I have two kinds of hot peppers growing indoors, rescued from my deck at the end of the year: matchbox and black hungarian. As the light has returned and I've increased their water they've started blooming. I did a very impromptu cross-pollination between them yesterday, no anther removal, and will try emasculating some flowers and doing a proper ( Read more... )

400 accessions and counting. Started Sweet Baby Jade tomato seeds. Should start my non-annuum peppers but I need to look up which ones need how many individuals to pollinate.

Today was warm enough to get the snowblower working. One of the issues was that its oil was only good down to -20C, so when I tried to start it at -30C it was basically sludge. There was also a lack of fuel stabilizer and old oil, but I had to run it for a bit to get the oil to pick up all the little metal bits since I hadn't changed the-- well, ( Read more... )

Well. That was kind of awful, two weeks of terrible mental stuff instead of the two weeks of joyful planting I was hoping to have.

On the other hand, last night we got a very very light frost and if I had planted out my melons they would have been toast.

It's interesting to see the frost patterns: in town it was a heavier frost and out here it was ( Read more... )

So the reason I started antidepressants was that we (family doctor and I) are trying to figure out why I get so ridiculously tired in the week before my period. Like, worried-I'm-going-to-die-from-being-too-tired-to-breathe tired. The one I went on helped what was evidently depression, but I still get tired. Blood tests tried, everything seems to ( Read more... )

This month is flying by.

The grain is up, I got the cabbages (heading and leafing) planted yesterday, today I'd like to do potatoes and brussels sprouts.

The first couple buds showed up on my tomatoes a week ago - sweet cheriette and bloody butcher specifically -- and a couple more have manifested by now, especially on exserted orange. I may come ( Read more... )

Took some time off work this morning and then went outside again after work this afternoon. Sun has just set and 'm resentful of coming in but so, so happy.

Did:

Some fencing.

Tilled part of the garden, that lovely tiller really does start up nicely. Going to do a starburst garden this year, I can see it from my deck so it'll look neat.

Tin roof on two ( Read more... )

tOne of the things about living in the North is, fruits and veggies are super expensive. I've decided to grow most of my food by calories and that's led to certain decisions. If I had to grow most of my food by dollar value it would look very different.

In the summer and fall there's a ton of stuff to grow and forage, and in early winter all the ( Read more... )

Yesterday I put the first seeds outside. They went into pots on the deck that held tomatoes etc last year: piracicaba broccoli, sorrento raab, some of the bitter is better endive/chicory mix, green salad bowl lettuce, longstanding bloomsdale spinach, some of the gulag stars kale mix, longstanding cilantro, komo shungiku, and a couple easter egg ( Read more... )

Finished potting up the tomato trial finally.

The only one that didn't germinate at all was Clear Pink from Annapolis Seeds.

I have roughly 150 tomato plants, which is a lot of flats to move in and out every day, but there's no space under lights so that's what I've got.

I also have a bunch of peppers and eggplants and tomatillos and ground cherries ( Read more... )