It's been a while

But I'm still around. I never did get around to taking pics of the garden. It did really well for a while, then something happened to the tomatoes. Not sure if I had blight or just odd soil or if they were too dry, but they did appear to have some form of blight from the dry hard spots on the stems. Funny thing is, not that it's gotten cooler and we've had quite a bit of rain, the garden is resurrecting itself. The lettuce managed to re-seed itself, my marigolds that I planted solely for pest control look fabulous as Fall decorations, and the tomatoes, including 2 volunteers that sprang from the Whole Foods enriched compost, are actually producing again. I'm contemplating planting a late crop of peas to see what they'd do in this cooler weather.

Life in general was odd for a while. The library finally "reduced in force" a number of my coworkers and it made work very stressful. Also made me contemplate looking for a job elsewhere, but I think I'll hang in for a while. Things are settling down and I have a decent job with decent hours and decent money so I could be somewhere worse.

I do need to do something tho... have that "what's next" feeling and wondering what to do with myself. I had been mountain biking regularly until the "Great Flood of '09" came and drowned Yellow River trails. Luckily, Creekside has reopened but between the weather (raining on weekends) and my getting a cold twice in two months, I haven't been on the bike in a while. I am anxiously awaiting our trip down to Indian Springs next weekend and hope the weather holds for lots of riding at Dauset.

Another Friday

(Have Lady Gaga - Poker Face running through my head)

Finally a weekend where, as far as I know, I have nothing I have to do. Yay! I plan to plant my pepper babies. I have bell, poblano, jalapeno and cayenne seedlings. I will also make my herb window box garden. I may need to replace some of my green bean plants/seedlings. They're coming up small or with warped leaves. Not sure what would cause that. The purple green beans I planted are growing like gangbusters. The green, not so much.

We've had rain every day this week (since last Friday). Everything looks like it's growing well, but I think the soil might need a chance to dry a little bit. The lettuces are growing really well, but as usual I dropped too many seeds and now need to do some major thinning. They're supposed to be 6 inches apart. Mine are more like 6 plants in every inch. Thinning is fun tho, as I eat the plants I pull up. They're small but they have so much flavor and are quite good. If you grow nothing else, I highly recommend growing your own lettuce. You won't believe the difference from grocery store greens, even organic field greens. Fresh from the earth cannot be beaten.

Off for coffee. I do hope to post garden pictures this weekend.

Bean babies!

I have a plethora of bean babies sprouting. I will take some photos and post them later. I also have cucumber seedlings that will be put into the ground this weekend. I have a LOT of lettuce coming up and marigolds are also sprouting. The tomato plants seem happy and we're all looking forward to the rain they're predicting for this weekend.

I bought 14 bags of soil (21 cubic feet) from Farmer D to fill the 6x3 bed and the 3x3 bed. Once I filled the beds, I added soil/compost from my disassembled compost pile because I wanted to get some earthworms in the soil. When I dug the compost, there were more worms than dirt! I think they will be happy in their new homes. The soil from Farmer D's was black black BLACK and smelled so good. I also amended with a little bit of organic fertilizer.

I have herbs to plant too - basil, oregano, thyme, sage... Not sure if I'm going to put them in the window box, or intermingle them with the veggies. I think I will at least plant the basil around the tomatoes. The sage, thyme and oregano I might keep in the window box planter, but put it out near the raised beds while they're starting out to get them some nice sun. My window is actually not very sunny for long, as I have seen when trying to get these seedling started.

I also have about 3 dozen pepper seeds in peat pods but nothing has come up yet. Not sure where I'll plant those when they do start. I may need another bed! I do hope they grow tho. I would love to have some success with the poblanos and learn to make the cheese stuffed peppers that I love so much at Mexican restaurants.

Okay, back to work. More later, with pics hopefully.

What the heck is AdSense?

Thought I'd sign up for AdSense and see if I get one of those $25,000 checks. Can't hurt, right? :-)

A rainy spring morning

It's raining today, here in Atlanta, for the 3rd day in a row.  The puppies, Rowdy and Indy, are soaked from going in and 6,000 times.  I am about to head out to the store to pick up a pork butt for the crock pot.  I think a nice slow-cooked hunk of pork is perfect for this weather. 

I may also bake some bread.  I recently bought The Bread Baker's Apprentice  by Peter Reinhart and Ron Manville, and have found many good recipes that I'd like to try.  The cinnamon rolls were excellent.

I've started soaking my seed starting soil pellets.  I am going to start a window herb garden.  I have the basics - basil, oregano, thyme... smallish things that won't need too much room.  I need to start building the boxes for my raised beds that I am planning on having in the only sunny spot of our yard.  I'd like to build them, but if I get too lazy or if it seems too complicated, there is a Farmer D's organic gardening center just up the street from me. 

I look forward to Spring, and hope that along with the trees and flowers I have a rebirth of my own.  I need to find some new goals - some focus - something to look forward to and drive me to new experiences or pushing myself past old comfort zones. Maybe I'm having a midlife crisis? I'll be 43 in October but really still feel no older than 16 sometimes (although my body will say it feels 53). 

Okay, off to the store. Have a happy Friday!