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July, 2011:

Grow Bag: Proof in the Pudding

Jul 31st, 2011
by htwollin.
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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.

It’s “Glasweegians”, not Glasgowians….

Jul 26th, 2011
by htwollin.
4 comments

Glasgow Scotland has as long a history as Edinburgh, but no one would mistake Glasgow for Edinburgh. It would be like mistaking Boston for Pittsburgh. The city has been playing ‘cultural catchup’ for three hundred years, with the tobacco and sugar barons of the 17th and 18th centuries putting their money where their status was and the same thread continuing with heavy metal industries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. One thing that sets Glasgow apart as a city is the strong connections between its economic life and its feeling about itself as a place. Although there is still a strong picture of those ‘with’ and those ‘without’ in the 19th and early 20th centuries, (more…)

Is This Trip Necessary?

Jul 24th, 2011
by htwollin.
3 comments

People make all sorts of decisions about why they want to go on a trip. Sometimes, it’s strictly the ‘gotta get away’ aspect; sometimes it’s the long term ‘we’ve always wanted to go there’ issue. In our case, due to other family issues, the DH and I have not been able to get away for several years and wanted a real ‘no cell phones/no one at work able to get to us’ trip. One of the things we wanted to do was a bit of a stroll down Memory Lane – or actually the Memory Lane of two other people. (more…)

In praise of laundramats

Jul 8th, 2011
by htwollin.
1 comment

Boy, is taking pictures of stuff that’s black hard! Apologies for the blechy photo. As readers might recall, Aunt Toby and the DH are going on a bit of a ‘vacances’ to the UK starting next week (and that’s right, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to blog while we are away; sincere attempts shall be made). And packing is always a challenge but doubly so for travel in the summer in the UK (and it all depends literally if you are in the north or south, on the west coast or the east coast). We will be traveling from London to Glasgow in Scotland and from there to Cornwall and back to London with a side trip to Bath. So, between north and south and west coast, we will need to be ready for anything short of snow (and only because we are not going to Ben Nevis in Scotland). (more…)

CPR for Annuals: Peat and Repeat

Jul 4th, 2011
by htwollin.
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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…)

Busy Summer Days

Jul 3rd, 2011
by htwollin.
5 comments

Well, like everyone else in the summer, we tend to throw the household into ‘overdrive’ because so many things need to be done and can only get done when a) they are in season and b) the weather is warm and dry enough to do them. So, this week has been super busy, starting out mid-week when our eldest daughter called me when I was coming home from work to announce that a local apple grower also had sweet cherries and they were ready to pick and would I like to come along (Would I?!). In Upstate New York, the fruit schedule goes strawberries (and we are just about done with that), then sweet cherries and raspberries, then pie cherries, then early blue berries, then maincrop blues and black berries and early apples, then late blues and early peaches and plums and more apples and on it goes through the fall with apples until nearly November, when all we basically can go out and do ‘you pick’ for is Northern Spy apples which are great for baking. (more…)