I went home yesterday in the middle of the day to find that the ones most recently planted yet not mulched with grass clippings were almost dead from the heat and wind and sun because even though I watered in the am before work, they had dried out in the elements but the ones that had the aforementioned grass clippings were perky, flowering, growing and unaffected by the stress of just one more heat wave. SOOOooo, let your lawn grow extra long, then mow it, let it dry in the sun for a day then collect it and line it up under your veggie plants (don't do this if you used broadleaf weed killers).
If you want to grow potatoes, it's not like you're going to do it because you'll save money, it's because growing your own food is kind of fun. Imagine Thanksgiving dinner with lamb accompanied with your own potatoes?
Whatever the reason, just go into the pantry and grab some potatoes that have started sprouting, everyone has them (don't they?). follow internet directions and pretty soon you'll have a crop. https://food-hub.org/files/resources/Food%20Miles.pdf I found that winter blueberries tasted great till I found out that they fly them here in cargo planes from Chile. Now the thought of the carbon footprint of eating them (read an article once)jumps into my head and when I see imported veggies I try to rationalize how much I want them to see if the pollution required to get it to me is worth it. I am not a "long haired hippie freak" who radicalizes every purchase to determine if my purchases will kill the planet (nothing against long haired hippie freaks). However I do read and pay attention, and I try to choose a logical path for me. That is why today I realized that the carbon footprint of my gardening efforts amounts only to one thousanth of the amount needed for the blueberry jet to fly half an inch, if that. Just one more benefit to growing your own stuff. The only carbon is the emissions of my huffing and puffing. I am contemplating what to plant next. I'm thinking of winter-what freezes well. So the next trip to stop and shop, I'll walk down the frozen aisle and see what they sell. If they can freeze it, so can I. I am planning on canning tomatoes for the winter sauce. Never did it before, but i can do it! Did you ever read the label on the sphagetti sauces? The label picture looks so healthy yet it's loaded with high fructose corn syrup and various chemicals and sugar. Ever since I saw that, I stopped buying it and bought the canned crushed tomato stuff and made my own. TASTES BETTER. CHEAPER! Hopefully I can do the canning right. I just found out from June, our earthy perennial expert that Amazon.com sells a tomato-masher-skin-remover-prepare for freezing-device that enables people to prepare tomatoes for freezing directly and eliminate the time consuming boiling process. When I have the info, I'll put it up here. Eat healthy, save money, reduce emissions, get exercise... looks good to me! Two unknowns in my garden now- collard greens and okra. LOOK WHAT I FOUND! http://m.extension.illinois.edu/veggies/okra.cfm Growing your own food is cool. Do it with class, do it right. Do it big. Save money, get close to Mother Nature, get your fingers dirty.
Sweaty now with sore back. 15 yards of garden soil spread so it's about eight inches thick with a pickup truck full of veggies, a rake, Harrell's fertilizer, and favorite liquid for "rehydration." Ain't planting tonight even though I feel like it because of the HUGE t-rex sized footprints in the soil from last night. Last thing I need is to feed expensive veggie plants to those huge vermin (deer).
Speaking of vermin, the worst type was seen in our neighborhood. We had an unkept house in the area recently rebuilt by the bank, maybe that's where those R**S came from. I brought it up with two neighbors and two customers, all of whom had seen them on their own properties. I concluded EVERYONE might have them living in stone walls, streams, neighbors junk piles, everywhere. They're SMART. I bought a have a heart trap and set it up, can't wait to kill anything I catch. GROSS!!! A friend came in yesterday and showed me pics of his garden. I showed him mine, he laughed. Was impressed with him and his wife for elevating the level of sophistication above Martha Stewart's. Even the pictures of the harvest make me drool with the possibilities of what can be done when one puts ones mind towards a task. She starts the plants from seed and goes from there. I'm responding by claiming that our garden was my kids garden and not mine. I brought home fifteen yards of our garden soil and spread it out in the rain. Gotta take it smooth, fence it in, and figure out what to plant. Mine will be huge but crude in comparison. the soil is about eight inches deep, and is our loose and fluffy garden soil, no tools needed for planting. More pics to follow!
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