Gardening, Not Cooking
Jul. 8th, 2008 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Did not cook tonight. I choose to blame this on tension pain throughout the shoulders and head. Eventually the Advil killed it enough that I got on to a task I've been putting off for a week, which is transferring some of the plants I started from seed into my patio postage stamp garden.
A dozen pickling cucumber plants now line the west wall (the trellis goes up and in front of the kitchen window; we'll see if they climb that high), the center trellis that's shaped a bit like a "more than" sign ( > ) has four watermelon plants along the south/lower half and three galia melon plants along its north/upper half (I reserved two of each plant for my mother's garden), and the trellis along the west wall (under the stairs) has a dozen snow pea plants below it. I still have a half-dozen summer squash plants to tuck into odd corners, and an equal amount of chard plants to tuck in here and there as well, but I was developing a blister from the trowel and it had gotten dark to boot. Tomorrow, maybe.
I did spot a green caterpillar, though, which Wonderful Husband kindly plucked off its pot for me and crushed underfoot, him being closer to the culprit. Hopefully that's the only one that's been munching on my veg, but I'm not holding my breath. It managed to put holes in my basil, horseradish, and pak choi leaves, and killed one of the bean seedling I started for my mother. Overall I'm pleased with my seed-starting rate when I do it in six-packs on the patio, though. That was the only bean seedling that failed to make it. I think my biggest failure rate has been sprouting only five out of the last seven galia melon seeds I had; everything else I pretty much got them all. This kinda makes up for all the failures I've had at the community garden.
I did pick up hot water bath canning equipment from my mother this afternoon, and turned down the offer of the pressure canner for now because I don't feel comfortable using that until I have her with me going through the process at least once. Boiling water is a known quantity; pressurized air, less so. Tomorrow, if I'm lucky, I'll cook...
A dozen pickling cucumber plants now line the west wall (the trellis goes up and in front of the kitchen window; we'll see if they climb that high), the center trellis that's shaped a bit like a "more than" sign ( > ) has four watermelon plants along the south/lower half and three galia melon plants along its north/upper half (I reserved two of each plant for my mother's garden), and the trellis along the west wall (under the stairs) has a dozen snow pea plants below it. I still have a half-dozen summer squash plants to tuck into odd corners, and an equal amount of chard plants to tuck in here and there as well, but I was developing a blister from the trowel and it had gotten dark to boot. Tomorrow, maybe.
I did spot a green caterpillar, though, which Wonderful Husband kindly plucked off its pot for me and crushed underfoot, him being closer to the culprit. Hopefully that's the only one that's been munching on my veg, but I'm not holding my breath. It managed to put holes in my basil, horseradish, and pak choi leaves, and killed one of the bean seedling I started for my mother. Overall I'm pleased with my seed-starting rate when I do it in six-packs on the patio, though. That was the only bean seedling that failed to make it. I think my biggest failure rate has been sprouting only five out of the last seven galia melon seeds I had; everything else I pretty much got them all. This kinda makes up for all the failures I've had at the community garden.
I did pick up hot water bath canning equipment from my mother this afternoon, and turned down the offer of the pressure canner for now because I don't feel comfortable using that until I have her with me going through the process at least once. Boiling water is a known quantity; pressurized air, less so. Tomorrow, if I'm lucky, I'll cook...
