Winter Veggies

Started the winter veggie seeds over the weekend.  Lettuce, kale, snow peas, spinach… I think that’s it.  A couple days later and there are already some sprouts.  Also got two Paw Paw trees from the farmer’s market and planted one (will plant the other next weekend). Have gotten absolutely no rain, so have been watering once a week with our lone sprinkler.  Water barrels are half empty, so hoping for rain soon.  Summer veggies are about dead, and I’m letting them go fallow.  Will mulch on to before planting winter veggies when ready.  All of this is being done on the new potter’s table that I built.  Very sturdy and convenient!

In the yard, I applied the Scott’s Weed & Feed.  Seems to have caused a couple burn spots where the spreader was a bit overzealous, but those are turning back green and the rest of the yard is looking lush.  Have noticed this weed, yet to be identified, which I will be working on eradicating in the future.  Will also be laying pre-emergents down to prevent crab grass in the winter/spring.  Have all but given up on the Asiatic Jasmine.  Need to rake the existing mulch, cover it all, spray grass/weed killer, then re-lay mulch and get more Jasmine this spring.  *sigh*.

On a more positive note, Fall means pansies have been planted.  Those in the pots are doing great.  Those in the mulch beds were wilting a bit, but Mary was able to resurrect them with a noon watering today.  Probably just need to be more established… hopefully.  Also on the front porch, Mary made a covered cushion for the swing my dad and I put up.  Looks great and adds to the enjoyment! (Note I need to scrape and repaint the porch).

I finally got around to finishing the outlet, adding a wooden frame to make it look more finished around the cheap vinyl siding that was already there.  Just nice to have a fan at all until we get the ceiling fans put in.

Inside the house, we’ve been busy painting the dining room and installing a chair rail.  Ruby Lips on top, Toffee Crunch on bottom.  Looking good so far, but will need another coat of the red as it’s so much darker.

Also got our fire screen (from Amazon), as one of our puppies might otherwise get his ball rolled into the fire!

 

 

Minimal rain, 1 tomato

Minimal rain so far today, and 1 Early Girl Tomato harvested.  Weighs 4.3 ounces, which is a bit smaller than I hope for but it had begun ripening with our lack of rain.

With the watermelon, I had planted another “normal” watermelon a couple weeks ago to help pollinate the seedless melon variety I have (being new at this, I hadn’t even known that seedless watermelons cannot self-pollinate).  Saw two flowers today, one from each, so tried hand-pollinating them. Further research reveals that I tried pollinating two male flowers.  I didn’t even know there were male and female flowers, lol… Will continue to work on this, and am still hoping for at least one seedless melon by the end of Summer.

Rain rain don’t go away

Got 0.15 inches today, and I know the plants loved every bit of it.  Just wish we could have gotten more, but hopefully we will later this week.  I believe it should have refilled our rain barrels, too.

Also planted the Asiatic Jasmine and 4 day lilies that we got from the Farmers’ Market (which was celebrating its 11th anniversary with a 4 for $11 deal).  Wifey and puppy approve.  The plan is to use a grass killer and make a mulch bed of the area in front of the Azaleas.

In the kitchen we tried a Celebrity tomato.  Might not have been as ripe as the Early Girl we tried last week.  Not as flavorful as the Early Girl, but still delicious and no problems with indigestion.  Have another one that should be ripe in 1-2 days.

Harvested a bell pepper, albeit early due to birds pecking at it.  Was supposed to be a yellow bell pepper, but it needed to be picked before it could even get to mature size due to said birds.  Will research ways to address this later.

The Vegetable Garden

The vegetable garden was planted around Good Friday this year (2016) and shows promise (more promise than my black thumb has ever shown before, that is).  Among its inhabitants are 3 Early Girl tomato plants (indeterminate), 1 Celebrity tomato (determinate, in a large clay pot), some cherry tomatoes I got from neighbor Jesse, 4 Bell Peppers (red, orange, yellow and green), onions around the border, a potato tower (trying for the first time by stacking old tires), one seedless watermelon and 1 cucumber.

Most of the plants were from “big box” stores; although, I would like to try heirloom and open pollinators in the future. The tomato plants came from Cooper Farms at our local farmers’ market.  I have no delusions of farming organically without pesticides at this time.  A tomato fruitworm put an end to that idea.  Maybe in the future I’ll give it a try once I have more confidence.  In the meantime, Miracle Grow works miracles, and Sevins Dust seems to keep the bad bugs at bay without affecting the pollinators (when applied with care).

The red Christmas ornaments are my attempt to trick our many backyard birds.  By the time the tomatoes start to ripen, I’m hoping the birds will have learned that “red” does not equal “tasty.”  I also keep a full birdbath in case they only want the tomatoes for the water.  So far, it’s working.