Art?

Had to share this.  

I grow a lot of lettuces, celery, bok choy, etc in planter trays.

And I was starting a new season of them last week.  But the trays have a wire hook in the middle to keep the sides from spreading.  They got filled with dirt and the hooks didn't fit in anymore.

So I used a cheap drill bit to both pull the dirt out and enlarge them slightly.  Now, the wire hooks fit in great.  

Emptied all the dirt into a large tray.  Mixed in some organic slow-release fertilizer.  Add fresh potting soil on the top 2 inches.  Leveled the soil in the trays.  And because the dry peat moss part of the soil doesn't get wet easily at first, poured hot water into all the 10 trays.

Ready to plant tomorrow under bright fluorescent lights.  But fluorescent lights don't last forever.  I get a year from them (they are on 14 hours a day).  So I spent an hour replacing tubes that were dead.  Getting the old ones out is sometimes hard.  Getting new ones in is harder.  Frustrating sometimes.  But I got that done.

But I'll have fresh lettuces etc to put outside on the deck (see last year's picture above) in time to get more standard garden veggies under the lights soon.

So what I wanted to share was that I was out of red leaf lettuce.  And buying a single seed packet online is ridiculous (about $14).  And they want to send you 500 seeds.  As if I needed 500 seeds.  I plant a dozen per year.  

So Walmart had a 50 seed packet for $2.  Perfect.  A bit of red lettuce in my daily salad goes a long way for appearance.  

Planting indoors is now on it's way!

I mentioned "art" didn't I?  I almost forgot.  Drilling the tray for the hooks to fit was a bit of a project.  I have a drill press and that helped.  Drilled dirt out and enlarged the holes slightly.  The results were interesting!

Here is the cheap drill bit after all the drilling...

And here is the bit spinning around...

I think that looks sort of artistic...

Do you?

Salad Trays Part 2

The first tiny lettuce seedlings are emerging.  Yay!  The carrots and pak choy will take a few more days.

Pilch 92 commented "You kept it going a long time. Our lettuce bolted when it got really hot over the summer."   Yeah, they lasted from Spring.  I'm pretty sure that's because I cut a whole head an 1" above ground level each time, so the whole plant grows back, and that delays bolting.  

"Cut&come again" is a really great way to keep harvesting loose-leaf lettuce.  Since the plant has an established root system, it regrows leaves very quickly.  And I use an organic slow-release fertilizer at initial planting so the roots stay fed for months.  I don't think that would work for iceberg lettuce, but I don't grow that.

With 2 trays of green lettuce and 1 of red, and 12 plants per tray, I always have enough for the base of a salad (I add plenty of other raw veggies to fill a bowl).  

It doesn't look like this again yet...

But it will in about a month!  At which time I will have to bring them inside for Winter (under lights).  And I have LED light fixtures to install, so it won't cost much.

BTW, lettuce seeds cost only about $3 per packet and if you keep them in the fridge, they last several years.  The 2' trays are cheap enough.  Not that I've ever tried to keep track carefully, my best guesstimate is that I pay about 15 cents per pound of fresh clean lettuce.  $2 per pound at the grocery store.

The celery and pak choy is harder to guess and the savings.  I just get leaves of both.  Which is all I want from them.  Celery leaves are tasty and a bit spicy.  Pak choy leaves are just for my shrimp rolls but the leafiest ones at the store are "baby" and cost $5 per pound.  

But mostly, I love just being able to walk out on the deck at dinnertime and harvest fresh stuff easy and cheap!

Flowers, Part 2

 And then there are deck flowers.  I haven't planted the pots with the new ones yet, but there are perennials.

The Oriental Lilies exploded the past few days.  From nothing...

To a few...

And more!

It will spectacular in a couple days.

And there is a volunteer in one deck pot from last year!  I will give it special attention!

And the lettuce/celery/pak choi trays are doing well outside now.  

I sure love Spring...

The Deck Garden

I've shown pics of my deck garden in the past.  I grow various lettuces, celery, and pak choy.  Most of them are "cut and come again".  But eventually, they wear out and die, so I have to plant again.

So I planted all again a few weeks ago.  They are doing great.  They grow fast in warm weather and don't mind cool temperatures when they are mature.  I will have to take them inside (under lights when the first hard frost is predicted) but the current Weather Channel forecast says that will be a couple more weeks.

The late "first hard freeze" is amazing.  It used to be in late October, but in the past decade it has gotten later by 2 weeks on average.  And this year will be a week later than average.  My trees and shrubs are finding the change difficult to adjust to (my newer plantings are from what was a zone further south years ago).

But my deck garden loves it.  They don't know the date of course and have no knowledge of previous years; all they know is that the temperature suits them.  They are growing quickly.

The lettuces et al were like this 2 weeks ago...

Now they are this:

The celery doesn't make true stalks here. but it is the stronger-tasting leaves I like anyway.

The lettuces are thriving.

The pak choy leaves are for wrapping contents in my Spring Rolls.  The leaves add some flavor, but mostly the prevent the contents from poking holes in the wrapper.

I am looking forward to a new batch of "cut and come again".  

Let Us Grow Lettuce, He Said Crisply

The lettuce planters on the deck continue to grow new leaves after I harvest them.  I love that.

They got limp after a dry spell but recovered nicely.

 I do have to have salad with my dinner...

Catching Up

Wow, 2 weeks since I posted here!  Well, I've been busy. 

1.  My lettuce trays on the deck "bolted" in the August heat.  Time to replant.  I have a large shallow plastic tub I use for mixing potting soil for Spring plantings.  Fine for dumping the soil in the trays and mixing it around to add new slow-release fertilizer, too.  

I did that on the deck.  No rain forecast for 2 days, so time to let it dry a bit for easier mixing.  Naturally, it rained.  And then more forecast for the next day, so I covered it wit a piece of plywood that almost reached the edges so I added a a big trask bag to reached over the sides.

The rain got in there anyway!  So I tilted it and siphoned the water out.  Muddy water doesn't siphon well, so I had to keep fussing with the tube.  I got most of it out.  And realized I had a dry tray inside, so I added that to soak up the rest.

That's not exactly rocket science, but it does take time.  I covered it better today.  The remnants of Hurricane Ida are coming straight through here Wed and maybe dropping 2-3 inches of rain on us.  The last thing I need for the trays is mud.  It compacts as it dries and I want to replant soon.  I miss my bright red leaf lettuce in my salads!

2.  I bought a battery-powered mower in 2018.  It's pathetic.  I went by Amazon ratings (no offence to Amazon) but I sometimes forget that their ratings only apply to customer ratings about things Amazon sells.  So if they sell average stuff, the best ratings are still about average stuff.

The Greenworks mower I bought has batteries difficult to remove (I devised twine loops to pull them out),  the batteries die after 10 minutes, the power is so weak that the mower cringes at 4" grass being cut down to 3", and it is entirely push/pull.  I've hated it for 3 years!

So I went to Consumer Reports magazine website (I have a subscription) and went looking for the best self-propelled models.  Wow, what a difference!  The one I bought in 2018 was rated poor.  

The best Top 3 ones at CR were about the same.  I bought a Ryobi "40V HP Brushless 21 in. Cordless Battery Walk Behind Self-Propelled Lawn Mower with (2) 6.0 Ah Batteries and Charger", model RY401014US (if you are curious).

I used it yesterday and it worked great.  Powerful, long-lasting. cut down 16" high weeds in an old bed for renovation (with a bit of care).  I had let a tall-growing weed grow there to smother the others.  I love the self-propelled rear drive wheels.  I WAS disappointed to realize that it didn't self-propel in reverse, but apparently none of them do.  My DR brush-mower does and I made an assumption that forward also allowed back.

But I use it in tight spaces and around trees where the riding mower can't go.  It's the forward self-propel that helps the most.

3.  And speaking of the DR brush mower (brutal thing that can cut down weedy shrubs and wild saplings 1.5" thick, turns blackberry canes into mulch, and is self-propelled forwards and back), I left it with gas in the tank 2 years ago (well, I expected to use it again soon but didn't).  Won't start now.  Have to inject the fuel line with "starter fluid".  Sounds like an old boy scout joke about smoke shifters, sky hooks, and 50' of shoreline, but it is real.  

If that doesn't work, back to the repair shop and and they both slow and expensive.  One thing I hate repairing is gasoline engines.  I can fix a lot of things, but those aren't one that comes easily.  

A neighbor once climbed up on the fence and asked if I was good at repairing things.  I said "yeah, as long as it isn't a 2-stroke gasoline engine".  You should have seen the look on his face; that was exactly what he needed help with, LOL!

I am switching to almost all-battery stuff these days.  They just keep working,

4.  Time for my first car maintenance visit.  13 months and I've driven 600 miles!  Laugh if you want to; I just don't drive much.  But I'm going to have to drive 120 mile round trip sometime in September to adopt my female Tonkinese cat, so I need to make sure the car is ready for a trip.

5.  The garden is producing a meal's worth of flat italian Romano beans every other day.  Not bad for a 5' long 1' wide trellis".  My 3 cherry tomatoes have fruits and I expect to strt picking ripe one in 2 weeks.  The regular-size tomatoes were planted late and are just beginning to open blossoms.  It will be a contest between warm-weather growing and the first frost on late October.  I expect a month's worth at least.  Maybe 6 weeks.

6.  The deck Mums are starting to bloom.  Yellow, orange, and red.  That will be nice.

7.  The Black-Eyed Susans are blooming nicely.

Actually, they are very numerous and spreading.  Well, they are native here. so no threat.  I encourage them.  They bloom for a few months.  My plan is to transplant the Susans in the garden paths to the meadow bed and add purple coneflower transplants (from places I don't want them).  Yellow and purple together look good to me.

Garden

The wet early Spring and the cold dry May has not been a great start to the gardening year.  For example, I usually pre-soak my bean seeds inside to improve germination and then I forgot them for a day and they rotted.  Twice.  I had new ones online with shipping.  Try to find Flat Italian Pole Beans at a Big Box Store in late May.  But I received them today.  So guess what, it is going to rain all weekend.

But maybe not.  The Weather-Guessers said yesterday evening would bring powerful thunderstorms, hail, and strong damaging winds. So I move all my  tender lettuces and flower seedlings inside temporsarily.  It drizzled for an hour.  Wow, such a threat...

I really have to get the garden planted.  Some crops mature by mid-Summer but some take the whole growing season.  I need to get the tomato and pepper seedlings into the ground, and seeds of melons and cucumbers started really soon.

Part of that is because I've read some gardening articles recently that say planting too early stunts growth and later plantings actually surpass earlier ones in total growth, health, and production.  But maybe this wasn't the best year to try that.  

These are 2 grafted Brandywine tomatoes I bought (heirloom tomato tops on vigorous disease-resistant roots from a tomato you wouldn't eat.  They were $10 each, but with heirloom tomatoes almost $5 each (and of poor quality - they refrigerate them) at the local grocery store, just 2 more per plant means a savings.  And I expect a dozen from each plant.

And here are the lettuces/greens.  I LOVE salads!  OK, actually this is celery.  I love the slightly bitter taste of the leaves so I harvest them "leafy" for both salads and stir-fries.

Red-leaf romaine lettuce.  You won't find them in the local store.

This shows endive (another slightly bitter green) and red leaf lettuce.  You've seen "red-leaf" in the stores and just the tips are red?  When I say "red" I mean "RED!

The whole stand from the side.

And the front.

The backmost tray is Bok Choy.  It is an Asian member of the cabbage family.  They are too young to harvest yet, but are growing fast.  Here's the mature version...

The stalks provide crunch (and can be used in any recipe involving cabbage - and smells better during cooking).  I use the large leaves in Spring Rolls.  I put the leaves on the wrapper and the shrimp/peppers/whatever on top.  The leaves prevent the ingredients from poking holes in the wrapper.  Leaf lettuce works for that too, but doesn't add any taste.

Next time, I hope to show planted seedlings of veggies and flowers.

Nice Stuff

Random Good Things - 

Scored actual Flieschmans bread machine yeast at the grocery store. And at a normal price!

Finally got the trailerful of yard debris to the recycling center where they pile it up to make free mulch next year.  I cut the stuff down and tied it down months ago, but the place is a mess after rain and it rained all Summer.  It was finally dry.  They offer free mulch loading Saturdays 8-Noon but that ended last week.  I have 2 more loads of debris to go.  I'm surprized I dont have a picture of that, but I will be reloading the trailer laer today and will try to emember to take a pic.

Nice to find the car hauled the trailer easily.  But the trailer hitch is awkward.  It is low, the safety chain hooks are kinna under the car, and the light connection is awkward.  I'll have to reverse the trailer ball on the mount.  That will raise it several inches.

 

If you mount the hitch upside down, and change the ball to the "new" top, you gain several inches.  It's a deliberate design feature.

The Nandina seeds I planted in the basement in February finally sprouted in September all at once.  I have 22 seedlings growing to plant.  I have 4 plants in the yard and intend to make a hedge of them along the drainage ditch as they are evergreen with lovely red seeds.  They are very hardy and well-rooted.  They reach 4' and stop there.  Perfect hedge. 

The Mews were all-together last night.  I'll be using this picture again on their blog next week.  Not many cat-bloggers read this blog,,,

But I just had to show one now.  It was amazing.

My normal water usage is about 8-10 thousand gallons per quarter year.  Last time, it was 13,000,  Not a great increase in cost, but I was surprised.  It has rained so much this year I haven't watered anything outdoors.  But things have dried out a bit.  But one part of the front yard is soggy.  And right on the path where the water from the street pipe comes to the house.  

 

 I think there is a leak in the water pipe.  There s some uncertainty here.  A front yard leakage wouldn't have registered on the meter on the house.  But increased water usage and a soggy area in the yard suggests a water leak.  I'll  be calling the water office tomorrow.

I have Lettuces growing again in the basement light stand.  And not just lettuce.  Radishes, Celery, and Bok Choy.  It was a joy to plant them.  Not much to show yet, but here are some pics of last year...

Ignore the ivy and look at the lettuces.   I planted 2x as much this year.  It is still not enough to meet my love of salads "with everything", but is sure does add to it.  I basically thnk that any veggie that can be eaten raw goes in my salad.  With one exception... Brocolli and tomatoes don't taste right together for me.Or cheese.  I like "crispy".

Have a Happy...

Gardening Light Stand

I have had my indoor gardening light stand the long way against the wall since I assembled it.  But it occurred to me that it would be easier to water all the plants if it stood out from the narrow end.  So I tried to just move it.  SCREEECH!!!  And my muscles objected.

Metal doesn't move on a concrete floor well.

So my first thought was to reduce the weight.  The rack came with shelves.  But they were kind of flimsy to add fluorescent light fixtures to, so I added plywood.  Worked great, but it is also hard to remove.  I managed the added plywood removal, but the lights were NOT coming off. 

The rack is 4' long.  The light fixtures are 4'+ and bolted in after disassembling and reassembling the fixtures.  I wasn't going to do that.  And the stand isn't actually bolted together.  It has parts that hold it together by its own weight.  It means you cant actually lift it or parts come apart.

So I had to figure out how to hold it together to lift the bottom.  Clamping pieces of wood to each corner in multiple ways seemed like a good idea.  If the parts separate by being moved up, them holding the parts down seemed promising. 

It worked.  I'm not sure whether a lever is geometry or physics, but after I clamped short blocks of wood to the bottom shelf.  I was able to move it 1" at a time.  And there was a pattern of moving the crowbar that worked.

1", 1", 1"...  And eventually, all those 1"s added up and I had it rotated 90 degrees...

Now I can put plant trays in and water easily from both sides and lift them out more easily (the original problems I was trying to solve).

And I had large plastic trash bags on the shelves.  They moved.  This time, as I set them back, I put the shelves IN the trash bags and folded the excess under them. 

Of COURSE I didn't take pictures.  I get involved in doing something and pictures are the last thing I think of.  But I can replicate some of it...

Did you think I wouldn't provide pictures?

OK, first is the clamping.  The one at the bottom crosses the rack parts that want to come loose.  The ones on the sides prevent that.  Clamps were suffifient.

Wedging the bottom allowed some slight movement.  That was the 1" at a time I mentioned above.  I did slowly move the stand 90 degrees.

Then I needed to replace the plywood above the light shelves.   And I wanted them covered with heavy duty plastic bags.That took some work fitting them over the sharp corners.  The boards BARELY fit around the rack.  This is an example of one.  And a cool thing is that I was able to fold the excess plastic trash bag under the shelf, so it stays tight. 

Here is the lettuce trays under the shelf I did today.  The others will be done tomorrow.  One is so tight, I have to cut it in half to fit them back, which is why I stopped.  And it was dinnertime too.

But the trays were SO MUCH easier to water and that was the point.  So I watered them, and it worked great.  I can get at them from both sides now.