The first batch of taters is up about four inches, but the other one was planted 2 weeks later, so not much doing there. The corn is up about 2 inches. I still have the lemon tree and tomatoes indoors. Actually ate one of the cherry ones, and there are flowers. Trying to decide where to transplant them.
Those tomatoes were actually just stems of indeterminate tomatoes that had green tomatoes on them, and I stuck them in dirt and let the green ones ripen. Some of them formed enough roots to keep a going.
I have purchase an AMSU portable generator that should run my cpap machine for more than 2 nights. It can recharge using electricity, cigarette lighter or solar panel. I am currently reviewing the solar panels. I am looking at the foldable ones, as I want to be able to use in camping where there might not be a lot of amenities. Link for the generator and solar panels below:
https://www.amazon.com/6-7lb-1000W-Portable-Generator-Inverter/dp/B01MFDGPHD/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1495232778&sr=8-2&keywords=amsu+solar+generator
https://www.amazon.com/SUAOKI-Portable-Sunpower-Mono-Crystalline-Electronic/dp/B018TY8ZYQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495232862&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=suaoki+60w+portable+solar+panel&psc=1
The generator is just the right size for me to get out and use when we have those temporary power outages as well as if we go camping.
I really don't know much about this stuff, so I hope that the solar panel will be compatible. If any one has any tips on this, please let me know.
Due to the down time on FR, I got some house work done and some reading one some books that I hadn't had time to look at. I'll have to back track on last week's thread, because I didn't get to read it during the down time.
I hope you are all doing well. Prayers up for everyone. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the list.
Hello from Massachusetts!
It was in the 40s and 50s here until yesterday, when it reached 104 degrees, and 94 degrees today. Holy cow. We do have cilantro and one little lettuce plant that reseeded themselves in one of our raised containers. Nights have been in the high 30s and low to mid 40s until yesterday, when it was in the 60s.
We’re going to be buying tomato plants from Home Depot or a local greenhouse. Last year we couldn’t plant our tomatoes until the 1st of July. Our seedlings died in late May or June when the temperature dropped to 43 degrees.
Always hopeful. :)
I just replaced the polyresin border on one of my gardens. The landscape people had banged their lawnmowers into it, chipping off pieces and caving it inwards. No more. I got some cast concrete river stone look-alikes from Home Depot and laid a line of those on top of a layer of tan bricks to raise the height to retain the mulch in the garden. Looks beautiful, and I will do the other garden on the other side of the sidewalk next week, when the 2nd batch of those stones arrives. I also planted 3 new hostas and a bunch of annuals-—tuberous begonias, wax begonias, French dwarf marigolds, various shades of pink and lavender geraniums, petunias, calibrachoa, portulaca, and mini snapdragons. I keep getting compliments from folks walking down the street, so I must have done something right. I LOVE spring, because that’s the beginning of garden season. Get the urge to have good loamy soil crumbling between my fingers, to tamp it down around a newly planted beauty, to watch them grow, to water them, etc.
Good info on the cpap. I use one too. I have a heavy duty battery that will give me 3 nights of 5 hours each. I’ll look into your links. Thanks!
upstate peoples republic of NY here. Asparagus came in one week early (last week of april) just cut some rhubarb; made asparagus soup.
Tore out the overgrown bolted spinach and kale of last year and will be putting in beets.
Well, all the rain we had is no more and we are officially in a drought. (sigh) I wish they would make up their minds! :-)
It’s soggy tonight here in Central Missouri. Rained last night and has been raining on and off since about 4:00 this afternoon.
I decided that one way or another I AM going to get my pond finished this summer. The cheap china-made pump I’d been using to get the water out finally tossed its cookies so I got my wallet out and bought a nice japan-made pump with a 2” discharge outlet, and 100’ of 2” lay-flat hose. The old pump would take ten days to empty the basin. The new one does it in three days. I had it all pumped out earlier in the week and it was starting to dry, then the rains came again, but with the new pump that won’t be much of a setback.
I’ve gotten all of my pepper plants in, eggplant is in, five tomatoes left to set, but it’s going to have to dry up a little before I can do that so I re-potted those after work today. Planted green beans last weekend. Those are up about 4” and happy. Green salad, beets, and carrots are all up and looking good. Been eating radishes for a couple weeks now.
The Yukon Gold taters that I planted in March are rocking, garlic is rocking, snap peas had poor germination and most of them had had to be re-seeded so they’re anywhere from 3” tall to knee-high. I’ve got volunteer cilantro and dill all over the place.
Most of the landscape fabric and dripline has been placed. That’s going to save me a mountain of time on weeding and watering this summer.
It was raining when I got home so no recent pics. I’ll try to get some up tomorrow.
Gardening Adventures this week included:
Buying Native Wisconsin plants to add to our front hillside that we’re doing up in all Natives.
The new Mount Royal Plum tree is ‘leaning’ due to our nasty winds this past week, but it IS leafing out, so that needs to be tended to, and quick!
Pole and Bush beans planted, but now, OF COURSE, it’s turned rainy and COLD so germination is hit and miss - though the Snap Peas and the Sweet Peas (flowers) are loving this weather, so there’s that. :)
Chipmunk Threat is at RED LEVEL - those cute little b@stards are GOING TO DIE!
And if the puppy would grow a bit fatter, he won’t be able to fit between the garden fencing and SLEEP on my Brussels Sprouts plants!
HOWEVER - the Orioles (Orchard & Baltimore) and the Red Breasted Grosbeak have been BEYOND compare this season...I’m on Jar #4 of jelly for the buggers and am running out of nut/fruit blend for the feeders so a trip to town is in the near future.
We’ve had two Hummingbird to the feeder so far, and I fear for their existence with our 40 degree nights and winds that just. won’t. quit!
Greetings from southern New Hampshire! It is a miserable tick season. Barb removed one from my left hip last evening. I saved it in an old pill container, just in case. We are letting the chickens out into the yard to feed on them.
I checked both hives. The queens were released and the bees are really active.
I have one 4’ by 8’ and two 4’ by 4’ raised beds tilled, amended and ready for Barb to plant. Hope to get more done, today. We are putting down the fertilizer-infused paper on each bed, to see how it helps.
The asparagus bed I added last year has a few sprouts. No sign of the two new rhubarb crowns or the horseradish, yet.
Greetings gardening friends from west Michigan. Lots of blessings this spring. Hubby is retired now and loves to work in the garden. I am pretty much over my knee replacement and can work outside. We got the garden tilled 3 times starting mid April. Nearly all planted except the beans. Everything is doing well. Had to find shishito pepper plants online - yes I got a six pack from California and they arrived in good shape. Could not find any up here and my seeds did not germinate well. But my Costa Rican pepper and San Marzano seeds did great. So far eating green onions and asparagus. Can’t wait for the radishes. We have bush cucumbers, poblano peppers, tomatoes, asparagus beans, sugar pea pods, swiss chard, romaine, dill, cilantro, basil, broccoli, shisito peppers, costa rican peppers,radishes and green and red onions. Also trying a new pepper we have seen up here a tangerine (orange pepper). Still have a little room yet. Maybe some jalapenos. Love hearing about all your efforts. Hope to have some pictures this year.
Baby kohlrabis. Basil seeded in the flat behind but not peeking out yet.
Peppers, cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. All of the weed fabric and irrigation line is stuff that I used on the market garden last summer.
Wider view of the kitchen garden. The potting shed looks like it's about to fall over, but that's just distortion in the image from the super-short focal length of the lens in a cell phone camera. It's actually quite level and plumb.
Not so funny, funny story time. Three nights ago when Mrs. Augie went out to shut the chickens up there was a raccoon on top of the brooder house sniffing around trying to figure out how to get in and have fresh pullet dinner. I did what I always do when there's a chicken thief sniffing around my flock - grabbed my trusty Ruger 10-22 and gave the varmint a terminal case of lead poisoning. No big deal, right? Wrong.
Fast-forward 24 hours. Mrs. Augie is out messing with her flower bed and hears a funny noise coming from the brush on the neighbor's side of the fence. Calls daughter over. Daughter calls me over. Yep, baby raccoon crying for momma. Daughter climbs over the fence and catches baby raccoon. Now, I'm a practical guy from a farming background and my first inclination is to whack it in the head and be done with it. No. It's too cute and pitiful. I'm over-ruled by irrational females.
Daughter gets an eye dropper and feeds it. Puts it in the baby chicken cage in my shop with some towels and a heating pad. A few hours later Mrs. Augie goes out to shut the chickens up and hears another one. Calls me out there. The first one had crawled out of the nest and fallen out of the tree. This one is still in the tree. I get the look. So I drag the ten foot stepladder across the fence into the brush, climb up into the tree and retrieve baby chicken thief number two. Daughter feeds it and into the cage it goes.
Next day Daughter googles how to raise baby raccoons. Off to the store for kitten formula she goes. They have to be fed every three to four hours. They have to be kept warm. They have to have their little private parts massaged to stimulate them to eliminate waste. Wife and daughter run off to kansass for the weekend leaving poor Augie to take care of baby chicken stealers.
I know, I'm a special kind of stupid. LOL
