Category Archives: Square Foot Gardening – Raised Beds

March 21, 2022 · 10:33 am

“Monday, Monday…”

Giphy

We’re supposed to get lots of rain today, particularly this afternoon and this evening, possibly severe. A “normal’ spring day for Arkansas.

Yesterday, since cleaning up my counter in the garage did NOT yield the garden irrigation system timer for which I was looking, we went to Yeagers and bought another one. We bought weed killer for our lawn at the same time. My husband spread that while I tackled the new timer.

I managed to program it and install it on the outside garden faucet and then hooked up the hoses in the garden. I turned on the water to test it, but the pressure was way down for some reason. We looked at the well house, since that’s where the water for the garden comes from. After a LOT of unpleasantness, my husband figured out what was wrong. He repaired a broken wire and then was able to get the pump pressure up. So we THINK we’re fixed now. I’ll check it this afternoon to see if the sprinklers in the middle of each planter box are actually sprinkling, or just dribbling as they were yesterday.

In my travels back and forth from the well house to the shop, I noticed that our tulip tree was blooming! Since our possible severe weather this evening may batter the sweet tree, I tried to get some pictures.

Since my counter in the garage is now cleaner, and –
my desk in the office is STILL clean –

today’s project will be tackling the kitchen. THAT includes a deeper cleaning of fridges, countertops, ceiling fans, wall air flow systems, and vacuuming the pantry, kitchen, dining area, utility room, and two half baths.

Mamas and the Papas – Monday, Monday – YouTube

Enjoy your day.

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March 20, 2022 · 9:08 am

1st Day of Spring 2022

Pinterest

Hooray! We did it! We made it to spring! Whoo HOOOOO!

I was beginning to give up. In Arkansas it almost never snows after my birthday on the 9th, but we broke records in temperatures and amount of snow this year AFTER my celebration of adding another year to my personal total. I couldn’t be happier that MAYBE we’re through with frozen precipitation of any kind. I’ll continue to watch the forecasts for freezing temperatures for awhile yet.

My spring garden is mostly in now. I’ll continue to see if I can find some head lettuce, and I will plant some radishes, but the main part is in now. (The scraggly-looking things you see in this photo are red onion sets)

Spinach
Leaf lettuce
Broccoli
Cauliflower
One of the planter boxes

My husband looked in the shop, but didn’t see our irrigation control timer yesterday. Today I’ll see if I can uncover my counter in the garage and find it. My counter has become the catch-all for everything – including my husband’s zero sugar soft drinks, zero sugar gallons of tea, plus my seed planting stuff, plus tools (garden and otherwise) and more. It is truly awful. At least I’m actually looking for something I need, rather than JUST having to label this a character-building exercise. It MAY keep me going on what will probably be an all day project…

In the meantime, let’s all give Spring a huge hug!

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March 19, 2022 · 10:19 am

Thoughts on a Saturday 3-19-2022

Tenor

I’m reading Life Force by Tony Robbins. One of the suggestions is that you drink half your weight (in ounces) of water daily. My eyeballs are already swimming, but I’ll work on it. (He says that coffee actually dehydrates you. Since I’m a coffee-a-holic, this is a sad thing to hear.) So I’ll try to cut back on my coffee and TRY to drink even more water.

Another is to eat a more plant-based diet. My husband tends to dig in his heels, so I just talked to him, telling him I will include more veggies in our meals. Since he told me last night he LIKED the way I cooked the broccoli, I’m encouraged that I can do more of this type thing without riots. Small, gradual changes in a good direction.

I’ll go out later to visit our new early spring garden to see how our new plants made it through the latest rain. I’m hoping that the rain was greedily slurped up and that all are feeling happy. I’m reading about growing cauliflower better, since I’ve only been minimally successful, growing very small heads before having to harvest. Fingers crossed. I’ll take some pics.

Shutterstock

I’ve been neglectful regarding saving stuff on my computer lately. SO neglectful that I actually had to refer to my NOTES on how to make a new system disk and save my data to another. I’m embarrassed, but I got it done. I’ll put it on my calendar now so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.

Norman Machine Tool

I told you that our air compressor suddenly quit working. My husband took apart the top of it, finding the part that he thought was causing the problem. He ordered what he HOPED was a replacement part, and it arrived yesterday. So when we got back from Lunch Bunch, he took it out to the shop. He spent a couple of hours, and he FIXED it! He replaced the part, put everything back together and tested it. It worked perfectly. So now we’ll be able to change our snow tires on the truck for the regular tires once we really believe we are finished with snow and ice for awhile. :0) Another wonderful thing was that he fixed the compressor for around $80. If we had had to buy a new one, a much smaller one would have cost around $450 plus tax, plus shipping. He’s a miracle worker.

Giphy

I’m starting to feel a difference in my efforts to move more. I’m feeling less creaky in my afternoon old lady yoga practices, and the working in the garden is definitely getting me moving more. I’m going to see if I can increase this as the weather improves.

Wishing you a happy Saturday.

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March 18, 2022 · 9:11 am

Ah – Rain!

Quora

It started raining last night and is still raining today.

I got my early spring garden planted, so I’m really happy about the rain, even if we drown going to Lunch Bunch today. :0)

Two days ago I got some leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower plants in my raised bed, square foot garden. Yesterday I planted to bunches of red onion sets. I don’t have the irrigation timer installed yet, so I was really glad to see we were expecting rain last night. The garden is started! I’ll probably plant some radish seeds, plus more lettuce (my husband likes me to try head lettuce) if we can find it, but basically, the early spring garden is in. (This photo shows three of the six planter boxes. I took it before I planted the onion sets.)

I’m looking forward to seeing my friends for Lunch Bunch today. It’s a big moment of ‘normal’ in a chaotic, scary world, and I treasure it, and my friends. We’ll probably stop at Real Food on the way home to see if we can find some goodies to bring home.

Since working outside isn’t in the cards today, I’ll concentrate on cleaning some of the inside. Most of what I vacuum up is dog hair. You would think Amber would be completely bald by now.

I hope that you can stay safe, warm and dry today.

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March 17, 2022 · 9:49 am

The Spring Garden Has Sprung

I had filled up our raised bed, square-foot planters with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, vermiculite, and three kinds of compost) at the end of fall. We put a square plastic bucket in the middle of each planter, then stretched a tarp over each box, using bungee cords to secure them. We had to replace the tarps about a month ago or so, since the weather and sun had pretty much disintegrated them. The purpose of this was to try NOT to have to spend several days prepping the garden before I could plant.

When I started yesterday, the tarps were completely water-laden. I pulled them off the planters and spread them beside the shop, holding them in place with bricks, to dry in the sun. I stored the plastic buckets and bungee cords in one of the trash cans and put it under one of the planters.

There were VERY few weeds in the planters, so I was able to get started with the planting almost immediately! Hooray!!!!!!

If you look carefully, you can see the wire we strung in two directions, creating the ‘squares’ for planting. I was able to get spinach, red onion sets, broccoli, leaf lettuce, and cauliflower plants in town.

I got everything planted except for the red onion sets. I’ll try to get those planted today.

I need to find the timer for our irrigation system, put new batteries in it, and hook it up to the garden faucet, and then hook up the hoses that go to the garden planters.

You can see the hose that runs down the middle of the three planters on one side of the garden. You can also see the sprinkler in the middle of each box. Both sides are set up the same way, then tied together so the whole system works as one on the timer.

I’ll try to get the red onion sets planted today. We’re due for rain late this evening-into-tomorrow, so it’ll be okay if I wait until the weekend to get the irrigation system set up.

I’ll see what other plants are available the next time we have a chance.

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March 12, 2022 · 10:39 am

Music in the Garden

beehavenacres.blogspot.com

In innate perversity, I want to start my garden today so badly I can TASTE it – in the middle of the snow we had yesterday. If the weather were beautiful, I probably wouldn’t be feeling so antsy to start it. :0)

I looked at the weather forecast for the next 10 days here in Arkansas, though, and there are NO freezes and beautiful weather ahead, so my plans to get my early spring garden going have me chomping at the bit.

I think my husband would seriously think about having me committed if I wanted to go shopping for plants today in the middle of the snow, so I’ll wait for it to melt. Maybe we can shop Monday…

I want to look for spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and as many kinds of lettuce as I can find to start. I’ll also start some radishes and sweet onions. Anything more would be gravy.

As soon as the snow melts, all I have to do this year is pull the tarps off, hook up the irrigation system, and plant.

This photo gives you an idea of how we’re set up. We have six 4’x4′ wooden boxes like this up on iron supports about my chest height. I’ve filled each one up to the top with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, Vermiculite, and as many different types of compost as I can find or create). This photo doesn’t show the wires we’ve strong across the boxes to create ‘squares’ for planting.

The idea is to alternate plantings so you get the benefits of crop rotation, disease prevention, and weed control. For example, I could plant one broccoli plant in the middle of a square, skip the adjoining squares, and then plant another. You can plant 4 spinach plants in a square, but I choose to only plant one, giving it plenty of room. The picture also doesn’t show the hose that runs down the middle of three boxes, with a sprinkler in the middle of each box, for irrigation. We connect the hoses to a timer.

There is a fence around the six planter boxes to protect the garden from deer. We have chicken wire around the bottom to discourage rabbits, etc.

We’ve also converted a couple of brick planters on the other side of the yard to square foot planters for growing tomatoes.

I’ll post pics when I get the garden started. Ooh! I can’t wait!!!!

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March 7, 2022 · 10:08 am

Thoughts on a Mild Monday 3-7-2022

QuotesGram

We came through the night – with threatened severe storms – just fine. The cold front came through and now it’s 31 degrees F. We have another chance at a ‘wintry mix’ Friday, but I’m really hoping the back of winter has been broken and that we’re moving on to spring. I’m also hopeful that Mother Nature receives the memo and acknowledges the official beginning of spring on the 20th, if not unofficially, before.

My spring garden of veggies is still only a bright spark in my mind. I’ve decided to wait out this week and see what happens Friday. I want to uncover at least some of my raised bed square foot planters and fill them with early spring plants of spinach, lettuce, and broccoli, if not more. (Ours looks much like those in this photo, except we built them up at my chest level, on metal table-like supports, so I don’t have to bend over double or get up and down from my knees.

Meanwhile, our daffodils are determined to put on bold, happy faces no matter what our weather is doing. I’ll gather some more to bring in the house today.
Free Arts

I’m definitely starting to have ideas rattling around about playing in my art room. I’ve been finding artwork all over the net that is getting my juices flowing, particularly involving mixed media stuff.

Have a safe, happy beginning to your brand, spanking-new week.

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March 5, 2022 · 11:37 am

I’m Diggin’ It!

dailymail.co.uk

I’m itching to start working in the yard, cleaning up, and planting early spring veggie plants in our square foot garden. I just walked around the yard between sessions of rain and was so excited to see more daffodils blooming here and there.

Then, as I was getting ready to come in, I saw our tulip tree has a gazillion buds plus some that are showing color!

We’ll still get more freezes before we can officially say goodbye to winter, but it really brings up my spirits to see the plants bursting forth.

I’m keeping an eye on the 10-day forecasts to see when I can get serious about looking for early spring veggie plants. All I need to do is pull off the tarps and grab my trowel! (If you’ll pardon the expression…) :0)

CAN’T WAIT!

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March 4, 2022 · 9:30 am

Fun Friday

Slonice Santi-pepadanafelting.blogspot.co.uk

I’m in awe of people who create ‘felted’ animals. SO much patience and talent involved. This elephant melts me into a puddle.

This is a happy Friday.

First, the weather, which has been so challenging lately, is truly beautiful. Our high temperature is supposed to the in the 70’s today with lots of sunshine! We JUST celebrating the last of the ice on our driveway. It’s still in the ditches along the north sides of the road to town, but it’s finally gone otherwise. I happily waved, ‘bye-bye’ to it. :0)

I immediately wanted to go get some plants, but will need to be careful to watch for freezes in the next couple of weeks if I do find plants to put in my square foot garden.

We have Lunch Bunch today. If all goes to plan, all of us except one will be there today for the first time in about 3 weeks or so. It’ll be great to catch up with our friends.

After, maybe we’ll check to see if there are early spring plants available. I’m particularly looking for lettuce, spinach, and broccoli. We’ll see.

I am actually caught up with all the pesky bookkeeping/taxes/filing etc that I truly hate. Yesterday I updated an ‘important’ spreadsheet for our son that lists information he would need in case both my husband and I croak. I was able to send him the link to it via our chat program. AND my desk is still clear!

Have a fun Friday!

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February 20, 2022 · 9:21 am

3-Star Day

zuhg Cw

I did my yoga practice to earn one star, then my husband and I took off the fragile tarps and bungee cords from the garden planters and replaced them with new tarps and cords. We also put new tarps on the cement mixer we use to mix our Mel’s Mix for the garden planters and the pile of potting soil bags we keep to replenish the brick planters around the house. With temperatures in the 60s and bright sunshine, it was the perfect day to do it – earning a second star. The third was for the scales smiling a bit at me yesterday.

We have another stellar weather day today before things deteriorate tomorrow and into the coming week. I’ll make sure to get outside and walk around the yard this afternoon to show my appreciation for the day.

_______________

I actually just came in from walking around the yard and taking a few pics to share. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to spring. As we uncovered the planters before covering them up again yesterday, I wished I could start playing in the dirt.

Here are our raised-bed square foot planter boxes. I was pleased to see only a few weeds in the Mel’s Mix of the planters. They’ll be ready to plant when the time comes. I’m having trouble waiting. :0)
These are the trash cans that hold all the ingredients of Mel’s Mix for my garden: peat moss, Vermiculite, and three different kinds of compost. You can also see a tarp over our used cement mixer. I throw all the ingredients as I measure them into the mixer, then mix and pour the contents into containers to haul over to the planter boxes to fill them up. The mixer does a great job and saves a lot of effort and time.

I also took some pics on the way back to the house from the shop and garden –

Some of our “emu” planters waiting for me to fill them up with potting soil and plant some flowers.
I’ll have to clean out this planter, but I’ll plant some colorful flowers around the feet of our ‘peacock.’
This is on one side of the top of our driveway. We have a sign in the tree saying, “Trespassers will be composted.” Our ‘watermelon’ propane tank is in the background toward the top of the picture. You can see colorful pieces of the peacock and one of the emus at the top on the right, plus our ‘crow’ shovel bird on the right, standing on the boulder.
Our “turkey” helps a ‘guard dog’ with a rifle stand guard on the opposite side of the driveway.
shovel bird that doubles as a bird feeder in one of the trio planters that are between our driveway and the front yard.

I love wandering around the yard. I had to stop myself from spending time weeding and getting ready for spring, since I wasn’t wearing a jacket and it was in the 40s out there now. I’m still hoping the weather people have it wrong and we won’t get ice Wednesday and Thursday….

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February 16, 2022 · 10:10 am

Thoughts on a Wednesday 2-16-2022

Petr Vaclavek – Dubanci.cz

We have some interesting weather here in Arkansas the next couple of days. We have a ‘wind advisory’ today – even warning about being watchful of gusts when driving! THEN we have ‘heavy downpours,’ ‘thunderstorms,’ and possible severe storms late this afternoon and overnight, a cold front moving in tomorrow, with possible FLURRIES (It’ll be in the 60’s today…). It’s ‘hold-onto-your-hat weather!

I MAY finish the infamous ‘Find-My-Desk’ project today. My husband mentioned that he saw there was a piece of furniture under the piles yesterday, but then his intelligence kicked in and he wisely shut his mouth rather than adding to his observations. :0)

Tenor

My simultaneous ‘Shut-My-Mouth-and-do-More-Yoga’ project has a good start now, though the results may not show for quite awhile.

youshouldgrow.com

A third project I’m beginning to think about is my Raised-bed, Square-foot Garden project for the spring. I’m getting out my grid paper and will start to plan what I’ll plant and where I’ll put it in the garden. This is all based on where I put things last year, so I’ll have reasonable crop rotation, and then I want to have a ‘square’ between like plants (like I don’t plant broccoli plants in adjoining squares) so cut down on any disease problems. I use up lots of grid paper as I dream, making notes on when I should start looking for plants in our local stores. I want to be ready to plant broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and spinach, for example, as soon as I can get them into the ground. I’ll group them so I can cover them each night with tarps until the weather is more cooperative, making their growing season as long as possible.

As soon as I finish at the computer, I’ll get to work on my desk again. I’ll post pics when this project is done. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

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November 23, 2021 · 11:14 am

Cycles

limestoeandmaples.blogpot.ca

We turned off our irrigation system to the yard, and the one to the garden a few weeks ago because of threatened freezes. It always makes me a bit sad because things start to wilt almost immediately when we do.

Our elephant ear plants did really well this year, giving us many hours of pleasure. They are looking quite sad right now. As soon as they are completely down, leaves brown and hanging down, I’ll cut them off as close to the soil surface as possible and lay thick layers of mulch as tightly as I can to see if they’ll over winter in place this time, as digging them up and storing them in the garage in peat moss last year was unsuccessful.

We had kind of a weird growing season this time. Our lettuce did well, giving us lots of nice salads. Our spinach was nice, too. Then things warmed up really quickly, causing all my spring garden to bolt at once. We had nice tomatoes, but due to the weather changes, they weren’t ‘pretty’ this year. Thankfully, our stomachs don’t care about that a bit! :0) This is the way we winter over our raised bed, square foot garden. I carefully weeded, then topped off the 4’x4′ wooden boxes with fresh Mel’s Mix (peat moss, vermiculite, and 3 kinds of compost (I used mushroom, barnyard, and cotton). Hopefully, I won’t have a whole lot to do to prepare the boxes for planting in the spring. I’m already itching to get the plants in as soon as they are available.

I’m going to start getting serious about pruning flower planters and readying things for winter very soon.

ebay.com

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September 21, 2021 · 9:18 am

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring…

123RF

I finished the weed whacking I wanted to do yesterday! The tomato planters are clean, the debris is gone, and I got the grass and weeds down from around the planters, under the house, under the deck, down the back sidewalk, and around the brick planter beside the garage pad. And now it’s raining, right on schedule. Hooray!

We’ll run our errands in half an hour, delighted by the rain even if we drown while we’re out. My husband will spew bad words because he’s tired of mowing for the season, but the plants are all breathing a sigh of relief.

It’s quite dark outside, looking like nighttime instead of morning, but we aren’t supposed to have severe weather, just a cold front with cooler temperatures. I’M READY! :0)

If the wind isn’t blowing a lot when we get home, I may get out my umbrella and enjoy a walk in the rain.

Enjoy your day!

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September 20, 2021 · 10:22 am

The Yard Work Continues

Agile Unfit Greatargus-Gfycat

This is the way I feel at times working in our yard. I don’t know how long it would take for things to go back to completely wild if my efforts had to stop, but I don’t think it would be long. We live on top of a ridge line and have left most of our 8 acres wild. We keep a small ‘civilized area’ at the very top, around the house and shop, with space for my square foot garden.

I will go outside soon to try to finish the latest effort – clearing out the two tomato planters and weed whacking around them, plus around the yard. Today is supposedly the last of the really hot weather here, with a cold front, rain, and cooler temperatures forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Hooraaaaaaay! I’m ready.

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September 19, 2021 · 5:40 pm

Almost Finished

Cafepress.com

I’ve just finished my third session in the yard today.

I’m trying to get the two brick tomato planters cleaned up. I’ve collected three wheelbarrow loads of greenery packed down. I’m ALMOST finished with that. I’ll try to finish that tomorrow, and then finally do the weed whacking I need to do around both planters, and then as far as I can reach under the deck.

I got overheated the first two sessions. This last one was better. The sun is starting to ease off for the day, so I’m not huffing and puffing badly this time.

I’m debating with myself about whether to just leave them for the winter, or to haul Mel’s Mix out there, filling up both planters, and then putting tarps on them. Much will depend on the weather over the next weeks.

For now, I’m glugging a big bottle of cold water, putting my feet up, and saying “Ahhhhhh!” :0)

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September 8, 2021 · 9:52 am

Thoughts on a Wednesday 9-8-2021

flickr.com

My outlook is much more upbeat today.

Since our weather is much more civilized than it has been – only 90 degrees F. today with much less humidity – I’m planning to pull out our tomato plants today. They have spread their vines all over the place, making it impossible to mow or weed whack, and have stopped producing tomatoes, so it’s more than time to get them out. Fresh ripe tomatoes are one of the joys of our lives, so it’s well worth the time and effort to put them in each year. We get spoiled from the color on our plates, the fabulous aroma, and delicious taste for two to even three months each year!

I have a lot to clean up in the yard, particularly since I’ve neglected all but the absolutely necessary with the heat we’ve had, but I’ll try to do a bit each day until things look better around here.

Toronto Star

I have never coveted money, as such, but it would be really nice to never have to worry about it. I’m happy whenever I see someone who has really been successful in this regard due to hard work and providing something people enjoy. I read awhile back that Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, one of my favorite authors, has a net worth of around $400 million. I couldn’t be happier for her and her family. She has given me so much through her writing over the years, providing entertainment, escape, and challenge. I selfishly want her to live, thrive, and write forever. :0) (I’ve preordered the paperback version of a new J.D. Robb book that will be delivered in December, and she has a newer hardback coming out in February…)

I think you already know that I’m a champion procrastinator, having given myself several awards for it over the years. (Everyone should be good at SOMETHING. :0) ) My latest procrastination is about bookkeeping. I’m TRYING to make myself catch up. I’m several months behind right now. As one of my friends, Maria, suggested about my dieting efforts – that I should break the big goal into doable chunks so it doesn’t seem to intimidating – I’m trying now to say ‘one month at a time,’ and have put the first one on my to-do-list for today, along with the removal of the tomato plants. Fingers crossed I can get it DONE.

After a lot of lightning overnight, we’re having a truly lovely day today. I will finish my blog writing and “have at” my to-do list. Have a great day!

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August 14, 2021 · 1:29 pm

FINISHED Outside Today!

The Arizona Republic

I’m sitting in the a/c under my ceiling fan glugging a bottle of water as I type this. BOY! The weather people are either nuts or lied. They SAID it would be cooler today – high only in the 80s and less humid. I’m heading up for a shower as soon as I finish this. If a weather person were here, I would bite him or her in the leg.

I decided, because of the weather report, I would grit my teeth and get a tarp on each of the six raised bed square foot planters today. Once you get started out there, you feel obligated to finish.

I didn’t find any sign of ants in the planters (thank you, EIGHT), but I DID have a bunch of them in the trash can where I stored the tarps and the bungie cords. I don’t THINK I got bitten/stung, but I hosed down the trash can and put it upside down on the ground to try to get rids of the ants and other bugs. (I may have spoken too soon. I just slapped an ANT crawling down my arm!)

It’s good that I finished this today. I can put it behind me, anticipating my next garden and dreaming of what I will plant.

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August 11, 2021 · 10:23 am

Thoughts on a Wednesday 8-11-2021

onlyinyourstate.com

Isn’t this guy beautiful? – and the photograph is awe-inspiring.

We don’t have any outside errands today, so we’ll get our mail later and consider it done. :0)

Audrey Hepburn – Katiedaisy.com

As soon as I finish this, I’m going to fill up my two-gallon spray container with EIGHT and go out to the garden to spray it in the garden boxes, murdering any bugs there. (I’m still having to treat the ONE sting/bite a fire ant gave me the other day, though my arm is finally not swollen anymore). If the heat is not yet lethal (it’s supposed to FEEL LIKE 110 this afternoon) I’ll fill my other container with KillzAll and spray the boxes for weed roots I missed while cleaning out the boxes. Fingers crossed.

Clipart

I had an idea of what I would like to make for my friends for Christmas this year! I ordered some things and received them a couple of days ago. I started work on them yesterday in the shop and will turn on the a/c while I’m out spraying so I can continue working today on them – plus a dragonfly I’m refurbishing.

agirlandagluegun.com

We’re getting to the very last of the tomatoes now. We were delighted to find these yesterday right before dark.

Have a great Wednesday.

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August 10, 2021 · 9:19 am

Keepin’ on “Keepin’ On”

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I’m keepin’ on keepin’ on regarding my efforts to lose the lard. My old body is stubborn, but I’m eating right, exercising, either going by my routine or working outside in the garden. I’m trying to drink all the water. My efforts vary, but yesterday was a 4-bottle day. Nothing exciting to report, but efforts continue.

This is my square foot garden. I finished the weeding of the six 4’x4′ foxes. The next step is to spray the soil alternative with EIGHT to kill the bugs and KILLzAll to take care of any weed roots I missed. Finally, I’ll cover the boxes with tarps to stay until the next planting time. The heat index today and tomorrow are supposed to be around 110 F., so I’ll do what I can in the mornings and then wait until the next day.

The onions are drying now. The sun, wind, and any rain will work together so I can put them in mesh bags and hang them on hooks in the pantry soon. I’ll check when we get back from doing errands to see if we have any ripe tomatoes to gather.

Not sure what the rest of the day will hold. As usual, I would appreciate a quiet day.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

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August 8, 2021 · 11:48 am

Character-Building “Exercising”

therealjackrussell.com

I’ve done two sessions so far today in my veggie garden – about an hour and a half. It’s really sunny, in the 90s and HOT out there. I’m trying to get the last of the garden boxes weeded and cleaned out. This is NOT my favorite part of gardening.

I got 4 of the boxes done yesterday. Unfortunately, of the six boxes, these last two are the worst. They were both filled not only with dead veggie plants and weeds, but also Bermuda grass. It amazes me that Bermuda can plant itself and thrive about 4 feet up from the ground, and fire ants choose to make their homes there, too.

I will try to get the last box weeded today. We’ll have lunch in about half an hour and then I’ll go back out. I don’t know if I’ll get the tarps on today or not.

My husband – (the wonderful man who (1) figured out how to make a garden where I didn’t have to get down on my hands and knees or bend over double, (2) MADE the wooden boxes and the structures to hold them up, (3) designed a system for automatic watering of the plants, AND got me a used cement mixer so I could make the Mel’s Mix more easily) – made the mistake of just now (having just gotten up from a nap) telling me how I should be doing the project and “suggesting” I cover the boxes with tarps when I finish weeding. I just looked at him, glugging water. After being married to me for over 52 years now, he realized that maybe his suggestions about how I could do the garden might be mistimed. He is now in the living room watching TV.

balconygardenweb.com

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August 7, 2021 · 10:58 am

Pat, Pat, Pat

Tenor

I’m a “Good Girl” this morning. This doesn’t happen often, so I have to pat myself on the back while telling you about it. :0)

I told you that my plan was to work in the garden this morning. Many times my plans go awry, I get distracted, my husband wants me to help him do something, or I’m just plain lazy. I have good INTENTIONS, but it just doesn’t get done.

I’ve just come back from working in the garden! I harvested as many onions as I could find and then weeded three of the six raised garden boxes. I did NOT get bitten/stung by a swarm of red ants! On the way back to the house, I spread the onions out on the trailer edge. I unhooked hoses. I am cooling off and glugging a bottle of cold water as I type.

I am substituting my work in the garden for the elliptical trainer exercise I was scheduled to do, and am putting a gold star on my calendar. I PLAN to do my yoga practice as usual this afternoon. :0)

So far, it looks like I won’t have to mix and spread Mel’s Mix. The three boxes I weeded today were fine on the amount of soil alternative.

The PLAN is to finish weeding tomorrow morning, harvesting any remaining onions. Then all I’ll need to do is cover the boxes with tarps and take down and store the irrigation control from the outdoor faucet.

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August 7, 2021 · 9:30 am

Pass the Sass, Please

izismile.com

I love this picture.

cafepress.com

I’m heading out to my square foot garden soon to pull up the sweet onions. Our weather is such that, even with our irrigation system, most of our plants have given up the ghost. This was a weird summer, much cooler and wetter for a lot of it and then super-hot and dry with sun hot enough to almost boil the plants right on the vines.

The only thing left in the garden now is the onions. My plan is to go out this morning, armed with my 2 gallon sprayer filled with EIGHT, and pull the onions. If ants start swarming, I’ll hose everything down with the EIGHT and try again tomorrow. We have an old trailer which basically sits in one spot all year round. It has a metal mesh bed that allows great drainage, so it’s a wonderful place to spread the onions so they can dry. I’m hoping to get the onions pulled up and drying today.

I’m hoping that I can get the garden boxes weeded, topped off with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, Vermiculite, and three kinds of compost), unhook the irrigation system, and then cover each of the six 4’x4′ raised boxes with a tarp to keep the soil alternative IN and the weeds OUT until I’m ready to plant again. I’ll try to show you my progress.

Please keep all appendages crossed that the fire ants don’t attack me. :0)

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August 4, 2021 · 12:40 pm

Happy Elephant Ears

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you remember that I was devastated when I tried to winter-over elephant ear plants my friend, Laufrain, had given me, but failed. I re-planted them and nothing at all happened. I finally bought some ‘bulbs’ (is that what you call them?) from an online nursery. I got six and spaced them around the yard a bit. As you can see, they seem to be happy, and I’m thrilled.

I’m especially happy because my square foot garden is over, except for harvesting onions, and our tomato plants are looking very sad. Many of our flowers have just given up in the heat, even though we have an irrigation system.

These are to the left side of our front porch. They seem to be smiling, too. They have good protection from gusty winds and blowing rain here, too.

These are on the far side of the house. They seem to be doing fine, but aren’t as large as the others.

I just love these huge leaves!

And the surprise of the day is here. We have an area around the house we have dubbed “civilized,” keeping it mowed, etc. The edge of this drops off into woods we just let grow wild. A lot of yard waste we throw “off the edge of the world” here. If you look really carefully, you can see – two batches of elephant ears! I threw the failed bulbs here and some of them have NOW made leaves! Wonders will never cease. :0)

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July 30, 2021 · 9:47 am

Garden Update 7-30-2021

The sum total of my ‘harvest’ today. With the over 100 degree F. heat, even with our irrigation system, the tomatoes are boiling right on the vines. I’m afraid we’re almost finished for the year.

I do have some tomatoes from the last harvest in the fridge. They are getting soft, though, so I’ll cut them up and freeze them for stews later on.

I told you before that I still need to harvest our sweet onions from our raised bed, square foot garden so they can start drying. “I” tend to “boil right on the vine” in this heat, too, so I’ve been putting the task off.

We’re supposed to have a cold front moving through this Sunday, so hopefully I can do this, plus start to clean up the garden for the season. Right now it looks like no one cares. :0(

On a happier note, here are the some of the elephant ear plants –

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July 28, 2021 · 10:27 am

UGH

Our mailbox decoration represents a return to our ‘normal” summer in Arkansas, rather than the cooler, rain-filled summer we’ve had this year. We’ve gotten quite spoiled, not fearing heat stroke as we mow, weedwhack, tend our flowers and square foot garden veggies.

All that ended about a week ago now. The rain stopped, the sun came out with a vengeance, raising our actual temperatures to 100 or more in the afternoons, and the heat index to surge even higher. UGH.

The only thing left in the garden now is sweet onions, weeds, and our two planters of tomatoes.

My husband managed to get the civilized part of our yard mowed, mowing right before dark one evening and then first thing in the morning the next day. I followed that with weed whacking right before dark night before last, and then finished it up last night and blew the debris off our sidewalks and driveway pad with our leaf blower. I was planning to use our push weedwhacker this morning in the area behind our shop and beside our garden, but we talked about it and decided I would really be risking heat stroke. I walk outside, with my headband on, and I’m instantly wringing wet. I think we will only do what is absolutely necessary until this “Punishment from Mother Nature” passes. We might even wait until fall…

I WILL pull the sweet onions and start drying them soon. I don’t know how much longer the tomatoes will make. Even with our irrigation system, the tomatoes are almost boiling on the vines. Happily, my elephant ear plants and phlox or doing well, even with the heat. I’ll try to get out and get pics for you.

When I get out there early enough, I’m still working on the refurbishment project of of our yard critters. Right now I’m repainting “Mama and Baby Snail.” I post a pic when they’re ready to go back outside.

Every summer I regret the fact that we ran out of money when we were building our home over 30 years ago. We managed the main house and the small shop, but we had to give up my dream of a pool. I taught swimming every summer from age 14 through college to help pay for my education. We live on top of ridge line, and had to dynamite several times to be able to have our basement, septic system, and the pool. We got the first two, but not the third. Every summer I dream of a beautiful in-ground pool. Of course, I also dream of Sven, the gorgeous pool man, coming to take care of it – and me. (If I’m going to dream, I’ll include it all… :0) )

I hope summer is being kind to you.

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July 14, 2021 · 9:56 am

Harvest 7-14-2021

etsy.cof

I made a quick trip to the east side of the house where our two tomato planters are to see if we had any ripe tomatoes. WOW!!!!! I left the ones that looked ripe, but were still firm out there. We have enough that I can share with our friends!

Two updates:

  • The experiment where I bought and planted two live lettuce plants last week was a bust. It’s just simply too hot now for them to live. There is the possibility that a plant or two could live IN the house on the window sill, but I didn’t see them the last time I was in the store. Maybe next time.
  • Yesterday I showed you a breathtaking picture of a Cerinthe Major – Pride of Gibraltar – Purple Wax Flower
  • I managed to find a place selling seed packages, so I bought two and will read more about what they need. (Here’s the link to the post if you missed it)

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July 10, 2021 · 10:30 am

Good/Bad News in the Garden

The grocery store was selling lettuce plants yesterday! I bought two, having little hope that they would do anything this time of year, since they are a cool-weather plant. One of them has already croaked :0( – but this one is still alive as of this minute. I’ll probably have to go ahead and clear out the garden for the season, since my yellow crookneck squash plants are producing lots of huge leaves by very little else. I’ll go ahead and pull everything out, unless this sweet plant is still alive. I’ll pull the onions and start drying them out. We have possibly severe storms coming in this evening-into-tomorrow, so this will wait until next week. It was a fun thing to try, though.

Meanwhile, though my tomato plants don’t look pretty, they are producing. This is what I brought in this morning. There are more to come tomorrow. This is the time of year we feel super rich. We have lots of ripe tomatoes to each for both lunch and dinner. :0)

I’ll take pics of the onions when I get them onto the trailer screen to start drying.

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July 7, 2021 · 2:02 pm

Love and Tomatoes 7-7-2021

countrydoor.com

We hit the lottery on tomatoes today!

Usually, I have the better crop from the two plants in what we call the ‘nook’ planter – a brick planter we converted to a square foot garden planter that is square and is in a niche beside our back porch and in back of the house. It is protected from a lot of the wind that whips through here and doesn’t get the unrelenting sun the other planter gets.

This year it’s the opposite. The eight foot planter – also converted to a square foot planter – getting full sun and unprotected from the wind – is giving us the better yield.

We are very grateful to have ANY tomatoes because I’ve heard from others that this is a ‘hard year’ for tomatoes. People are getting plants, but they aren’t blossoming or growing tomatoes. We have sharing one larger tomato or two smaller tomatoes as part of our dinners this past week – the first of the crop – and enjoying every bite. When I told my husband that we had hit the lottery today, he wanted to have some – RIGHT NOW.

You can’t get fresher than right off the vine and still warm from the sun. Love and tomatoes! :0)

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June 24, 2021 · 9:27 am

Thoughts on a Thursday 6-24-2021

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Our heat index this afternoon will reach the triple digits, so I’m going to get our to the shop pretty soon to continue work on refurbishing the ‘turkey’ yard art critter I started yesterday. I’m hoping he can go back out to his place at the base of a tree beside the driveway by the end of the day. I forgot to take pics of the ‘before’ on the turkey. He was basically just super dirty and desperately in need of new paint. I’ll take pics to share when he is back in place.

Did I tell you I HATE automatic Windows updates? For some reason they always cause us problems. We can’t NOT do the updates, but it’s sure a pain to deal with the havoc they generate. Yesterday it was one of our printers that suddenly won’t print plus our personal DVD computerized collection isn’t opening as it should. My husband fought with it most of the day yesterday to no avail. He wrote Microsoft and is hoping they have some help for us. He also talked to our son via a conference call, in Thailand. Hopefully, answers will come today.

Tomorrow at Lunch Bunch we’ll celebrate the birthday of one of our core members. Our friendship – going on 20 years now – is priceless.

My husband has been celebrating the lack of rain lately. He’s been praising the ‘brown and crunchy patches of grass in the yard, meaning he has to mow less. I told him to enjoy it while he could. Rain is due this weekend.

My spring garden is about to come to an end. I got what is probably the last of the yellow squash, leaving only sweet onions. I’ll probably pull the onions soon, leaving them to dry on the trailer bed and clean up the garden. On the good side, though, we had the first two ripe tomatoes of what I hope will be a wonderful season. My husband and I shared them for lunch yesterday. They were delicious. I hope we get enough that I can share them.

Every year about this time I wish we had been able to build the pool we wanted when we built the house. Since we’re on top of a ridge line, we had to do a lot of blasting to build a house amid all this rock. We blasted for the septic tank, the basement, and then blasted the whole back yard for the pool. We ran out of money before we got to the pool, though, so it never got done.

I worked every summer from the time I was 14 through college teaching swimming with my 6th grade gym teacher to make money for college. I really miss the great exercise I got. I tell myself that if we had a pool, I would go out and swim every possible night before bed. The reality of that would probably be that I would gritch and moan about having to get my exercise cleaning the pool, rather than getting to swim in it. I would have to fight for space to swim laps, having to dodge raccoons, opossums, squirrels, and other critters I don’t want to think about who thought we had built the pool for THEM…

Stay cool and safe!

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June 5, 2021 · 9:36 am

Friday’s Harvest

We had a good harvest yesterday. My spinach output is dwindling with the warmer weather and soon will be finished, so I’m getting as much as I can and freezing it so none will be wasted.

I’ve never actually done much with yellow crookneck squash before, so this is a lot of fun. I have a lot of little bitty squashes coming on. I decided that the ones above were large enough to harvest. I have a spiralizer tool that will make them nice for sauteing this evening to serve with some pork chops. :0)

It looks like I might have a good sweet onion crop this year. I won’t actually know until much later, but things look good right now. I also have some celery that I grew from cutting off the bottoms of celery I bought at the store. The stalks are ‘spread out’ rather than like the ones you see at the store in the tight groups, but they taste fine, so I’ll take them.

We have small green tomatoes and lots of blossoms on our tomato plants. We have two brick planters that we converted to square foot garden planters. I’m hopeful we’ll have lots of ripe tomatoes to slice and enjoy soon.

I need to do some weeding, but it’s getting dark outside, looking like it’s going to storm. Maybe I can get something done between raindrops…

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May 30, 2021 · 9:23 am

Aging

callahanwriter.com

Yesterday I made good use of the beautiful day, working outside much of it.

I harvested the last of the lettuce and some of our spinach. I pulled out bolted lettuce plants and cabbage that had been attacked by various bugs. I cut off dead or sick leaves from the yellow squash plants. The only thing remaining is to do a bunch of weeding, and then the garden will be in pretty good shape. I brought the harvested veggies inside, cleaned and stored them.

Then I tackled something I have been putting off for over a year (Have I told you that I have awards for procrastination?) – taking the remains of our greenhouse down.

We built our greenhouse 3 or 4 years ago. I wanted to extend our growing season by starting seeds. I had visions of over-wintering plants out there, and more. We built it from some plans we found on the net.

Sad to say, the greenhouse was a disappointment. We learned that, unless we were able to heat and air condition the greenhouse, it was too hot or too cold much of the year, no matter how many things we came up with to try. We couldn’t afford to heat and air condition, so my efforts out there were quite limited. Several storms came in succession last year and completely battered it. I cleaned out anything salvageable, and then we tried to ignore the remains.

Yesterday I started using a knife to cut off the remaining torn plastic. Then I got our Makita with the idea of unscrewing the holders that hold the pvc pipe ribs to the base. At that point, my husband came out. We got the pvc pipe structure free. I finished gathering the plastic in a leaf bag, and hauled a bunch of wood from one of the doors around to the place where we collect things we’ll take to the community clean up next time.

Today I’ll weed whack, since my husband got the yard mowed yesterday and it’s supposed to rain this evening. Then I’ll tackle more of the taking-down-the-greenhouse project.

I’m looking forward to our cooking burgers on the grill tonight as a reward for seizing the day. If it’s like yesterday, I’ll feel like a busted can of biscuits again this evening. :0)

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