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Ding! Time to get a jump on a fall garden

Jul 17th, 2010
by htwollin.
3 comments

OK, it’s mid-July here at Chez Siberia and it’s been horrifically hot. And dry. And the garden is not, shall we say, looking its best. We’re still harvesting but there are parts of beds that have been picked over, harvested out. There are lettuces that have bolted. (the photo above is basil – which does not look picked over or harvested out – but I’m going to start taking cuttings anyway so that I have fresh basil this winter)

In short, time to clear the decks to start things for a fall garden. (more…)

Electro-Netting for Sheep

Jun 6th, 2010
by htwollin.
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And, I’m back. Sort of. The orthopedist’s visit last week was a success and I’m assigned to start physical therapy tomorrow. I have to admit that I’m not really looking forward to this. It’s going to hurt and there is no way to step around that fact but it’s the only way I’m going to get even close to the mobility I had with the arm before I had the accident and broke my shoulder.

It’s been a little bit tough to put together content here because so much of what I do requires two hands but I’ve got something today because the two hands (well, technically the four hands since it is The Boy and the DH who did it; I just stood there and documented it) were provided by others. (more…)

and this is why I never put out tomatoes before Memorial Day

May 9th, 2010
by htwollin.
2 comments

That photo was taken this morning about 8:00 a.m. EST. It was 31 degrees F and very windy. Yesterday, we had rain, sleet, and obviously snow overnight.

Anyone in our area who had already put out tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants, and not with protection, woke up this morning with damaged plants. (more…)

Tool Repair: Garden Fork

Apr 18th, 2010
by htwollin.
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It’s spring (except if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case, it’s fall, but this will probably be useful for you folks too). And you want to work in the garden and go to wherever you store your garden tools (Well, let’s hope they got stored and not left to be covered with snow over the winter – don’t laugh; I just heard a tale from a coworker last week who relayed that she’d somehow left a garden rake out in the lawn over the winter and did not remember until her husband ran the mower over it). And what you find is that you’d put away a tool, thinking at the time, “I’ve GOT to fix this,” and you forgot and now you need it. (more…)

One Year Later – A Report

Mar 27th, 2010
by htwollin.
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Literally one year ago, I posted this report on the garden: End of March Report

Now, if you’d like to read that whole thing, go right ahead, but here are the three important bullet points:

By the end of March, 2009:
We’d had a very dry spring so far.
The Rhubarb was already up.
The soil temperatures all over the garden were in the 42-43 degrees F. range. (more…)

Landscape Plants On the Cheap – Rooting Roses

Mar 18th, 2010
by htwollin.
2 comments

Aunt Toby is, I am ashamed to say, a rose rustler. I am an absolute pushover for rose bushes in abandoned lots. In our fair city (and yes, if someone were to ask about it, I’d have to say, “Yep, it’s fair..”), I walk past a lot that on the down slope side, had been long ago turned into a parking lot in all of its asphalt paved glory. On the uphill side, facing a totally different street (and one which you can tell used to have some very nice houses on it in the 19th century), there is the remains of a paved walk and entrance, a rather imposing chain-link fence, and several scraggly rose bushes. These are not pampered roses – they are of the rather old fashioned, flat double type, about 2-3” across. Nothing to get excited about for sure. (more…)

Early Spring Gardening

Mar 14th, 2010
by htwollin.
1 comment

One of the things I find really attractive about gardening is that there is always something happening – even at a place like Chez Siberia (where parts of the property are Zone 2 in terms of what will survive). This week was no exception. You’d think that nothing is happening in the garden here but the sun proved that wrong. We had a week of 50-degree temperatures with lots of sun. I shoveled off one of the beds to start the process of warming things up and by the end of the week, the rest of the beds had been exposed on their own. And then I saw them – the garlic that we’d planted last fall. second chances (more…)

Bringing Spring

Mar 9th, 2010
by htwollin.
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Sometimes, Aunt Toby is wont (yes, wont) to taking things into her knobby but capable hands and not taking ‘no’ for an answer. This year’s winter has been, for practically the entire Continental United States, one long sitting through of “Ground Hog Day”.

Awful. Miserable. Interminable. (more…)

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

Feb 3rd, 2010
by htwollin.
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Is there anyone in the world who has not seen “Avatar”? Well, if you haven’t, what I’m going to say is NOT a spoiler. For those of you who have seen it, think of the scene where Sully first sees his avatar in the tank…floating there, in the moisture….happy..peaceful..content…

This photo shows something that is like that…only for growing transplants. (more…)

It’s Later Than You Think: Order Garden Seeds Now

Jan 24th, 2010
by htwollin.
5 comments

Aunt Toby hates to make great hulking generalizations but this year has been one for the books.
No matter where you live, the weather has been absolutely awful and totally out of the usual in terms of cold, rain, freezes, snow (tornado warnings in Phoenix, AZ?).

No matter where you live, the economy stinks.
No matter where you live, the winter veggies you get are grown in California, Arizona, South Texas and Florida. And those areas have gotten hit very hard and have suffered huge losses this year. Prices have already gone up because availability has gone way down. (more…)

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