Category Archives: Gardening

July 18, 2017 · 11:24 am

Tomato Harvest 7-18 – 2017

Well, I pruned the tomatoes in the nook planter, taking out a LOT of particularly the plant on the left side of the planter. Then I moved to the 8 foot brick planter to the east of the house where the other tomato plants are, pruning them. I got pretty ruthless, because I want all the nutrients and energy going to the parts of the plants that might actually produce.

The plants don’t look pretty now, but it looks like they’re responding to the pruning, fertilizer and Seven I put on them about a week ago.

Here is today’s harvest. We’re really pleased with our crop this year. We’ve been oohing and ahhhing at lunch and dinner, eating a BUNCH of sliced ripe tomatoes at every meal except for breakfast. We particularly enjoy giving people we like bags of tomatoes, since we have more than we can eat. (I now know how to can, but I hate to give any of them up when I can eat them fresh off the vine.)

Our friends Laufrain and Dave (our friends and bowling buddies) were telling us last night how pretty the tomatoes were and how good they tasted. :0)

We also gave some to our driller and brush hog master, Foy, and his wife, Judy.

Who can ask for more from a bit of work to grow them?

Sheer luxury!!!

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July 15, 2017 · 11:44 am

Progress on our Fight with Weed Trees

The view is opening up!

My friend, Cathy, wrote, suggesting we try a weed killing product she thinks is great. It’s called KillzAll. You buy it concentrated, mix it with water, then spray it on what you want to kill. I ordered a gallon this morning. We can use it while we’re fighting with these and after we finish, plus be prepared to spray again whenever we see their ugly heads springing up. If we spray at the first sign of green in the spring, maybe we can keep them under control without so much work in the heat!

 

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July 14, 2017 · 10:11 am

Mid Summer Tomatoes

This was a harvest of a few days ago. I harvested again yesterday, but I didn’t get a picture of them.

Each year I’m learning that I don’t know anything about growing tomatoes.

It’s basically a matter of luck. Sometimes I lose the plants because of wonky weather. Other times tomato caterpillars eat them. Sometimes they just die for no reason I can think of. Sometimes things start out great and then ‘something happens’ cutting the season really short.

This year we’ve been lucky so far. My husband and I decided that if  ‘something happens’ and this is the end of our crop for the year, we’ve had a good year. We’ve had delicious tomatoes to enjoy with lunches and dinners, plus more that we could give to some of our friends. To our idea, it doesn’t get any better than this.

  • I learned this year that I’m not supposed to let any leaves of the plants touch the ground. I think cutting off the lower branches helps in disease control.
  • I also learned from my friend, Laufrain, to find suckers. Before the season is over – when my greenhouse will stay some reasonable temperature and not cook me and my plants, I’ll try to get the suckers to grow. Maybe I can have tomatoes in the fall!

A giant came and sat in the middle of my two tomato plants in the nook planter beside the porch. I can see no other reason that there was a huge depression suddenly in the middle of the plants and things were turning yellow.

I decided that I needed to prune all the dead and dying parts off. What was left I fertilized and then sprinkled with Sevin. Since I was harvesting tomatoes yesterday from these plants, and there are more trying to ripen, I’m hoping that my actions yesterday will save the plants and keep them producing. Fingers crossed.

 

This is the nook planter. As you can see, I had to prune a LOT of the plant on the left.  This is the best I know to do for the poor plants that were looking good only a week ago!

 

These are the tomato plants in the 8 foot brick planter to the east of the house. If you look carefully, you can see the greenhouse in the background. :0)

I’ll prune these plants tonight. They’re not looking bad, as the nook plants were, but they have leaves on the ground and have limbs hanging all over the place.

I’m learning a lot of what NOT to do again each year. This year, though, I’m beginning to learn more of what TO do!

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July 13, 2017 · 4:56 pm

Weed Trees, Tomatoes, and Wall Hanging

Inhabitat

Today is proving to be a busy, productive day.

This morning we awoke to Amber in distress after having eaten something bad again. She’s like a vacuum cleaner inside or outside, and it’s worth your life to try to keep her from eating TOO many weird things. Anyway, something hadn’t agreed with her, so we were out with the hoses and dog soap first thing. She seemed to be feeling fine otherwise, and ravenously hungry, so we fed her half a can of her lamb/rice sicky dog food. She has done fine the rest of the day, so hopefully this was a temporary problem.

I then got out with the loppers and tackled more weed trees. I actually felt as if I made a bit of progress, even though I only lasted half an hour in the sun, opening up another small section of our view. I’ll keep doing this each morning that I can, and then doing a 2nd session in the evening when the sun is starting to go down. I found some sturdier shoes to wear for this activity, so wasn’t sliding around so much.

I’ve started to seriously prune my tomato plants. I told you it looked like a giant had sat in the middle of the two large tomato plants in the nook planter beside the porch. I’m cutting off dead stuff, pruning leaves or limbs that are hanging way down, etc., trying to make it easier on the plants that are left when I finish. I’ll also put fertilizer on them, plus Sevin to keep the critters off. Before I started the pruning, I was able to harvest several more tomatoes. :0)

This afternoon I was out in the shop working on the metal sun/moon wall hanging. My husband was working on a small roll-around jack, putting on new casters, and we had Molly and Amber out there with us. Amber was driving Molly nuts for a bit, but finally calmed down.

I figured out a method that my husband said looked ‘really good’ on doing the shading that is such a big part of this piece. I took the sponge end off one of my sponge brushes and am using that, instead of a brush, to do the shading. I should be able to get gradations of shading with this, plus – it’s FUN!

About 6:00 or so, depending on the sun, we’ll get back out in the yard. We’ve switched to eating dinner pretty late now in order to give us an hour out there to get something done. (We find that we last a shorter and shorter length of time in the direct sun, and it’s taking us longer to recover than it used to.)

I’ll try to get some pics of the opening view in the back yard, the tomato plants, and the metal wall hanging tomorrow so you can see our works in progress.

I hope you’ve had a good day, too.

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July 11, 2017 · 5:27 pm

Tomato Fairies?

My husband and I did errands, and made them a LOT more fun by taking bags of tomatoes to 4 of our friends.

We took a bag to our hair stylist,Michael;  our good friends the Taylors; our friend Carla; and our friend Nora. Carla and Nora weren’t home, so I texted them to make sure they’ll find them later.

One of the best things in the world is being able to grow something you really love eating. When you have more than you can eat, it’s even more fun to share the wealth with people you love.

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July 11, 2017 · 12:03 pm

An Embarrassment of Wealth

This is what I harvested today, with more ripening on the vines.

The vines themselves aren’t looking that great for some reason. It looks like a giant sat in the middle of the two plants in the nook planter, with collapsing and yellowing vines. The vines are too large to try to prop up without breaking them, so I’ll concentrate on pruning them a bit and adding fertilizer and hope for the best.

The plants in the 8 foot brick planter to the east of the house look better, but not as green or robust as they were. All the plants are putting out good tomatoes, though, so I’ll just do what I can and keep my fingers crossed.

We gave some tomatoes to our friend Carla when she came over the other day. We still have some in the fridge, and now we have this new harvest. GUESS what we’ll be eating!

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July 6, 2017 · 11:07 am

We’re Rich in Tomatoes!

A couple of days ago we were mourning that we had eaten all our good tomatoes. Look what was ready this morning – with more to be ripe in a day or two!

 

 

 

 

This is half of our onion harvest.

 

I cleaned them up and put them in these two mesh bags. They’re hanging from hooks in our pantry, continuing to dry out. We’ve eaten several, and they’re nice and sweet.

I’ve pulled most of the rest of our plants, with the exception of grape tomatoes, a couple of spaghetti squashes, and lots of celery.

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July 1, 2017 · 12:06 pm

My New Book Arrived Today!

I’m thrilled that I got this book today.  I’m especially happy in that our greenhouse is still standing, with no damage, after the bad storms with lots of rain and high winds we had yesterday.

Now that we’ve gone to the trouble to build my wonderful greenhouse –

 

 

I would like to get as much use out of it as I can all year-long. So far, we’ve blown out the type of thermometer than has alcohol (aka ‘mercury’) in it, having to switch to the type of thermometer than doesn’t have any liquid in it. The temperatures inside the greenhouse during the day now are over 120 degrees, so I’m ‘guessing’ :0) that this is the time of the year that I should do my planning, scheming, gathering of materials, etc. to be READY to plant when the temperature is reasonable in there. The exhaust fan kicks on when the temperature is over 90, and there is a people fan in there, but the plants can’t survive right now.

I’m going to dive into the book today!

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June 27, 2017 · 1:17 pm

Some Progress

Wild Ammo

This tired big cat looks a lot better than I do right now.

I just came in from

  • planting three celery plants and a head lettuce bottom,
  • weeding the raised square foot garden beds
  • spraying weed killer on the weeds under the raised beds of the garden.

My hair is completely wet – plastered to my head; my face is red; and I’m still breathing hard -BUT I have a large glass of water with ice and I’m in the a/c, sitting comfortably at my computer, feeling nicely spoiled. :0)

My friend Laufrain looked up growing celery while we were bowling last night and discovered that I should be watering my celery more. Mine is greener and a little tough compared to what you find at the store. We also discovered that I should be tying the stalks together. I have some tomato vine tying tape that I think will work well for that.  I also think I’ll harvest the stalks when they’re smaller and younger. If I keep trying this, I may actually be successful!

I discovered the probable reason why celery isn’t included in the square foot gardening book. The online article said that celery was one of the most difficult veggies to grow. So I’m patting myself on the head a bit, having even a small amount of success. :0)

 

This is the new style thermometer my husband put up in the greenhouse yesterday. As you can see, it’s WAAAY too hot to stay out there long, or to plant much at this point. It’s better first thing in the morning or just before sunset in the evening, but it’s still too hot to try to get seedlings to grow. It may be that I need to take the summer off, have things planned and ready to start around beginning of September for the fall garden. I’ll do a lot of reading about greenhouses, as well as when I should be starting the plants I want to grow for the fall. I have a lot of homework to do.

Our friend Dave came over this morning to help my husband figure out how to make the rotor for the ham radio tower antenna to work properly.  My husband had worked and worked on it, and was at a loss. Dave took it apart, put it back together again, and it miraculously worked. The closed it up and declared victory. Dave says he thinks a special tool he has will get the tower up without our having to hire someone with a crane. They’re planning to assemble the whole thing, including the antenna, on the ground. They’ll test the rotor to make sure it’s working correctly. We’ll already have the guy wire rods in the ground and the guy wires on the tower. They’ll, in effect, winch the tower up into place and hold it steady while cables are plugged in, guy wires attached, etc. The first step, though, is drilling the hole, putting the pipe into the hole, and putting the cement into the hole.

Amber chewed through the rope that attached her to the dog run yesterday. Happily, my husband was watching her and saw what she had done, and so caught up with her and put her on the porch. This morning we got some cable, cable ends, and a new attachment piece. My husband made a new line to attach to the run and we tested it. Probably, since she can’t chew through the cable this time, she’ll pull the whole Martin house that the run is attached to, down…

And so it goes at the Lewises.

If I can cool off, I’m going out to prune the trio of brick flower planters that go between our front yard and the driveway. This, as well as several other things, have been on my list for so many days now they’re beginning to get on my nerves, so I’m determined to make some progress on each of them today.

Happy Tuesday!

 

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June 25, 2017 · 3:48 pm

Tomato Feast!

Today’s harvest.

At lunch we enjoyed two of the tomatoes, some of the celery I grew that I showed you a couple of days ago, and some radishes I grew. We had carrots from the store and a hard-boiled egg. Nice, crunchy good-for-us lunch!

My husband put the different style thermometer in the greenhouse for me this morning. I got seed packets from the store and will read up on when I’m supposed to plant each of them for a fall garden.

 

We’re trying to have Amber inside with us more and more during the day. My husband took her for a long walk and then we brought her inside while we ate lunch. She dive-bombed Molly, of course, so I put Molly out while we concentrate on Amber for the moment. (She’s asleep beside my feet now as I type this.) Later I’ll bring Molly in and hold her in my lap while Amber cavorts around, wheeling, spinning, and wagging her tail, and see if we can make progress on melding the various members of the family…

Have a wonderful Sunday!

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June 25, 2017 · 9:50 am

Good Morning!

Source Unknown

I found this a long time ago and neglected to get the source. There is a signature across the the image between the leaf and the butterfly on the right, but I can’t make it out. Sorry. I think this is really, really nice.

I hope you’re having a good morning, too.

The ham radio operators are having the 2nd day of their annual field day today in Bell Park, Greenwood, Arkansas. Sometime yesterday a 24-hour contest began to see who could get the most contacts in a 24 hour period at a certain bandwidth. Last year there were about six different bandwidths represented. This contest is across the WORLD. Each operator uses his ham radio call sign, making contact with someone. They exchange call signs, recording them to be verified later. There is no ‘prize’ as such, but the winners are announced and bragging rights will never end. :0)  When we were watching and listening a couple of years ago, one man was talking to someone in Uruguay!

The work on my husband’s new-to-him antenna. He’s having a good friend come over and help him make the rotor work as it should this coming week. Meanwhile, he’s built the base it will sit on and is working on the complex 4-plex antenna that will sit on the top.  When we were talking about it yesterday, I suggested we assemble the whole thing on the ground and then hire probably the smallest crane there is to come help the two guys pull the whole thing up and hold it while things are tightened, guy wires are hooked up, wiring is finished, etc. My husband thought about it for a bit and then said, “You know, that’s actually a good idea!” (I ignored the fact that he sounded surprised :0/)

I’m going to put my different style thermometer up in the greenhouse today, and plan to start some spaghetti squash seeds to see if they’ll make. I’m also planning to attack weed trees with a vengence – if the temperatures will stay at some reasonable level. If not, I’ll see what I can do this evening.

I hope you have a wonderful day, too.

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June 24, 2017 · 11:04 am

Celery and Lettuce Starts

The three glasses in the foreground of this picture are celery starts. The one behind the other three is lettuce!

I bought a head of lettuce Sunday. When I was making us a sandwich, I smacked the lettuce on the counter to make the hard end pop out and suddenly thought, “Why wouldn’t growing lettuce from a head bought at the store work the same way as celery?”  (At least I don’t talk to myself aloud – at least, not very MUCH…. :0)  )

So I plonked the end in a glass and added water. If you look carefully, you can see that it’s greening up! I have no clue if this will continue to be large enough for me to put in the garden or not, but it sure will be fun to try it.

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June 23, 2017 · 12:36 pm

I Love YouTube

I just found a good video of a man trimming his fairly early tomato plants. He pinched off the lower branches that touched the soil, saying that you can stop a lot of disease if you do this. He was also pinching off the sucker (he’s pointing to one here) early on to make the main part of the plant sturdier.

He said he waits until mid July to pinch off suckers that are about 6 inches long and then plants them in soil for his fall crop. I think I may be too early in my efforts, so I’ll wait and try to follow the things he showed me.

Meanwhile, I got a different style thermometer (doesn’t use alcohol) and will put in into the greenhouse later. Hopefully, this style will live through the heat.

I’ve decided to try planting some more spaghetti squash seeds, since we still have a good amount of time for them to grow over the summer. Wish me luck?

Right now, the heat index is 103 degrees, lethally hot for old folks like me. We have a 60% chance of rain this afternoon and evening, but I’m afraid it will only be momentary relief.  I may take Amber to stand out in the rain with me, thankful for at least a short reprieve.

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June 23, 2017 · 10:19 am

Tomato Plants From Suckers – Take 1

These two tomatoes were ready to be harvested this morning. We have one harvested a couple of days ago, so we’ll feast on sliced tomatoes tonight!

Yesterday I tried to plant suckers in order to grow new tomato plants.

“Tomato suckers, or side shoots, are the growth that appears in the crotch between the stem and a branch. (See photo above.) If left to grow, they will become another main stem with branches, flowers, fruit and more suckers of their own.”

I carefully gathered several suckers, went to my greenhouse where I had pots of Mel’s Mix ready, moistened the bottom of each sucker in water and then stuck it in rooting hormone  (shaking off the excess) and put the suckers in the pots. I then watered the pots. It was really hot in the greenhouse so I left the thermostat-controlled exhaust fan on.

 

This is what the thermometer in the greenhouse showed this morning, although it didn’t feel that bad. The exhaust fan is set to start and run when the temperature inside the greenhouse is 90 degrees F. or higher. It was off. The outside temperature is 77 right now.

 

As you can see, Trial 1 was a failure.  I chose and cut the suckers carefully. The fact that I planted in the heat of the day, rather than in the morning or right before dark may have been a factor. I read the directions on the rooting hormone and followed them carefully, so I don’t think that’s the problem. The fact that the thermometer is reading so high vs the exhaust fan being off may be a factor. I may bring the thermometer in and see if it’s working correctly. *

*It’s now about 45 minutes later. I brought the thermometer inside and my husband shook it. It has red dye now in the bottom of the package. Apparently, the temperature in the greenhouse blew its top off. We’ll hunt for a different style today while we’re out.

On a happier note – I harvested the first of the experiment to try to grow celery from the bottoms cut off stalks bought at the store.

 

 

I cut off the bottom of the stalks of celery I bought at the store and put each in a glass of water. These need to grow a bit more before they’re ready to be taken out to the garden and planted. (If you look carefully, you can see that in the glass that’s second from the left, I’ve put the end of a head of lettuce in a glass, just for giggles.)

 

The celery plants are bushy, rather than looking like what you get at the store. I cut the largest stalks, leaving the smaller ones to hopefully grow.

 

There is a LOT of greenery on each stalk. I washed everything, then cut off the stalks into usable pieces, washed them again, and then took the bowl of cut celery to my husband in the living room where we each tried one. Oddly enough, they taste like celery! :0)

I’m like a kid at Christmas. After several tries and several failures, I’m actually growing edible celery! Woo HOOOO!

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June 21, 2017 · 10:01 am

Nothing

Sun-Gazing.com via Cathy Ruggiero

I used to want to have ‘something to do’ each day – somewhere to go, people to see, activities. I realize that wanting the opposite is definitely a sign of old age, but I’m embracing it.

Today there are no scheduled appointments, no ‘have-to’ errands, no commitments. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

_________________

Yesterday my husband and I both worked most of the day in the hot sun.

My husband was trying to relocate a microlink to our computers in the shop. This is not a thing we HAVE to have, but it used to work and yesterday it wasn’t. In order to get it to work again, my husband had to move the equipment on the house end from the front of the house to the back and mount it on the window bars. This involved a lot of cable making, stapling inside the wall of the garage, welding and painting for the piece that mounted to the window, testing of cables, switches, and links, etc. It took my husband all day, but he got it working. Now he just has to put his tools away and cut down several branches on a tree between the house and the shop for a clearer line of sight.

In the garden, I planted two celery plants, pulled out the last of the spinach and lettuce plants, pruned the plants that were left, and weeded the raised bed planters. The only thing remaining in the garden to spray the weeds on the ground with weed killer.

I took some stuff out to the greenhouse in preparation for starting some tomato suckers, but the thermometer showed red all the way to the top – over 120 degrees – so I just put the stuff inside and came out again.

I dumped the water from the kiddie pool, washed it out, and refilled it.

I cleaned Amber’s porch up, hosed it out, then squeegeed and mopped.

I mowed the yard on the riding mower after helping my husband with the microlink several times.

By the time we finally stopped for dinner, it was almost 9:00. I cooked, we ate and watched a movie.

Whew!

____________________

There are things I’ll do today, but I’m concentrating on doing things INSIDE while the sun is at its hottest – as we SHOULD have done yesterday – and OUTSIDE when the sun is going down, with only the finishing touches on dinner to do.

I’m going to also take time to read more of my latest “In Death” series book by Nora Roberts while I’m relaxing.

Because my back is letting me know I overdid yesterday, I’ll try to work in a session of yoga.

 

Funny-Pics.co

AHHHHHHHH!

 

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June 20, 2017 · 12:49 pm

Fashion Statement?

Hotel for Dogs

Arkansas got the ‘summer memo’ about 3 weeks ago. We’ve been in the high 90’s with uncomfortable humidity since then. I have to tell you that spring and the 60s are where I am comfortable, so I visibly wilt as soon as I go outside.

We have a lot of sweat bands we keep on a special hook thingie on the back of the door to the garage. I grab two of them routinely because my husband needs one, too, but never seems to remember to get one. He wears a ham radio hat and I wear a hat that makes me look like a squashed mushroom to protect us from the direct sun.

I’m getting so that it FEELS as if I’m wearing a sweat band even when I’m not. It’s a regular part of how I look during the day and evening when we’re home working.

We grab a sweat band and head out the door. We come in, throw the sweat band in the washer, regular as clockwork.

I doubt if we’ll start a fad, though. You definitely need a sense of humor up here on top of our hill.

Today is a several-sweatband-day. I’m going to

  • plant two celery plants in the square foot garden and cut stalks from the largest plant out there
  • sweep the pooled water from the latest storm off the floor of the greenhouse
  • prep for putting tomato suckers in water out there
  • cut down some weed trees
  • prune stuff in the trio of brick planters between the driveway and the front yard
  • mow this evening when the sun is down a bit

I hope that you’re having a good Tuesday.

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June 19, 2017 · 12:22 pm

Volunteers

Second only to perennials, which come up year after year with no effort from you, I love ‘volunteer’ flowers. These are annuals which come from seeds planted elsewhere, planted last year, or just replant themselves in the yard somewhere. This year I have some wave petunias in a clump just off our deck, some impatiens along the edge of the house behind a brick planter, and zinnias in spots along the front yard and beside some planters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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June 19, 2017 · 12:15 pm

And How Does Our Garden Grow?

Huffington Post

 

This is one of the celery plants in my garden that I started from the end of a stalk I bought at the store. I’m going to cut some of the stalks today and see if they taste good.

 

This is one of two spaghetti squash vines I have growing right now. I grew this from a seed I saved from a squash I bought at the store. It’s a bit larger than a softball now.

 

We have lots of green tomatoes, and this one ripening one. It should be ready to bring in in a couple of days.

 

 

Here are two celery plants that have been growing in water in my kitchen. These are ready to be planted in the garden.

 

Can tomatoes be ‘cute?’ If so, I think THESE are. These are grape tomatoes and this is today’s harvest. It may be awhile before I have enough for a salad….

And finally, this is the first thing I’ll do in my new greenhouse – try to grow tomato plants from suckers.

A ‘sucker’ is a sprout from the juncture of two branches. If you look carefully at this picture, you can find the juncture of the tall vertical branch on the right side of the picture and the horizontal branch going out to the left at the bottom of the picture. The ‘sucker’ is the smaller branch with leaves growing right out of the juncture.

 

In the next few days I’ll get some glasses in the greenhouse so I can put the suckers in the water and see if they’ll sprout. Fingers crossed!

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June 17, 2017 · 5:08 pm

Weed Trees

We have what we call, “Weed Trees” running all the way across the edge where our ‘civilized’ back yard meets the downward slope of the valley. Each year we’re fighting them, having to cut them down to open up our view of the valley below.

Last year we paid a nice guy to come when he could – around a full-time job with the city and some 26 or so people for whom he mowed lawns – to cut them down. This year I decided I would try to do it.

Today I spent a couple of hours lopping them off and throwing them into a sloppy pile.

I started on the far left, right by our trio of large evergreen trees. You can see, if you look carefully, where the brown of the tall grass that’s left is. It took me two hours to clear this much. There are HUNDREDS of weed trees between us and our view of the valley, but I figure if I try to do some every day, I’ll make it across the yard one day…. I’ll keep taking pictures of my progress.

 

 

I also took half of the onions I harvested that have been sitting in the sun for several days on the grating of our trailer and put them out on the porch table so that Amber could feel that she was helping.  At first she wanted to EAT the onions. And then she decided that they didn’t smell that great and she just looked at me with interest from time to time.

I got one mesh bag of them cleaned up and will do the 2nd bag later or tomorrow. I’ll take pics of them, too.

Finally, I just wanted to tell you that I checked on the greenhouse after the gusty winds and the rain and it was FINE. Hooray!!!!

I hope you’re having a good Saturday, too.

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June 16, 2017 · 9:49 am

Too Darned Hot!

Dumb Photos

It’s supposed to get to 95 degrees today and the humidity is 64%. According to my heat index calculator, that’s 117 degrees F. Too darned hot!

I want to work in my new greenhouse, trying to get it organized reasonably, and I also need to cut down what we call, “Weed Trees” that line up across the back of our yard and cut off our view.  We’re going to Lunch Bunch very soon, but after that I’ll work in short spurts, coming in to enjoy the air conditioning, drink lots of water, etc.

This will be at least a 2-shampoo and shower day…

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June 15, 2017 · 2:15 pm

1st Tomato Harvest

Yesterday the first tomatoes were ripe enough to pick. I saw a couple that will be ready in a few days, too. We feel rich!

This is a wonderful time of the year for us. We LOVE going out to test the tomatoes to see if any more are ready to come in and be devoured.

We ate three of these with our dinner last night and may finish up this first harvest this evening. I guess that people who have grown up having gardens know all the veggies and fruit that homegrown tastes so much better than what you can buy at the store, but the only one I personally know about is tomatoes.

I wish you were here so I could share with you

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June 12, 2017 · 12:30 pm

“Love is the Flower…”

“Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.” – John Lennon

 

This nice bunch of lilies is almost finished for the year. It looks like a lily bouquet to me, and I love the rich color.

 

Last year, once the summer was in full swing, I sprinkled a bunch of zinnia seeds in the planters. Not many of them came up, so I was really surprised to see volunteers all around the planters and across the front yard!

 

I don’t know what this plant is, but it’s perennial and it seems to really like it in this planter.

 

Phlox and periwinkles.

 

Two colors of impatiens, plus phlox about to bloom and iris.

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.” – Georgia O’Keeffe

 

 

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June 11, 2017 · 5:26 pm

Almost Ready to Bite!

This tomato is in the 8 foot brick planter to the east of the house.

 

And these are in the “Nook” planter between the house and the porch.

They’re still too firm to pick, but in another day or two, we BITE!

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June 11, 2017 · 5:07 pm

Phlox

This is one of our newest phlox plants. I just love the color!

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June 10, 2017 · 4:25 pm

Welcome to My Greenhouse!

 

The construction of my greenhouse is finished!

We did the last of the stapling this morning. We also arranged for electricity, a thermostat to control when the exhaust fan comes on, and a people fan.

Here is Smoke checking out the greenhouse. She likes it! She went right in and got under one of the saw horses. She didn’t want to come out.

We’re deciding if we need a light or a hose later.  Right now I’m concentrating on getting all my supplies out there, getting them organized so I could actually fill a seed starter and plant something, have a place to throw things away, etc. I did take a folding chair out there today.:0)

the thermostat that controls when the exhaust fan comes on.

 

I’ll need to fill a big trash can with Mel’s Mix so I have my good planting medium out there. I bought a nice bottle for spraying the plants. It has a pump on the top and then it sprays out a nice, fine spray for starting seeds. (If I get to the point the greenhouse is full of growing plants, I’ll think about a LONG hose with a mister attachment.)

Here is a jumble of ‘stuff’ I need on one of the tables to plant seeds. I’ll organize it little by little.

 

 

A gloriously empty table!

 

Here you get the feel of the three tables, the storage underneath, and the empty corner where I’ll put a large trash can full of Mel’s Mix and other tall stuff.

I wheelbarrowed several loads of ‘stuff’ out there yesterday and will continue doing that today. I’ll use early mornings and evenings when the sun gives us a bit of a break to try to arrange my ‘stuff’ so I can actually plant some seeds for the fall garden.

I’ll be doing a LOT of reading – on

  • what temperature should be the trigger on the exhaust fan coming on
  • when to start seeds for my fall garden so that I have good plants to transplant into the raised bed garden
  • tips on using a greenhouse most effectively
  • etc

One funny ‘problem’ is that the wind blows under the door when it’s shut and causes the weed barrier to form a big bubble in the center of the floor. I’ll need to figure out a way to either pull the excess out farther under the main foundation and then put rocks on it, or I may end up putting bricks end to end right beside the foundation wood on the inside.

Now that the building is finished, I can concentrate on what I’d like to plant in the fall and when I should start the seeds. :0)

 

 

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June 9, 2017 · 10:15 am

Greenhouse Progress

 

 

 

Welcome to the greenhouse!  We have a door and an inside and outside now.  Come in!

 

This is the exhaust fan end of the building. As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done to stretch and staple the film on.  The plans we got say, essentially, ‘wad it up and staple it.”

 

This is the outside. You can see we need to gather up excess film. I plan to fold up the largest pieces to hopefully use if we need repairs.  We also need to get rid of the excess black weed barrier sheet on the exhaust fan end.

 

We cut 4×8 sheets of plywood lengthwise to make 8 x 2 foot ‘tables.’ We also cut up two of these to make the tables 12 feet long. We put 2×4 on the edges underneath to keep the tables from sagging in the middle. We put the plywood on sawhorses.

 

We’re really amazed at how sturdy everything is. It’s not all completely level, but life is never perfect. You can see the mounted exhaust fan in this picture. We’ll add some electricity to the greenhouse and a thermostat so that the fan comes on to air things out when it gets too hot inside.

 

Here you can see the opposite side table. It’s a nice “U” shaped space with storage for tall stuff in the corner and lots of place to put things underneath the tables. I’ll have a wonderful amount of space to grow seeds in their various stages until they’re planted either in the square foot garden, the tomato planters, or in the flower planters.

We worked on the film on the exhaust fan end this morning. I’ll take more pics today to show you.

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June 9, 2017 · 8:44 am

Tomato Plants

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One of my husband’s and my favorite things in the world is home grown, red, ripe, sliced tomatoes with a meal. No matter what else we try to grow, tomatoes are the main thing.

We built a raised bed, square foot garden for our other veggies (though I AM trying some grape tomatoes in two of the squares this year), but we moved our tomato plants to the east side of the house. We have a brick planter in what we call “The Nook” beside the porch at the end of the house, plus an eight foot brick planter on the east end of the house.

 

This is the 8 foot planter. We have six plants here. We planted two plants every two weeks.

 

This is “The Nook”. There are only two plants here, planted two weeks apart. As you can see, we have really large plants that are difficult to keep supported.

 

Here is a closeup  of some of our green tomatoes.

 

And here are more.

 

And HERE is the first ripening tomato! Whooopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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June 8, 2017 · 5:13 pm

State of the Garden

Here is celery I started inside by cutting off the bottom 2″ of the stalks I bought from the store, putting them in water, and then transplanting them to the garden.  I’m not getting neat ‘stalks’ like you buy at the store, but the plants look healthy. I’m not sure if I should cut off individual stalks as they grow or what. It sure is fun watching them grow, though.

 

This is a grape tomato plant. If you look carefully, you can see the yellow blossom at the top.

 

Here’s a second plant where you can see the tiny green tomatoes growing.

 

I managed to save a few romaine lettuce plants and one red leaf lettuce plant.

 

I feel like a kid at Christmas. This is a spaghetti squash grown from a seed I removed from one I had bought at the store and cooked. Isn’t it cute! :0)

I’ll try to get pics of my tomato plants to show you tomorrow.

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June 8, 2017 · 5:00 pm

Inside and Outside!

We worked HARD last night from 6 to almost 9pm, getting the film out and unrolled, each of us taking a corner and trying to get the sheet pulled over the top of the greenhouse skeleton and down to the ground on the other side. If you look carefully along the foundation wood in this picture, you can see that we split the film between the ribs of the greenhouse, stapled on a 1×2, rolled up the film, and then screwed it to the foundation wood. We did this on both sides. Thank GOODNESS we both had stools or our backs would have broken.

 

We put a few staples on the film to hold it to the exhaust fan end of the greenhouse.

 

And the door end of the greenhouse before quitting for the day.

Today we got more wood for the tables that will go inside!  We split two 4×8 sheets of plywood into two strips each. We put 2×4’s on the ground in the shop. We added one 8 foot strip of plywood, plus a shorter piece on either end, making 12 foot x 2 foot long ‘tables ‘to go inside the greenhouse. We bought sawhorses that the plywood will sit on inside the greenhouse.  We’ll make a “U” shaped group of tables, leaving one corner empty for storage of a big trash can for Mel’s mix and other stuff.

We put the ‘tables’ into the back of the truck and carefully drove around to the greenhouse. We got them off the truck and just put them on the ground beside the greenhouse because the sun was really strong. The temperature wasn’t bad and the humidity was supposedly low, but we were still broiling.

We started stretching the film on the doorway end, but didn’t last long. We’ll go back out and do as much as we can tonight. As soon as we have the doorway end finished, being able to open and close the door, we’ll probably drag the tables and sawhorses inside.

It’s coming together!

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June 8, 2017 · 1:15 pm

Onion Harvest

The last storm made all of the tops of my onions break and bend over. They looked awful, so I went ahead and harvested them. THEN – not having a clue what to do to them to get them like the ones we buy in the store, I went to my “Square Foot Gardening Book” by Mel Bartholomew to find out.

He said to find an old window screen or chicken wire fencing to put the onions on that allowed a bunch of air circulation so they could fully dry in the sun.

I didn’t have either of those things handy, but the side of our trailer had a nice grating stuff on it, so I put the onions on there. Happily, it’s not supposed to rain here until Tuesday, giving them several days to dry. Then I can store them either in net bags or a large bucket of peat moss until they’re all used up!

He also pointed out that I COULD have simply cut off the broken tops, allowing them to stay where they were in the garden to keep growing. That’s good to know for next time.

 

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June 7, 2017 · 5:57 pm

Plans

This picture doesn’t show that we finished the framework of the greenhouse, adding the exhaust fan to the doorway on the opposite end, some structural supports, etc.

Here is the opposite end of the greenhouse, showing you the exhaust fan that will be controlled by a thermostat and the support framework.

Our plans are to start putting the film on tonight at about 7pm when the sun gives us a break. We looked at the local weather website and it shows that today and tomorrow we’re having reasonable temperatures (unless you’re working in the sun as I was this morning) and reasonable winds.

We’re hoping that we can get the two sides done this evening and then we’ll tackle the ends tomorrow.

The PLAN is to unroll the large sheet, with each of us taking a corner at the front and drawing it up over the top and down to the other side. If our sheet is large enough, we should be able to put some rocks or something on one side while we work on the opposite side.

The plan is to put the edge of the film on the ground and then spread out our 19″ 1×2’s along the edge between the pvc pipe attachment places. I suggested we fold the film over the 1×2’s and put staples in-between the sticks, holding them in place. Then we can screw the rolled film and 1×2’s to the foundation boards. When the first side is finished, we’ll do the opposite side. At least, that’s the plan.

This is a big step in the greenhouse and a bit much for two old  folks, but we’ve been trying to mentally prepare during the day and will hit the ground running in about an hour and a half.

I’ll share pics of what we hopefully accomplished tomorrow.

Wish us luck?

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