Yesteday was TOO low key! I ended up messing up the kitchen terribly, so that will have to be on the to-do list today. Also, putting my suitcases up in the attic has proven to be difficult. I have some kind of block about it. So I'll make sure to do that first thing.

I harvested 16 heads of garlic yesterday. YAY! I have them set up on a table with a fan blowing over them to cure them as best as possible. Last year I bought two heads from the farmer's market with the express purpose of using them for seed, but they went bad.

My garden in general though is sad sad sad. It's basically 95% weeds with a few scraggly tomato plants that I haven't even tied up yet. This is partially because I'm overwhelmed with it, partially because I have had a hard time motivating, and partially because I screwed up my back about a month ago.

So on to today's to-do list:

• Put suitcases up in attic.
• Clean kitchen: load dishes, do dishes, clean counters, clear off table.
• Make at least one pass through the den, with the express purpose of putting things away that already have a place. I'm going to feel free to leave the things that I don't know where they go.
• Renew library materials or return them.
••••Find something with interpersonal interaction to do today!••••

Soooooo

I think Facebook has killed this blog.

Planted four 30' rows of peas for the community market garden. Planted two 8' rows in my plot.
Was supposed to start my tomatoes, peppers, etc. this weekend, but haven't gotten off of my ass to do so.

Um, was in the paper again.

Uh.....have nothing else to report.

Stewie picked a peck of...

We've had a couple of frosty nights, and at least one hard freeze already. Look what I had to rescue today. I had bad luck with peppers last year, so this is really a haul! Of course I wish I could have left these on the plant to all ripen, but I'm certainly glad that I got them at all. Yay!

Projects on my mind

I have a neat idea, and I'd like some technical support, please.

Psuedo Greenhouse.

There's a nice porch on my house that runs the entire width of the front (See Photo). We don't use much of it, and I'd love to section off maybe 1/4 of it, on the south side, and make it into a very very low-tech greenhouse. The south side of the house runs roughly parallel with the driveway. So what we're talking about here is the area from the garbage can over to halfway between the first two iron pillars from the right.

I'm thinking right now that I could just attach vinyl sheeting from the overhang to the floor alongside the south and west edges (using a staple gun, maybe?), and then put up a tension rod and a heavy duty shower curtain. If I use a tension rod and shower curtain method, it would allow easy access via the porch. I'm not sure if that description made sense.

My excellent tape measure has gone temporarily missing, though, and it's driving me bonkers. I can't measure! The depth of the porch is about 6 feet (72 inches, or approx 2 meters), and the height to the bottom of the overhang looks about 8 feet.

Here are the basic questions I have for you. Keep in mind that I rent.

1. How do I effectively deal with the wind? I don't want strong gusts to blow everything down. This would be more an issue with the south and west sides than the tension rod side. Something I just considered would be attaching hooks into the overhang and use shower curtains there, too. That way they'd detach easily, so that if we have high winds I can just take them down. The added bonus to this possibility would be that I could buy fabric shower curtains to put up in the heat of the summer, providing both shade and privacy from the street.
2. How could I anchor the sheeting on the bottom? I don't want the bottom to be flapping around, but neither do I want to increase the stability so much that the sheeting will act like a sail. (See above re: wind.)
   
3. What other issues am I not taking into consideration? I'm not much of a planner, and I do want to avoid having to re-do the entire project. For instance, when I laid out my raised beds, I overestimated the amount of sun they got. One of my next major projects may be moving them (ugh!) a ways down into the driveway, which is much sunnier.
   

In other news, Project Front Yard is coming along nicely. That big ole mound of woodchips you can see if the photo has been spread over an expanse of cardboard, which should be killing the Bermuda grass in an excellent way. The entire south side of the front yard is now mulched, and the north side has a pleasing curved bed. As soon as I get more cardboard, I plan to also kill/mulch along the south side of the house. There's some nasty tall grass that I can't seem to keep under control.

Oh, another question: What your opinion about Round Up? I have a section in the backyard that is extremely overrun with blackberries and invasive honeysuckle. There's a stump under it all, so I can't mow over it. Will the Round Up leach into the soil and kill other stuff, or is it a valid way to clear the area?

Whew. OK, thanks.

Landscaping and illness blow-by-blow

Oy.

Still sick. This has been a doozy of an illness. First, last Thursday I all-but collapsed in a Catholic church in a far-flung bedroom community of our state capital. I lay in their infirmary for a couple of hours, letting someone else deliver the presentation I'd so carefully spent days preparing in Spanish. Then the aforementioned fever, coughing, sniffly, sneezy, body aches, etc. set in over the weekend.

On Monday I went in to work because I had some stuff to do that I could *not* put off. Then I went home after lunch. Tuesday I stayed home rather than drive to a meeting two hours away. This meeting was mandatory if I wanted to be able to apply for a big grant. Nobody else in my organization could go with such short notice. The funders allowed for no flexibility at all. No grant, I guess.

Wednesday I worked, since the fever was gone, though I had no voice. There were another couple things I couldn't cancel. I worked some Thursday, too, because we had a big (BIG) fundraiser I was obligated to attend--this despite the clogged ear which I suspect has blossomed into an ear-infection. Friday I recuperated some, and borrowed an LCD projector from a colleague at another organization. Yesterday I volunteered at the farm tour for a few hours, but I'm making no attempt today to go visit any other farms I could go see with my free entry pass. Sad. I am wearing the t-shirt, though. Such nice organic cotton.

Instead of going to farms, I'm working again today. From home, but still. It's not too bad. I'm just practicing hooking my computer up to and using an LCD projector. I've had to mooch a cable converter (thank god for neighborhood listservs and a tight community). The one I got wasn't the correct one, but I have a lead on another. Once I have the projector figured out, I also have to go pick up some gift cards and finish up a project. Concurrently I'm catching up on housework. The dishes and laundry sure piled up quickly.

I have a big project I've had to put off because of this illness. See, I'm kind of sick of my front yard being so boring and grassy. I want flowers, dangnabbit! I happened along a big ole' pile of shredded hardwood for free, which is sitting on my front lawn.

See?

Actually, it's not quite like this anymore. I've laid down cardboard on much of the front left (from your point of view--out of visibility of the picture for the most part), and heaped the mulch over the cardboard. There's a strip along the sidewalk, and the azaleas and camellia have been weeded and covered with mulch as well. I expanded the mulching in front of the porch quite a bit, making a sort of arc. This will brew over the winter, and then come spring, the grass will all be dead and ready for perennial planting.

Now I have to figure out a plan to keep the newly-landscaped area full of blooms throughout all seasons.

This is confounding me slightly. Here are some of the possibilities:

Spring:
Bulbs?

Summer:
Creeping thyme carpet
Daisies, black-eyed susans, echinacea

Fall:
Mums
Asters

Winter
Um...?

All year:
Rosemary
Sage (?)

Any suggestions?

On persistence

This guy was a casualty of a front yard landscaping project I'm in the middle of. He wasn't an intentional plant, though he's quite handsome. I thought about trying to save him, but there are just so many weeds I wanted to get rid of, and so he was a sacrifice for the greater good.

His foliage is just about dead, as you can see, but he keeps blooming every morning.

(I need a new camera. This one sucks)

Again?

Whoa. Fall planting has crept up on me. It's hard to remember that August is the time to start everything from a second planting of summer squash and cukes to cold weather greens. Yikes.

The problem with my minuscule garden space is that I often have to rip things out in order to fit the new season's crop. Eggplants are already out, as are the cukes. Figuring out the logistics of ripping out my non-productive tomatoes while still supporting the sungold is going to break me.

To plant--today? Beets, carrots, cukes, greens, radishes, summer squash and turnips. To plant when the supply store opens and I can get to it: Brussels sprouts*, cabbage, broccoli.

Oy!

*Why, yes, I AM a glutton for punishment!

Look one last time before you go in, but you'll still miss it.

Why, yes, it is bigger than my entire forearm, thanks for noticing! Unfortch, a cuke this size is *not* what you want. The skin and seeds were more comparable to those of a cantaloupe than a pickle. I peeled it, cored it, separated the seeds out to save, realized that it was a hybrid and I can't save the seeds, and then made another jar of refrigerator pickles.

Then I hauled out the other 50 cukes I have on hand, and made some fresh cucumber kimchee. Note: Brine 1" chunks of cukes for an hour. Drain the liquid off, and lightly rinse off some of the salt. Cram as many as you can into a quart jar along with copious amounts of: 1) hot peppers 2) garlic 3) ginger 4) onions. Let stew for a couple of hours. Then put in a slog of white vinegar so you can pretend it's fermented.

Nom nom nom nom.

Eat only when you are alone.

German Queen

Between the glare and the not-so-focusy focus here, you can't really make out the size of my monster tomato. 800 grams. 1.75 pounds. HUGE.

We've had almost six inches of rain in the past two weeks, and it really shows in the garden. I've been getting about a pint of Sungolds every day, and just recently I picked five eggplants. I have purple, red, yellow and (so far) green peppers, and the beans are finally coming along, though they haven't yet fruited.

Even with that rain, though, we're still in a moderate drought. I petitioned the rental agency to install gutters on my house, so that I can get a rain barrel (O Happy Day!). I hope they pull through. There's been some water damage in the house this year, which sounds to me like justification enough.

I found out that a business near my office has been hiding a mini-grove of peach trees. I picked one up off the ground this afternoon, and it was sweet, fragrant and juicy. Interestingly, the flesh was white. Hm.

Dinner time. Caprese again. Sigh. Isn't life rough?

So remiss!

Ugh. I guess for now the epoch of daily posting is in remission. Part of that is because I have new tales to tell and want to give them justice.

I took photos of my garden to post, but it looks like they're not wanting to upload, dammit. Oh, wait, at least one of them did. Rock on. Patience, Stew, patience. (Blogger is apparently playing hard to get.)

Shortly I'll be leaving for the Queen City for the weekend, where I'm going for an almost-family reunion. My friend-since-10th-grade jj, her parents, her sister(s?), aunts, uncles, cousins, and me. Oh, and NOT least, jj's two children (of which I've only met one), her husband, her sister's new babe, and her sister's husband (neither of whom I've met either).

I'll be taking them some gardenous bounty in the form of a couple of tomatoes, cukes, plums (from the community garden), plum jam (same, but I processed it last week), and peppers. As you can see below, the eggplant is not yet ready, but isn't it looking nice? The beans are behind, because I planted them way late. That's fine, though, because there's still plenty of time for them.

Now for the pix, which did eventually upload. As you can see, however, some of my edits didn't take for some reason. Bizarre that they didn't save as rotated.

Anyhoo:

One of my eggplant plants.

Corn! And maybe zucchini. Something in that family, anyway.

Tomatoes. One of many varieties. The first to ripen were the sungolds, as I mentioned before. The second is the Cherokee Purple. This is either Better Boy or perhaps Pink Beefsteak.

Hydrangea. I got this plant about 6 years ago, and it was a baby in a 6 inch pot. (Note the fig tree behind it.)

One of the zinnias. Gorgeous color, isn't it? Cosmos and swiss chard beside it.

Misleading photo of a summer squash. It's only about 6 inches long. Perspective. I'm guessing it will be good to eat in a few days when I return.

My tomato/pepper/cuke/eggplant/marigold bed.

I wish my camera took better close-ups. It's from about 2000, though, so whatevs.

Yes, I know.

This has to be tedious for anyone other than me. You know, the daily garden update? Well, not quite daily, I suppose, but still.

Here's the thing. I find myself newly in awe of the garden every time I look at it recently. Something has always changed. A new sucker to rip off, the first zinnia bud, a radish seed pod.

A ripe fig.

I considered waiting to get a picture of it before I shoved it into my mouth, but well, impulse control issues and all that.

This is my first real year with the fig tree, and I was sad that only one fig developed when the tree first leafed out this spring. I thought that was going to be all I got. Then slowly but surely itty figgies began developing at the base of most of the leaves. I don't know why, but I thought all of the figs would ripen at the same time, more or less, even that first one. I noticed that it was looking kind of peaked today. It wasn't shiny anymore, and though big, it just looked like something was wrong with it. Then I touched it. And it was soft. I picked it off, and split the skin with my thumbs. Inside was a rosy purple. So sweet.

Also, I discovered a peach tree across the street from my office's parking lot. It looks like it's nobody's tree, and I will eat from it.

YAY!!!!!!!!

In my zeal, I didn't actually let them get ripe enough, but DAMN it's nice to have tomatoes again.

I just got back from about 2 hours of preparing my new bed at the community garden. Two more wheelbarrow loads of compost filled it in. I amended the soil with some blood meal and bone meal. Then I made two walkways, dividing the bed into three main rows. I lay down some garden fabric, weighed it down with a few bricks, and put some scrap wood in the trough to use as stepping stones.

In the northernmost row I put two watermelon mounds. In the middle, one cantaloupe mound, several cuke plants, and a ton of beans. The southernmost row is all cantaloupes. I need me some fruit.

I met both of the coordinators for the teen program and some of the youth themselves, and it looks like I'll be volunteering regularly on Friday afternoon/evenings. One of the teens suggested I bring the teens from my program over to visit. I think it's a wonderful idea! I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing with them, but lifeskills workshops were mentioned.

Another major bonus of this community garden is its numerous and varied fruit trees. According to the garden outreach coordinator, they don't get sold at the market, but rather are for "casual consumption." Hell yeah. Plums, peaches, figs, apples, mulberries, and probably more.

Exciting. New. Happenings.

Like all my other friends who either have had or will have had children recently, I too have a new baby.

A PROJECT GARDEN BABY!

I went over to SEEDS this afternoon and signed up for weekly volunteering. AND I rented a plot in the community garden. It's about 10'x10', and recently cured* of a fire ant infestation. The other choice (why do they have empty beds at all??) had better sun, but was much smaller-- 4'X4" or so. I'd have taken that one if it were the only option, though.

The Southside Garden encompasses the community plots, greenhouses, fruit trees (peach, persimmon, plum, mulberry, fig and probably more), outdoor classroom, cob pizza oven, composting areas and some of their youth-program plots. It's a gorgeous space. SEEDS has tools, compost, leaf mulch, some seeds, and water from rain barrels for its gardeners to use during business hours, and you can come garden at any time. Friday hours are until 8 p.m., so I think I know how I'll be spending my evenings!

After paying a ridiculously low rental price (The sliding scale fee starts at $1 per plot. I actually paid double of the full price, marking the balance as a donation.), I hauled a wheelbarrow load of compost over to my somewhat underfilled plot, but then I was done for the day. I'm thinking I'll need to amend the stressed soil. They use straight compost in the beds, so I'm thinking of buying some topsoil to get some clay in there. After all, we still have a drought on here.

I'm really excited about this, folks.

Advice solicited: what should I plant since I only have this rented until the end of August? I assume I'll be renting it for the September to March growing season as well, but I don't want to count on that. They may have needier and/or neighboring folks to give the plot to then.

*We hope! If you have any tricks about repelling fire ants without pesticides, please do let me know.

Dribs and drabs.

Inhale....exhale. Cough, cough. It's like a campground out there, folks. Very weird.
Two days ago, a very satisfied customer* sent me flowers. A large vase full of Gerber daisies. It was thrilling beyond belief, and I paraded them around the office, glowing. I wrote her a brief thank-you-for-the-thank-you note, to which I got the response "Oh, and we're making a donation to your organization in your honor."

Wow. Feels good!

*I've decided to call the people who ask me to do community presentations "customers" because it makes me feel good.

********************

Today is Ols's due date. A little girl. I can't wait to see the little poppet. Her parents-to-be look SO different from one another it's hard to imagine how those genes will mix. I'm also jealous that she'll have Moxie to snuggle up to as well as Ols and Mr. Ols.

********************

I'm off to see my sweet Nem this afternoon, but I'm not sure what's going to become of our plans. We were going to go to the botanical gardens and then for some crazy popsicles, but this haze might cause some re-thinking.

********************

Recent transplants don't understand just how much ice has to go in sweet tea if it's not yet cool.

********************

Garden SOC: My tomato plants are overloaded with fruit, especially the Sungold. I love how the itsy tomatoes grow like grapes. I have 1/4 inch cukes. I'm not sure which types of squash I planted, but they're up and thriving. I planted corn, but I'm afraid for their stability. They don't have much topsoil, and what there is is very loose. I haven't planted enough beans, so I have to hop on that. I don't think I ever mentioned that I've companion planted a slew of marigolds in between all of my nightshades. Oh. I have peppers, believe it or not. They're small, but they're there! I think I have some fertilizing to do. The raspberries are almost done, and I have a new one to plant. Thanks, gardening neighbor! I chewed up some Long Leaf Plantain to use as a soothing poultice for my new mosquito bites. Next time I'm out on swampy trails, I'll remember to do the same with Jewelweed, which is one of my favorite plants already. Love the seed pods. And apparently the seeds themselves taste like walnut. Yum.

OK. Have a good weekend.

One by one

I'm doing it again. Sleeping on a bed with no sheets, because I just can't be bothered to put them on. And the other half of the bed is full of clean clothes. As are the baskets all over the floor. I did, however, put up a new shower curtain this morning. Yay for switching from mold to vinyl fumes!!

I need a haircut, too. I tried to get one in DC, but it was a holiday. The only places open were more barbershop than beauty parlor, and I suspect they'd have been hard pressed to deal with such fine hair as mine is anyway. It's all about texture specialization. Tried for a pedicure, too, but was underimpressed with what I perceived as unimplemented hygiene practices.

I'm working from home today. I only have a couple of hours to put in (thanks to another 12-hour day yesterday!), and it didn't make sense to drive 50 miles (RT) to do things I could just do here at home. Luckily, the boss saw things the same way, so here I am.

Good thing, too. I got my car inspected, which I'd been half putting off and half too busy to get done. Check another item off of the list! And it was severely cheap. Only $30? Nice.

While waiting at the mechanics, I realized that I could and indeed *should* nip across the street to check out a restaurant I'd heard great things about. Wimpy's Grill has always kind of scared/intimidated me, to tell the truth. It's so...beaten up. And dingy. And windowless. I couldn't find any photos of the place itself, but the sign pretty much says it all. It's one of those places that closes by 2 p.m., so it always seems closed, too.

All that angst for nothing!! Superb burgers. The meat is ground fresh daily. They also have biscuits and open at 7 a.m. weekdays. I think I know what I'll be trying next!

Another jaunt this a.m. was to my favorite discount/closeout store for a look around. I went small-appliance happy. I got not only an iron (Rowenta!), but also another toy I've wanted for ages--an immersion blender.

Gazpacho, here I come. Now, peppers, cukes and tomatoes? Do your thing already! Tired of waiting!

(Garden update: The volunteer dill is much taller than I am, and I suspect that I'll have ripe tomatoes within a week or so. Peas look like they're done with, and I'm hoping the blade-like things that are coming up where I planted the corn are indeed corn. Peppers have buds, and the cukes are nowhere near ready. I don't know what all I've planted, so I might have some more to do.)

Unexpected Glory

What a great end to a long day! I knew I had berries popping out, but none of them were even close to ripe.

No, it's not a strawberry. I have a few of those, too, though.

Motherfucking BUNNIES

So you dug up all my beans, eh? Did you find them yummy? I sure fucking hope so, motherfuckers. This means war.

Chickenwire. Posts.

Five words.

PEAS!

I have peas, people! Teeny tiny peapods are out, and I couldn't help but munch the first one I saw, hoping it was of the edible-pod variety rather than the English shelling peas. Of course, I'd have chomped down on a tough pod and swallowed it just as happily.

Turnips are surprisingly good raw. I had no idea how to cook them, so I just chopped a couple up and snacked. Radish-like. Yum.

It's also time to start hauling some of the lettuce heads out. My goodness they'll be yummy.

I really love this time of year.

Blossom of the almond trees, April's gift to April's Bees. --Edwin Arnold

Containing, besides the large number of Astronomical Calculations and the Farmer's Calendar for ever month in the year; a variety of New, Useful, and Entertaining Matter.

This morning I plopped myself down outside, sweating in the typical places after mowing a too-wet lawn and caging my tomatoes, to read The Old Farmer's Almanac 2008, Southern Edition.

How many people still read these, I wonder? This one is No. CCXVI, and somehow still is authored by its founder from 1792, Robert B. Thompsom, according to the cover. He's even gone all internet savvy, this guy.

Today's sunrise was at 6:55 a.m., and sunset is to be at 8:17 p.m., he says. There's a sweet though bizarre verse that goes down the side of the table that lists dates, feasts, fasts, aspects and tide heights.

Friday, April 25: St. Mark• United Negro College Fund incorporated 1944•{5.8

Solar
then
doler;
must
this
month
be
so
bipolar?
Wondrously
warm,
followed
by
thunderousy
storms:
Boom!
Rain's
a-fallin',
streams
a-risin',
but
there's
hope
on
the
horizon.
Daffodils
garland
the
hills.

Stinkin' bloodsuckers

Oy. First mosquito.

I spent this morning getting some of the summer garden in, pre- rainy weekend. One thing I hadn't considered was that last year I had no spring garden. Now that I do, three of the containers I use for overflow tomatoes are taken up with carrots, beets, and (Thank you, Trace) turnips.



So this morning I managed 5 tomatoes, seven pepper plants, and three eggplants. Planning this year will be hodgepodge, but I'm still psyched. On Maria's advice, I'll plant once I harvest. That means I'll have beans in the containers I used for tomatoes last year. Good rotation.

For the record:
Tomatoes-- Sungold, German Beauty Queen, Better Boy, Pink Beefsteak, Brandywine.
Peppers-- Yellow Bell (x 3), and 4 mystery peppers that could be green, red, yellow or purple.
Eggplants-- Black Beauty x 3



I have a new bed that I'm not sure what to do with, and I've identified another portion along the south side of the house that, though skinny, would make a perfect place for more tomatoes. I think I need to go get some more rubbermaid tubs and cut or drill some holes in them to put along the house there. In the new bed I'm thinking that we'll see some cantaloupes and other squash-like sprawlers.

The favas have flowers, and so do the peas! Whee!



Time to go feed the worms. I'm going to try to get them to migrate over to the side of the bin without castings so that I can harvest soon.