We all have our lists of things to do. These are a few of mine...
Books
1. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
2. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
3. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
4. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
5. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
6. The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt
7. The Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr
Music
1. Hyms to the Darkness by Jeff Zentner
2. Chasing Locusts by Strawfoot
3. Furr by Blitzen Trapper
4. Ghost Dance by The Pine Hill Haints
5. Regard the End by Willard Grant Conspiracy
6. Miss Halfway by Anya Marina
7. Elysium for the Brave by Azam Ali
Vegetables
1. Beans: Mayflower, Good Mother Stallard, Lazy Housewife
2. Carrots: Dragon, St. Valery
3. Lettuce: Cracoviensis, Amish Deer Tongue, Tango
4. Hot Peppers: Black Hungarian, Rooster Spur
5. Sweet Pepper: Chervena Chushka, Napoleon Sweet
6. Peas: Amish Snap
7. Tomatoes: Crnkovic Yugoslavian, Black Krim
I'm still debating whether I want to tangle with squash vines and cucumbers. Not that I don't love both, but they take up soooooooo much space.
Heirloom Seed Banks: Seed Saver's Exchange, Baker Creek Seeds, Heirloom Seeds
Moon Report: 100% of full. Full Moon.
Outside the Window: Wet snow. Coldish. Overcast.
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
14 December 2008
Garden Planning Time
Moon Report: Waning Gibbous, 92% of full
Yes. It is December. The big late winter seed catalog won't be here before February. However, I'm planning for the new garden like mad. All the descriptions offered in seed catalogs and online are very tempting--why choose one when ten sound great?
My goal: to can, freeze, store enough food to cut the grocery bill more than half. It will also be much cheaper to grow my own fresh veggies than paying for them at the store. Although one reason to do so is to know exactly where my food is from, my primary reason is that half the veggies at the grocery stores around here are less than in their prime state. Sometimes they have been picked over or sometimes they just don't look that appetizing.
I am looking for open pollinated plants--something that I can save seed from to reproduce plants the following year.
Helpful Seed Places
Seed Savers Exchange http://www.seedsavers.org/
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds http://rareseeds.com/seeds/
Heirloom Seeds http://www.heirloomseeds.com/
What I am planning on at the moment:
1. Garlic--German Extra Hardy (already in the ground)
2. Onions--this is one I have yet to decide on.
3. Spinach--Monnopa
4. Lettuce--Amish Deer Tongue, Cracoviensis, Green Oakleaf, and Slobolt
5. Peas--Shelling: Alderman, Green Arrow; Snap: Amish Snap, Sugar Daddy
6. Cucumber--Mexican Sour Gherkin
7. Winter Squash--Thelma Sanders' Sweet Potato (acorn-type), Musquee de Provence, and either Amish Pie or Blue Hubbard.
8. Carrots--St. Valery and Dragon
9. Celery--Tendercrisp
10. Beets--Chioggia
11. Beans--Pole: Mayflower, Good Mother Stallard, Lazy Housewife, and Rattlesnake Snap; Bush: Empress, Hutterite, and White Marrowfat
12. Soybeans--Shirofumi
13. Peppers--Sweet: Bull Nose Bell, Quadrato d'Asti Giallo, Quadrato d'Asti Rosso, Chervena Chushka, and Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Italian Frying Pepper; Hot(ish): Black Hungarian, and Hinkelhatz
14. Tomatoes--Brandywine, Ananas Noire, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Blondkopfchen, Black Krim, Marmande, and Great White
I'm still looking into maybe growing mustard and okra and asparagus...
Yes. It is December. The big late winter seed catalog won't be here before February. However, I'm planning for the new garden like mad. All the descriptions offered in seed catalogs and online are very tempting--why choose one when ten sound great?
My goal: to can, freeze, store enough food to cut the grocery bill more than half. It will also be much cheaper to grow my own fresh veggies than paying for them at the store. Although one reason to do so is to know exactly where my food is from, my primary reason is that half the veggies at the grocery stores around here are less than in their prime state. Sometimes they have been picked over or sometimes they just don't look that appetizing.
I am looking for open pollinated plants--something that I can save seed from to reproduce plants the following year.
Helpful Seed Places
Seed Savers Exchange http://www.seedsavers.org/
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds http://rareseeds.com/seeds/
Heirloom Seeds http://www.heirloomseeds.com/
What I am planning on at the moment:
1. Garlic--German Extra Hardy (already in the ground)
2. Onions--this is one I have yet to decide on.
3. Spinach--Monnopa
4. Lettuce--Amish Deer Tongue, Cracoviensis, Green Oakleaf, and Slobolt
5. Peas--Shelling: Alderman, Green Arrow; Snap: Amish Snap, Sugar Daddy
6. Cucumber--Mexican Sour Gherkin
7. Winter Squash--Thelma Sanders' Sweet Potato (acorn-type), Musquee de Provence, and either Amish Pie or Blue Hubbard.
8. Carrots--St. Valery and Dragon
9. Celery--Tendercrisp
10. Beets--Chioggia
11. Beans--Pole: Mayflower, Good Mother Stallard, Lazy Housewife, and Rattlesnake Snap; Bush: Empress, Hutterite, and White Marrowfat
12. Soybeans--Shirofumi
13. Peppers--Sweet: Bull Nose Bell, Quadrato d'Asti Giallo, Quadrato d'Asti Rosso, Chervena Chushka, and Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Italian Frying Pepper; Hot(ish): Black Hungarian, and Hinkelhatz
14. Tomatoes--Brandywine, Ananas Noire, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Blondkopfchen, Black Krim, Marmande, and Great White
I'm still looking into maybe growing mustard and okra and asparagus...
available star-crossed references:
gardening
26 June 2008
Hiccups of Time
Moon Report: third quarter. 46% of full.
I just finished reading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Easy read. Very funny "end of the world" story. Angels and Demons and the Antichrist, age 11, refuses the job.
Lately, I am obsessed with learning how to garden. Actually, I have been struggling with a garden drowning in feral fennel and saplings that keep springing up from rootballs yet to be dug up. My peppers and my tomatoes are growing like mad and my little onions seem to be doing well...although I don't know when to pick them. I also collected my rhubarb seed and i'm gonna plant a few and let them grow in pots all summer and see if they spring up true to their parents.
I read Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. That started my new obsession. So I have been reading about square foot gardening, gardening design, how to grow veggies and collect seed, sustainable agriculture, etc. My goal is to re-configure the back garden so I can grow winter squash and pole beans and maybe even (one day) corn.
I've also been reading about chickens. I think I want a few. Right now I think I will probably get a Faverolle (probably a Salmon Faverolle as they are most common here), a Partridge or Barred Plymouth Rock, and if I can find one: a Cuckoo Maran. Now I need to wait for the county fair to go check out the local chickens and ask a TON of questions from people who raise them. I do NOT want a rooster as my neighbors would string me up...but hens are fairly quiet...I'm sure they'd make less noise than the 24 hr barking dog next door.
OOH...go watch SuziBluTube on YouTube! Art is fun!
Book Notes
I just finished reading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Easy read. Very funny "end of the world" story. Angels and Demons and the Antichrist, age 11, refuses the job.
Lately, I am obsessed with learning how to garden. Actually, I have been struggling with a garden drowning in feral fennel and saplings that keep springing up from rootballs yet to be dug up. My peppers and my tomatoes are growing like mad and my little onions seem to be doing well...although I don't know when to pick them. I also collected my rhubarb seed and i'm gonna plant a few and let them grow in pots all summer and see if they spring up true to their parents.
I read Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. That started my new obsession. So I have been reading about square foot gardening, gardening design, how to grow veggies and collect seed, sustainable agriculture, etc. My goal is to re-configure the back garden so I can grow winter squash and pole beans and maybe even (one day) corn.
I've also been reading about chickens. I think I want a few. Right now I think I will probably get a Faverolle (probably a Salmon Faverolle as they are most common here), a Partridge or Barred Plymouth Rock, and if I can find one: a Cuckoo Maran. Now I need to wait for the county fair to go check out the local chickens and ask a TON of questions from people who raise them. I do NOT want a rooster as my neighbors would string me up...but hens are fairly quiet...I'm sure they'd make less noise than the 24 hr barking dog next door.
OOH...go watch SuziBluTube on YouTube! Art is fun!
available star-crossed references:
art,
book review,
chickens,
gardening
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