All Are Welcome!
This is a weekly blog with a fun vibe that often veers off gardening, so stop on by and join the conversation. We adore new people! We are here every Saturday at 8AM Central with new content and chit chat continuing throughout the week. We have a core crew that checks in each day, all comments are read. Which makes us the best diary series on DK.
~As a reminder, this is a flame-free space. Let the wars rage outside our sanctuary~
This blog is dedicated to my recently released 3-3/8 in circular saw blade. We’ve been through a lot together, mostly wood, and mostly it was the blade going through it.
But anyway, all of those base boards, floor boards, terrace planks and various miscellaneous cuts were great, all the way up to this year when the flimsiest of base boards felt like cutting through steel. Sorry, it’s not me, it’s you. I have to move on to sharper partners.
Wood, now that’s loads of extruded scaffolding between cells. Cellulose and lignan, and their cohorts and handlers get together in all sorts of combinations shapes and forms.
We’re brought to you today by pectins, keeping things together since forever. Like
wood, pectins are also extruded into an extracellular matrix where remarkable feats are performed, such as holding organs together and letting them go with exquisite precision in space and time, lubing up for pushes through tight squeezes, providing a protective coat, binding toxic metals away from precious cellular passengers, and last, but not least, keeping apples crisp.
Current themes for me are neglect, tolerance and resiliency.
Start with my garden as a reflection of sporadic, unfocused effort. There is a lot of room for improvement, but we have done some work, and it does reward us for the effort we give.
It continues through this group, like most others, where I don’t keep up and miss out on awesome conversation, camaraderie and knowledge.
There is too much for me to do. I need to prioritize.
Highest for me is contributing with family and household.
Great news for us is that as of this afternoon, we will have two houses on the market. It’s been a lot of work. Every property has things to learn about and fix. It’s fun and interesting in many ways when me and the boss/spouse are in agreement.
Try as I might to plan better, I couldn’t avoid having to go work this morning at the house before opening this afternoon. Will be checking out this morning. Haven’t slept much this week. As author, I’ll be around better for this one though.
Credit cards are just about used up. Don’t worry. We have showings and offers. Should be ok with the houses and locations we have.
Got my own businesses too. One is science editing, which, lucky for me, keeps me up with some plant science, like the bit about pectins above. Pays jack squat. In hopes of honoring a promise to not get political, I will only add here that Chinese authors now publish 3-4 times more plant science papers per year than Americans.
Now, about that neglected garden. We’ll start with our three terraces and spring greens. Some survived the early drought and my lack of watering. Argula did fine and has been flowering. Kale grew well and was part of many good meals before getting bigger, bitten by bugs and bitter. A few dinosaur kale grew past the shade of kale and arugula to provide some tasty leaves to this day.
A few lettuce grew to give us enough leaves and now flowers.
Second year dill is doing pretty well too. They have been flowering, as well. Late planted okra next to that is doing better than expected with the late planting under the mighty oak shade.
Spouse plants chives in shady places, and they grow well. To my amazement, this strawberry they put down on the edge next to the path have survived and are looking pretty good. We also harvested a few garlic from a bulb planted last fall. Will try to plant more this year. The soil is pretty compact, with clay and organic matter. We need to think about improving soil porosity and aeration, hopefully with something light, like vermiculite. Any ideas or suggestions?
Our potato harvest was OK. More water early might have helped. We received enough for daughter to make delicious baked cheeses and potatoes
We also have a few asparagus and wild flowers establishing nicely in a small bed by the terrace bench.
Later crops are growing with mixed results
Tomatoes are growing a lot since we have sprinkled a few cups of fertilizer on the terraces. I need to reinforce the supports. Plus, we have rabbits! Rascally rabbits are getting past me and Busta, because I’m not there enough. They’re taking more than their share, as we’ll see. We think that are taking tomatoes as they ripen, but, again, I need to be around more to see.
Beans have been victimized this year. The first year here, I threw down a raised bed made of 2 by 6 boards, put in some potting soil, and tied string up to trees for beans to climb. They did well. This year, in contrast, they are barely getting by nutrient and water deficits, my poor tending and rabbits. I’m pretty sure it’s rabbits decapitating our beans. Somebody is clipping off leaves and leaving them lie there next to the rest of the plant, untouched. We are managing to get a few snap peas.
On one side of the beans, I planted a few tomatoes from a tray on sale in June. The other side has something I forget that failed to germinate.
Up on top of the hill, I put the rest of the clearance tomatoes in straw bales, pots and the ground. Next to them, cucumbers planted in June from a seed clearance have germinated and are growing well. We’ll see how many fruit they produce. My sister is already getting huge cucumbers
Clearance corn planted on the solstice in a mix of compost, mulch and soil hasn’t germinated.
Finishing with a couple of more. Poinsettias and hostas are faring well in shade under mulberries and honey suckles on our fence row.
I’m out of time. I don’t know how the pictures will lay out. Maybe I can edit some. Will stick around a little before going to work on house.