update on my stuff and things
I suppose I've been strangely silent on LJ lately given that my boss has been out of town. Most of my downtime at work has been spent on the online courses I'm taking in preparation for my communication disorders program in the fall. I am sooo sick of the anatomy class that is a gluttonous feast of busywork. I'm not sure what I'll do when my boss is back and I can no longer use work time for lame mandatory discussion board posts, vocabulary lists and constant quizzes! Blah!
We started a little veggie garden that is going fairly well. I should say, some plants are doing extraordinarily well and some are utterly failing, but I suppose it averages out. Check out the Environmental Working Group's list of best and worst fruits and veggies in terms of pesticide load, part of our motivation for growing our own. Sadly, some of my favorite fruits and veggies fall within the top 10 worst ones (apples, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, blueberries, kale, spinach), and some of these are just not feasible to grow at home. I wants me an apple tree!
Here's our garden results so far (sadly, no pictures yet)
Kale: got super big, super fast but is always, always thirsty. Tends to look wilty after work even if we watered it in the morning (not a good sign when summer has barely started). I picked some leaves for Sugar yesterday and they perked up after just an hour in a cup of water, so we need to just water the hell out of it.
Chard: doing fantastic too, but not quite big enough to feed us yet.
Zucchini: trying to take over the world! This thing grows like a maniac. We've had huge leaves and thick, ropy stalks for a few weeks, and just started getting remarkably pretty flowers; now there are wee squashes starting to grow. OMG we are going to have zucchini up the wazoo! We may be begging to dump it on some of you all before the summer is out.
Butternut squash: The seedlings are happy, but relatively slow growing (at least in comparison to the gigantor-chini). I'm sure it will be a while before we can harvest any.
Broccoli: semi to total FAIL. We managed to harvest a few tiny crowns, but the little bits (there's probably a word for them...) get crazy tall and bloom into little yellow flowers without ever creating a proper crown. I am disappointed in you, broc.
Cauliflower: complete and total FAIL. Been subjected to a whole lot of digging up, and may have been getting too much sun.
So far, it's mostly Sugar who has reaped the benefits, since she eats such small portions that we can nip off a few leaves for her. I would LOVE to grow close-to-enough veg to stop buying them at the market; we'll see if that dream gets realized.
We have yet to come up with a way to fend off pesky wild squishies who dig dig dig up our plants (Don't think I'm a total softie because I own a squish myself. NO SYMPATHY FOR YOU LITTLE BUGGERS! GET THE HELL OUTTA MY PLANTERS!). We've tried a weird garlicky smelling spray that I think bothered me more than them. Then I tried making an owl-like face tied with fishing line above the plants. That actually worked for a few days before they figured out it was a decoy. Not sure what the next step will be.
We started a little veggie garden that is going fairly well. I should say, some plants are doing extraordinarily well and some are utterly failing, but I suppose it averages out. Check out the Environmental Working Group's list of best and worst fruits and veggies in terms of pesticide load, part of our motivation for growing our own. Sadly, some of my favorite fruits and veggies fall within the top 10 worst ones (apples, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, blueberries, kale, spinach), and some of these are just not feasible to grow at home. I wants me an apple tree!
Here's our garden results so far (sadly, no pictures yet)
Kale: got super big, super fast but is always, always thirsty. Tends to look wilty after work even if we watered it in the morning (not a good sign when summer has barely started). I picked some leaves for Sugar yesterday and they perked up after just an hour in a cup of water, so we need to just water the hell out of it.
Chard: doing fantastic too, but not quite big enough to feed us yet.
Zucchini: trying to take over the world! This thing grows like a maniac. We've had huge leaves and thick, ropy stalks for a few weeks, and just started getting remarkably pretty flowers; now there are wee squashes starting to grow. OMG we are going to have zucchini up the wazoo! We may be begging to dump it on some of you all before the summer is out.
Butternut squash: The seedlings are happy, but relatively slow growing (at least in comparison to the gigantor-chini). I'm sure it will be a while before we can harvest any.
Broccoli: semi to total FAIL. We managed to harvest a few tiny crowns, but the little bits (there's probably a word for them...) get crazy tall and bloom into little yellow flowers without ever creating a proper crown. I am disappointed in you, broc.
Cauliflower: complete and total FAIL. Been subjected to a whole lot of digging up, and may have been getting too much sun.
So far, it's mostly Sugar who has reaped the benefits, since she eats such small portions that we can nip off a few leaves for her. I would LOVE to grow close-to-enough veg to stop buying them at the market; we'll see if that dream gets realized.
We have yet to come up with a way to fend off pesky wild squishies who dig dig dig up our plants (Don't think I'm a total softie because I own a squish myself. NO SYMPATHY FOR YOU LITTLE BUGGERS! GET THE HELL OUTTA MY PLANTERS!). We've tried a weird garlicky smelling spray that I think bothered me more than them. Then I tried making an owl-like face tied with fishing line above the plants. That actually worked for a few days before they figured out it was a decoy. Not sure what the next step will be.