crossed on THAT, too.)
I hope that you are feeling strong, healthy, and full of enthusiasm for this day.
This is what I found in the garden today. I had about given up on getting anything but green plants and blossoms, and the plants are looking stressed right now, but I had two zucchini and a mystery thing I GUESS is another type of zucchini. I planted zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, but this doesn’t seem to be either of those. It will be interesting to cut it open and see.
I went out to the garden at the end of my elliptical trainer practice, so I was already hot. I was all in by the time I walked out and back from the garden in the heat, so I didn’t check for tomatoes today. I do that tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
High in the upper 90’s, heat index of 105+, relentless sunshine – finally here today. They say, on the weather website, that we COULD get pop-up showers in the afternoon and pigs may fly –
Although we MADE a flying pig and she flies in our driveway –
We have doors open and ceiling fans on for awhile more this morning, but will have to close up and turn the a/c on soon.
I will check our garden, though it is mostly played out now, and will check to see if we have any ripe tomatoes. We haven’t had any in several days and the plants are stressed – part of the perks of living in Arkansas. I feel lucky that we got anything to grow this year.
My hat is, as always, off to people who not only can grow enough food for their families, but also enough to give away to neighbors or sell. It requires a lot of expertise, knowledge of how to make it through weird weather, determination and stamina.
Unique Teaching Resources
The weather is beautiful here today. Right now it’s sunny and 66 degrees F. Just couldn’t be more perfect. We’re enjoying low humidity today, as well. I will make sure I spend some good time outside. We have doors open and ceiling fans on. It’s SMILING weather!
I will leave in about an hour to take the trash down to the bottom of the driveway, get our mail, and go to Rags & Roses Collective, the wonderful local Greenwood shop where I share a booth, Blasing Bright, with my friend Carla. I will change out some stuff, pay our rent, and visit a minute with the owner, Joanna Brandt.
We are having a quiet day so far, for which I am thankful. Yesterday brought a couple of ‘episodes’ where my husband was unable to speak, but he seems to be fine today. He is calm and seems to be upbeat. We will do the best we can each day, thankful to HAVE another one.
My exercise efforts are going well. I am feeling better – a bit more energetic – and looser. I am earning two stars on my desk calendar daily, one for my elliptical trainer in the garage and the other for yoga stretches and abdominal exercises.
I will see how our garden is doing later and check if we have ripe tomatoes to gather.
I’m not sure what my project for the day will be yet.
I hope that YOUR Tuesday is a nice CHOOSE-DAY. :0)
AginginPlace.org
Today we meet our friends for Lunch Bunch. Our ‘core group’ (Linda, Kay and I) have been meeting every Friday possible for over 17 years now. “Priceless” just isn’t a strong enough word to describe how special this is. Others come and go. Our husbands were made honorary members of the group years ago. Linda’s husband is gone, now, but we share memories of funny or touching things from the times he was able to join us. Kay’s husband has joined us recently. He isn’t working now, laid off because of the virus. He is at the age where he should have retired long ago, but loves the work. He is working now to define himself as much more than his work, and I’m delighted. He has a wonderful sense of humor and it’s fun to hear what he has to say. My husband has been a member for several years now. He presides over his ‘harem,’ ( :0) ) though now graciously sharing that fantasy with Bud now. We enjoy catching up with what the others have been doing, or hearing about plans for the future. We have borne the sad news together over the years, and have helped each other deal with whatever has happened. We had to miss a few Fridays due to the virus. Then the restaurant owner was allowed to serve us outside at picnic tables. Now we’re back in the restaurant, wearing masks in and out. It’s good to be back.
We will have to set our humane trap again tonight because it looks like we have ANOTHER raccoon. This has been a record-braking year. We have relocated 8 raccoons so far, and it LOOKS as if we will do it again..
We had quite a storm yesterday evening. LOTS of lightning, loud thunder, wind, and heavy rain for about half an hour that I was aware of. No damage, though. We are due for more today. Our grass and plants will be happy. My husband is frowning as he imagines the grass spurting up again.
This is yesterday’s tomato harvest. We are enjoying fresh sliced tomatoes for part of our lunches and dinners every day. It has been glorious. Even if the harvest stopped suddenly – as it sometimes does – we have been very lucky this year.
Not sure what today’s project will be. I’m trying to choose one area to ‘heal’ every day. Yesterday it was my kitchen desk and the shelves above it. I also spent a lot of time scrubbing one of the downstairs bathrooms. I have LOTS of good choices, as I am a slob. I’ll report later on what the choice is.
I’m doing really well on my exercising. Being able to add a gold star to my desk calendar is motivating for me – a person who hasn’t fully grown up. They motivated me as a child in school and I will still get off my duff and go earn one now. I’m giving myself one for each session on my elliptical trainer in the garage and each session of yoga stretches and abdominal exercises. So far, this is an 8-star week. I’ll go for 9 and 10 today.
I hope you have a wonderful day today, productive and enjoyable.
Inspirationfeed
In a few minutes I will drive down to get our mail and put out our trash. When I get back, I’ll spend some time on the elliptical trainer in the garage. I’m HOPING to do 20 minutes today, but I’ll do what I can and call it a win for the day. My motivation is high today. I was planning to do the elliptical MWF this week, but I’ll see what happens. :0)
My husband wanted to eat some of the South Beach pancakes this morning. The last time was a disaster, so we decided that the NEXT time we tried them, “I” would be the one who caused it. I mixed up the two packages (one for him and one for me) according to the directions. The batter was too thick. I added 2 more tablespoons. The end result was good. We used a little butter and some sugar-free syrup. It was a nice way to start the day.
I will check the garden and also see if we have ripe tomatoes to gather. It has been so hot that I have spent the minimum amount of time outside as possible. We have a 50% chance of rain today – particularly this afternoon – so I’m hopeful for a bit of a reprieve.
I am trying to choose something in the house that needs ‘healing’ (cleaning out, reorganizing, cleaning) each day. I’m not sure what today’s project will be yet. So MUCH to choose from! I’m working on large leaf bag #3 of things to donate to the Disabled Vets.
I’m re-reading book # 47 (out of 49) of the J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) “In Death” series. #50 in the series has been ordered and will arrive soon!
Have a wonderful Tuesday!
It occurred to me that I have talked about trying to grow celery in my garden, but haven’t shown you how I am trying.
When I buy stalks of celery at the store, I cut off about an inch-and-a-half to two inches of the bottom of each stalk and put them in a dish with water. I let this sit on the divider in my kitchen, making sure it has water.
The result, after about a week, is this. ‘
This evening before dark, or tomorrow morning before the heat becomes lethal, I will transfer these two to the garden, digging a hole and putting the growing plants just as you see them, into the soil.
So far, I have managed to get some leafy plants with some stalks, but not as you would see them in the grocery store with the stalks tightly together. I have read that I am supposed to tie the leafy part together, and will try that this time.
I haven’t been really successful yet, but it’s so much fun to try!
Filed under Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Yesterday’s tomato harvest was really nice. We’re still getting all different sizes of tomatoes, since the plants are stressed due to our weather. We’re getting deeply into summer now, so hopefully we can give them enough water to keep them producing. We are beyond spoiled, looking forward to having fresh, ripe sliced tomatoes with lunch and dinner every day. :0)
Yesterday we were checking on our irrigation system since it’s lethally hot and we haven’t had any rain in awhile. We found one planter that we had rebuilt recently where the holes have NOT been drilled into the PVC pipe that brings it water! We will remedy that today. (I moved my elephant ear plants from the front porch where they were not happy to the newly rebuilt planter. It would be NICE if I also provided water.
My plants in the garden continue to get larger and produce blooms, but no zucchini or yellow crookneck squash yet. I’m starting to think the ‘plants’ are all I’ll get…
Filed under Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I am happy to tell you that my husband and I are becoming completely spoiled, eating fresh tomatoes at lunch and dinner every day. Otherwise, we are eating our South Beach entrees, or I am fixing one of our DIY meals.
This is a quality of life thing for us. If I ever give up trying to have a garden, I will still put in tomato plants every spring for summer tomatoes.
“A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.” ~ Laurie Colwin, ‘Home Cooking’
Oddetorium
We are truly into summer now, with heat indices in the 105-110 range, and hotter forecast. We are very grateful for good air conditioning and ceiling fans. One of the many perks of aging is that my personal comfort range on temperatures is becoming narrower.
I will get outside in a minute, mix up a container of KillzAll Weed Killer, and spray it around the garden area. That, and seeing if we have any ripe tomatoes will be it for being outside today.
My friends, Kay and Bud from Lunch Bunch have been making me feel like a slug lately. They are systematically going through a bunch of their stuff in their home and packing it up to get rid of it. I should be doing that, but the ‘lazies’ have me in their clutches right now, and it’s all I can do to do the bit of yard work I need to, plus exercise. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
Next on my personal list of things ‘when I get motivated,’ is to use the power washer. If I can get started, it’s addictive. This year I will try to start with out outside chairs. I also need to do the deck, sidewalks, front porch, and driveway pad. I’m not sure if I can clean up our stained brick in our planters or not, but I’ll give that a try, as well. Hopefully, I will get the urge soon. :0)
I hope that you have a healthy, happy Sunday.
Total Balance Chiropractic
I laughed when I found this picture. :0)
My husband used our riding mower to mow the spots that needed it yesterday. We haven’t had any rain, so there were only a few spots.
Before dark yesterday, I mixed up Eight Bug Spray and sprayed our tomato plants which are suddenly being eaten up by hornworms. I sprayed them, plus the garden plants, again this morning, hoping to get rid of all the bad stuff.
I then mixed a container (2 gallons) of KillzAll Weed Killer. I started in the back yard, using it along our back sidewalk, then around under the deck, then under the porch, etc. I ran out of spray and energy about the same time.
I am now drinking a bottle of cold water and relaxing before going out to mix another container. I would like to get this done before it gets lethally hot outside. This afternoon we’re supposed to have a heat index of around 110 – much too hot for this old broad.
I hope you have a fun Saturday.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
We have been stuffing our faces with glorious ripe tomatoes from our garden for lunches and dinners lately. I solved the problem of the ‘cherry tomatoes” I was getting, reading that they were probably ‘stressed’ while waiting for us to solve our irrigation problems. Now that they are getting water on a set schedule every day, we’re getting really nice ones.
Two days ago, though, we found another problem – hornworms.
Univ. of Florida
These lovely caterpillars eat tomato greenery. They are really difficult to find. We found a couple and killed them a couple of days ago, but we know there are more. You can stare and stare, moving the greenery around, and they just fade into the branches.
We talked about it during Lunch Bunch today. Kay reminded me that I could spray the plants with EIGHT bug killer. This spray kills bugs, but is safe for our animals and safe for the plants and the tomatoes. Her husband, Bud, suggested that we do it at dusk tonight and it would be more effective.
I will plan to go outside right after we feed the animals this evening. I’ll gather whatever tomatoes are ready to come in and then hose down the plants in the two planters. Hopefully, we can kill the hornworms.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
We had a nice bunch of tomatoes ripe today. I now have a bowl of them, plus a container of much smaller, cherry type tomatoes that I will eat with other raw veggies as snacks. This is one of our favorite times of the year. We are rich in tomatoes!!!!
sayingimages.com
My husband is out mowing now – even though it’s too wet – because the rain has been such that there is NEVER a good time to do the job. It will have to be enough. Since the heat index today will be in the area of 110 degrees F., I’m glad he is out there getting the job over with now. (The weather people says it will get REALLY hot this coming week!) Right now, though, it is still cool enough to have the doors open and the ceiling fans on.
My zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants are still looking healthy, but no actual veggies growing yet. The celery I planted is still alive and I have two more celery bottoms in water in the house. The onions continue to look good. I’ll go out later to see if we have more ripe tomatoes.
I worked on painting a new design of wooden earrings yesterday in my art room. I’ll post pics later.
I am hoping for a quiet day today.
I hope that YOUR Sunday is a nice one, too.
Since we fixed our irrigation system, our tomatoes are getting watered each day, and we are starting to get some larger tomatoes. I read that getting the smaller ones indicated stress in the plants. I’m hoping our plants are happy now.
This is the ‘nook’ planter – beside the screened back porch and on the back of the house. (Amber is helping me harvest).
This is the other brick planter we converted to be a square foot garden planting area, filling it with Mel’s Mix.
We are really enjoying fresh tomatoes with lunch and dinner!
The zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants are looking pretty good, though none have started to produce actual veggies yet. I will have to make time to weed out there very soon. The sweet red onions are continuing to get larger.
This is today’s haul of tomatoes. I really don’t know why we’re getting so many little bitty tomatoes, but I’m grateful we can enjoy them with our meals.
It’s really humid out today. It’s 80 degrees now, which would be wonderful, but the humidity is 78%, making it feel like a sauna the minute you go out. We have had the doors open to enjoy the morning, but are going to have to close up, or I will melt into a puddle onto the floor in front of my computer…..
Our weather has been so weird this year that I don’t know what to expect on our ‘crops.’ Today’s tomatoes look as if I planted cherry tomato plants. I planted the normal tomato brands and types that are supposed to be happy with the climate of Arkansas (read HOT and sporadic water). We try to even this out with our irrigation system, but it gets to the point that the plants simply boil away when it gets to be too much.
We have lots of green tomatoes coming, though, so I’m hopeful we will get several more regular-sized tomatoes to enjoy this season.
Storyteller Travel
I LOVE the look of humor and character on Shoebill Storks.
We are having a super humid day today. It’s like pea soup outside. The humidity is 92% right now. UGH. That said, at least the sun is not a killer, so I’ve just come in from pruning our roses bushes and cutting things back a bit. We have a super good chance of rain today. It is cloudy and looks like it could rain any time now.
We are waiting for our plumber to come. We have a tankless water heater that gives us lots and lots of hot water. We haven’t had to worry about running out for years. Until lately. You have to have full water pressure to get the hot water, and it takes a bit of time for that to happen. We get it when we first step into the shower upstairs, then halfway through our shower, we get cold water, like we used to have when the tank emptied. My husband thinks we may have to get a new water pressure tank for the well house. Hopefully, we can get what we need to get our wonderful hot showers again soon. Fingers crossed.
I hope that you have a good day.
Gardening Know How
My friend Laufrain gave me TWO elephant ear plants last fall. I babied them through the winter in our dining area, since that was a place they would get good sun. I decided to put them on our front porch this spring because they would be out of the worst of the wind we have from time to time, and wouldn’t be in the direct sun on the north side of our house. They did fine there until it got hot.
Today I decided I would relocate them, planting them in one of the brick planters we rebuilt. I laboriously dug a hole and just was getting the first one into the planter when all of a sudden we had a HARD rain. By the time I made it into the garage, I was dripping. I toweled off, got a cup of coffee, and decided I would catch up on email. Like a faucet had been turned off, the rain stopped as suddenly as it started.
I have just come in from planting the second plant. I fertilized and gave them a bit of water. Tonight at 7:30 the irrigation system will water them for 10 minutes. Time will tell if they are happy in the new location. Fingers crossed. Pictures later.
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature
I recently got caught up on weeding our raised-bed, square-foot garden. In this picture, you can see that I have onions in most of this planter box and part of another. I read that the ones which have shot the greenery up and have bloomed are the ones we should eat first, because they won’t dry and store well. I have also read that it doesn’t matter that the others are losing their greenery. They will continue to get larger if I just leave them where they are.
This is another wide shot of the garden. It’s hard to show you the whole thing at once. What you are looking at is SIX 4’x4’x8″ wooden boxes with drain holes set into metal supports about my chest level. They are tied together with hoses, with a sprinkler in the center of each box, so we can water each day for a specified time. (Later on in the summer, the sun will be so strong that it doesn’t matter how much you try to water, things will simply burn up.) For now the plants are happy.
I have planted zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. I will add some radishes at some point, but I’m keeping things simple this year. The plants have gotten larger, but haven’t shot out vines yet.
It took me two days to get everything weeded and under reasonable control. You can see the size of the onions.
I also have empty, weeded squares now, where I can plant radish seeds. My two little bitty celery plants are still alive. I have no clue when I am supposed to tie them up (this is supposed to result in the nice celery stalks you get at the grocery store. I’ll see if I can find some information.
I showed you the tomato plants yesterday. We are looking forward to enjoying some sliced tomatoes with our dinner tonight!
Today will be hot and humid. Right now we’re enjoying have the doors open and a nice breeze coming through. Later today, though, we’ll close up, not only because of comfort, but because the dust cloud from the Sahara is due this afternoon and tomorrow.
We have two tomato planters. The one above is 8 feet long. The one below is about 4 feet wide. We took the potting soil out and put Mel’s Mix in, converting them both to square foot planters.
This is the ‘nook’ planter that is at the back of the house and beside the back porch. It’s a bit more protected that the other planter from the elements. Both took off during the rainy season here, growing really tall and bushy before I had a chance to try to control them a bit. Now I’m just trying to support the branches as well as I can and hope we have some nice tomatoes.
You can see we have some green tomatoes of different sizes.
Today I found some ripe ones! I also found that we had blossom end rot, so I added bone meal, food, and some blossom end rot spray to both planters.
I will try to cut off some dead stuff and neaten things up in a day or two, after the rain will have hopefully made the additives sink into the soil.
I’m delighted to show you the first harvest of what I hope will be a great tomato season for us. We will eat one this evening, enjoying every bite! :0)
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