La Hora de Fotografia Ha Llegado

The Bright Side

As I predicted, or rather crossed my fingers for, the tomatoes and peppers are enjoying this heat. I'm pretty sure the pepper I planted from seed, called Fish, has doubled in size in about a week. I think it is time to kill its seed-starter-cup-mate. The friend is much more attractive, with lots more variegation, but it seems to have a problem growing. All of its leaves are oddly deformed and it grows much slower. I think I'll just have to deal with the not-so-variegated pepper plant. I prefer a handsome plant that actually makes peppers to a seductively striped one. Adios, shmexy. So far the lettuce and peas are doing alright. I rigged up some sun shades for them and have been misting them before school and after school. The lettuce of course practically wilts into the ground while I'm gone which might be bad for flavor and general lettucey happiness, but at least they haven't died. I did find an invader though. Some narsty little caterpillar, surely not for a good butterfly species, was hiding in one of my romaines. It had poop all over the place and was just sulking in there. I attacked it with my hose's jet function and intend to remove it. I am a believer in monarch butterflies and swallowtails and all, but this caterpillar reeked of badness. If it is a good one that'll be a bummer, but at least its only one of them. If I find more I will be upset.

I really want peas. I've heard that homegrown peas, like most other homegrowns, are far superior to their supermarket counterparts. I just hope we get some. And also: beans. We may have a problem with some in the earthbox. They sort of got stuck under the black cover thing and may day. I rescued them yesterday and they looked fine but today they look pretty brown. Some are okay, but some, well, not so much. We'll give them a few days before we sound the replanting alarm. The carrots are looking good, both the ones that sprouted in, yes, seven days in the earthbox, and the ones I planted awhile ago with the peas. Its funny to see the difference between the peas and carrots. The carrots have maybe 3 real leaves on them so far, the peas are about three feet tall. Exaggeration, yes, but they are growing really nicely. The potatoes are still the superstars though. They actually are three feet tall and look like maybe they'll flower soon, surely they can't grow much bigger. They must really love this compost they're growing in. The potatoes up in the reject plot look much wimpier. They did sit around inside longer and get a shady area, but still. I like to think the compost was a good idea despite contrary advice.

Probably the most exciting thing right now is school. I have 2 more days and then I am done with JFK High School forever. Just have to graduate this Friday and I can walk away and never look back. I really hate high school. SO much drama and lameness. And the 'rents sort of get annoying around the house as well. I am ready for a roomie that hopefully won't be creepy and we can be best friends and call each other "mate" and whatnot. It'll be a blast. Anyway, all you people out there (Chuckle, chuckle, nobody reads this. story of my life) have a fantastic end of May.

Peace

Where's the good in this?

So my beans finally sprouted today while I was at work. All 10 of them in my little earthbox are up and running. I went over to see the ones in the real garden to find just one alive, the rest bitten off at the stem and ripped to pieces. Goddamn chipmunks/rabbits. If I see one there I just might kill it. Grr. Where is the good side of this? Who knows. And I only have 8 bean seeds left. Does anyone know of a way to scare these sorts of creatures away?

Evicted

So yesterday I went to check on the baby bunnies, as I do somewhat frequently, and they were not home. This was the second day in a row that they were not home when I investigated. I'm not sure if they moved out or what, but I decided that if they were mobile enough to be not there two days in a row that they were going to be evicted. I removed the upper portion of their nest so basically all the have is their dirt floor now. A little bit rude, I must admit, but my lettuce will thank me.

Speaking of lettuce, we may have a problem. And speaking of problems, the peas may have one too. I've heard they don't do so well in extreme heat. Its still may, and yet the next week's forecast is all upper eighties and into the nineties, with heat index of over 100. My peas haven't even started forming blossoms yet, but I'm sure this won't help. And the lettuce is maybe just going to wilt away and die. Not cool weatherman, not cool.

To look on the bright side (there is always a bright side) the tomatoes will love it. They've not been growing too fast but I'm feeling like they're about to shoot up now and start that foot-a-day growth program they were on last year. The beans still haven't sprouted which surprises me. I'm hoping when I go look in on the garden today they will have done that because I want some beans!

Also, I bought the book Backyard Homestead which looks like it will be pretty helpful. It shows you how on a sunny quarter acre you can grow: 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2000 pounds of vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, and 75 pounds of nuts. Double your land to 1/2 acre and raise three goats and a cow. I'm not sure how much meat you can get from a cow but I'm sure its quite a lot. It also teaches you how to "cook, preserve, cure, brew, or pickle the fruits of your labor." Sounds nice for someone that just planted their first -ever potatoes, lettuce, peas, beans, and carrots. I'd like to raise a pig or some chickens but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't fly with the parents.

Anyway, I'm avoiding my psych project so I should probably go.

Peace.

Scoundrels

Since the weather has been pretty warm I decided to just plant the beans today. Those scoundrels at Seed Savers gave me more seeds than they said on their packet, and I mixed the beans with the bacteria that help them fix nitrogen. Well there I was, planting away, when I had gotten about 30 into the ground. Well I looked in my cup with the unplanted fellows and there still seemed to be a mighty lot of them. I counted. 40. What on earth. They gave me twenty extra seeds? The nerve! Those free-seed-giving scoundrels! I couldn't believe it. Normally this would be no big deal, but my garden doesn't have loads of extra space just sitting around, and these moist, bacteria-laden seeds certainly were not going back into their packet. Frustrated, I went up to the old, shade-smothered, weed-infested area we used to call garden and got to work. I first attacked some weeks with a spade thinger and then made a little area that I covered in straw to kill any stragglers. I loosened up the dense clay and then planted about 20 more seeds. There was no more room anywhere. Determined not to let these 15-20 seeds just die, I washed them off and then put them on a paper towel to (hopefully) dry off and maybe remain viable. The type of bean is rather boring, Burpee's bush, but that's the type of bean my mom grew up with so she really wanted that one. I think next year I might go for a Purple Podded Pole. Those ones sure look fun, don't they? Yeah, I thought so, too.

So I can't remember if I posted about this yet so I'll pretend I haven't. One day, a few weeks ago, I was in the garden frolicking in the dirt and generally having a wee of a time when some of my straw mulch started moving. Rather disconcerted, I started to pick away at the straw to see a weird little mole pushing it's way out of the dirt. How dare it! Suddenly, the mole was no longer a mole and instead was two tiny little chipmunks. Good grief. Not only were chipmunks all over the yard digging little tunnels, they had already moved into MY garden. Of course, I couldn't do anything about them so I just gave them dirty looks and covered them back up with dirt. The next day or two there was a rabbit sitting next to my lettuce, which I promptly chased away threatening guns and warfare, seeing as the rabbit wasn't the one with the kids, it just wanted lettuce.

Today, I went to show my friend the cute little chipmunk babies to discover that 1) they were not chipmunks. 2) In the week or two since their discovery, they've grown to practically five times their original size and may be eating all of my lettuce. They must be doing it very sneakily because a plant hasn't disappeared yet, but hey. I know rabbits are sneaky. You never know. They need to move out like right now. I'm of course not going to do anything about them but I will be quite upset if my newly transplanted tomatoes get eaten. Here's some pictures of the cute little things, including one ironic one where it is hiding underneath my Forellenschuss.
Oh yeah. And did I mention how many of them there are? Five. Five rabbits and a mom! That is a lot of lettuce to eat....Isn't it cute? This one even let me pet it for a minute before it realized that I indeed was not a lettuce leaf, after which it launched itself headfirst into the metal side of a meat smoker before disappearing under a pine tree. Very endearing, but surely rather uncomfortable for that fuzzy little nose.

Lettuce!

The lettuce is finally what I think people call "teenager" size. Its not a baby, but its too soon to be a full head yet. The romaine (forellenschuss) is definitely growing much better than the butterhead (Yugoslavian Red). The peas are doing okay, but not shooting up as fast as some people seem to imply. The sugar pod ones are doing much better than the normal snap peas though, that's for sure. The potatoes have grown at least 42 feet since I planted them and are showing the rest of the plants up by far. The random leftover potatoes in the old "garden" aren't doing so hot, but they get less sunlight and have crappy soil. The little tomatoes and peppers and whatnot that I planted are doing just great which makes me rather proud. The carrots had pretty crappy germination and also have only grown like one leaf each so they certainly are in no hurry. Other than that the garden is pretty much just doin' its thing and waiting for more plants...

Do I Know You...?

Let's begin with story time, shall we? One day many years ago when I was but a young chap (ie about 6 years old) my dad decided he should force me to eat asparagus. This presented two problems. The first is that I was already full from eating my spaghetti-o's. The second was that I hated asparagus and did not wish to consume any. Well too bad for me, the asparagus was unwillingly eaten. Unfortunately for my dad, I had such a hatred for this nasty green crap that I promptly threw it up all over the table, and probably all over him as well. I don't remember that part. Just the counter.

The good news is that in my advanced wisdom and age 12 years later I have determined I will like that gosh darn vegetable if it kills me. So, I did some recipe hunting, keeping an eye out for a recipe that did not star el esparrago as the main ingredient. Lo and behold I found one. And I ate it. And I could barely taste those green little stick vegetable things. Thank goodness. Now I'll just slowly increase the amount and find more recipes and voila! A love for asparagus will be formed. Hopefully. Here's the recipe though:

1 pound sausage (I used 3 Johnsonville spicy italian brats and it was just fine)
1 medium onion (I used a really big onion because onions are scary good)
4-5 mediumish potatoes
1 pound or so of fresh asparagus
1/2 cup water
liberal amounts of freshly ground pepper
sprinkle of salt
1/2 cup of cheese

1. Cut up the sausage or brats and chop the onion, cook until the sausage is browned.
2. Add the chopped up potatoes and the water and cook for 10 minutes, stirring every 2-3
3. Add the asparagus and a little bit more water and cook for an addition 10 minutes, stirring every 2-3 minutes again
4. With one minute to spare add the salt, pepper, and cheese and allow to all melt together into deliciousness
5. Serve, eat, and be happy



In other news, the heat today just about killed some of the lettuce. I got home from the ridiculously hard AP Spanish test and school to find just about every single plant keeling over and pretty much near death. I gave them all a good soaking and kept my fingers crossed. A few hours later I went back out to see happily perked up leaves, but also a few battle wounds. A few of the leaves maintained their semblance of death and I highly doubt a recovery. Overall though, crisis averted. Also, check out this blog.