Monday, November 26, 2007

Notes for November 26, 2007

Hope everyone had a joyous and safe thanksgiving.

The wife asked for my Christmas list and she had the nerve to ask why I need two more grow lights . This year I plan on starting more seeds and will probable be asking for grow lights the next several Christmas's. This past Spring, I finally figured out how to get healthy plants from grow lights. The seedling has to be nearly touching the light and then you don't get leggy plants. So I plan to increase my grow lights each year.

On Thanksgiving morning I picked another carrot to check their size and now they are (or at least some) are the size of my whole pinky finger and not just one knuckle). I watered the carrot patch on Friday and maybe I will get some larger carrots yet. Its raining today so they will enjoy it. Also on Friday I drained the garden hoses for winter storage.

I hurt my back last week (I still haven't figured out how). It started hurting Tuesday evening but I hadn't done any demanding physical work since Saturday when I mulched the leaves in my yard. So needless to say, not much work got done over the holiday weekend. I had ambitions of cleaning and decorating and leaf mulching, but not much happened. But at least I can tell with this pain that its only a muscle pull and not associated with the two herniated disks I have.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Notes for November 20, 2007

No snow here, but they got a good shot about two hours north of here. We have been getting rain rather regular lately and my carrots are enjoying it. I put away the rain gage because some mornings have been down in the 20's. But tomorrow and Thanksgiving its forecasted to be in the 60's.

I cleaned up the veggie garden on Saturday. I pulled out all the tomato and pepper plants, shook off the dirt and tossed the plants on the lawn and mulched them up with the mower. Put all the clipping in the compost pile.

I picked the last of the radishes and I picked a few of the carrots. They were more like appetizers. They were only as big as a pinky finger to the first or second knuckle. I may still get a few spinach leaves.

I mulched and bagged all the leaves in my yard again and two of my compost piles are over flowing. My third pile can still take more. I call them compost piles but they are more like just ground up leaf piles that I will use for mulch next year. Although I do put other biodegradeables in one of the piles (such as the jack-o-lantern that was getting soft, and the water melon rinds back in late summer).

I did forget to do one thing this past weekend and that was to drain the garden hoses for winter. Maybe this weekend.

Happy and safe Thanksgiving to all.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Notes for November 7, 2007

I emptied 0.5" from the rain gage yesterday. It was a good soaking rain, nothing hard. So maybe I will get some carrots by thanksgiving.

It was 29 degrees this morning when I left for work and I noticed that with yesterday's wind, there are enough leaves for me to mulch this weekend.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Notes for November 5, 2007

I did not mulch the leaves in my yard this past weekend. They weren't as heavy. I will have to mulch them next weekend.

The fall colors around here are in full swing. I saw two different places that would have made a beautiful picture. The first one was looking across a pasture with a forested area in the back with all the colors of fall. The second place was a small narrow lake that was flat as glass with freshly fallen leaves floating on the water around the edges of the lake along with about 20 geese and all the colors of the trees reflecting off the water.

We didn't get any rain this past week so I decided to water my carrots (it would be nice to pick some around thanksgiving. We're supposed to get rain tonight into tomorrow morning. I also picked some radishes yesterday too (just a few).

I refilled the birdfeeder (just black oil sunflower) and I refilled the thistle feeder. The suet cake in the back yard in half gone but the one in front doesn't look touched (even though I did see the downy woodpecker on it on Saturday). I picked off the four dead heads of sunflower from my garden and busted up the heads and spread them on the ground under the birdfeeder, they are probably gone now. I need to get some squirrel mix to put in my glass jar squirrel feeder. It's so funny to see a squirrel inside a glass jar. I built a squirrel feeder with a gallon glass jar from the plans I found in the magazine "Birds and Blooms". Haven't seen the bluebirds we had all summer in several weeks, but they will probably be around some time during the winter, they seem to like the berries from the dogwood and the hedge in the front yard.