In a nutshell, the zucchini seems to be doing all right, and the onions are fine. The lettuce hasn’t bolted yet, but will soon. Everything else must go. I just came in from spending an hour pulling out plants and weeding. I harvested one lettuce plant and pulled the rest out. I have about half of the garden done now. I’m resting and drinking lots of water. I plan to go out and hopefully finish with another hour or so after lunch.
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Yesterday I got the tomato plants pruned, tied up, weeded, fed, and watered. The plants had really grown. I THINK I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. I watch the video over and over, trying to be sure I’m following his directions carefully. Some of the pruning is simply FEEL, when things are becoming too dense between two plants. I noticed two small green tomatoes while I was working yesterday. Fingers crossed.
This morning I’ll go out and see what’s happening with my sadly neglected garden. It’s certainly gotten enough, if not TOO much, water, with our automatic irrigating plus all the rain. I really don’t know what I’ll find. The last time I was out there, before the week of rain, I staked my zucchini plants for the first time ever. Usually they grow all over the elevated square boxes we use for the garden, spilling over the sides and hanging down to the ground, smothering anything else in the box. Since they are a warm weather plant, it isn’t really a problem, but the idea of staking them, like tomato plants, was completely new to me.
I’m hoping that this is the way my plants will look as the zucchini grow. The directions said to prune everything beneath the lowest zucchini on each plant, cleaning things out so the plant could get lots of oxygen. I’ll try to get some pics, assuming I have anything out there alive after a week of not being out there. I don’t know whether my lettuce has bolted in the heat, etc. I’ll head out there as soon as I finish here and see what I can do.
Have a wonderful Saturday. I hope you’ll have a great Memorial Day weekend with the ones you love.
“I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Here is that rainbow I’ve been praying for
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day” ~ Jimmy Cliff
I can’t believe we’re having such a beautiful day. I had almost forgotten what it looked like when the sun was shining! It’s supposed to get into the 70s with low humidity this afternoon with lots of sunshine. What could be better?
I’m hoping to spend several sessions outside when we return from seeing our friends at Lunch Bunch. I want to take my time pruning my tomatoes, giving them tomato food, spraying blossoms, re-anchoring the plants to the supports, etc. When I feel I’ve done all I can do for them, I’ll turn my attention to the garden I’ve been neglecting since the rains started. It it isn’t too wet, my husband will try to mow this afternoon.
We can probably open the front and back doors in the house to get a nice breeze throughout, too. Ahhhh!
Yesterday I finally made some progress in ‘getting a handle on’ how I can make the Mediterranean eating plan work for us. (This is complicated because my husband rarely meets a veggie he likes or will even consider eating.)
Yesterday we had a huge fight-with-technology trying to get a Mediterranean cookbook downloaded onto my Kindle. I hardly ever use it, preferring to hold real, treasured books in my hands, but cookbooks are a different ilk, as far as I’m concerned. There are usually only a few recipes I’ll actually cook in each, so I can download a cook book, use what I like, then decide if I actually want to add it to my collection or delete the book from my Kindle and try another.
Making a long story much shorter, we had to DE-register my Kindle because it was listed under my old email address, then RE-register it under my current email address. THEN call for technical help on getting ads off, THEN fight to get rid of ‘freebies’ I didn’t want. I was able to finally get the cookbook and read it last night. As usual, it focused on eggplant, kale, couscous, tofu, Brussells sprouts, cauliflower, chickpeas, etc. Even after more than 50 years of marriage, I know my husband would leave if I tried to cook these things for dinner.
I thought about it a lot, and finally came up with ‘doing my own thing,’ incorporating as many veggies as possible, concentrating on those to which my husband doesn’t object, and flavoring with meats he likes. That means veggie casseroles with chicken or beef or pork ‘flavoring.’ It also can mean stews of various kinds. And fruit as part of our meals and as snacks.
If I cook these, making enough for more than one meal and freezing the leftovers into individual servings for the freezer, I can have lots of meals both of us like, increasing the veggies and fruit I want in my diet and not causing a revolt-among-the-masses. I can also try the recipes that sound reasonable. If my husband doesn’t care for them, I can freeze any leftovers for ME to eat later when my husband is having a Lean Cuisine, Real Food, or Stu’s frozen meal on busy days. Not a complete plan, by any means, but a workable start.
I’m feeling better every day now, with my digestion getting back to normal. I’m now taking my thyroid medicine first thing, eating a small breakfast an hour or so later, then taking the rest of my meds with lunch. This is workable for me. :0)
It’s still rainy here, so the guy bringing us a truckload of chat for the driveway hasn’t called or come. Neither has the plumber, whose work will be outside in the well house. If we can go to town between showers, we’ll get another timer to join the one we just installed in the well house, to be ready when the plumber does his thing.
Meanwhile, my husband actually NOTICED that I had been working in the pantry yesterday! I’m making my way through the food side of the pantry, getting rid of a lot of stuff, cleaning, and then re-organizing. I may finish the main part by the end of the day today. It feels good to be getting things easily accessible, plus smelling the ‘clean.’
If it ever stops raining, I’ll need to get out to my tomato plants and my garden to catch up there…
I hope you’re having a wonderful Wednesday.
Happy Friday!
Sad to say we’re not having Lunch Bunch today. Everyone is under the weather – except for my husband and me – so hopefully everyone will feel better soon and we’ll see each other NEXT Friday.
This is probably the last beach photo this trip from our virtual vacation with my SIL. She’s spending the last day on the beach searching for shark teeth and enjoying perfect weather there. I’m so glad she gets to do this with her friends each year. AND I’m delighted that we get to share the ‘calm’ and beauty with her vicariously. :0)
Yesterday I got out and pruned and staked my 4 zucchini plants. If it isn’t a good thing, it’s not a problem. My husband won’t eat zucchini anyway. If it’s successful, I’ll be a very happy planter. :0)
And here are some of the tomato plants on the other side of the house.
I’m getting spoiled enjoying a gorgeous photo of the beach every morning. My SIL hasn’t kissed a sandpiper for me yet, but I’m still hoping. She says it’s cloudy there this morning and they may get some rain. What a lovely thought – walking on the beach in the rain…..
Back in the ‘real world’ in Arkansas, we’re having “spotty showers” this morning and 90’s this afternoon. I’m hoping that I can get out to my garden this morning in a bit and see if I can figure out how to prop up my zucchini plants and prune them.
My husband got frustrated with the yard irrigation system controller yesterday. I told him I would tackle it this morning and just came in from trying to do just that. I reset the whole system, which thought it was January of 2007… Hopefully, I have it reset now, but we won’t really know until this evening, when Station 1 should start watering at 7pm and Station 2 at 7:10. Fingers crossed.
We go to the doc’s office this afternoon. I had Graves Disease years ago and had my thyroid radiated. I’ve taken a medication since then that simulates thyroid hormone. When my levels go wonky, I’m in pretty bad trouble. The thyroid controls a LOT of what goes on in your body. Usually, I go along on the same dosage for years, sometimes, with no problems. My test results showed my thyroid levels are, indeed, wonky now. What I thought was diet-related is probably due to this. I have other symptoms, too, that I haven’t had in a long time. I’ll find out today what my doc thinks is best. Help is on the way. :0)
I hope that you’re having a pleasant Thursday. If not, keep gazing at the gorgeous photo of the beach above, That’ll make it better.
The two pics above show the staking of my tomato plants in the two brick planters we converted to square foot planters several years ago.
I found a nice video https://youtu.be/q4IUhZMA9O0 on pruning tomato plants for maximum yield. After finally overcoming intimidation by the whole idea, I’m doing this, for better or worse, though my husband may plant ME in the back yard if I kill our chance for lovely ripe tomatoes this year. I changed to using only single stakes, giving me the most access to the plants as they grow. I’m planning to check them once a week to see what they need.
Yesterday I learned I should be staking my zucchini plants, as well! https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/youve-been-growing-your-zucchini-all-wrong/ I will have to get a bit creative to do this because my raised-bed, square-foot-garden planters are up off the ground (chest high) and are only 8 inches deep.
I’m much less intimidated by the idea of pruning my zucchini plants than my tomatoes. My husband won’t each zucchini. I grow them for the fun, and also because I like to make and eat ‘zoodles’ (fake noodles made from spiralized zucchini.)
Zoodles allow me to eat low carb spaghetti sauce, low carb alfredo sauce, etc., without feeling guilty.
The only one who will be disappointed if my efforts don’t work here is me, so the pressure is off. :0)
I’ll try to get pics of the four plants after I figure out how to stake them up a bit and get them pruned.
These don’t need staking, but I just wanted to share my delight that my cauliflower plants are still alive and the heads are growing. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to allow them to grow, but I’m like a kid at Christmas. :0)
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Aren’t we lucky to have another day on the beach? I particularly like it that I can truly enjoy the sunrise at a time more ‘civilized’ for ME, rather than when it actually happens. :0)
We’re having a nice day here in Arkansas, too. I’m planning to spend several short sessions in the garden and the yard today, since Mother Nature seems to have her head back on straight again. I learned yesterday – much to my amazement – that I’m supposed to be staking my zucchini plants! I guess I never thought about it. I read that each plant has only one stem, though the plant will grow all over the place over time. It actually does better – AND produces more zucchini, if you give the main stem a lot more oxygen, cutting away the excess leaves. Who knew! My garden boxes are only 8 inches deep, so ‘staking’ them will be a trick, but I certainly can prune the plants and prop up parts of the plants to give the stems a lot more air and space. I’ll figure out what I can do as I go. https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/youve-been-growing-your-zucchini-all-wrong/
I’m also going to try to lop off the big branches sticking out from our trio of brick planters between our front yard and the driveway that are making it next to impossible for my husband to mow close to them. Short sessions with lots of rest and water in-between.
We see our primary doc tomorrow afternoon for our routine six-month-monitoring. This coincides nicely with getting help for the digestive problem I’ve been having lately. We had blood work done. The TSH test (one of the thyroid tests I get) has gone completely bonkers – WAAAY high. I’m suspicious, now that I look at other symptoms, that this may be the reason for my problems. I’ll find out what she thinks tomorrow. Help is on the way! :0)
We start our day at the beach and spend much of the garden outside in a beautiful day, playing with plants. What more could we ask?
Wonderful Wednesday. Enjoy yours.
I’ve done two sessions on trying to prune my tomato plants and anchoring them to the supports. I’ll do a third, and hopefully, last session in a few minutes. I’ll also sprinkle them with tomato food and they’ll get watered automatically by our repaired yard irrigation system tonight.
I was really intimidated by the idea of pruning my tomatoes. Sliced ripe tomatoes are one of our very favorite things in the world. We look forward to planting and harvesting tomatoes every year. I have always just staked them, fed them, and then let the plants do what they want. We end up with a ‘mess,’ each year, with the vines climbing all over everything, making it impossible for my husband to mow near them and almost impossible for me to reach in and grab ripe tomatoes by the end of the season.
This year I was determined to try to learn to prune the tomatoes. I found a video on pruning tomatoes to increase yields that sounded good. The guy on the video seems understanding, patient, and knew what he was doing.
The first thing he talked about was ‘determinate’ vs ‘indeterminate’ tomato plants. I didn’t realize there were two types of plants, so I was already intimidated. I finally decided that I was dealing with ‘IN-determinate plants, since mine just kept growing, spilling all over the place until they froze at the end of the season.
I’ve watched the video over and over, because it scared me to death to even THINK about cutting off parts of the plants (other than dead stuff or broken branches.) I was (and still AM, to be honest) worried that something I do will cause the plants NOT to produce, but I’m determined to do it this year.
The first time I looked at the plants, before I was sick for about a week, I chickened out. Yesterday, I did two short sessions. Amazingly, I SAW the suckers! I carefully pruned those, plus cleaned up the remaining plants a bit in the smaller, square ‘niche’ planter beside the house. I got the plants tied up, anchored to the supports nicely.
I pruned one plant in the other planter before the wind started to threaten to pull me off my stool. I’ll go out to finish up, but – IF this works, I’ll be the happiest lady on the planet! There won’t be anything in particular to show you at this point, but I’m feeling really hopeful that I can encourage more TOMATOES rather than so many rope-y, messy vines this season.
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Actually, I’m going out to see what I can do on pruning tomato plants while the sky is a bit overcast. Wish me luck?
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This is the first lettuce harvest of the day. I just washed it and put it into gallon bags to give to our friends, Kay, Linda, Patty, and Michael this week.
There is a LOT more to harvest, but it’s not actually trying to bolt YET, so I’m thinking about spreading out the harvests as much as I can, watching the progress of the plants carefully.
It’s almost time for lunch, so I’m thinking about switching to pruning tomatoes after lunch, rather than doing a second harvest of lettuce today.
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Thanks to my generous sister-in-law, we can all join her on a virtual vacation to the beach this week!
Each year she and some friends meet and share a rented place for a week. They do some things together, plus give each other lots of space to do whatever each of them wants and needs to do. A GREAT get-away for all of them. Fortunately for us, she doesn’t mind if we also enjoy some of the views with her.
The weather is perfect for our first day at the beach. I have asked her to be on the lookout for sandpipers while she’s there. They are the only bird that makes me laugh aloud when I see them skittering across the sand on their long, long legs. I could watch them for hours.
Back to reality here in Arkansas, I’ll be trying to get a lot of lettuce harvested today, since the wonky heat wave this past week or so has my garden acting like it’s mid summer, with the early spring, cool weather veggies all trying to bolt. I’ve harvested broccoli and spinach so far, leaving what I can, in case the weather cools enough for further growth. I’m trying to do several sessions in the veggie garden this weekend and then tackle the job of pruning and anchoring my tomato plants.
Yesterday we got the majority of the irrigation system for the yard working. This is particularly good because the flowers I planted on the deck, plus the two brick tomato planters are on this system. My husband found a metal “Y” hookup on the system that had a HOLE in it, spewing water everywhere. It’s hard to believe that could happen, but he replaced it.
Of COURSE, since we got the irrigation system repaired, we’re due for some storms this afternoon and evening. Mother Nature has a snide sense of humor.
I hope that you have a nice Sunday. Come back and look at the gorgeous photo of the beach if you need your spirits lifted. :0)
I took a picture of each of the teeny, tiny (about 2 inches in diameter) cauliflower heads in the garden. This is the best I’ve done on this veggie. Usually ‘something’ happens and I fail to even start a head. I’m hopeful that these will get a bit larger before I have to harvest them. Fingers crossed.
To show how deceptive photography can be, this head is only about 2 inches across. But it’s PRETTY, isn’t it? There are 3 others almost identical to it in my garden right now.
If it’ll cool off a bit (or I can cool down enough) I’ll go back out and start harvesting lettuce.
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I just finished cutting up the broccoli and putting it into freezer bags. I’m not sure what to expect on the remaining plants. Sometimes they will sprout ‘side shoots’ with a bit more broccoli, so I’m leaving them in for now.
Later I’ll go harvest as much spinach as I can. I’ll keep going out, harvesting, and processing the early spring plants until the job is finished, hopefully, by the end of the weekend.
One nice surprise – I have several little bitty heads of cauliflower that are still looking good at the moment! When I told my husband, he looked at me with a bland look on his face, saying, “Oh, GOOD.” (He doesn’t like cauliflower. :0) )
We’ll have lunch and I’ll rest a bit before going to get the spinach.
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After a week or so of not being able to work in the garden, things are pretty out of hand. My tomato plants are looking healthy, but I’ll need to get serious about pruning this week. I’ll concentrate on trying to be outside early in the morning, or before dark in the evening, or both, until I get things under control. I’ll try to carefully prune, then anchor the plants to the supports.
The veggie garden has exploded. The onion stalks are now over a foot tall. The zucchini plants are huge and blossoming. The record heat has almost done-in the broccoli before it really had a chance to get started. It’s starting to bolt, so I’ll harvest what I can today. Weeds are rampant. The lettuce leaves are huge.
I’ll be doing a lot of careful harvesting this weekend, one thing at a time, between rain storms. You would THINK with all this rain the temperature would be cooler, rather than like a sauna…
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I’m about to walk out to our garden, and then to the other end of our yard where I planted our tomato plants. I may just LOOK this morning, rather than DOING much. I’ve been a bit under the weather lately, so I’ve been trying to concentrate on recovering, resting, and getting my strength back. I’m feeling ornery so far this morning – :0) – so that’s a very good sign. We’ve been having record-breaking heat here, so I’ll pay close attention to the time outside.
I’m even feeling like cooking! I KNOW!!! I’m going to experiment with a stir-fry type of dish with hamburger plus lots of good veggies. My friend Susy also sent me a group of Mediterranean recipes this morning, so I’ll take a look at those, as well. It feels GOOD to be feeling better!
Heading outside now. Talk with you again soon.
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“Scattered to isolated downpours will continue through our Thursday.” – our weather website says. It’s quite dark and rainy outside right now. A GREAT day to stay inside, warm and dry. :0)
Today I’ll concentrate on more ‘recognized’ forms of exercise, since yesterday morning was spent helping my husband change from snow to regular tires on the truck and the only other exercise was yoga. I’ll try to do better today, getting in all my online exercises, plus elliptical and yoga during the day.
I’ll also catch up on cleaning a bit, since the hairballs from Amber are starting to reach out and grab our ankles as we walk by. Hopefully, I can do all the 1st floor tiled areas, and then get the carpeted stuff, too.
No cooking tonight – main meal salad.
I did watch the tomato pruning video again yesterday and went out to see what was what on my plants. I was very conservative, mainly cleaning up the branches that were touching the dirt. I’ll tie the plants to their supports probably this weekend. So far, so good. I didn’t see any clear suckers yet, so I left things alone for now.
I hope you can stay safe, warm, dry, and happy.
Well, I just came inside from ‘pruning’ my tomato plants.
I’m a chicken. I DID get rid of any stems and leaves touching the ground or looking less than stellar. I DID identify the main stem of each plant, noting the ‘sun leaves,’ ‘main stem,’ ‘a couple of flowers,’ or where it looked like they would come out.
My plants are still quite small. We’ve had a LOT of rain and wind, and relatively little sunshine since I planted them. The temperatures are supposed to warm up this weekend, particularly on Mother’s Day, but this will be the first real tomato weather we’ve had.
I’m chicken about pruning something I can’t be SURE is a ‘sucker.’
How do you identify a tomato sucker? (we ask)
“The short answer to this is a tomato sucker is a smallish shoot that grows out of the joint where a branch on the tomato plant meets a stem. These small shoots will grow into a full sized branch if left alone, which results in a bushier, more sprawling tomato plant.” – http://www.gardeningknowhow.com Jul 23, 2021
I will check them again next week with an eye to identifying suckers. If I can be SURE I have one, I’ll hold my breath and cut it. If not, I’ll continue to watch.
I may need to tie the sweet plants to their supports next week, too.
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I didn’t realize when I told you earlier I planned to spend time outside today, working in my veggie garden and pruning my tomatoes, that the veggie garden by itself would need so much attention.
About 1:15 I went out again. The sun is quite strong and it feels hot when you’re working. I got two of the six 4’x4′ wooden planter boxes weeded before I needed to come in to rest and drink some water. It’ll probably take me two more half-hour-or-so sessions to finish the weeding. The tomatoes will have to wait until tomorrow, or the next time Mother Nature is in a cooperative mood.
In the foreground of the picture above, the zucchini plants are thriving.
I’m going to rest for while, cool off, and drink water like a camel before going out for another session.
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I’m delighted to welcome the month of May this year. I’m hoping that by mid month, our weather will have calmed down. Today our weather here in Arkansas is stellar. Sunshine-y with a high of 82 and lower humidity today. Wheeeeeeee! I have a lot I’d like to do outside. I’m not sure what I’ll tackle first. Maybe, since the Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be stormy, I’ll check the veggie garden first, weeding and harvesting, and then try to get started with my new “pruning-the-tomato-plants experiment.”
My official ‘monthly report’ on my efforts to lose the lard and get stronger and healthier is –
I hope that May will be a wonderful month for us all.
Enjoy!
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Yesterday I dashed out between rain storms to gather our first harvest of the year from our raised bed, square-foot-garden. I harvest just part of the leaf lettuce that’s ready. I’ll harvest more so I can share some with our friends this week.
This is the first of the spinach. I hope to have a large enough harvest that I can serve some in salads, saute some as a side for dinners, AND freeze a bunch for later. Greedy, aren’t I! :0)
I’ll check on the garden, plus our two planters of tomatoes tomorrow. I’m feeling a little bit under the weather today, so I’m taking it easy and resting a lot.
I hope to harvest more lettuce, plus watch the video of how to prune my tomato plants for more yield and less greenery this year, then go out and see if I emulate the video..
The rain finally stopped and the sun is shining brightly today.
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I just came in from spending an hour out in my veggie garden, weeding.
This was an almost-perfect time to weed. It’s sunny and pretty outside. It’s 83 – a good temperature, but the direct sun made it seem really hot. The Mel’s Mix in the planter boxes was slightly damp. The weeds were plentiful, but very tender and young and easily to root out quickly. I basically used my veggie garden fork and my baby hand-held hoe.
It took me a little longer than I figured to do the weeding. I was grateful that our automatic watering system didn’t come on when it should have, as I needed the extra time to finish weeding the boxes.
I checked the watering system on the way back to the house. It was flashing. I guess a power glitch caused it to go wonky. I was too hot and tired to do more than a cursory reset. It didn’t work, so I’ll get out the manual and see if I can get it straightened out when I’ve had a chance to rest, get my breath back, and hydrate.
My veggies are looking good. I’ll start harvesting the outer leaves of the spinach and leaf lettuce next week. I’ll try to get some pics later to share.
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We have two tomato planters. We converted two brick planters on the opposite side of the house from the garden to square-foot-garden planters, though I used bags of potting soil to top them off this year. The one in the picture above we call the “niche” planter, since it’s tucked in beside the back porch and is shielded by the house.
This is an 8-foot brick planter east of the house. It’s more ‘out-in-the-open,’ much more subject to wind and gets more sun that the niche planter. Sometimes all of the plants do equally well. Sometimes the plants in one planter or the other do better in a given season. I’ve planted 8 plants in this long planter and 4 in the niche planter this year.
I found a good video on pruning tomato plants to increase yield. Usually I just leave our plants and they end up with vines all over the place – an unmanageable ‘mess’ with treasures here and there throughout. I would like to learn to prune the plants so we have plenty of greenery, but they don’t get out of hand. The video I found is “How to Prune Tomatoes for Maximum Yield and Plant Health” by Epic Gardening on YouTube. So far, I’ve learned that the type of tomato plants we grow are “indeterminate,” meaning that they continue to grow until Mother Nature kills the plants.
I’ll watch it over and over again before I actually try to prune the plants, and then I’ll take my time to sit beside each plant and really study it in a way I’ve never done before. Fingers crossed it’s a successful experiment.
They’re getting a good watering with the rain we’ve gotten overnight and today.
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It’s too rainy to be out working in the garden or the yard today, but –
“Save a boyfriend for a rainy day – and another, in case it doesn’t rain.” ~ Mae West
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I’m having a busy day and about half of it is already gone!
The sun came out about 10:30 this morning and the rain stopped (for awhile) so I went out and uncovered my veggie plants. They seem to have come through the trauma of the storms, hail, and heavy, wet sheets fine. I wheel-barrowed the wet sheets back to the house and am washing and drying them, 2 at a time. One more load to go in the washer. Then I’ll fold and put them in the trash bag and take them out to the shop for next time.
I just took a new (double) recipe for “Tender and Fluffy Keto Almond Flour Biscuits” out of the oven to serve with dinner later. The recipe is from Healthy Recipes Blog. The author is Vered DeLeeuw. They are gluten free. The serving size is 2 biscuits, but I’m going to try to be happy with one. My husband will weigh in, also. I’ll check out more of the recipes there. Next up will be a recipe for low carb bagels from my friend, Susy.
I’m about to start my exercising for the day – 3 short exercise videos and yoga.
Hope you’re having a nice Saturday.
I checked the weather website yesterday evening right before dark to find that, not only were we supposed to get rain after sunset, but HAIL. I went out and clothes-pinned sheets over my veggie planter boxes to protect my sweet, young veggies as much as I could.
It DID storm overnight and we’re still under a ‘thunderstorm and hail’ forecast this morning. It’s raining and very dark outside now, though the thunder and lightning are so noticeable. It looks like the sheets won’t come off until at least lunch time. I hope the plants don’t get squashed by the weight of the wet sheets!
Here was what 3 of the 6 garden boxes looked like last night –
I just learned we’re supposed to have a freeze tonight. UGH. I’m hard-headed, so after Lunch Bunch, I’m going to check for head lettuce and zucchini plants to put in the garden, anyway. When we get home, if I’m successful finding them, I’ll plant them, weed the raised garden boxes, and then cover them with sheets tonight.
I’m getting to the end of WEEK 2 on my eating low-carb and ‘moving-more’ efforts. I’m gradually changing my eating habits, relying on MyFitnessPal.com to plan what I’ll eat for the day to make sure I’m under my calorie and carb limits.
Though I told my husband he can eat what he wants (within reason, since he’s Type II diabetic), he says, “I’ll eat what you eat.” So today at Lunch Bunch, instead of the breaded, fried chicken tenders with honey mustard we have been eating forever, we’ll have a hamburger patty, side salad with blue cheese dressing on the side. Tomorrow I’m making low carb spaghetti. I’ll fix macaroni for my husband and Zucchini ‘noodles’ for me (Zoodles). Please see pic above.
I’m also doing well on my ‘moving-more’ efforts. I’m doing my yoga stretches every afternoon after my other strenuous activities are finished. I’m doing weights exercises with a video for seniors I found online. (I also found several other videos he has done, and hope to incorporate them into my day soon.) Finally, I’m working outside every day the weather is cooperative. Today, for example, when we’re back from Lunch Bunch and errands today, I’ll use the wheelbarrow to move four or five 40-lb bags of potting soil out to the tomato planters I weeded yesterday, prepping them for the coming tomato plants. I’m going to try to find zucchini and head lettuce plants while we’re out today. I’ll plant what I can find, then weed the planters, then plan to cover them up tonight to protect them as much as possible from the freeze.
I wish I could show you a pic of my friends at Lunch Bunch, but I’m respecting their wishes and their privacy. Today is a special Lunch Bunch. It’s our waitress’s birthday, so we’re bringing her gifts to celebrate. She’ll be surprised, and she’ll be reminded how special she is.
Enjoy your Friday.
I’ve only had to cover up my veggie plants once for a freeze since I put the plants in the ground, and for that I’m thankful. I’m watching the weather forecasts like a hawk, but so far, things are going well.
Next up, I plan to put in radishes, bell pepper, and celery.
Today’s plan is to start prepping the two brick planters on the far side of the house that we converted to square foot garden planters, preparing to add some tomato plants, probably next week, depending on the weather. I need to get the weeds out, and then add a bunch of Mel’s Mix (a mixture of peat moss, Vermiculite, and at least 3 different types of compost) to each of the planters. Who knows where this stuff GOES?
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I just came in from working in the garden a bit. I strung pink neon-colored stretchy surveyor’s tape all the way around the garden, working it through the fence in spots so that the deer will ‘see’ there is something weird there in the dark and hopefully won’t run into the fence.
Then I mixed up our two-gallon sprayer with KillzAll and sprayed it under the planter boxes in the veggie garden. My back started yelling, so I’m listening to it and taking a break for awhile. Later I’ll mix up another container full and hopefully finish the job.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I just checked my veggie garden and things seem to be going really well at this point. I could actually start harvesting some lettuce leaves, but I think I’ll let them go awhile longer.
You can see spinach, red onion sprouts, leaf lettuce, and one broccoli or cauliflower plant in this box.
broccoli and lettuce
Spinach, red onions, broccoli and cauliflower
This afternoon, I’ll mix up several two-gallon containers of KillzAll. I’ll spray some under the planter boxes and around my garden, and then move on from there – as many containers as I can during the afternoon.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
In my travels around the yard, I went out to check my early spring raised-bed square foot garden. So far, the plants seem very happy.
“It was such a pleasure to sink one’s hands into the warm earth, to feel at one’s fingertips the possibilities of the new season.” ~ Kate Morton
I’m thankful for a warm, dry home this morning. I really got chilled on my walk, but my spirits are definitely lifted now.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
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