An Extra "Raised Bed" Project. 2.26.22

There is some extra space for a few more vegetables or flowers. I don't want the expense and work of constructing an actual, durable, raised bed, but I'd like something there. I found fabric grow-bags on Amazon, shaped like bushel baskets, very affordable. A small fraction of the cost of raised bed construction materials. I also have a couple of plastic "half barrels" the same size. However, arranged together, they look kind of messsy. I decided to build an open bottom "box" for them, approximate dimensions of the other raised beds. They will sit on pallets, 3 1/2 feet by 4 feet square, 4 inches tall so they are slightly up from the ground. From a distance, this should just look like an ordinary raised bed. The containers will be a nice size for smaller clusters of plants, such as shallots, or Thai peppers, or beans, or cucumbers, or lettuce, or carnations. So there, I've just reserved them all even though it's not built. We have aged cedar picket fencing that was removed to build a new privacy / deer fence. It's been laying around. There are multiple sections. They don't look like much at all, but when they are cut, the wood is tan and pink and still fragrant with cedar oils,

It's difficult to picture, but I think I can convert these into a nice, weathered cedar box. The 2 x 4's are pressure treated and also in excellent shape. There are 4 x 4 fence posts, also pressure treated, for the corners and I think I can remove the old brackets to re-use them too.
So today I took apart several sections of the fencing, cut four of the 2 x 4's into eight foot lengths with clean ends, cut the tops and bottoms from the pickets, into 22" tall boards that will constitute the sides of the box. I think I'm about half way through what is needed. If it doesn't work out, those will all fit in the wood stove next winter. :-) I estimate this box can be completed in about a non-rainy week. First is recovery of good wood and cutting it, to make a sort of kit to assemble. Thinking ahead, once the wood is cleaned up and the box is built, and dried by summer sun, I can stain it so it will look like new. Or not.

Winter Garden Update. 2.26.22

Some of the chill garden seeds have started to germinate. Here are some radishes.

And some spinach.

Egyptian Walking Onions are looking pretty good. I gave them a bit of Miracle Grow. I know that's not organic, but it's not Deisel Oil, either. I think the plant food will boost them a bit for super early scallions. I also gave them some slug bait. Slugs love onions.

I try to keep the garlic bed weeded. That's why it is so helpful to grow garlic in raised beds or large containers. It's much easier to maintain them even though the ground is too muddy to walk on in a normal, ground level garden. The garlic plants look pretty nice so far.

Snow and Freezing. 2.24.22

Delayed entry. We had lots of freezing and snow for a few days. I didn't see any damage yet to fruit tree buds.

Some of the peach buds show a little pink. It will be interesting to see if they set fruit despite getting frosted now.

A Quilt Is Completed :-) 2.21.22

I started this one last summer. Today I finished the binding.

The nine-patches and binding are all men's shirt fabric, so you can call this a "ten shirt quilt". I'm quite happy with the color theme and how it came together. Completed size is about 6 1/2 feet each side although I havent measured it. It's a nice feeling to finish a quilt. Next, that batiq fabric quilt I started a year ago. The top is assembled, the backing and batting are cut to fit.

Seedling Update. 2.20.22

Seedlings are mostly doing pretty well. I scattered the rest of the New York Early heirloom onion seeds on a container. Prior germination was so poor. I did these off the warming mat. Not sure if that was better but looks like at least 20 additional plants. That should give a few for saving seeds next fall, and a few weeks worth of eating onions too.

Peppers, thyme, carnations, tiny tomato varieties.

Carnations, Rudbeckia, Echinacea

Mostly oregano, and one gallardia.

Celery, Echinacea, Rudbeckia.

The onions, scallions, shallots are on the top shelf now, no artificial light. They will be fine until I plant them outdoors after the current cold spell.

Ginger Plant Started. 2.20.22

This was a little nub on a fresh ginger from the grocery store. It was about the size of a garbanzo bean. I cut it off, let it dry a day, planted. It took a month to grow. I thought it was dead. Noticed this today.

I'll kerp it under the lights and up-pot as needed. We'll see what happens.

A Fig Tree Start and a Sweet Cherry Replacement. 2.16.22

We picked up a delivery at the big box store. They bring it out to the truck. Outside, they had some fruit trees. I've been wanting to replace a sickly sweet cherry tree, so I bought a new one and planted it. Without a replacement, the healthy sweet cherry wouldn't have a pollinator.

They also had other starts. For the price ($10) I decided it was easier to buy an already well rooted fig start than root another Hardy Chicago. Also a replacement. I bought that and planted it too. Very small, but probably OK.

That was easy. I'm don't want to expand the number of fruit trees now, these are just replacements.

Helleborus. 2.16.22

Helleborus have been blooming for a while.

Cherry Pie. 2.15.22

I bought myself a present, a marble rolling pin. Today I used it to make crust for a cherry pie.

I learned some things. Pretty good, since I started baking pies after I returned from Army service, which would be about 1978. I still have the rolling pin I bought for that, plus my mom's, plus her mom's which is birds eye maple but doesn't roll well any more because the handles are stuck. Nobody needs four rolling pins, but it adds up to about one per decade. The marble pin works very nicely. The heaviness makes it noticably easier on my back, to roll out the crust. I still need to use a pastry cloth on the rolling pin, to keep the crust from sticking. The other thing I learned is that I like flour better as thickener for tart cherry pie, compared to starch (Clear Jel). The flour seems to reduce the acidity a bit.

Not related to the pie, but I learned something else. I also made a pizza, using Roma tomato sauce that I canned last summer. The canning process requires adding lemon juice as a preservative. That makes for too sour tomato sauce for me. What I learned is, if I add about 1/4 tsp baking soda per pint of tomato sauce before spreading it on the pizza crust, it's not nearly as sour and I liked that quite a lot. That's good because then I can can more next year, which means it won't take up freezer space.

Spa Day For Rufus. 2.14.22

Yesterday Rufus had a quick bath in anticipation of today's haircut. Today was his big spa day. Before. Where is my dog? All I see is a big dust bunny!

He's mostly OK as long as I use hair scissors for his face and paws. I wonder if they were too forceful with him at groomers - he always seemed kind of traumatized. Giving haircuts at home, he seems less stressed. I don't worry about a glamour cut, just make him easier to wash and brush, and he can roll around in the grass to his heart's content. There is my dog!

Total time spent isn't much more than the round trips taking him to a groomer then picking him up. Maybe 90 min. Plus I give us both breaks to let the clippers cool down and recharge my own batteries. Nails will have to wait for tomorrow. He got a quick bath after his haircut too, to remove all of those hair clippings and dander. Now he's ready for a walk, and won't overheat.