spiceoflife's Blog
spiceoflife's Blog
Last Post 1 day, 12 hours Ago
May 15, 2008 | 9:16 PM PST
Tags: Compost , Poem
I actually felt inspired turning my compost pile yesterday. It felt good to be doing some honest hard work in the yard again. I was going to post this in the Cheezy Poetry forum, but the subject wasn't compost, and to be honest, I was feeling selfish today so I'm posting it on my blog instead. I hope you enjoy it.
Regards,
Robert
The day is warm, still young and bright.
I'm out of work while still daylight!
I head back home to check my bin
and see what sort of shape it's in.
I grab my fork and lift the lid
To see what time and hard work did.
I've thrown in leaves, and grass and twigs
Veggie peels and rotten figs.
There's no bad smell, so that is good.
But I still see leaves and bits of wood.
It's not done, oh no, not yet.
It will be soon, on that I'd bet.
So I start digging through the pile.
I know that this will take a while.
There's lot's of stuff, at least a ton.
It's a good thing I think this is fun.
Otherwise this would just be work
To be avoided or to shirk.
But it's good exercise for me,
And the compost that I get is free!
I plunge my fork into the leaves;
I shift my grip and then I heave!
What comes out just can't be beat:
Four tines full of hoary heat!
Actinomycetes makes the scene:
Bacteria that's white, not green.
It's filamentous fibers grow
through every leaf and blade I've mowed.
This thermophilic power play
By this bacteria night and day
Drives up the inner temperature
To kill bad things just like Pasteur.
Lifting here and tossing there
The compost sailing through the air
From full bin 1 to empty 2
Mixes oxygen all through.
This helps wee beasties to respire
and build more heat in my dark fire.
They work alchemically even faster
to make soil like an earth spellcaster.
After 30 minutes muscles hurt
from turning waste into new dirt.
So I decide to pack it in
and cover up my compost bin.
One more week and compost's done
Then I can shoot the starting gun
And get my veggies all to race
To be the first into my face.
May 1, 2008 | 12:31 PM PST
Okay, so having a slighty smelly compost pile is hardly a crisis, but I managed to avert it none the less. I've turned it a couple of times since I originally built it and it was positively steaming when I turned it on Friday, and no smell at all. I'm so happy. I'd like to thank everyone who made this possible - My parents who instilled a love of gardening...my uncle who sold me his house before he passed away..the guys at Agway for always being so helpful....alright, I'll cut the cr@p. ;-)
Some of you have been asking for an update on my lettuce and cabbage that was growing under my PVC and plastic sheet greenhouse. Well I'm happy to say that two lettuce plants that were tucked next to some large rocks, in the corner under the plastic that stayed put when most of it was flapping in the wind, made it. That was a pretty cold snap we had back then, and I'm surprised that any survived. This year I'm going to be more thorough about making sure the edges are reliably weighed, tied, stapled, nailed, screwed and bolted down. I believe that I'd have a whole bed full of greens now if the plastic had stayed on. Hope springs eternal!
Side note - I stopped at Home Depot on the way home last night after dropping off my son and bought a small jade plant for $4. It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but it came with a 4 inch terra cotta pot, so that's not too bad. I was actually looking for a cycad after seeing Gardening by the Yard this past weekend. It will probably wind up being a Sago palm since that's pretty much the only ones I see around my area, but I'd like to get something different. I found some sagos being sold as bonsai's at Home Depot for $16, but I don't want to pay that much for $2 plant and $2 pot from China.
And speaking of China, how come the only 2 inch terra cotta pots I can find come from China? The larger sizes are made in Italy and the US, but not the small ones. I suspect that's because the bulk of the cost for the smaller pots is the labor which is cheap over there. It's still irritating. I'll keep looking.
Regards,
Robert
Apr 22, 2008 | 8:37 PM PST
Tags: Urea , compost , nitrogen , green stuff
I was going to post this in the compost thread, but it was a pretty long so I'm putting it in my blog instead.
So, I had off from work on Monday. It's Patriots Day here in Massachusetts, the hub of the American Revolution, and many years ago they made it a state holiday. There are lots of flags flying, lots of wearing of red, white and blue, and the running of the Boston Marathon where people from all over the world descend upon the state and run themselves into the ground.
Me? I decided to celebrate working in my victory garden and starting a new spring compost pile. But I had a problem. All I had was brown stuff. Being spring, I didn't have a bunch of fully grown, recently harvested, green stems and such. I only had all of the brown leaves and spent grass I raked from around the yard and under the grape vines. So what do I do? I could just make the pile with just the brown stuff, but it would never heat up respectably and it would take too long to break down. (I like my women like I like my compost piles - tall and hot. Sorry, I couldn't resist throwing that in.) I'm going to need this stuff in like a month when my young plants start taking off. I had to get some green stuff, or the equivalent of green stuff, i.e., I needed a source of nitrogen.
Off to Agway!
Looking
around I found some likely candidates - blood meal - this stuff is a
great source of nitrogen, about 40% by weight, but it was a little
pricey. I had used it in the past with good success. This was a
possibility, but I wanted to see what else I could find.
Next, I found cottonseed meal. This wasn't as high in nitrogen as the blood meal, but still respectable. I had also used this to good effect. Plus, it was plant based, which I liked. The only problem here was that they only had the 25 pound bag for $27.00. Moving on.......
This was when the Agway employee asked me if I needed any help. They're like that there. (No, I don't work for Agway, smarta$$!) I told him my dilemma - I need a nitrogen source and I don't want to spend a lot of money. Voila! He shows me Urea. It's made by Espoma, it's organic, it's 45% nitrogen, and it's only $10.00 for a 5 pound bag. Sold!
With a few thank yous
exchanged I take my compost supercharger back home and dutifully build
my yard-waste lasagna by layers - brown leaves, water, sprinkle a
handful or two of urea, a couple shovel-fulls of almost-finished
compost. Repeated 5-10 times. Pop the cover on it and bake in the sun
for 24 hours. Yummo!
I get satisfaction out of doing things well, and this includes making a good compost pile. Today, I get out of work and dash home to check on it. I grab my turning fork and start turning it over. And yep, I can feel that heat starting already! But then, I notice the smell. It's unpleasant, but not overwhelming. And there is the definite twang of ammonia. Darn it, I put in too much urea! The wee little beasties have too much nitrogen and can't metabolize it all and are just releasing it as ammonia. The ammonia smell was weak, and I didn't see any of the urea pellets in the pile, so I'm hoping that this is as bad it will get. I'm going to need to turn it every day or two until the smell goes away.
Anyway, lesson learned. In the future, a half of a handful of urea per layer will probably suffice when using it in place of the green garden scraps in a compost pile.
If I had thought about it, this would have made a good video clip as part of my compost series - "Choosing of the green! Sources of nitrogen to get your compost pile fired up."
Regards,
Robe
rt
Apr 19, 2008 | 9:11 PM PST
Tag: Gardenia
The weather was gorgeous today here in Eastern Mass and I was at a couple of the local nurseries and farms checking out their latest offerings. I came across some Gardenias, and as it turns out, I found them awesome. The deep green leaves, snow white blossoms, so fragrant.....mmmmmmm.... (cue Wizard of Oz sound clip of "poppies.... poppies....") and I couldn't resist. Now if you've read my profile you'll know that I have certain rules (well not rules so much as guides to my garden) when choosing plants. One of them is: the plant has to, at least theoretically be able to, provide something besides just looking and/or smelling good. As far as I know, this plant breaks that rule, and now I have one more tender plant that will become an indoor roommate starting next fall for 6 months or so. I should post a pic of my living room before the weather gets nice enough to put all my pots outdoors. They're all gathered around the picture window in the living room like a bunch of homeless people crowded around a fire in a barrel, jockeying for more light.
Regards,
Robert
Apr 8, 2008 | 5:15 PM PST
Tags: compost , Pomegranates , olive , black magic
FINALLY! The planets have aligned and I found myself with both the time and warm enough weather to get outside and DO something in the yard. I managed to turn my compost piles, adding in quite a bit of stuff that had been stacking up on the deck, waiting for an opportunity to add to the mix!
I pruned my grape vines(3). I think I finally have a plan for them beyond "let them ramble unchecked and grow tendrils into the shingles". one will grow to the left of the front door under the picture window. One will grow right. And one will grow around the corner of the house, trained down the railing on the steps to the deck. Let's see if the vines understood that, too.
One thorn in the back of my mind, however is that I saw a GROUNDHOG while I was out there. He visited me once last spring and took out about a half dozen of my pole beans. But from what I've heard about these great white garden sharks I think I got off easy. I'm thinking he's going to be a bigger problem this year, given that he's apparently only mildly intimidated by me as it is. When he saw me he seemed to take his time moseying away. And I'm not sure, but I think he flipped me the bird when I turned around. I'm going to start lifting weights and stop shaving to show him I'm not a dude to mess with.
Update on plants (roll Taps). The olives and the pomegranates died - all of them. I don't know why. Maybe I overwatered, watered too much with the water from the frog's aquarium, left the grow light on too long, didn't transplant them in time (I think it was this actually), didn't water them enough, let them get too hot near the air register, etc. Anyway, I have more seeds. I managed to save two of the longan berry plants (I think, the jury is still out .)
My Black Magic elephant ear has spider mites. I'm hoping I can keep him just long enough to get him outside and then I know he'll be fine.
Hope springs eternal!
Props to my new friends stereoman and brown thumb! Loved the emails, pictures and blogs!
Here's something to noodle on, why is getting dirty fun, but staying dirty is gross. Weird.
See you all in bed, garden bed that is. ;-)
Robert
Jan 25, 2008 | 9:14 AM PST
Jeeze, the packet of seeds I bought should have read 60-120 weeks, not 60-120 days to germination! I just had another olive seed sprout after 10 months of waiting! I think I might have figured out why. I had recently moved some plants around in my living room and the flat of old seeds wound up closer to the air register, which meant that it was just that little bit warmer than it had been, and it might have been enough to tip the scales. Regardless, I have now doubled my number of olive trees. :-)
Regards,
Rober
t
Jan 17, 2008 | 4:59 PM PST
Well, I finally made the time and screwed up enough courage to face the result, and the result is that the rowcover was off for a sufficient length of time to kill all but just one or two baby bok choi. Oh well. I ate the last little plants, and at least those were tasty. It's only another two months before I'll put it back up for an early start in the spring.
I know I keep promising to post some pics. It's a good thing I never promised a date, just "soon." So in geological time, it's only been a split second :-p. Soon, honest!
My yard managed to get snow free for a few days early this week due to the unseasonably warm weather. Of course, there's snow out there again, now. And we're supposed to get an inch or two tonight. But then rain again, on Friday.
Surprise!
Way back on March 18 of 2007, yes, 10 months ago! I planted my passion fruit seeds, daturas and some olive pits. Well, as my readers know, my datura's came up pretty good. (There are a few pics in my albums) I managed to get four plants out of those 8 seeds growing and flowering very well (if I do say so myself) outside in the yard. I also have 4 passion fruit vines that are also still going very well inside over the winter, even though they are little light deprived. But the olives never did a thing - until Tuesday of this week! I happened to look in the flat and there was a seedling just breaking through.
I had learned my lesson from growing the avocado plants from the pits. I had never waited long enough for those to sprout until last year when they literally sat on the window sill for 5-6 months before they sprouted. So, this time, even though I had already had half of the seeds in the flat sprout, I kept the soil moist and warm, and I was finally rewarded with a small olive sprout. At least, I'm pretty sure that it's an olive sprout. I had labeled the cover with the contents, and the olive seeds were at one end, but the cover might have gotten turned around. So, I'm hoping it's an olive tree sprout. Regardless, whatever it is, it's been sitting in the flat for 10 months, just waiting for the right time to pop up.
I read someplace (maybe tomclothier or one of the sites referencing Deno) that the first seeds to germinate do not always turn out to be the hardiest ones of the bunch.
I hope this one turns out to be one of those late germinating, hardy ones.
Also, my 32 pomegranate seedlings are doing great. They're all between 2 and 6 inches tall. I need to get them into pots soon, though. They can't stay in the flat much longer. I'm sure they're already rootbound. Andy my longan berry seedlings are about 8 inches tall now. They're also doing well. I've potted one up already.
Pics soon. Really. I promise! And Rachel, you'll like the dragonfruit plant pics. ;-)
Regards,
Rober
t
Dec 17, 2007 | 8:40 PM PST
Tags: row cover , PVC
So after receiving about 18 inches of snow, including drifts, my row cover is holding up great! The steep slope of the sides combined with the strength of the joints as a result of the tees, elbows, etc, are letting it stand up VERY well to the heavy, wet snow and ice. Even without welding the joints the whole structure is still solid. I think part of the reason for it is that the snow is keeping the plastic taught and the tension is helping to keep the joints together.
Of course, because of the snow and ice in front of the ends, it's too much of a pain right now to open the plastic to see how everything is doing underneath. I actually haven't checked it again since I found everything frozen solid after the wind ripped through here a couple of weeks ago and lifted off the plastic cover. For all I know everything under there might already be dead. I'll try to post some pics soon before all the snow melts so you can all see. I'll post a couple more of the inside as soon as I can, too.
Dec 12, 2007 | 7:32 PM PST
Thanks to all who read commented on my blog entries over the past week and especially who sent me PM's about them. Current events render all of the entries and comments moot, however, so I have opted to remove them to enhance the calm of the GG environment. I have, however, saved the entries and comments for a couple of reasons. Partly because I feel vindicated in my actions, and even my opinions, and I feel like I won something valuable, or like I defended a treasure from a vandal. But mostly because they resulted in votes of support and some new friends being made and made me feel more a part of the GG community. So thank you all of my GG sisters and brothers, even those who disagreed with my message, or just my tone. :-)
Sincerely,
Robert
Dec 3, 2007 | 10:31 PM PST
Tags: pomegranate , rowcovers , pvc , wind
Well, the wind storm that blew through here Saturday lifted the plastic tent off of my cold frame on a day when the temps were in the twenties. When I went out there everything was frozen solid. I pulled some leaves and put them in my mouth. They were sweet, delicious, green, lettucicles! I watered everything and put the plastic back on, but I haven't had the heart to check it again since. I hate to think that I'll get no greens after all that. The problem was that I didn't secure the plastic well enough. I had trimmed the plastic too close to the sides of the garden bed and didn't leave enough extra for the rocks to hold down. And I didn't want to staple the plastic to the wood sides, so the wind came, and the plastic went. :-( Oh well. Lesson learned for the upcoming spring. I'd post pictures, but it doesn't look that much different than the last set of pics. Well, the outside looks a lot different today as we got a few inches of snow yesterday and today. I am happy to say that the pvc frame is supporting the plastic with the snow's weight very nicely. So that's good.
On the experimental produce seeds front, here is an update on those.
My dragonfruit plants are getting rampant. I need to thin and prune them.
My first date palm's leaves have started to split into the classic leaf form for them with the more feather-like leaves instead of the simple single leaves. And my other half dozen other younger seedlings are doing well also.
I planted 4-6 rhambutan seeds, but they all rotted. Next time I'll
try giving them a quick soak in either a mild bleach solution or
boiling water.
I planted 9 longan berry seeds. 7 germinated. One I killed by placing it too close to the cold window sill. And one I think the cat ate, but he's not admitting it. 5 are still going gangbusters strong under the grow light, with several sets of true leaves. They are pretty interesting looking. I'll have some new pics soon.
And of the 60 or so pomegranate seeds I planted in a flat, I have about 35 seedlings! Not too bad, really. Those are the ones I'm REALLY excited about! I LOVE pomegranates. I'm hoping, well fantasizing really, to get at least one good mutant. I want one with fruit that is easier to peel. Or one with seeds that separate easier from the pith. Or one with softer seeds so you can enjoy eating all the little juicy gems. (I usually eat them anyway, but it would be nice if the seeds could just be chewed and still taste good, like in a kiwi.) Or one whose pith between the seeds and rind aren't bitter so you can eat the whole thing like an apple. I'm only half kidding. I'd settle for eating it like an orange. lol I'll be posting some additional pics of these soon, too.
My dad shared pomegranates with my brother and me when we were growing up. Of course, when we were young he would peel them and take out all the seeds for us. That was the life! He would spend what seemed like an hour picking out each little jewel and putting them into cups for us. And my brother and I would be after him like crack addicts for them as soon as he got a little pile done. Of course, he'd try to be firm and make us wait until he had a whole cupful, but he was a softy. Looking back, I think that the waiting made them taste just that much better. You know you're loved when someone peels a whole pomegranate just for you! My brother, who also loves pomegranates and probably for the same reason, is excited about getting his own tree, too.
Thanks for reading.
Robert
Nov 25, 2007 | 4:27 PM PST
Tags: cold frame , PVC , winter garden
Hi all,
Wow, it's been over a month since I last posted. Time flies.
Anyway, I took some pictures last week of my plants under the row cover and posted them in my profile's photo section. Check them out if you're interested. They are still going strong after some nights in the twenties. :-) In case you're wondering about the bricks, they store heat during the day and give it back during the night. This helps to moderate the temperatures in there. Last year I used more bricks, but I would up using some this year for a border.
I'll be harvesting some soon and will post some more pictures.
Let me know if anyone has questions about it.
Regards,
Robe
rt
Oct 29, 2007 | 8:00 PM PST
Tags: plastic , small greenhouse , pumpkins
Hello friends and readers,
I've planted all of my rhambutans (4), longan berries (10) and pomegranate seeds (53), now it's up to them. The coconut still has another couple of days of soaking before I pop it in a pot.
We had a pretty good frost this morning, but it only froze on my car - the plants in the beds were fine. :-) Thank you micro-climates! So when I got home from work this afternoon I put the plastic on my little green house/row cover/cold frame, call it what you like. Pictures are in my album if you would like to take a look. A couple of people seemed interested in what I did with the greenhouse after seeing the pictures, so I'll be posting a materials list, dimensions and some basic instructions. I'm actually going to be covering another one of my beds, so I'll take some pictures as I go, too.
My son took one of the pumpkins with him to his mother's house. Boy was he proud! We didn't get a chance to carve one here at our house this weekend. My niece and nephew didn't come down as planned, so I have some extras. And I let the neighbors know about the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch so they can bring their grand kids over. They seemed pretty excited about it. :-)
A new friend sent me some osage oranges that I have been craving ever since I came across them while trying to identify a plant that Meska had posted in the Mystery Plant forum. I opened the box with my son this weekend. They did sort of look like "green brains". I have to take some time this week and figure out the best way to get the seeds out. I'm thinking of trying a couple of different methods. 1) brute force - cut them open and pick the seeds out. 2) leave one outside under a pot to see what it looks like in the spring, since they will need to be stratified (exposed to cold for a period of time to mimic the change of seasons and allow the seeds to germinate). 3) Put one in the ground and see what happens. I'll spend some time researching it online, too. Of course, if anyone has any additional info I would love to hear about it.
On a down note, when I brought in my plants, I had some hitchhikers - spider mites. They were positively feasting on my bananas and elephant ears. They don't seem to like anything else. I picked up some pyrethrum spray for houseplants at the local Agway. It seems to do a good job against the spider mites and the fungus gnats that also come in this time of year. I tried watering less frequently to get rid of the fungus gnats by just keeping the soil drier, but all I got was thirsty fungus gnats. ;-) I had also tried using one of those clove oil sprays, but my plants didn't like it, and it didn't seem to be effective. It didn't bother the gnats at all. So pyrethrum spray it is.
Also, thanks to everyone who is reading my blog. I saw that it's now ranked second. :-) If there are any gardening magazine editors reading this, I'm also willing to write articles for money, too.
Regards,
Robert
Oct 24, 2007 | 9:34 PM PST
Tags: cavendish banana , rhambutan , longan berry , green coconut
It's 70+ degrees, on October 25th? What's going on? That's right! Here in Eastern Massachusetts we are still enjoying the warm weather that's been pumped into our area from the south, and it's been great, if a little wet. I have to say that it's been a joy to take down my summer garden so far this year. I've taken down all my tomato plants and pumpkin vines in the front and already laid down my winter greens and put up my first greenhouse frame. I think I'm going to try covering two beds this year and put in some potatoes (no, not in the same bed that had the tomatoes, don't worry) so that they'll be in the ground when the ground warms up in the spring. Voila! No slogging through wet ground, turning it over, etc. when I'm going to be busy enough trying to do other things. I'm planting white fingerlings that I bought at the produce store this past weekend.
Speaking of which, I
really like this produce store that's in my town. They have lots of
tropical fruit and vegetables that you simply won't find in the big
chain stores. Like what you ask? Well, they have the usual mangoes
and pomogranates, but they also have guavas, rhambutans, longan berries, green coconuts and a host of other root vegetables the names of which I'd never even heard before! I bought some
pomogranates, rhambutans, longan berries, a guava and a green coconut.
I would have bought more, but I only had so
much time on my hands, money in my wallet and room in my house. :-) Two years ago this store was actually able to get me a durian! If you are wondering why this is a big deal, look up "durian smell" online. I wonder how
many people held their nose to get that to me. Man, did that thing
reek! I'm sorry to say that I couldn't bring myself to keep it much
less try it. It cost a bit of money, too. Maybe I'll try it again sometime.
I've already eaten the guava, rhambutans and longan berries and one of
the pomogranates. The guava wasn't really ripe enough, so I wound up
just eating some of the fruit and sending most of it to the compost pile. I didn't
get the impression that the seeds were mature. Don't ask me why, maybe
I'm picking up some skills from my son. (See my first post for this
reference.) Anyway, I took all of the juice out of one handful of the
little pomogranate jewels and put the seeds into a cup of water to
soak. I also peeled all of the rhambutans and longan berries, picked
out the seeds, ate the fruit, and am soaking those seeds in water,
too. I'll have my son with me this weekend to help me get them all
into into some moist coconut coir and set them on a seed mat to
germinate. From what I've read, if the fruit has been refrigerated the
seeds of the rhambutan won't germinate. I'm going to try anyway and
see what happens. Both the rhambutans and longan berries had a
similar, interesting texture once I got the rind off of them. They
were very round, and firm, and translucent. I think they would make
great "eyballs" in a Halloween fruit cup if I could get the large seeds
out from the middle without messing the flesh up too much.
The
coconut is still in the husk. The description on the label said "green
coconut", but it looked pretty brown to me. So I bought one for $3 and
brought it home and stuck it in a pail of water. After all, it's just
another seed, right? And what do you do with seeds before you plant
them? You soak them, that's right. So regardless of whether they're
the size of a pinhead like the dragonfruit seeds, a kernel of corn like
the pomogranate seeds, a small marble like the longan berries, a large
almond like the rhambutan, or a childs head like the coconut, I like
to soak them first. I'll soak the coconut for at least a week and then
put it in some soil. In all likelihood, the coconut seed isn't mature
enough to actually germinate, but if it doesn't work, I've only lost $3
and some time.
My camera doesn't handle macro shots too well, but I'll post some pics of everything if I can take some good ones.
In case you couldn't tell, I'm sort of a sucker for growing
unusual plants, especially from seed, and especially tropical plants,
and really especially ones that bear stuff to eat, like fruit. I'm
already growing some dragonfruit plants, passionfruit vines, lemon
trees, apple trees, and avocado trees, all of which I started from the
seeds of fruit I bought at the store. So these rhambutan, longan berry,
coconut and pomogranate plants would be nice additions to my collection.
I have several dwarf cavendish banana trees that all came from dividing
one little banana tree I bought at the garden store about two years ago for short money because it was half dead. I need to divide at
least two of them again. I don't know what I'm going to do with 7
or eight banana trees! But I don't have the hear to just kill them.
I also have a cardamom plant that is doing fantastic! From what I've
read, it doesn't get hot enough for long enough in my neck of the woods
for it to actually flower and give me any cardamom pods, but the leaves
reportedly have a great flavor all their own and can be used to cook
with, doing things like steaming fish, etc. So I'll be able to do that.
Also
on my list of food to grow, are pineapples from the pineapple tops,
ginger from ginger root, and shiitake mushrooms. I've tried all three
several times, and can't seem to get the right set of materials and
conditions. I've been doing research, though and am ready to give them
another try.
Now for my catch phrase......"Keep those thumbs green!"
Hmmmm.... Maybe not, sounds kinda gross.
Oct 22, 2007 | 8:01 PM PST
Tags: tomato , pumpkins
There two big reasons I grow tomatoes in my garden. The first is my son - he likes the tiny grape tomatoes because they're sweet and he can pick them himself and pop them into his mouth like candy pretty much whenever he wants. Reason number 2 is my dad. He LOVES a good tomato. The last couple of years I've been growing only the cherry and grape and cherry tomatoes for my son, and salads, but next year I'm going to get some of that concrete reinforcing wire and build the big honkin' tomato cages that will hold up the big heirlooms like the brandywines. Those I'll be growing for my dad.
Yesterday my dad came by and noticed that several (okay a couple dozen) tomatoes had fallen off the vine because I'd been too busy to pick them. So he offered to come buy and "help me out" by picking some. I figured that he just wanted to "help himself" to my tomatoes, but he really did help. After he picked all of the tomatoes off the vines he cut them down and stacked them on the side of the bed. Now he's talking about getting a small bed at the local community garden in our town and he asked me if I'd be willing to give him a hand. Of course I said I would.
Meska asked me what I will do with all my nine pumpkins my son and I grew this year. They're not very big, but...
One is for my son to take to his mother's house (maybe one for her, too, if he wants to give one to her. we'll see.)
Two are for our house - one for me and one for my son
One each for my niece and nephew
The remaining 3 or 4 will probably go to the neighbor's grandkids. I'll let them pick them from the pumpkin patch. My neighbor was telling me that her daughter's husband had tried to grow them, but all the vines died. I guess he has an Agent Orange thumb or something. He planted corn last year - one long row. lol For those who know even less about corn than I do, this is pretty funny. Corn needs to be grown together in multiple rows so that the pollen can fall on it's own and neighboring cornstalks. If you plant it in one long row, the pollen just gets blown away and rarely lands on the silk and you get little or no corn! I forget what my neighbor said he did or didn't do with the pumpkin vines that they died, but he didn't get a single pumpkin either.
If the kids don't want them then I'll probably just cook them. I know they're not the super sweet pumpkins used for pumpkin pie, but if you roast them like an acorn or butternut squash, they're still mighty good. I had bought a few of the real small pumpkins (Jack be Littles ,or something like that) last year for decorations. I didn't cut into them or paint them or anything. And after Halloween I cooked them up - I cut them in half, scooped out the seeds, oiled a cookie sheet and roasted them in a medium oven with a little brown sugar. They got a little caramelized and the aroma was terrific. They came out of the oven hot, sweet and tasty. I put someething else on them, too , but I forget now what it was. It was like clove, allspice, nutmeg, or something like that.
I want to come up with a catch phrase to end my blog (no help please, I need to do this on my own.)
How about, "Until next time, keep those hands dirty!"
Nah, too corny. I'll keep trying.
Oct 20, 2007 | 7:23 PM PST
Tags: sorry , baby greens , lettuce , mesclun , season extension , PVC , bok choy , greenhouse , small greenhouse
Wow, it's been almost two weeks since my last post. Time flies when you're having fun. I think I mentioned that I love the fall; it's my favorite time in the garden.
Before I start with what I wanted to enjoy talking about, I would like to apologize to the several folks that have not received the seeds they requested for the sunflower and the datura. My white and yellow datura seeds got mixed together on the kitchen table while I was sorting and packaging them up, so I wanted to wait until I got another batch of each so I could be sure of what I was sending folks. And I quite honestly just haven't gotten around to pulling all of the seeds off of the sunflower head and mailing them out. Sorry all. Please rest assured that this was not some elaborate scam to get 41 cents from you all. I'll get them all out to you before Spring - I promise!
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, on to fun stuff....
Early this week, Monday (Oct.15th) I cleared out the bed in which I'd grown my corn and over which I had let my pumpkin vines ramble. I turned over the soil, raked it smooth and picked out more rocks that always seem to come to the surface from the center of the earth, just north of he11. I then put down four rows of different lettuces: butter crunch, salad bowl, mesclun mix, and something else the name of which I can't recall now. I also put down seeds for some baby bok choy and a few large head cabbages. We have had a warm snap here in the Northeast. It's the remnants of all that terrible weather that spawned tornadoes in the midsouth and midwest this week. It's positively balmy here now - 70+ today, 75-80 tomorrow. That's pretty nice for the middle of October. As a result, all of the seeds have already sprouted!
What's that you say? I'm crazy to be starting lettuce, bok choy and cabbages in the middle of October? Well, crazy like a fox, maybe, because over the bed I've also set up my rowcover/mini-greenhouse frame that I designed and built out of PVC . I've posted pics in my album, "Garden and Row Cover".
I enjoyed reading two books that gave me ideas about what I wanted for my garden. The first is The 12-Month Gardener: Simple Strategies for Extending Your Growing Season by Jeff Ashton. He discusses several ways of extending the growing season starting out with very simple and very inexpensive floating row covers, all the way through to building your own permanent greenhouses complete with electricity and automatic venting and fans. The second book that I also recommend is Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long by Eliot Coleman. Both of these together gave me enough information to understand the requirements of being able to extend my growing season, choose appropriate crops, and design and build something that was genuinely my own.
I haven't had to cover it in plastic yet because it's been so warm; I'll do that next week, probably. I'll be happy to post a material list and layout if anyone is interested. It was real easy. It uses more PVC than the standard half-hoop row covers made by just pushing the two ends of a length of PVC pipe into the ground, but it not only looks MUCH nicer, but is also MUCH stronger. I think you'll agree. This is my third year extending the season this way. Last year my nephew helped me harvest three shopping bags full of lettuces and other greens for salads well into December. One of the coolest things about my frame is that I designed it to be expandable. it starts out being sort of triangular in cross section, but you can screw in legs of whatever length you desire to raise the height if you want to make it look more like a "house". Maybe I'll swap out the short feet with the long feet and a post a pic of that, too, so you can what I mean about the design.
Right now all of the parts are just held together by friction. At some point I'm going to be cementing many of the parts together, not only to make it stronger, but to make set up even easier. I don't want to cement everything together because then I wouldn't be able to take it apart. Currently I can break it down in 15 minutes and store all the parts in a box about 6" x 6" x 46" and it's out of the way during the summer when I don't need it, and I don't have these 10' obnoxiously long PVC pipes laying around. I don't want that to change.
This year my son will be old enough to help me harvest the greens. He's like me - we both love a good salad with some blue cheese dressing. Mmmmmmm.....
Oh, and a boxwood update - I have it home. A picture of that is coming soon, too.
