Today I got up at a quarter to 8 and got all my seedlings in the ground except the snapdragons. I'm out of space so those may have to go in the front yard and be at the mercy of the clowns that do the apt. complex gardening.
I meant to get three varieties of tomatoes but when I read the tags this morning I had two Big Boys and one Mr. Stripey. Oh well, I planted them anyway. I planted 6 yellow banana peppers, 2 lemon cucumbers, and and assortment of sunflower seeds.
This year I'm working smart and not hard and covering between rows with black plastic to keep the weeds down and conserve moisture. After an hour and a half of gardening this morning I was pretty much melted and hungry for breakfast. It doesn't take long for that CA sun to heat things up.
I still have to lay out another row of plastic and put up strings for the beans to climb on, but that can wait for another day.
My gardening experiences in Lucerne Valley, California. Veggies and roses and succulents, oh my. Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, And pretty maids all in a row.
Friday, April 18, 2008
King Corn
I got some seedlings to plant in my garden tomorrow. I got several varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and lemon cucumbers. Also some snapdragons to add color. Plus I want to plant some sunflowers from seeds. Plants don't last long in flats so I'm getting up early to plant them all. One of them already wilted between the time I got home and the time the sun went down.
A volunteer seed is sprouting with the squash. It's either a bean or a sunflower. I'm tempted to let it grow and see what it is.
After seeing a PBS special called King Corn tonight, I'm more determined than ever to eat less processed food and eat more home grown foodstuffs. Between corn fed cows and high fructose corn syrup in so many processed foods, it sure looks like corn is a contributing factor to diabetes and obesity. Almost all the corn grown in the U.S. either goes to feed livestock or to make high fructose corn syrup to sweeten packaged foods. Almost all the fast food in a typical meal is corn. Corn fed beef, corn oil french fries and corn syrup in the soda. Think about it...if they feed cows corn to make them fat, then we shouldn't really be surprised if all the corn in our diets is making humans fat. We just can't handle that much starch and sugar. I'm not talking about sweet corn from a farmer's market. I'm talking about altered corn that tastes so bad you can't even eat it raw. It has to be chemically processed before we can even eat it. And cows fed too long on that corn mixture die after about 6 months.
I had to laugh in a sad and painful way when they said they fatten cows by confining them to pens so they can't move and then stuff them full of corn. I sit in my apt. where I can hardly move and stuff my face all day with corn. As one farmer put it, "I know we are growing crap. It's what they (the govt.) pay us to do. Americans want cheap food."
A volunteer seed is sprouting with the squash. It's either a bean or a sunflower. I'm tempted to let it grow and see what it is.
After seeing a PBS special called King Corn tonight, I'm more determined than ever to eat less processed food and eat more home grown foodstuffs. Between corn fed cows and high fructose corn syrup in so many processed foods, it sure looks like corn is a contributing factor to diabetes and obesity. Almost all the corn grown in the U.S. either goes to feed livestock or to make high fructose corn syrup to sweeten packaged foods. Almost all the fast food in a typical meal is corn. Corn fed beef, corn oil french fries and corn syrup in the soda. Think about it...if they feed cows corn to make them fat, then we shouldn't really be surprised if all the corn in our diets is making humans fat. We just can't handle that much starch and sugar. I'm not talking about sweet corn from a farmer's market. I'm talking about altered corn that tastes so bad you can't even eat it raw. It has to be chemically processed before we can even eat it. And cows fed too long on that corn mixture die after about 6 months.
I had to laugh in a sad and painful way when they said they fatten cows by confining them to pens so they can't move and then stuff them full of corn. I sit in my apt. where I can hardly move and stuff my face all day with corn. As one farmer put it, "I know we are growing crap. It's what they (the govt.) pay us to do. Americans want cheap food."
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Yellow Rose
First bloom of the year on my St. Patrick's Day rose, and I almost missed it because I was out of town camping. We had a heatwave so I got home at the peak of it's bloom.
Sprouting and hummingbird nest.
I'm happy to say the squash sprouted in 7 days, and now the beans are coming in. I get so excited just knowing the seeds are still viable.
And a hummingbird built a nest right outside my bedroom window.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Beans and Squash...I sound like a Puritan
Today I got the vegetable garden offically started. I planted Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans because they did so well last year. And I planted 3 kinds of squash. Now that we are doing weekly stir fries, I'll be able to use a lot more squash. When I get back from my camping trip next weekend I'll get some tomato plants to put in. And this year I'm putting plastic over all the bare earth so I don't have to waste so much time on pulling weeds and grass. Ick I hate that! So cross your fingers and soon I'll have beans and squash sprouting. I love to watch things sprout.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
My roses are blooming.
My striped roses just started blooming. It's going to be prolific this year. My St. Patrick's Day rose also has buds on it. None so far on my sterling rose, but I pruned it late in the season to get rid of the jasmine all tangled up in it. I'm sure it will make a comeback. It's very sturdy.
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