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Fall Gardening Chores

Nov 6th, 2011
by htwollin.
5 comments

Good afternoon, my little cheese puffs – it is time today to talk about ‘putting things off,’ or procrastinating. This year, in late October in the Mid-Atlantic states, we got a little lesson in how Mother Nature can flex her muscles. We can’t really complain up at Chez Siberia – all we got out of the storm was a couple of inches of light fluffy dry snow. Folks at the coast from Pennsylvania to Connecticut got hammered (I think I saw a measurement of 19″ in northern New Jersey. That is serious snow, people) and many of them still do not have power. I am sure when people looked out into their gardens, they were reminded that they needed to do some tidying up before ‘real’ winter comes. (more…)

I’m going to take my money and…

Oct 30th, 2011
by htwollin.
3 comments

There’s a lot of interest and discussion in the US for individuals making their feelings known to ‘the big banks’ about what they’ve done to the economy (not only here but also abroad). And one of the most popular appears to be people closing their accounts with the ‘too big to fail/we gave them bailout money’ banks and moving their money to either a locally owned bank or a credit union. And if you want to know who the so-called big banks are, the list is here: Solari Tapeworm 20

But, how do you know if a bank is ‘locally owned’? And can you join any credit union you want to? (more…)

“Talk To Me!” Results

Oct 2nd, 2011
by htwollin.
Comments are off for this post

I’d like to thank all the people who took the time to answer the survey. In any blog situation, ‘lurkers’ out-number ‘participators’ by a huge margin so I did not know what sort of response I would get but I not only got answers, I was so happy to read the comments as well. Thank you so much.

OK – for those of you out there who keep score:
23% of respondents want more sewing videos
21% of respondents want more articles on money management, jobs and personal economy
21% of respondents want more videos on cooking
15% of respondents want more videos on knitting
8% of respondents want more indepth articles and collections to download
5% of respondents are interested in interviews

And in a totally mind-blowing lack of enthusiasm, NO ONE wants pod-casts. I guess you guys are all visual creatures and need to either read it or watch it. No problems – will of the people and all that.

So, readers should expect some changes here, perhaps a more coherent schedule (like, cooking videos on the weekend, economics during the week or something like that) plus perhaps some physical organizational changes as well.

Onward!

Grow Bag: Proof in the Pudding

Jul 31st, 2011
by htwollin.
Comments are off for this post

About a month ago, we discussed the fact that a) we’d gone past any growing space in the garden, b) I had huge numbers of basil plants that needed to go someplace, and c) what to do. The DH created ‘grow bags’ (which is a product which seemed to exist about 20 years ago but is not out there now) out of old chicken feed bags and really good compost. After I transplanted the little plants, things looked like the picture at the top.

Today, things look very different. The bags were a complete success, but they could have been a disaster, given the horrible hot and dry weather the Mid-Atlantic states had while we were away. Like any container planting, these needed attention, which was provided by our intrepid son, who stayed at home to work, take care of the chickens and turkeys, interface with Septic System Man and his evil minion, Electrical Pump Person, and water what needed watering.

He watered the basil-in-a-bag every couple of days during the hot spell, and saved it all. Thank goodness for him.

Now, I have to admit that the first thing I had to do was pinch back the incipient flowers at the tops of the plants when we got back, but I will be able to start harvesting very soon, and turning this into dried and frozen herbs and also pesto. Also, another advantage we had in saving this was that the bags were located in an area which gets shade from a maple tree during the hottest part of the day, which helped keep the contents of the bags cooler.

So, next year, if you buy the super-gigantic-hugey-anything larger and it’s going into a truck size of bagged grow mix or peat moss or even chicken feed, save…the….bags. Just roll them up and tuck them away so that if you end up in the same situation we did (too many seedlings and no place to put them), then you can get some compost and turn your bags into grow bags.

This works.

CPR for Annuals: Peat and Repeat

Jul 4th, 2011
by htwollin.
Comments are off for this post

So, here we are, into the really hot weather in Upstate NY and the annuals, as they say, are looking a bit peak-ed. Now, part of that comes with annual territory since the job of an annual plant is to grow, flower, set seed and they are done. There are ways to lengthen that period, such as pinching back, dead heading and so on but in the end, it’s a race against seed formation. (more…)

Fix the Hose

May 28th, 2011
by htwollin.
Comments are off for this post

Winter is really hard on garden equipment, especially if you (ahem, like we did) leave things out. It is especially hard on hoses because there is always some water in some bend in the hose and then it freezes and expands and weakens the hose. UV rays are also tough on hoses too, so you combine that little weakness in the hose with UV and heat and voila! A leaky hose. Now, replacing a hose is expensive and actually rather wasteful. I don’t even want to think about the millions of leaky hoses that have been thrown into the garbage and trucked up to the country’s landfills. Your problem with the hose is NOT the hose (no, this is not Zen of hose fixing..); your problem is the place in the hose where the leak is. (more…)

Gardening on the Wild Side

May 9th, 2011
by htwollin.
2 comments

Time was, when we thought our biggest garden menace were the ground hogs, though we have always found that if we ‘encouraged’ outdoor kitties in the area, the amount of détente that could be achieved in the tooth and claw area was enough to establish a certain balance in our garden. Not that I really like sharing produce, mind you; I have a vivid memory of watching in fascination as a rather roly poly ground hog, made his way up a row of ‘the big garden’ (which was actually rather far from the house – that might have been a cue right there – we have had ‘the little garden’ which is literally right across the driveway and which I can hit with a rock if I, ahem, so choose), literally pulling up carrots and onions, taking a bite, and moving on down the produce aisle. All that was missing was a basket. (more…)

Plants and no place to put them? Heel them in.

Apr 3rd, 2011
by htwollin.
Comments are off for this post

I know it’s hard sometimes to remember “BTI” (Before the Internet) but there was a time when what people had going for them was referred to as ‘sending away’. Even before ‘direct mail’, there were box tops, advertisements in magazines, and catalogs (remember those?). Even before credit cards were opened up in a big way in the 80s, people were putting checks, money orders and God help us, actual cash inside envelops with order forms or even just a note on a piece of paper with an order and sending it away. Many many companies have made their zillions in mail order; I remember ordering stuff when I was in college and growing begonias in my room (the other kids down the hall had some weird thing going on with a closet and a lot of aluminum foil – I never asked…). But I know a lot of people don’t or won’t order plants through the mail – I think for a lot of people there is this whole thing about ‘and what do I do if the stuff shows up and I’m not ready? What do I do?” (more…)

Enjoying Winter More: More Books Worth Having

Feb 12th, 2011
by htwollin.
2 comments

A lot of people have really ‘had it’ with the winter this year. I don’t blame them. If, gentle reader, you are from a part of the country that under ordinary climate circumstances, doesn’t get below 35 degrees F and never gets but a scattering of snow, this year has been nasty to say the least. It is extremely ironic to offer you means of ‘enjoying winter more’ when you have not been ‘enjoying’ winter at all. (more…)

More Gardening Weird Science: Saving and growing your own

Jan 22nd, 2011
by htwollin.
2 comments

A very very long time ago, when Aunt Toby was Little Toby (and my mom used to use me as an example in her college parenting classes), our family had a dentist friend who was an absolutely amazing gardener. Not with veggies, mind you – his entire garden was devoted to his work with roses and when he retired and moved to sunnier and warmer climes, he went around offering rose bushes to his friends before he sold the house. My parents were the lucky recipients of four rugosa roses which grew to amazing Rapunzel heights on the south side of their house, in a mixture of cement, clay, and goodness only knows what (My Mama was NOT a good gardener; any plant sunk into a hole in her garden was on its own). What would have happened to those roses if they’d been given the least encouragement with real soil or some compost is truly frightening to contemplate (can we all say “Little Shop of Horrors”? Knew you could). (more…)

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