A few days ago two-handed me would have considered picking the blackeyed peas in there a nice little gardening challenge. I would have welcomed the opportunity to exercise some of my family-famous agility. Today one-handed me considers picking blackeyes rather problematic. Mr. Big Food offered to help by going into the thick of things. “Can
The Bermuda grass that was smothering the Liriope is under control– not eradicated, just very much under control. Nothing else is but I am partial to that edge of chaos look. Tumbling over the Liriope and some sedum are a couple of blackeyed peas. I think I planted three seeds. There are baby blackeyes! Unfortunately,
This is a newly hatched tomato horn worm. Lord knows I’ve seen hornworms, but I’ve never seen a freshly hatched one. It hasn’t even eaten enough to change color yet! The small black egg is where it’s from. The cream colored egg has not yet hatched. I can see the horn in the top two
SueK just commented, asking why I don’t just plant/scatter the pods? Good question. I know just where I’ll try that after they do the October bush hogging. Interestingly, it’s not the pods that fall to the ground, naturally. The seeds fall out of the pods. We’ll do the botany lesson some other time, though. If
Originally posted July 2015. You can never have too many pickle recipes. PRIZE WINNING BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES Makes 5 1½ pint jars 16-20 medium cucumbers, sliced ¼ inch thick10 small onions, sliced1/3 C canning saltIce cubes3 C vinegar2 C sugar2 Tbsp mustard seeds2 tsp turmeric2 tsp celery seeds1 tsp ground ginger1 tsp peppercorns Combine
I mentioned at the time that they would form very attractive seed pods. And so they have. All of the patches had gotten a bit unwieldy this year so I set out to pull it all out and cut off the pods so I could save the seeds and sow them elsewhere. Plenty have already
Originally posted July 2015. I believe I might have told you not to plant the whole packet of cucumber seeds. “When cucumbers are plentiful, put up a batch or two of crunchy dill pickles. They’re great for sandwiches and to garnish potato, tuna and other salads.”—The Garlic Lovers’ Cookbook (1980) GARLIC DILL PICKLES I Makes
I’d had three stalks of day lilies on the dining room table for about a week, and then pitched them before PEOPLE came out Sunday. It was actually quite a head-turner walking past. Poof! Treasure in the Trash. Take it where you find it. CLARIFICATION: They all looked dead to me when I threw them
I’ll be posting a few pickle recipes over the next few weeks. ‘Tis cucumber season, after all. This one was originally posted July 2020. It’s a good one! BH AND G DILL PICKLES AND KOSHER VARIATION FOR EACH QUART ½ lb 4 inch cucumbers (5-6)3-4 heads fresh dill1 tsp mustard seed1 C water½ C cider
What a morning! I’m whooped. Mr. Big Food and I worked together on the Shortcut to the Hidden Pasture. It’s really The J-Man’s job but, you know, The J-Man doesn’t live here anymore so we have to do what we have to do.
Lovely, isn’t it? Daughter C planted gladiolas in her garden several years ago. The kitchen window in the Apartment over looks the garden. She staggered the planting so they’ve been blooming for a few weeks now. All different colors, too. Always something to look at if you live in the Apartment! Or take a walk
A few days ago, I posed a question to SueK and JoBeth, both of whom are Country Mice. So Country Mice, if you had the opportunity to advise a City Mouse who is considering changing his ways, what would you say? The premise was that “current events are prompting some City Mice to reflect on
For the past three or four mornings I’ve been cleaning up the front beds. Long term objective is low to no maintenance appealing shrubbery with the never ending volunteer flowers. Meanwhile, as the gardenias, hollies, and Italian cypress have not achieved full size there’s space, so I plant blackeyes and okra in there. They will
Now we are using fresh oregano, but come this fall we’ll switch to dried. If I had to guess, I’d say that’s a 2-quart container. And that will be about half of what I’ll end up with. So a gallon of dried oregano. Mr. Big Food uses a lot of dried oregano. And OMG! The
Mr. Big Food’s Dad forwarded this narrative and photos– which are quite stunning. Hope your day is bright! Sent from my iPhone?Sending you flowers for Mother’s Day….enjoy!? The Most Beautiful Flower Garden In The World Has No Visitors For The First Time In 71 Years And I Got To Capture It (31 Pics)As a real
I decided to change the microenvironment last evening. Who remembers the Shack in Cincinnati? Turns out learning how to manage the environment within the Shack– formally, The Synaptic Junction— was good training. The low temperature last evening was in the high 30s. The make-shift fire pit made a difference. Happy gardening!
An Inquiry into the Viability of Out-of-Date Seeds is coming along. The overnight low last night was 56° and temperatures stayed fine. However, a quick peek at RadarScope this morning indicated that I needed to get moving. Fortunately, I had a brand new tarp and paracord. So I fashioned a new, rain- and wind-resistant outer-outer
An Inquiry into the Viability of Out-of-Date Seeds Marica Bernstein, Department of Redundancy Department, Farther Along Farm University Abstract We planted some old seeds and will see what happens. Introduction Commercial seed packets for home gardens are labeled with sell-by or plant-by dates which refer to the year in which the seed crop was harvested;
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