Saturday, April 30, 2011

"Good heavens Miss Sakamoto - you're beautiful!"

Spent the morning outside "dirting". Yes, that's a 'thing' now. I have a poetic license, remember? *snork*

A few nights ago, I'm watering the plants, and see this peeking out of the damp bag of hollyhock seeds: Oh hai! So, I open it up to see all sorts of little seedlings not waiting for me to put them into little paper pots before sprouting. Naughty seedlings.


As I said, these were taken a few days ago. The squash is ALREADY out of control (zucchini.) They are in egg cartons, remember? So, I'm going to have to do something about those this afternoon. This will require me to get covered in newsprint to roll them little potlets.
Again, a few days ago. These are the random sunflower seeds I had in a baggie for, uh, at least 2 years. I had to raise the lights yesterday, I'm worried they are growing too tall, too fast.
The weather has been completely mad, with snow and rain storms - I hope they can wait another 2 weeks before going outside. Below, is the tray of Box Car Willie tomatoes I planted. I hate these little seed starter things, but it was the only tray the store had that I happened to be in.


And, (heheheh) Check out mah new specs:
Because you NEVER know when you're going to have to BLIND someone with SCIENCE! (Or give peace a chance.) Also, Clearly Contacts was having a STUPID sale - They're perscription, and INCLUDING the 2 day shipping, they were $28. So, yeah. I get goofy glasses.

Ok. I've eaten my lunch and chatted on the phone with my bro, so I guess I should sit my arse outside on the step and finish banging holes in the bottom of coffee cans so I can fill 'em with dirt.

Happy Saturday!

~Lori

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Say "Versatile" 35 Times.

This Award has RULES. (I HATES me some rules, but I guess I'll play. Because playing is funner than rules. Damn, I'm picking up Tucker Speak.)

1. Link back to awarderer. See below! Tucker the Puppy (Through Bruce, who Tucker owns) Awarded me this purdy square.

2. Tell 7 facts that people may not know about you... (uh oh.)

3. Pass this on to as many blogerers as you want to! (I think at one point there was a number attached to this rule.. but y'know. It hates the rules!!)


So, it was Tucker through BRUCE over at JADIP (Just Another Day in Paradise) that decided I was Versatile enough to get a pretty green square that says so. I loves GREEN.

Bruce and Tucker have been on my daily read list for a while now. I think I stumbled on him from Dude Craft... but I know Andie and Bruce read each other too( She is my self confessed Doppleganger, or maybe I am hers? And she is also Goddess of Pickles) So I may have come across him there. Any way, he makes me giggle. I love the internets.


7 Facts People May Not Know About Me.

This one might be a little hard, since I love talking about myself love telling stories... let's have a think...

1. I often forget the simplest things, and will ask my honey 3 times the same question - but I think it's because my head is FULL of 80's music lyrics, that there's no more room for new stuff.

2. From grades kindergarten through 8, I went to 10 different schools. Three of those were in grade 4 alone. It's no wonder I had trouble with math.

3. I'm addicted to love (... Might as well face it!) but it's only because I'm really REALLY good at it.

4. Although I'm friends with LOTS of people, I'm happiest when I'm spending time alone. Think Think Think. Write Write Write. Never been someone who had to call anyone up for company. I go out all the time by myself, and never feel weird about it.

5. I have been 5 feet tall since I was 13.

6. I write a lot of smutty stories under a pseudonym (No, I will not tell you what it is. That's the point of a pseudonym! Baha! )

7. It takes ALL MY effort to walk by a mirror and NOT look.





Whew. That was HARD!

So, now I have to choose somebody to pass it on to??? sHEET.

Ok, so I read my bloglist everyday - here are a few that I particularly enjoy (who haven't already been tagged with being VERSATILE, as far as I can remember. hehehe.)


Fiona at Rowangarth Farm - I love reading her posts. She really is versatile , from what I've learned - and the things she is doing are on my own path. Oh, and she lives in the same province I do, so I can actually use her farm experiences and advice.

Frugal Homesteads (It's not just for hippies anymore...) This family BLOWS MY MIND. I love that they have recorded all of their experiences. I learn best by reading THEN doing. When every they post anything, I jump on it to SEE!

Aimee from New To Farm Life. Aimee's blog was the first farming blog I came across, and I ended up staying up over an hour later than I intended to reading all her posts. She writes so well, that you'll feel like you're learning right along with her. She and her husband do so much on their farm!

Do you see a pattern here? hehe, yeah. I once said to my beloved that my 22 year old self would NOT recognize my 37 year old self. His reply was that he likes my 37 year old self just how I am now. :)

Ok. I need to have a shower BADLY, so I have to get OUT of this chair!!! (Oh, wait, that was an 8th thing you didn't know about me... and probably could have lived without. hehehe.)

~Lori



Monday, April 25, 2011

What Day Is IT?


So, I turned on and used my new sewing machine for the first time.

Ooooh my. It runs so smoothly, and fast, and I was almost afraid of it. My old machines are finiky and .. well, a little bitchy. Go too fast, and they scream. The blue Shark needs a kick start to use it. The OLD OLD one, you gotta talk nice to first. ON and on.

But, this new one comes with so many fancy-fang-dangled-doolallers I'm going to have to learn to use. I was happy to see it can stitch with 2 needles (had the presser foot and plate attachments). All I did though was stitch out one sock monkey (because I could only find one of my "Little Scotia" tags. I put them somewhere safe, and now can't find them.) Then, I started in on some new sock critters.

I loveses them. I really missed this.

Plants are going full swing. Peas are up, most of the radish, lettuce and Chard outside are up. Up up up!

Put the tomato seeds in the night before last (in the house, on the big ol' shelf o' lights.)

The little mermaid above is a softie I painted, it's in my etsy store right now. I put both of my stores back online. I'm able to focus on them now, not so worried about pulling another Big Floppy. (Have an EEG tomorrow. I have no idea what that is exactly. I'm sure the internets can provide me with all the false information I'll need to be thoroughly prepared.)

*nyuk*

Today the pixies had no school. We got out of our jammies around 5pm. They ate chocolate and then ran around the yard, and now they are upstairs pretending to be quiet. It was a very good day.

~Lori

Friday, April 22, 2011

My Wish is His Command.

'Cause my honey is like that.

First, I have a "new" keyboard. From my Beloveds Techie Stash-O-Computer stuff. yay! I can type my 75WPM again!

Secondly, my post from a few days ago about the seedling set up? Aw yeah, it's happening!

My birthday was a few days ago, and we wandered around Home Depot because I wanted to price what it would cost to get a lighted set up for seedlings. When we realized that we wouldn't be able to fit both the children AND the things I chose in the car at the same time, we opted to take the children and my sweetie bought a gift card. (yes, there was a coin toss. Home Depot had a fifty percent chance of getting some child labour.***)

So, the day after I took my gift card up, with my Mother (and her bigger vehicle) Where I bought all the pieces for THIS SET UP:


That's right, It's living in the kitchen, beside the fridge. Because that's pretty much the last spot available in my entire house.

Heavy duty resin shelf: on sale for $39.99
3 commercial light fixtures $17.99 each = $53.97
6 Plant lights for fixture $7.98 each= $47.88
Power Strip $7.98

After taxes, a grand total of $168.48

plus $115 for seeds and containers
plus $40 for the vermi composting buckets and the worms themselves. (which reminds me I still haven't written about the worms....)

So, this year I've spent $323.74 on the garden. Yes, I'm counting the birthday present amount.

My mother bought me some dirt. (I think I make her a little crazy. She wanted to bring me to Giant Tiger and buy me clothing. I have MORE clothing than I could ever wear... what I NEEDED was some dirt for all the coffee cans. hehe.)

We went out to Native Woods Nursery's on HWY 93, and got 5 bags of organic 3 way mix, and 5 bags of regular soil (the awesome woman there said it was better for containers to mix the 2 - that the 3 way alone would be too dense for pots. I believe her. )

That cost about $35 - but I'm NOT counting that. Birthday prezzies from outside my own household are freebies. hehehe.

She also then joked when she saw my "grow lights" while putting the soil in mom's truck, and wished me luck with my "pot" plants. I will have to bring her an eggplant and tomato to prove it's for VEGETABLES! *snork*

The new shelf set up is allowing me to grow more plants (some which will be sold as slips, which I've not been able to do before.) and we'll also be harvesting more from our own garden this year too. I always aim for the break even. It makes me happy.

Peas are coming up lovely! Some of the radishes, lettuce and chard are coming up, too, despite the snow we got all last weekend.



Oh, and my sewing machines managed to carve out a little tiny corner for themselves. There are sock monkeys on the way! And probably some skirts.

~Lori

*** JUST kidding. This batch of kids are pretty good and mostly cute, so we're keepin' them. Home Depot can hire the big one that occasionally eats and does his laundry here, though.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

It's all my own fault.

Dear Arizona Iced Tea in my keyboard. Arghlebargle.

I know, after years of telling the children to never bring drinks to the computer, I was the one to finally ruin the keyboard. The space bar is sticking and I have no use of some ofmy keys, and it is all my own damn fault.

That isall. I imagine I won't even try to write until Iget a new keyboard. Because this issome frustrating sh*t.

~Lori.

P.S. Yesterday was my birthday, but Ican't tell you about it. Because ARizona Iced TEa is very sticky.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

What I Want Want Want Is what you Want Want Want

What I NEED for all these seedlings is a set up like this:

Indoor Seed Starting Blog Entry



What I HAVE is this:These guys are sitting on the Vermi Composting Bucket at the back door. (Which I can only open outside.. there will be a rant blog about that later, I'm sure.) Eggplant in the plastic cells, Hot Pepper in the paper cups, a garlic and green onion in the little clear cup.



Today, the tray filled with egg containers lives on the table. I put these in less than a week ago, and already the Sunflowers are peeking up. That's just freekin' awesome, considering we got a surprise light SNOW this morning. Heh.



These guys are currently on the top of the fridge, sharing the flourescent light. NOT ideal, but gotta do with what I have. Eggplant, Sweet Pepper and some hot Pepper in there too.



This is how close the flourescent light SHOULD be to these plants, but they are getting only a few hour rotation with the light on the swivel.




Look at all the babies! I'll be bringing the ones that DON'T fit into my garden to market to sell as slips.



This guy has shot up and is looking a little spindly. This is what happens when you don't have enough of the proper lighting. Every year I deal with it, and make due... chasing the sun on the carpet around during the day with one tray or another.



So Purdy and Green!




These are the onions that came home with the girls from "Halter Culture Club" (See: My Onions Growwww)


It snowed this morning, dark and overcast and a near white out through the back window - My beloved said he saw squirrels running for cover..., and NOW, less than an hour later, the sun is blazing through the windows.

Georgian Bay weather NEVER makes sense. But is sure is purdy here.

Wish I had something interesting to say today. Meh, maybe tomorrow. Happy Sunday.

~Lori

Friday, April 15, 2011

Evee Boody Luvs Crafty CRAP! ('cept mebe mah luver.)

So, I sort of cleaned this morning. I had two shelves that were just a disaster. Kept throwing schtuffs on it over the last.. ugh, 8 months? Look at some of the fun stuff I found!
A pile of clay doolallers. Doll pieces, plates, vases, unfinished bread and all of it is sitting in an incense burner. Also, unfinished.I started these little robots before Christmas. Because every miniature doll house needs robot minions. Cook, Maid, Butler. They aren't done yet...
A wonderfully creeeepy vintage plastic Heidi-ish doll who's eyes close when you get her horizontal.
A Welcome mat I cross stitched some time ago. I finished the last bit with the wrong colour blue, but was unaware of it until the daylight. That's what I get for stitching under that dang orange 70's lamp I love so much.
I'll be putting it on etsy for half of what I intended to charge for it, because of the irregularities.



A mostly-painted froggy clay incense burner. You guessed it.. unfinished.


Crap crap crap! I love crap! Itty Bitty Crap! Crappity Crap CRAP! Craaaaap Tiiiime!


The book shelves I managed to somewhat clean today are the 3rd and 4th from bottom on the left. I replaced the crap I removed with... MORE CRAP! (It's good crap though. I love my crap.)

Happy Friday, eh.

P.S. I'm putting the tomatos in dirt this weekend. They will have to live outside under cover. Because I've run out of room in the house. Swiss Chard is going in the garden boxes, too.

P.S. I'm back on the Chocolate Almonds, after a month on the wagon. Once an addict.....

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Mah Onions Growwwww

Hello Throbbing Brain.

This morning I was laughing while simultaneously trying to chew a cracker. Ofcourse, I choked a smidge, and gave my self a throbbing nogging with my cough-it-up efforts. I had so much planned today. I ended up in bed, with the alarm set in time to pick up the pixies from school.

The pixies came home yesterday with 4 onion seeds each in a little plastic container. They are in the horticulture club at school. The littlest pixie always pronounces it "Halter Culture Club." And then I just want to start doing my best Boy George impression ("Oh, There's lovin' in your eyes all the wayyy... ) I did it the first time she did it, and they both looked at me blankly. My sweetheart giggled, anyway. Now, when she says it, I just pout that there's no one around to giggle with me....

Karma Chameleon... Mah Onions Growwww, Mah Onions Grow ow ow ow...

Anyway, I was very excited to see the 8 little onion seeds. Because those suckers aren't cheap, and I'm thinking that the $4 per kid I paid for them to join the club might just pay off yet. hehe.

I'm researching the University of Guelph's distance education. They've got some agricultural certificate programs I'm interested in. I figure, I'm not doing much else. And It wouldn't start until fall, after the summer rush.

Last night I sat down to play with clay (the sculpey, polymer clay kind) and, I don't know that I have the patience to make those itty bitty cups and saucers. I made some doll bodies, but they came out looking all creepy and mutant.. so I'm going to make creepy mutants out of them (instead of the sweet, lacy dress dollies I had envisioned when starting.) One will make a good dracula... the other could be a zombie baby. There's one more that has a smart-ass Cabbage Patch Kid vibe to it. However... there may be an ebay or etsy auction soon with some clay, some books, and some molds. I'll keep you posted.

Turns out, squirrels don't like Bulls Blood Beets.. but the little f*ckers still will dig them COMPLETELY out of the ground just to make sure. Arseness.

I realized today there's only about a month until the Farmers Market starts up again. You know what that means! Lori PANICS and makes an even BIGGER mess of the livingroom in the name of creating some NEAT stuffs to sell! I"m hoping to also do more baking this year, and sell my seedlings there, too.

Which means I should probably get to putting some more in dirt.

I should book a table at little lake park for Canada Day this year... maybe.


blaaa blaa blaaa. I think I'm going to risk a second tea today, in an effort to clear the fog.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Egg Carton Seed Pots, Chamomile Tea, and Fill In The Swears.

Well... How'r Ya Doin'?

Me. I've had worse days, to be sure Bye.

First, the seedlings that had started to show some dampening seem to be recovered! My Mom-In-Law/Love passed on a tip to water them with chamomile tea. So for 2 days I did (only watering at the little seedlings feet, so I didn't wet the newspaper anymore.) Oh, I also separated the little newspaper pots so that they weren't touching anymore.

Anywho, with the Coir I can water every second day (with a spray phaser, set on "stun" instead of "mist." It's tricky business. ) They seem to be healed! WOOT! (Little things, I know.)
Yesterday I planted some Zucchini and Melon. I put them in egg cartons. Normally I wouldn't, because egg cartons are generally too shallow to do any seedling any good for any amount of time. However, I figure by the time these suckers peek through and get an inch or so tall, it should be time to put them out in the garden beds.

So, pokey holes in the bottom of the cups, 2/3 filled with soil, top 3rd with the cocopeat (coir), plunkety plunk with the seeds.




Oh, I also found a baggie of sunflower seeds, so when the zucchini and melon seeds ran out, I filled the rest of the cartons with those.

Oh, and in other news I almost killed some of the seedlings yesterday, by putting them on the front doorstep covered with the clear.. ugh, cover. It got too hot, and they all limped over. I saved them by watering them more and bringing them back inside. Whoops. That would have sucked. (This is where the swears go. And eyeball rolling.)

Today. Hmm. Today my biggest priority is to shower. And do some dishes. And eat. Probably to put some more radishes, lettuce and Swiss Chard out there too.

Have a rockin' day.

~Lori

Monday, April 11, 2011

You Treat Me Like I Was Your Ocean....


Today I showered in the morning, because the pixies slept at the In Laws/Loves house.

Today, in the early morning, my beloved and I sat silently on the nearly hour long country drive to the "big" hospital.

Today, a nurse pretended to be concerned and then stabbed me with an IV hook up that hurt like Fuckety fuck.

Today I sat like a lady in the teeny dress that my subconscious told me to wear before I woke, in hospital hallways. My first tattoo flash of the year.

Today, I got to listen to almost the whole Steve Miller Band album while getting buzzed and MRI'd for about half an hour. Bzzt Bzzt. I completely forgot about Jungle Love. How could that be? (I was tickled that they let me listen to music while probing my brain. The selection they had wasn't the greatest though.)

Today my beloved took me to Crock n Block for breakfast, where I was one hot mama among an awful lot of old people eating breakfast buffet. The men behind me were talking about church and politics and people I do not know. In between mouthfuls of my own omlette, I randomly threw in phrases such as "you're paying me by the hour" and "What does your wife think of this" and "Wow, you have six kids?" while my beloved tried to keep a straight face. (I behave badly when we're out with no pixies. I'm sure it's why he picked me.)

I also kept the schmexy Jessica Rabbit attitude while putting my jacket over my sore poked arm and smiling devilishly at the intrigued fellow behind us. (This is my idea of hilarious. We were also not in the town I live in, so in my head this is forgivable. Plus, I am a writer. If anyone ever calls me on it, I'll pull the "it's research" card.)

Today, we drove the nearly hour long drive home in silence. It's because I like to look out the window and listen to his super fun music compilations and daydream about being a teenager with magical powers, making all the other kids attending the Friday night dance do choreography with me and on Monday no one remembers exactly what happened except for the teacher I have a crush on who thinks I'm amazing and magical and smart...

Today I did some dishes.

Today I thought about living on a farm.
Today I Watched Little Britain while cross stitching on the couch.
Today I made soup out of a pile leftovers.
Today I drilled holes in some big rubbermaid containers to make a home for worms.
Today I listened to the pixies jibber jabber and didn't offer my beloved ANY tag-team parental help when the pixies swarmed him for 20 minutes. Literally, two little girls clinging to his person, while he tries to eat and listen to their excited stories. You'd think he'd be used to this after 2 years. hehe.

Now it is evening.

My throat is raw, and I'm going to eat icecream after the pixies are in bed, and all the tests are finally done, and I hope now It's almost time to get on with this new mysterious path.

Because I have a difficult time with being still.

~Lori

Thursday, April 7, 2011

I've Got A Brand New Pair of Scal-li-ons....

Arse. Swears. Filth Flarin' Filth.
Yeah, I said it.

The seedlings in trays on top of the fridge have been coming along swimmingly. The first peppers and eggplant were potted in newspaper cups I made. They were a bit big, so the next round I made smaller. I also made the mistake of sticking a greenhouse lid on them (the clear ones that come with the black plastic bases.)

and what did I discover a few nights ago? Dampening mould. Eww. And Arse.



It's been a very long time since I've had this problem with my seedlings. Years. What did I do differently? Well, I'm blaming the newspaper cups. It's the only variable.

Oh, and the coco peat (coir). any other year I've just pressed my seedlings into the starter soil, and off we went. So, I'm guessing between using newspaper, with a bit of coco peat on top of the soil, and with the lids on, it was just too damp.

ARGH. I covered them with soil the night before, and haven't watered since. The seedlings are all starting to pop out of the soil I topped, but some of the dampening mould is on some of the newspaper. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to dry out the paper fast enough, and keep the seedlings alive. The sun is nice and bright out, but it's not warm enough on the step to just put them out so that the sun can kill the mould. (they've been living on top of my fridge and lit with a flourescent lamp up nice and close.) So frustrating. But I'm hoping it'll all work out.

in other news, I've had Air Supply stuck in my head. "Making foooood..outta nothin' at all..."
(hehe. I'm not entirely sorry for sharing that little bit of nuttiness.)
I had a single clove of garlic left from a gift basket that came from my good friend Monika and her loving garden last fall. I stuck it in water to see if I could make it root, and I'm going to plunk it into the boxes somewhere out there. A total experiment.







I've also done the same thing with some Green Onions (Scallions) that we had in the fridge. The tops were shrivelled and have gone into the "It'll be soup someday" freezer bag. See how purdy they've rooted, and are coming up brand-new-green.

(oh there's another one. "I've got a brand new pair of Scal-li-ons.. you've got a brand new feed...")

Ok, that was reaching a bit.
Any thing you want to share about the dampening situation would be appreciated. Hopefully there'll be some super hero stories about saving the baby plantlets from the evil damp, instead of the dreaded "Get rid of them" that I'm figuring I'll be hearing.

~Lori

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

It Ain't Garbage - It's my Garden!

So, my yard LOOKS like a disaster, but looks can be deceiving. I'm pretty sure i'm THAT neighbour on my street. The front yard at this time of year is pretty unsightly, to onlookers. However, to me, it's just a spring work in progress.




First, there's the very dirty looking crab - used to be a sandbox for the pixies when they were wee little. NOW it's the place I start the last of my seedlings. Usually the tomatoes end up in here, or anything that gets started a little later in the spring, and still needs some over night coverage incase we get frost.



Then, there's the pile of .. what is that? It USED to be a metal shed. It crushed under the weight of snow, despite being fortified with wood. My teenager assumed I was clearing it, and I assumed he was, and then the first warm day of spring last year, CRACK! So, I had these piled up hoping for someone to come and take them away. This never happened and they got covered in snow. NOW, these pieces are holding layers of newspaper down (so they don't fly all over the neighbourhood.) so that hopefully come time to put the melons in there, I will NOT have to weed it. When the compost is ready, It'll go on top of the newspaper, for a nice layered mulch.
Oh, and look, Martha, a random 2 x 4 thrown in the yard.

Actually, it's sitting on the yard as a reminder to the children that underneath those leaves are some rows of my heirloom strawberries. Do NOT stomp past this piece of wood, pixies!

There are other things in the yard. Buckets that will be filled with soil for the container gardening plans, a big fish tank that is going to make a lovely green house for seedlings if it gets frosty..

Mind you, there is a broken fish tank out there, and some random acts of metal bits (some that are going to be used for trellises and tomato stakes - those big Boxcar Willie heirloom tomatoes get BIG and heavy) All of these things I'm going to try and make use of instead of just dumping them. Reuse, right?

But, there is a dump run on the list of things to do still. A few things absolutely unsalvageable.

However, all I see is potential. I wonder if I should go to the end of the driveway and explain to the concerned couples that there is a PLAN HERE?

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Read My Dirty-Girl Palm, Pea AND Toilet Rolls in the Dirt.


So, the snow peas went in yesterday with the help of pixies. They were eager for the fun bit (pushing the peas into the ground.) and quietly reluctant when it came time to put the meshing over the boxes.

Although they were both quite helpful and eager to help me smash the two long metal poles into the ground with a heavy metal shovel. It rang out across the neighbourhood like a morning bell: 'Wake up! It's spring!'


First, I had to dig out the soil from the pile of decomposing leaves I had buried the boxes in before winter. We flattened out the soil, and then the pixies squished the half toilet rolls in the ground, on either side of the chicken wire trellis I fumbled together. We were aiming for 4" apart, but some varied. That's what you get when you work with pixies. I've read about people just digging a trench along the ground and filling it with peas instead of worrying about spacing them, so I figured we'd just go with it.

Last year I bought rolls of plastic "chicken wire" (it's more like a netting.) I staple these cut-from-last-year pieces over the box, to keep the squirrels out. They are persistent little so-and-so's. And as I've mentioned before, my cats don't bother chasing them anymore.

When the peas are all done, (should be finished by the thirdish week in may) this box is going to be half pumpkin (On the edge, so it can trail out to a part of the yard we don't use.) and the other half sweet pepper. (I'll be brewing up some ever-so-yummy compost tea to liven up the soil after the hungry hungry peas have had their way with this box.)


TODAY I worked on a second garden box. Look, you can read my palm if you look real close. (feel free to let me know if you see more than a few weeks in my lifeline, eh.) These are the lettuce mix seeds.

I put in the first 6 rows, hoping my succession planting will work out. I picked up this little trick from a few different sources, but most notably a book from my Mom and Dad-in-Law/Love's house. About how you can plant far closer together, and then there's less room for weeds to creep in, and also planting things that are finished at different times, so early finishers get pulled first, leaving the later harvests to grow more.



So, the first row is a Bouquet Radish Mix (certified organic mix of Pink Beauty, White Beauty and Plum Purple.) These will be ready in 25-35 days.

The Second Row is a Bourmet Heirloom Leaf Lettuce Mix (organic, mix of Black Seeded Simpson, Green Oak Leaf, Red Deer Tongue, Australian Yellowleaf and Cracoviensis.) These mature in about 45 -55 days

The third row is a Five Colour Silverbeet Shard (Swiss Chard, and organic chard that come up in red, yellow, orange, pink and cream, and will make the garden pretty AND tasty! They should be ready to start harvesting in 55 to 60 days.)

I repeated this a second time, so there are 6 rows in, and then covered them up with the plastic chicken wire/netting, until I"m ready to put more rows in. I don't want 50 flipping lettuce heads ready all at once - although I know some of these will be coming to the farmers market with me in spring. Perilous Consciousness be damned, I've booked my spot for the year.

I had some coffee cans out there to help me space them. I'm not sure if you can see the rings in the dirt in the pic, but the radishes needed 4", so I used the mouth of the small can to make rings side by side in the to gauge the distance. The lettuce suggested 4 to 6" apart, so I used the big coffee can for that. The chard suggests 12 to 15" apart, which they will be by the time they are maturing, as the radishes will be out, and I'll probably pull half of the lettuces (the other half I'm going to try just removing the outer leaves or stubs so they'll continue to grow as long as they can through the summer.)

So, the deal with the toilet paper rolls... I read this somewhere too. This is going to help me know what is actually a plant as opposed to a weed. Some of these things I've never tried before, and I don't want to accidentally pull something thinking it's a weed. (Seriously, I know it sounds dorky, but I've done it.) I've also read that this can help keep slugs and cutworms out, if you just leave the cardboard tubes in place.

Because I've got nothing else really going on (except for feeding the family, writers block, and a slight fear of falling asleep and not waking up.) I've been all about the garden.

This might get repetitive. Just saying.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Finally - SNOW PEA WEEKEND!

Oh, I miss the garden. I've been reading other gardening blogs lately, and looking through my own garden pics from last year. *sigh*.

Yesterday it was up to 10 degrees Celsius (that's 50F) and I'm hoping today it will be just as nice out. Because for the last 2 weeks I've been antsy for the ground to be soft enough to put in peas! There's also lettuce and possibly a few other things by now that have to go into the ground. It'll be a full weekend of mucking about back there, and I'm eager for it.


Some lettuce should go in. The snow peas for sure. (I'm also going to have to rig up a trellis with chicken wire and some leftover metal bits from a tent that got bent out of shape a few years ago.)

My zucchini and melon is on the calendar to start next weekend indoors, and swiss chard and tomatoes aren't on the calendar for another 2 weekends (also in cells.) hopefully it will be warm enough to put them outside, in cells, in the covered kiddie sand box that I now use as a little "cold frame". (It's a plastic number, shaped as a big crab.) By then, I'll have run out of room inside.

If I put a pot of boiling water in the crab before bed, and close the lid, it should keep them warm enough until the sun comes up?? Last year I started them out there, too, but I think it was just cool enough to make them slow to start.

Anywho, gotta finish the coffee (the ONE I'm allowed to have a day) and my yoghurt and granola, get dressed, and drag the video game pixies out there with me. haha!

L.