Category: hobby

Fall Garden 2011: Check-in

The fall/winter garden never gets as big and bushy as the spring/summer one...

It’s been a couple of weeks since we planted the seedlings and seeds so, I figure it’s time to update everyone on how the garden is doing! The short answer is goodish, the longer one is below. Last week we transplanted the chard into the plot and last Saturday we transferred the kale. The slugs (my nemeses) absolutely loved the chard seedling and consumed half of them before I realized what was going on and laid out more sluggo, as well as going out at dusk and dawn to pick them off plants. I take a great deal of pleasure in chucking them as hard and as far as I can into the dry fields behind the house…

Arugula bursting out of the ground

The arugula is starting to come in and one of the nice things about arugula is no pests seem interested in eating it, it’s the easiest plant by far to cultivate. As you can see from the picture above the spinach, bok choy, and cauliflower are also doing fine. The slugs have been nibbling on all of them, mostly the cauliflower, but not enough to harm the plants. We’ve been having a mild fall so far and I’m not sure whether that is helping the garden or hurting it. If I’m going to continue gardening I really do need to read up more on these plants.

Kale seedlings right beforethey were transplanted

I know the question that is on everyone’s mind is “when can you start eating that stuff?” And, the answer is, “it depends.” The bok choy is ready to be eaten now, but as it stands we won’t get much from it if we harvest now. Give the the bok choy a couple weeks and we can start stripping off the outer leaves of all six plants and use them while leaving the plants in the ground to continue growing. The arugula should be edible with in a week, that stuff grows like weeds. The kale and chard are going to take a bit longer, but when the get to the right size we’ll be harvesting them in the same way we do the bok choy. The cauliflower? I don’t really know. Last year, they stalled out in growth and we ended up throwing the plants into compost. Hopefully, they’ll do better this year.

 

Fall Garden 2011: The Beginning

This picture in no way reflects the hard work it took to plant all that

We tore the Spring garden out three weeks ago and put in the winter garden last week. That week in between where the plot had nothing in it? That was a bad idea… Why? Well, because the soil dried out and before we could sow any seeds or transplant seedlings we had to water, and water and water. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. We went to Ace hardware to pick up seedlings in the morning only to find that much of their vegetable stock had already been sold. The only seedlings they had that we wanted were bok choy and cabbage so we picked those up and two bags of steer manure.

This is the good shit
This picture is more exciting than it looks

After we spread the manure we turned the hose on and sat there for fifteen minutes or so, it might have been longer. The soil had really dried out and in order to turn it over and incorporate the manure we needed a lot of water.

I work too, it's just that D doesn't take pictures of me...

After the ground was thoroughly saturated we planted the seedlings and sowed the chard, kale, arugula and spinach:

One of the joys of gardening: getting your hands dirty

After everything was planted, we sprinkled sluggo pellets down and we were done.

Just the other day the arugula and spinach broke through the surface. We’re still keeping our fingers crossed with the chard.

 

Spring Garden 2011: A Time to Reap

The spring/summer of 2011 garden's "Ultimate Form"

September has brought with it cooler days and cooler nights and that has slowed down the garden as well. We haven’t harvested a zucchini or tomato in weeks and the beans and cucumbers have begun to wither on their own. It is getting late in the season anyway and D is excited to put the fall/winter garden.  So, today we did a complete once over of the garden harvesting everything we found and then pulled it all out. The harvest turned out to be mostly green tomatoes; Diana has never had any before and I figure now is the perfect time to introduce them to her (fried, of course).

Half way there... Hey, stop staring at my wife!

In addition to tearing out the garden I turned over the soil,   “harvested” all the compost that was made this year (about a bucket and a half), and cleared out 1/3 of the vermiculture composter. The compost and worm castings and compost were then worked into the garden plot and everything was lightly watered. We’re going to let it lie for a week, or so, and then plant the winter garden. Much like last year we are going to plant a lot of greens (chard, spinach, kale, arugula, celery, etc.) I only hope that this year isn’t as wet as the last…

Soil enriched, turned and watered. I'll probably manure it too before we plant the winter garden.
Last fruits. All those reds tomatoes were completely hidden. That is what I get for growing monstrous tomato plants...
...and just a little more

Lastly, we found a couple of these enormous caterpillars while tearing everything out. These guys were as long and thick as my index finger! Anyone recognize it?

Is this a Caterpie or a Weedle?

 

New Bicycle

2010 Marin Hamilton 29er
2010 Marin Hamilton 29er

Last week my bicycle was stolen from my workplace’s parking lot. It was locked to a bike rack with four or five other bicycles. The other bicycles had u-locks mine had a combination cable lock on it. At the end of the day their bikes were still there and mine was gone. Luckily, the bike that was stolen my wife picked up for $20 at a garage sale in Santa Cruz so, it wasn’t a large financial loss. It was a nice bike though and its theft meant I’d have to find a replacement, during my work’s busiest time of the year, because I use the bike to commute to and from work.

I did some looking on Craigslist and made some calls but nothing really clicked. So, last weekend I went to a local bike shop that had some sales. The bicycle pictured above, aMarin Hamiltion 29er, was on sale and I didn’t want to spend all day or weekend looking for other/better deals so I sprang and made the purchase. While there I also picked up a new lock:

square chainlink wrapped in kevlar

I’m told bolt cutters will not work on this at all. I’m hoping this is a big enough deterrent to keep opportunistic criminals from the bike. I’m not taking any chances though when it comes to leaving the bike out for multiple hours with no eyes on it. So, for now I’ll be taking the bike up to the office with me until I can get a spot in the bike cage over at the Capitol that has camera monitoring (there’s a waiting list…) Hopefully, this way the bike won’t be stolen for many years to come after I’ve wrung all the value out of it.

Now, for some more gratuitous shots of my new bicycle (GO, GO, Go Consumerism!)

Single gear, not a "fixie" (though I do have that option...)

 

 

This picture offers contributes nothing. I took it though, and by God I'm going to use it in this post

Maybe, I’ll have time over the coming weekend to write (I really want to tell you about my upcoming Let’s Play and other stuff.)

 

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