Tomatoes everywhere!

My poor garden has taken such a beating with this oppressive heat! Who am I kidding? We've all taken a beating from this heat.

Between the heat and the humidity, my bean vines dried to a crisp before blooming all over with mildew. The cucumber vines grew mildew first, then turned into a gooey, prickly mess. Several of the tomatoes grew with such abandon their supports totally collapsed. I went out earlyish this morning to start pruning away the dead, mildewed and collapsed. I'll tell you, I don't like this heat at all.

I recently decided that instead of giving all my lovely yard waste to the county, that I would start a new compost area in the backyard. We're going to need to augment the soil like crazy after last year's new drain field was installed. As I was taking the bags to far back corner, I found myself thinking about this past year's weather. Our backyard is still a mess. I would have happily worked out there all winter long if it hadn't rained from September through March or April. I don't remember a winter that wet! It rained just about every 24-48 for a good 6 months. I think our sump pump ran practically non-stop during that time.

I don't like the heat. I'm one of those people outside working in a t-shirt when it's 50-60 degrees outside. I'm sweating when it hits 65, and by 68, I'm ready to come inside and call it a day. Our lows have barely gotten below 75 in weeks, and while the yard looks like hell, it also feels like hell working out there.

I'll admit that I'm glad it's August. That means fall and cooler weather aren't that far away. I'm about ready to start my countdown the fall equinox again. I just hope it doesn't rain like crazy all fall and winter.

As for the garden, I'm not ready to give up on it. I plan to start planting things again as it cools down. Until then, I can go out for a little while early in the morning, maybe 5 a.m. when Sassy wakes me up, and finish getting it cleaned up and ready to go.

Oops!

We absolutely, positively need to check the garden daily for cucumbers. As you can see, if we skip a day, we end up with some monsters! Today I'll pick up a quart of jalapenos, and tomorrow I'll make up some cucumber jalapeno relish. Yum!

This is why you double dig

We've never had vegetables that looked this good before. While Keith had thought I was out of my mind for wanting to do all the hard work of double digging the bed, the other day he was saying that we've never had tomatoes that looked this healthy and thick. All the hard work paid off, or it will once some of those tomatoes start ripening. I saw the first fruit yesterday, and I'm looking forward to eating it soon.

Yarn and gardening

I updated FiberCharmer with so-so pictures of new yarns today. In case you want to go peruse them.
For those of you who don't knit, I've got some kitty pictures today. The weather here has gotten downright hot, complete with humidity, and that has an exhausting effect on kitties, as well as giving some of them bad fur days.

Hmm, I'm not sure why the photo of Hopalong checking out the yarn has turned sideways. It doesn't look like that on my computer. Oh well, take some anti-vertigo meds and don't look at it too long.


Grey found that liriope makes a wonderful, cushy, cool bed for the long haired kitty who is in dire need of a lion cut. Until then, she searches out cool spots, both inside and outside. Inf fact, we can hardly use our bathroom sink as that's been her bed of choice the past few weeks. I have to move her every time I want to brush my teeth. I've given up about the handwashing and just do that in the kitchen.




Lily finds that knocking everything off the top of Keith's dresser and snoozing there, fairly close to the ceiling fan, is the way to go. Well, that is until everything has been knocked off. As soon as Keith finds other homes for all the bits of paper, etc, she decides it's time to find someplace new to try.

Don't let the sweet, angelic face fool you. She's a cunning, plotting cat who would excel at world domination, given half a chance. It's just plotting her next move can be tiring.

In the garden we have more carrots sprouting (finally). The tomatoes are all blooming like mad, so we should see tiny fruit pretty soon. The beans are climbing the trellis now. I've got to get another planter going in order to grow lettuce. I ordered some lettuce that can tolerate warmer weather from Cook's Garden, and I'm eager to see if they really can grow well down here in the Deep South.

Radish update

As of yesterday, all eight of the radish seeds I'd planted had sprouted. I'm still waiting on the carrots, but I think they have a longer germination time. I'm also wondering if I accidentally planted them too deeply. I'll give them a few more days, then I'll replant them.

I know eight radishes doesn't like much, and it isn't. However, since they grow so quickly you can plant more all season. Also there's only one person in the household who really likes them, so eight at a time is plenty of them. I'd hate to have thirty be ready at one time as many of them would go bad.

I have knitted a great hat in the past few days, and I've got pictures to upload. I think I will need to purchase a model head from ebay. Keith took pictures of the hat on my head. I was having a bad hair day, having napped with wet hair earlier. I was also wearing one of those old, disreputable T-shirts, so all in all it's not a good picture. The photographer has skills, but the model wasn't ready for a photoshoot.

I've also got more yarn to photograph that I dyed yesterday, so I'll post those here tomorrow too.

Waiting for sprouts

One thing about gardening is waiting for the seedlings to pop up. I realize it takes a few days, but I'm sure I'll be outside looking for carrot and radish sprouts several times daily.

I won't bore you with more pictures of my bins filled with dirt, but I did go outside and look. No sprouts yet, but it's only been about 24 hours.

In the meantime, I found this at the Farmer's Market, and I just had to buy it. It's pretty good.

The square foot garden

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago. I know, I've been promising pictures, but I've been actually kind of busy and haven't had the time.

This first is of our compost bin. I have no idea when we last emptied it out, but I know it's been several years ago.

In the next picture you see the black gold that is compost.

Here is our garden bed that has been double dug. See how lovely our Georgia red clay soil is?

The first load of compost shows the contrast between the soil and compost much better.

The final picture is after the entire composter has been emptied out.

I didn't take any pictures of when we added the other soil amendments to it, but we added 3 bags of composted chicken manure, a bag of vermiculite, some sulfur and fertilizer.

I'll add pictures of the happy plants after I go take some.

Self watering container garden

Remember those two blue bins from my post the other day? Today I put them together, and now they're just waiting for me to water them and plant them. I got the idea about making them from this article in Mother Earth News.

Here's the exterior bin. It has a hole to let excess water out, and you can check the water level that way on dryer days. This is a great example of measure twice, cut once. I thought I had the two containers put together correctly, so I measured and cut the upper hole. Then when I put them together, I discovered that I hadn't pushed the inner container all the way down! Yikes! At least the first (and wrong) hole is too high instead of being too low.

The inner container has a larger hole for the funnel and several smaller drainage holes.

Next you see the two containers put together with the funnel in place and waiting for the soil.

Finally, you see the containers with the soil, along with my supervisor, Monster.

I've got to water the container to let the soil settle, then I get to plant radishes and carrots!

ETA - It's 10:41 a.m., and I've planted it with carrots and radishes. Grow, babies, grow!

Here's why I haven't been blogging.

These blue bins are the beginning of a container garden for growing radishes and carrots for now, beets for later.



Six tomatoes, four cucumbers and sixteen beans in our square foot gardening experiment.



And finally, some dyeing experiments.

I'm exhausted!

This is what happens when I read gardening books and magazines. Like most people, I get spring fever.

It's especially bad this year after all the months of nonstop rain (with some snow tossed in there too), and I've got it bad.

Since we've got classic Georgia red clay and only a few flat, sunny areas in our yard in which to plant, I decided that after Keith cleared out an area for me to use, that I would follow the advice of those books and magazines and double dig the garden area.

I'll admit, here and now, that I'm a middle aged woman who could lose a few pounds. Double digging sounds like good exercise, right?

Ok, what in the world was I thinking? It's darn hard work. On Monday morning, I did about half the garden area. Yesterday I hurt quite a bit, but by later in the afternoon, I decided to move some flagstone and hoe up weeds, thinking it would be less labor intensive than all that digging. Today Keith got up with me, and we finished digging out the bed, then added the compost, sulfur, vermiculite and organic vegetable fertilizer. Funnily enough, I don't feel as sore as I thought I would be, but I'm still too stiff to attempt yoga.

Anyway, that's why I've not been blogging as much, and I'm also apologizing for not keeping up with comments better. I probably won't be here much over the next few days either as tomorrow I get to add more granite sand and level it out for the shed foundation. I'm sure I'm the one who will get to paint the plywood floor before installation too. I've got some sort of vining weed from the mint family that is taking over my long neglected from flower beds, so once I'm finished with the parts of the shed that I can do, I've got tons of weeding to do.

One good thing about all these gardening magazines is that I've found a nontoxic recipe to kill poison ivy. I'll give it a try and report back.

I do have pictures of much of this too. They're still on the camera right now. I'll get to them soon. I'll be back as I can!

Stitches Swag!

Here are my goodies from Stitches South. As you can see, I actually did have some self control.

First up, the blue and burgundy are for a vest for Keith. He likes vests during the winter, and I decided that I needed to knit one for him. The yarn is Vintage by Berroco. It's a blend of acrylic, wool, and nylon. It feels very soft and is machine washable.


I had been thinking about his vest for awhile now, and I'd looked at a very nice superwash merino from Plymouth Yarn that Needle Nook carries. While it had a great price and looks like a really wonderful yarn, many of the colors are more solid. The Vintage ones are more heathery with bits of the burgundy in the blue and blue in the burgundy.

I found the yarn at Webs' booth, and they give you a discount if you spend a certain amount. The Vintage is a moderately priced yarn, so I went and picked up enough in this heathery green to make a vest for myself too.

While strolling along, Alma and I were enticed by some of the amazing weaving of Neal the Weaver. She let us gush about her weaving, and she said that while she'd sell them, that she was really there to sell yarn. Well, we were already fondling her lovely hand-dyed silk yarns. She had Tussah silk and a smoother, spun silk, and it is quite interesting to see how they dye up differently. What you see is the Tussah silk that I got. It's much more orange and brighter in real life. Of course what you see on your monitor will vary.

I also stopped by The Sanguine Gryphon. Her yarns, especially Bugga, are some of those that are nearly impossible to get. I bought some last year that is still hibernating in a yarn bin, but honestly, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get a bit more. It's not all Bugga. I purchase an Eidos and Skinny bugga too.

I was at Stitches both Friday and Saturday. It was great to be able to see people I've not seen in some time. I had two friends mention that I've not been blogging lately. Oops!

I have been busy with Keith. Today we're off to get the fertilizer, vermiculite and some sulfur for the garden. I may have mentioned that my soil was more towards the neutral to alkaline that I would have ever dreamed it was. As veggies actually prefer it a bit more acid, I'll add the sulfur to slightly lower the pH. This should be interesting. I've never done this type of gardening before where I test the soil and add nutrients accordingly. With the canning class early this summer, I'm quite looking forward to growing some of our own food. I doubt we'll replace the farmer's market, but to be able to supplement our diet with homegrown will be great. I'd prefer to keep it all organic, so after menu planning for this week, I'll be calculating amounts and finding what the best organic sources are for soil building.

I do have more photos, but blogger was so very slow that I'll have to add them later. Have a great Sunday!