Word Verification?

Recently I have received a lot of anonymous comments. Some of them have been from Japan and unreadable. There has been some rambling stuff that makes no sense and some unsolicited and stupid advise. Anyway, I am considering putting up word verification.

Let me know what you think.

Deb

Recycling Project

Tomato babies and proof I do laundry

There are over 100 tomato seedlings on top of my dryer under my grow light sewing light. I put paper labels on each container of seedlings and covered those with tape to keep out the moisture. Obviously, I cannot do that when the time comes to pot each little plant in individual containers.

Every year, I struggle to label my seedlings. Popsicle stick markers fade and wax pencil markings smudge. I cannot afford am unwilling to pay for those fancy metal markers. As I was putting away dishes this morning, I realized I have saved a lot of cottage cheese containers. Instead of throwing some of them in the recycle bin to make cabinet space, I took a few and cut them into strips leaving one pointy end. I marked the names of my tomato varieties on them with permanent marker and stuck them in the plants. Instant, free plant labels.

Your Welcome.

The Return of Sunday Dinner

I realize it is Thursday night, and kinda late, but I just had to share. Recently, Manly has switched from working nights to working days. Hallelujah. We were on the night shift for 13 years and I thought it was going to kill me. Now that he is working days, he is also off on weekends, which is a blinking miracle. I am now making big family Sunday dinners to celebrate. I intend to keep celebrating like this for the rest of my life. There are a few things I think are perfect for Sunday dinner - like pot roast, jambalaya, Italian fried chicken and just plan old roasted chicken. Apparently, the roasted chicken in the winner around here. I was saving it for Sunday dinner, the monkeys wanted it for dinner every night. Here is the way it is done.

1 whole chicken (organic if I can find it AND afford it)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Soy sauce
1 teaspoon Teriyaki sauce
a couple of shakes of garlic power
a couple of shakes of onion powder

Put the chicken in a roasting pan, poor the sauces over it, shake on the powders and bake at 350 until golden brown. You can bast it a couple of times if you remember.

Make gravy from the drippings with a little water and corn starch (instructions on the corn starch box). Serve it all with brown rice.

2010 Tomato Line Up

The tomato babies are growing nicely on top of they dryer again this year. I received a very nice sewing light for my birthday. I promptly turned that into a grow light for the little tomatoes. As soon as they have their true leaves (the second set that look different from the first set, but will look like all of the future leaves) come in, I will pot them up in 4 and six inch pots. Then we will start the take them outside, bring them inside dance until April 1st, when they will be planted in the garden or saved for the KCMGA plant sale April 14th.

This year I am growing these tomatoes from seed:
1. Yellow Pear
2. Cherokee Purple
3. San Marzano
4. Avivii
5. Ladano di Pannichio
6. Turks Mutt
7. Gajo de Melon
8. A mystery tomato because I forgot to write one down again this year. Durn.

I will probably buy a Green Zebra, a Celebrity, an Early girl and a Better Boy plants to round out the roster.

I would like to thank Monica for some of the seeds she shared with me in this years seed swap.

Not Dead Yet

We have been snowed since Thursday. The cabbages, leeks and broccoli appear to have survived. Tomorrow it is supposed to get down into the 20's. Sure you are tired of hearing us Southerners complain about this weather, but Aunt Debbi's Garden is still alive.

Winter Update

We are frozen. I mean really really frozen. This morning my truck door was frozen and wouldn't open. I have never had that happen in my whole life. Earlier, I went out to pot up some garlic cloves for garlic greens (I'll explain in a little bit) and found that my potting mix was frozen solid. Again, that has never even happened in my whole life. I don't live in Texas for this. Seriously, winter needs to go back to Canada where it belongs.

I read about the garlic greens thing on some cooking site. Can't remember which one. Apparently, you can grow garlic in a pot on the windowsill and clip off the growing green shoots and cook with them. Since I can't really do anything other than start a few spring veggies on top of the dryer, garlic greens sounded like a perfect fix for a gardener going through withdrawal.

Stay warm y'all.

Winter Rose Pruning

The freezing weather has left us for a while. Today it was fabulous and in the 50's. I was able to work in the garden and let the sun shine on my face. Woot.

Manly wanted to take advantage of this weather and wash his motorcycle. That is when he discovered that one of the pipes had burst. It was in the wall behind the outside water faucet. No worries. He fixed it right up and we are back in business.

One of the roses is right in front of the faucet and had to be pruned so he could fix the pipe. I just kept pruning after I had made room for him to work.

I believe that I could actually give rose pruning lessons. I am good at it and the roses thrive.

Here is the short list of how I do it.

Get prepared - Wear long sleeves and gloves. Own a good pair of pruners. Mine are Felco.

The first step is to cut the sucker back. My roses are allowed to be as tall as my shoulders and must be within the boundary of the flowerbed edging, which makes them about 3 x 4.5 feet.

After the rose pruned to the right size, check for dead wood and crossed wood. Dead canes should come out to avoid spreading disease and for aesthetics. Crossed wood needs to come out for the same reasons. The canes will rub and open the plant up to disease problems. Crossed canes also look bad.

The final thing I do is look deep into the bush and check for canes shooting off in weird directions. I take those out, which opens up the rose bush.

I try to cut each cane just above a spot where there is a little node poking out in the direction in which I want the rose bush to grow. It, isn't always possible, but this helps avoid crossed wood and wonky growth in the future.

Today, I pruned Maggie, Mme Joseph Schwarts and the Mutabalis. These are big rose bushes. The container shown in the picture is about a 20 gallon cattle feed bucket. If you know anyone who raises cattle get yourself a couple of those buckets. They are very useful in the garden.

I do not compost rose canes. I did, but then was injured by thorns later when I turned the compost. I burn the trimmings in our little Chiminea.

These are directions for areas where roses really do not go dormant. Ours' stay pretty much evergreen.

Happy Winter Gardening y'all.