Tag Archives: harvesting lettuce

May 15, 2022 · 9:54 am

Our Virtual Vacation!

ML Lewis

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.

David Kirschke-TN.gov

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.

Unknown

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.

Schwer Fittings

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.

Mother Nature – The Actuary Magazine

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)

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, vicarious enjoyment

Tagged as , , ,

May 20, 2021 · 11:57 am

Yet Another Rainy Day

Giphy

Yet another rainy day.

I just got back from my massage. I really didn’t care that today is rainy because I always feel SO much better after my wonderful massage therapist, Lynn Moody, 479-629-7601, finishes with me. Ahhhhhhh!

My main exercise since the 17th has been a series of squeegeeing, mopping, then toweling the porch floor each time the rain stops. The wind makes the rain come in and then the water sits there. I’m trying to lessen the damage as much as I can by taking care of the water as soon as possible between deluges and storms. We’re supposed to have two more days of this, and then MAYBE a 3-day-respite before the rains come back. I don’t remember our having quite this much rain before.

I will also try to harvest some lettuce if the rain will allow. We’ve been enjoying a combination of head lettuce, spinach, and buttercrunch lettuce from our garden with our dinners. :0)

I have on my to-do list today a return to my afternoon yoga practice. I’ve been so busy the last few weeks it got lost in the shuffle and my body is noticing. Hopefully, I can get in a nice session of stretching to finish off the good Lynn did with my massage this morning.

Also on the list is playing in my art room. I’ve been watching some demonstrations of acrylic pour art, plus another technique you can do with pieces of the pours that are left over. I’m a bit intimidated, to be honest, but my mouth waters as I watch what the artists are doing.

I’m trying SOME of the techniques, easing into this slowly. I’ve started a piece with my Unicorn Spit paint. I just put a coat of varnish on what I did yesterday. When that dries, I plan to paint some flowers, and then use the crackle paint on the background. Finally, I will use some metallic paint to highlight the cracks. Fingers crossed that it turns out SOMETHING like what my brain is picturing. :0) It’s such FUN to play with the colors!

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Great Companies Who Deserve Your Business, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Mother Nature, playing in my art room, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Tagged as , , , , , ,

April 17, 2019 · 1:55 pm

At Least Partial ‘Outside Day’

Southland SOD Farms

We been outside a couple of times so far today, with more to come. We’re kind of under the gun today, since strong, possibly severe storms are forecast for late tonight and into tomorrow morning.

I showed my husband my cleaner-and-better-organized greenhouse, and he showed me his cleaner-and-better-organized shop, and we each oohed and ahhhed appropriately. :0)

We just came in from a first session on getting our irrigation system for the flowers going. We have a couple of blowouts we’ll need to fix before it’ll be working correctly, but we got a start on it today.  I have a timer on our outside faucet that goes to my veggie garden set up already.

As soon as I catch my breath, I’m going to go out and gather the first lettuce harvest of the spring! We’ll enjoy some of it for our dinner tonight.

I will also do at least one session of weed-whacking. I’ll probably need to do some every day until it looks like someone cares in our yard.

We’re still hoping to find a bricklayer who will rebuild our two collapsed planters in the front yard. Fingers crossed.

I’ll take pics of the harvest and post them later.

Have a great day!

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Tagged as , , ,

November 13, 2017 · 10:50 am

Maniac Mulcher

I THINK the leaves are dry enough today that I can blow them into piles and put them through our leaf mulcher. If they aren’t, I’ll have to wait until NEXT week, since the rest of the week here is supposed to be rainy.

I just finished unhooking and gathering the extension cord we’ve been using for the greenhouse. This was a job, because we had TWO 75 foot HEAVY extension cords linked together to get from the house to the greenhouse. I THINK I have the greenhouse ready for winter now. My basic book for using a greenhouse says that I can extend my growing season in the spring by starting seeds for hardy plants, such as broccoli and cauliflower, in mid February, and most other early spring plants, such as lettuces, spinach and such at the beginning of March. Until then, things will be idle out there, though I’ll get out and try to organize for seed planting soon.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to do things like final weed whacking, clean up, mulching, pruning, etc. to get ready for winter.  I’ll also harvest lettuce from the raised bed, square foot garden. I have two kinds of lettuce, Bibb and Simpson, carrots and celery left.

Right now, we have so many leaves in the front yard, you can hardly tell there is any grass under there.

This is our mulcher.

 

We attach a 39 gallon trash bag to the bottom part (orange). We dump the leaves in the top and run the mulcher to put the mulched leaves into the bag. Then I run the bag full again, because the first time doesn’t get nearly as small as I would like. Then the bags go into the garage until I have the flower planters cleaned out, and then I’ll fill them up with the mulch we’ve made.

This time of the year, it’s all I can do to try to get everything outside done, so I’m not doing yoga or my elliptical trainer until things are under control.

I hope the weather where you are is cooperating with your plans today.

5 Comments

Filed under Arkansas, Gardening, Greenwood, Mother Nature, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Tagged as , , , , ,