A Slug for the Slugs

You guys are so sweet for wondering if everything is ok. Thank you so much for being concerned. Everything is fine. I'm not even going to pretend that I have a legitimate reason for not updating my blog for so long. I just haven't gotten around to it. I've been busy enjoying summer vacation with my kids. I'm knitting a little, quilting a little, and gardening a little.

I don't know that I've done anything blog worthy except perhaps my ongoing battle with the slugs that are infesting my garden here in the Adirondacks. It's been rainy, really rainy. The slugs are just having a party. They're sliming over and eating just about everything I've planted, even the Jerusalem artichokes which usually aren't bothered by anything. In short, they really piss me off.

The weapon of choice when battling with slugs is beer, believe it or not. I'm catching slugs by the slimy cupful. It's disgusting yet gratifying. Today is marks the beginning of my third go round of putting out fresh beer for the little buggers. (The beer gets a white coating after about a week and seems to become less effective.)

Check out this link for more on using beer to get rid of slugs.

The Garden in Pictures

Did I say photo's to follow soon? Oh what a liar I've become! Well here are the garden pictures, finally.

We'll start with the asparagus bed
Now we move on to the newly moved Jerusalem Artichoke bed which is right behind the asparagus bed.Although some Jerusalem artichokes seemed sad about the move initially,they did all eventually perk up.
Now on to the potato patchPerhaps you'd like a peek inside?
This is where the onions are planted, much later than they should have been but what's a girl to do?What's this?Tomatoes!Here's a peek at the raspberries that grow wild on our property. Isn't that nice of them?Finally, remember those twiggy looking elderberries we planted? They aren't twiggy anymore!
PS: I've been sewing like a crazy person. I'm more than half way through making a beach bag for Tasha. Pictures eventually (it seems more honest than saying soon!)
PPS: Ruthie, we're going to miss your blogging. Please don't stop commenting too!!

The Garden is Growing

For everyone who endured my complaining about my non-sprouting asparagus, of the 30 crowns I planted 32 have emerged. Yes, 32! Not really sure where the extra two came from. I guess little pieces broke off to create new plants.

The potatoes are growing like mad. I've just added a layer of straw and a small shovelful of worm bin compost to each of the containers the potatoes are growing in.

The Jerusalem Artichokes are growing well too and they've been through a lot. I decided to move them to a different, smaller location when they decided to grow between the new elderberry bushes I planted. They didn't randomly do this of course. I planted the elderberries in the bed they had been in for the last few years because I thought they were dead. Last year they barely made a showing, of course it could have been the weeds choking them off...but this is a new year and we're taking our food growing seriously now!!

We've got tomatoes, hot peppers, swiss chard and zucchini in the ground already. We're hoping to get a little more in this week.

This growing your own food is scary business. Pictures to follow soon.

Sew This is What's Going On

It seems that my worries about the asparagus were baseless. Just about all of them have made a showing. Now if only those potatoes would start sprouting... Oh well, I think this is what the life of a gardener is like. You worry about each and every seed, crown and bulb. Slow sprouters spawn the worry, "did I screw that up?" So far the answer is no but the season is young.

There are weeds breaking through the hay that surrounds the elderberry bushes. I'm planning to deal with that today. My seedlings have been getting acclimated to the great outdoors the last few days by hanging out under our deck in the dappled sun. So far they're holding up well. Next week they'll go in the ground. Of course the ground isn't prepped yet but that's another days work.

Spring also means it's time to go through the boys' outgrown clothes. Two huge bags were donated this morning. I only kept the outgrown jeans for the quilt project and 2 sweaters to unravel. Everything else went out. If I don't get those last two denim quilts made soon, I fear my denim stash will be in danger. It's grown to dangerous proportions. Maybe I'll get a few rows sewn today.

Leenie doesn't know it yet but her beach bag is high on today's agenda as well. There's a possible tutorial coming but I'm not so sure the world needs another bag tutorial so we'll see.

In other frugal news, Memorial Day weekend is rapidly approaching and we need a menu since we've got half the world spending the weekend with us. This job goes to Leenie. I wonder if I should have told her first before posting it here?

I'm off to start the rest of my day.

It's the Sincerest Asparagus Stalk

My Garden Really Does Grow!

This Sunday we planted our potato patch. I use the term loosely since the patch consists of three old garbage cans, 1 giant plastic tub and a rolled compost bin. Maybe I should refer to it as our potato cluster.

I'm delighted to report I finally have seen a single asparagus stalk sprout up. Don't misunderstand me, I'd be happier if I saw 30 of them but since its been almost a month and I haven't seen any, this one is pretty thrilling. At this writing, I'm feeling like quite the little gardener since everything we've planted is growing.

I was down in the back yard watering the apple trees, watching deer meander by the creek and enjoying the little oasis we've been creating when my new neighbor came down the street in his SUV blaring rap music. It bummed me out. I don't care what he listens to, that's his choice, I just wish he didn't make it so loud (it was really loud) that it bothers the people around him. Oh well.

I've got laundry going and bread rising. The next challenge is to go through the summer clothing and try to find more shorts for Robert. If there are no more, the next step is to look over his jeans for ones that are destroyed below the knee so I can make them into shorts. In the absence of that, a trip to the thrift store is in my future.

Don't Pitch It, Stitch It!

High on the success of the sock project, that is my new motto. I'm happy to report the rescued tube socks were given the thumbs up by Robert even after a full day of use, including several laps around the school track. My only concern was that the new seam might be irritating but my worries were unfounded. I love little victories like this.

Another frugal victory came my way earlier this week via my local online recycling group. Someone was giving away two rain barrels like the ones pictured here. I can't wait to get them set up. The two downspouts on our house are conveniently located very close to both the asparagus bed (which still has nothing sprouting) and the elderberry bed.

This weekend we'll get our potatoes planted. They've been sitting out by a window for the last two weeks growing eyes in preparation for planting. We're going to grow them in a mix of mulch hay, compost and a bit of soil.

I feel a lot of pressure with this garden since we opted not to join the CSA this year. I have really mixed feelings about this. I'll feel better once our last frost date passes and the plants are actually in the ground.

I was hoping to make a cold frame with old windows. Old windows and storm windows are one of those things that repeatedly pop up on online recycling groups and craigslist. Unfortunately there are none listed right now, unless I want to drive an hour away. I'm holding out for something closer to home. I'll just keep checking. At moments like this I need to remind myself, patience is a frugal virtue.

Rhonda Jean's post about simple drawstring bags really got my wheels turning. I love the idea of replacing the plastic containers I currently keep my homemade bread in with linen bags, especially since many of the containers are in really sad shape. Check out the links she provided to inspire and guide you. And remember, its not nice to outbid me as I try to procure some vintage linen tea towels on ebay to make the above mentioned bags! I'm also keeping an eye out for a bread box to use along with the bags. More on that as it unfolds.

Happy Weekend to All!

Gardening Without the Yard

With signs of the impending summer all around me I've begun thinking about my garden at the cabin. Considering the lack of direct sunlight, the short growing season and the acid soil of a pine forest floor, I think things have gone really well but I'd like to ramp things up a bit.

The spot with the greatest amount of sun also happens to have no dirt. A friend suggested using EarthBoxes because the water reservoir would allow me to plant earlier despite only be there for sporadic weekend visits until the end of June. Great idea except for the price tag.

Here are some DIY links to make your own EarthBox
Making a self watering container or Earthbox™
Building your own Earth Box
Self Contained Gardening System

Gardening Goings On

This twiggy little thing will one day be a six foot tall elderberry bush. At least the little buds on the side give me hope that it will be a six foot tall elderberry bush!

Here's a close up of one of the buds. Pardon my rotten photography skills. My camera is determined to auto focus on the mulch hay.

Speaking of auto focus difficulty, the green blur in this picture is a bud on my Native American Plum tree. Notice how well the camera focused on everything else.

The currant bushes never let me down. Little leafy buds now will most certainly lead to lush, leafy green bushes laden with berries in just a few weeks.

The apple trees look like they may be budding as well but the way the sun was shining a picture was out of the question. As for the asparagus, they continue to mock me and refuse to sprout. Its been two and a half weeks!!

Yesterday a box of seed potatoes arrived in the mail. I need to let them sit around in a warm sunny place and get sprouting for the next two weeks before I can plant them. These will be planted in unused garbage cans and an old roll out compost bin. I'm seriously considering growing them in mulch hay this year just to see how it goes. Here's another link that discusses growing potatoes in hay.

Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anybody Else but Me...

..especially since I worked so hard to get all five of them planted this past weekend! It was a team effort actually that got 5 apple trees, 2 plum trees, 8 elderberries and 2 mulberry trees planted. So far everything from this planting looks like its doing well. After all the work everyone put in clearing, screening and digging they better do well!

On the other hand, I haven't seen so much as a sprout from my asparagus bed. It's really killing me.

My seedlings are coming up nicely but the vegetable garden beds remain to be done. I guess its next on my gardening to do list.

I made eye pillows for my yoga classes. They made their debut at yesterday's class. One of the women in the class insisted on buying one, even though I wasn't planning on selling them. Here's how to make your own. I skipped the lavender flowers and just used the essential oil and it worked out beautifully.

Asparagus

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was a meat filled read as Ruthie had mentioned. Still, there was inspiration to be gleaned if you could find a way to leave the vivid imagery of butchering and the "meat is great agenda" aside. (Did it seem to anyone else that she was compelled to really justify her choice to eat meat?)

Inspiration turned to perspiration as 30 organic asparagus crowns arrived in the mail last week from Seeds of Change. Amid the flurry of obscenities swirling in my head (as in, Holy ___ how am I ever going to get these planted? What the ___ was I thinking? I'll never get my ___ together and get this done in time!) I tried to put on a brave face and make a plan. Jim puts it this way, he's willing to provide labor and capital but planning (ie. how to plant what where) is all me. He listens and participates but I read all the books on it and I used to help my grandmother in her huge garden so I've been deemed the family expert. No pressure at all! I suppose the cost of the asparagus crowns ($56 with shipping) didn't help alleviate any pressure either. Can you begin to see the root of all the obscene banter in my head now?

Saturday was deemed asparagus planting day and all other activities were suspended. We had picked out a patch of ground weeks before but done nothing with it. It was an area that had formerly held a flower garden. This was good news on one hand. I knew the soil was fertile from tending the flowers. On the other hand, the previous owners had used a lot of decorative gravel around their plantings and this plot was no exception. The soil was teeming with gravel which was certainly not ideal for an asparagus bed. I wanted to cry or break something. (I often hover between those two reactions.) How come we hadn't thought about this more?

Ultimately it didn't matter. Thirty asparagus crowns sat waiting in a cardboard box filled with wood shavings. They didn't care what my problems were. They just needed to get into the ground ASAP.

As when we built the sawbuck, our solution to the rocky gravel began with me trying desperately to describe a soil sifting device I'd seen my uncle use when I was a child. Jim was such a good sport, he listened to my rantings about hardware cloth, even though he'd never heard of it. (To further complicate things, even the guy at our local hardware store hadn't heard of hardware cloth. In the end, the label on the package he eventually bought said "hardware cloth" so I was vindicated.) Jim built ours to fit over our wheelbarrow since that was what we'd be sifting into. Of course a google search afterwards reveals that I could have saved a lot of breath. Here are instructions to make your own. This worked amazingly well for getting the gravel out.

Next the problem of size of plot and edging. We had a 20 foot roll of garden edging just sitting in the garage which became the edging on three sides. The fourth side is bordered by the driveway. We used all the graveled we screened out to make a gravel border around the asparagus bed. This left us with a bed that was roughly 5' x 10' which is too wide if we wanted to avoid walking on the newly screened soil. We needed a path down the center. We had some decorative patio block lying around so we used four of them to make a path down the center of the bed. Voila, two smaller beds which were easy to access without packing down the soil. Thank you Mel Bartholomew and square foot gardening for that knowledge.

I worked some worm castings into the soil and finally it was time to plant. I followed the instructions to the letter, reading and rereading them. Finally, I tried to channel the weedless, green thumb prowess of Ruth Stout as I topped the newly planted bed with mulch hay from a local horse farm.

I didn't have to worry about watering because we had a soaking rain that night and the following two days. Now I'm wandering around like an expectant mother. I keep finding any excuse to peek at the asparagus patch. They should sprout in the first week. I'm so nervous!

On this weekends agenda, setting up the other vegetable beds. I'm going to have a panic attack!

Getting Fruity with the Landscape

I've just begun reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I seem to be drawn to tales such as this one. I love stories of people trying to live closer to the earth in a very deliberate way.

Knowing that, I guess it only makes sense that these days you're likely to find Jim and I outside clearing and prepping various parts of our yard for planting. Apples, mulberries, asparagus, potatoes as well as the usual vegetable garden suspects, are all waiting in the wings for their turn to be planted. We're even going to try to grow most of our own veggies this year. (Fingers and toes crossed and all good wishes welcomed. I'm a bit nervous about this!)

If tree fruits like apples and mulberries seem like a commitment that bears fruit off in a too distant future (3-5 years down the road), consider this. If we'd planted some apple trees when we first thought about doing it a few years back, we'd already have fruit bearing trees.

I'm pleased with our garden projects so far. Our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are made with homemade jelly, the product of our currant and gooseberry bushes. That was our most ambitious planting by far and it has really paid off.

Just For the Record, I Didn't Puke in the Garden!

Did you ever have a good idea just go wrong or at least wrong enough to be noticed by others? I have an old blender that I was getting ready to take down to our local thrift store when I was struck with an idea. My worm bins are pretty full and I had read that another way to deal with vegetable peelings was to liquify them and pour them over your garden in the same way you would with worm tea.

I had a really big pile of turnip skins to deal with, so I thought what the heck. I popped them into the blender, filled it with water and gave it a whirl. Without really thinking about the possible consequences, I walked outside and poured this over my kale, chard and tomato plants. Now there's a white residue and it looks like I puked on my plants.

Oh well, at least the plants don't seem to mind. In fact, I swear they look a little perkier. However, I think I'll go back to my original plan and donate the old blender. The worms are much less unsightly.

Do You Dig Dirt?

I've been playing in the dirt a lot in the last 10 days. In keeping with the tradition of the former owner of our house, I planted impatiens on the corner of the property. These are pretty but useless. Marigolds, on the other hand, deter all manner of munching bugs, especially Japanese beetles. I planted several of these in pots so I could move them around the yard when a particular plant is under attack.

Last week, during an attack of guilt over my lack of edible garden, I hastily prepared a bed and planted 2 year old kale and swiss chard seeds. I figured I'd wait a few days and see if anything came up. Today, there are quite a few seedlings emerging, more in the spot where I accidently upended the envelope of seeds. My little patio is surrounded by edible landscape! (Herb garden on one side, kale/chard on another, strawberries on another and Jerusalem artichoke/tomato on the last.) It's not Path to Freedom but it's a start...and I want to do more!! Just today I snipped some fresh dill and chives to add to the biscuits I was making. It was really thrilling.

My soil ammendment of choice is worm castings from my worm bins. I've got three going right now. One is strictly guinea pig cage leftovers which include uneaten greens, newspaper and guinea pig poop and pee. It's the wierdest thing in the world to open up the lid of the garbage can that serves as this worm bin and just be greated with an earthy, dirt smell rather than an ammonia, wow my eyes are burning, smell. BTW, the bottom of this garbage can is riddles with cracks to allow excess moisture to run out.

Another is an old cooler, this is the one that the worms like the best. They multiply like mad in there. I suspect it has to do with the consistently higher moisture content but I'm not sure. I toss in whatever yard scraps, veggie scraps and coffee grinds.

The third is the box Jim built from scrap wood. This is the one that the worms seem to like the least (sorry Jim!) although they do a fine job in there. It just takes a little longer, I suspect because things dry out quicker which seems to keep the worm population lower. This one gets the same diet as the old cooler.

Are you thinking that three worm bins are excessive? Not for us, we keep them filled consistently.

I forgot my camera cord so until Jim brings it to me there will be no pictures. Now I'm off to work on the quilt edges and later while watching a movie with the girls, I'll work on the log cabin blanket - just three and a half more sections to go!

Darn It!

The humidity has finally let up after some rolicking thunderstorms last night. I don't know what insanity posessed me to garden yesterday but I paid for it all day today. Whenever the weather gets that hot an humid and I spend a long time outside, I wind up with virus-like symptoms. I must be a slow learner though, cause I do it at least once every year. Then again, it might have been the three bean salad I made for dinner last night...

Tonight, I've surrendered my cooking duties to my daughter. She can make whatever she wants as long as it doesn't heat up the house or make me feel worse.

Everything looks so lush after a big rain. Our raspberry patch is once again enormous. The berries aren't ripe yet but the bush is just laden with them. The currants and gooseberries are just beginning to ripen as well. It feels good to be growing some of our own food, even in this limited way. I keep looking at my houseplants thinking, wouldn't it make more sense if these were edible rather than ornamental? That's definitely something to investigate. I think the African violets and ivy are scared.

Darn it! Sometimes you have to. Have to what? Darn socks of course! I've put aside my log cabin blanket to sew up the holes in Jim's socks. It's those steel toed boots he wears for work that ruins them but a few stitches and they're good as new. It's not the most challenging of jobs but it is one that is easily accomplished.

Random Food & Gardening Notes

Our first CSA pickup is Saturday. I'm so psyched! I can feel the creativity hovering at the edge of my cooking conciousness just waiting to be reawakened. I'm fantasizing about fresh salads and stir fries.

With harvesting beginning, I'm also thinking about canning. Higher gas prices mean higher food prices. I'll be going through the fruit at our local farmers market with a different point of view this season. Frozen berries from some faraway state in the local store's freezer case are likely to be a much pricier choice this winter. Local foods are the way to go. I'm thinking about setting up a weekly goal for myself.

In really local gardening, our currants are just starting to ripen and it looks like we'll have quite a lot if we can just beat the birds to them. I suspect that we really need to think about some kind of netting to protect them.

There's a great article in Mother Earth News about how to plant a peach tree from the seed of one you've just eaten.

Here's What's New Today

I should be emptying furniture out of the living room but I've snuck away to write a quick post.

I finally started cuttting some of the jeans into squares, rectangles actually, for my latest quilt. I opted for rectangles because I had quite a few pairs of Jim's jeans that had completely worn out front of the legs while the back was pristine. This allowed me to cut larger pieces hence the rectangles. I'll salvage squares from the fronts of the legs. The finished quilt will be a mix of the squares and rectangles. I'll post pictures as it begins to come together. Right now its just a pile of fabric.

I've got two knitting projects going right now. One is a scarf which seems goofy in light of the warmer temperatures. The other is a log cabin blanket. I need to finish the scarf because I want to use the leftovers in the log cabin blanket. I also need to set aside some money to buy Mason-Dixon Knitting because I can only renew it one more time!!

We're still living off food from this weekend. Lunch today was sliced baked seitan with guacamole on homemade bread. YUM! Later today I'll be making some desserty thing and a breakfasty thing, although I'm not sure what. I need to see what dried fruit I still have before deciding. I can't wait until we get a little further into the growing season.

Speaking of the growing season, check out this brief article at Mother Earth News on perennial salad greens. How great is that? Salad greens that just appear in early spring year after year.

Now I'm off to empty that living room!

No-gurt & Gardening Plans

I did it! I cleaned all the crap out of the cutlery drawer. I also showed the newly cleaned drawer to anyone who walked in the kitchen, although most didn't care as much as I did.

I've been making yogurt regularly and using a bit from the last batch to start the next with great success, until this past week. I had it in my head to try making the yogurt from almond milk instead of soy, in the interest of variety and just to see what that would be like. For my first batch I decided to mix half soymilk and half almond milk. The mixture bubbled and fermented a bit but didn't make yogurt.

Never one to give up, I reheated the mixture, let it cool and added fresh starter. Still, some bubbles and a fermented smell but no yogurt. I'm left wondering if I messed something up in the preparation or if almond milk isn't a good base for yogurt.

I'll be trying again Sunday night. This time I'll do one thermos batch of soymilk and one of almond milk. I'll also be sure to pay very close attention to my thermometer. I confess, I often put the giant measuring cup with the heated soymilk and thermometer in it next to me on the coffee table to cool. I glance at it while I'm knitting or enjoying an old movie with Jim. Usually I catch it just in time but sometimes I lose track and it gets too cold. That might have been the problem with this batch.

BTW, a batch of yogurt that doesn't quite set works wonderfully in place of clabbered milk in biscuit recipes. If your yogurt does set, the whey that you drain off to thicken the yogurt works really well in biscuit recipes too.

The beautiful weather yesterday distracted me from my inside tasks and lured me outside so I haven't really decluttered much more. I've got the itch for summer. Fortunately, we're heading upstate this weekend. A quick call to town hall in our little Adirondack town yesterday revealed that there is still some snow on the ground up there. No planting this weekend but I'll hopefully be able to plan the new home for the currants since there are blueberry bushes in their original place.

My worms have been given strict orders to work overtime so I can adequately fertilize these thrice transplanted bushes!

Planning for Spring & Keeping Warm in the Interim

After the rain of Friday and Saturday, it was great to finally spend some time outdoors yesterday, even if it was spent splitting and stacking firewood. Spring seems to be in the air here in NY. It's that time of year when you look in the garage and wonder what demon was unleashed inside it when you weren't looking. When perusing the yard, you wonder how all those things the melting snow keeps revealing were left there before the snow came. How did I miss those, you ask yourself. No matter, the newfound warmth of the midday sun gives us new energy to pick all this garbage up and resolve to never let it get like this again. This could be the year.

In a homage to the impending spring, I checked my worm bins. The one in my laundry room has chubby worms while the one in my garage has skinny ones. I suspect the temperature difference plays a role in this. We'll start adding to them soon to build up the worm population a bit.

In the wake of our gigantic beehive in the compost bin disaster of last season, we've taken to just tossing what would normally go in a compost heap into the bushes behind our house. That sounds so trashy but there's only woods and a creek behind my house. We've never had a raccoon problem and it doesn't bother the neighbors. Really, I swear!

Speaking of yards and gardening, we checked out the Seed Savers table at the farmer's market this weekend and got some heirloom tomato seeds. Rob is really into the idea of planting, growing and especially harvesting tomatoes. It's interesting to see him make the connection between garden and food. I'm hoping he will be my gardening buddy this summer.

Over the years we've been planting an edible landscape but because of limited yard space fruit trees haven't been part of the plan. Just this weekend I learned of a local orchard that is offering a CSA type arrangement with its apple trees. For $50 you get to lease an organically grown apple tree and harvest fruit off of it. The website states the average yield of an apple tree is 80-120 pounds which works out to about 50 cents per pound for organic apples. I think this sounds like a great way to support the local small farms and while providing ourselves with reasonably priced organic produce. I'm signing up!

As much as the cold weather is waning midday, we're still freezing our buns off at night (although not officially since we never actually signed up for Crunchy Chicken's Challenge). Actually, the thermostat is set at 55 degrees but the heat never comes on because we've been using the woodstove to heat the house. (The exception to this is our daughters' downstairs bedroom which is on a seperate branch of the heating system and totally out of the reach of our woodstove.) It's usually about 59 degrees when I get up in the morning, although, the temperature in the bedrooms is noticeably colder. We use extra blankets and warm jammies to make sleeping toasty.

When I lamented the skinny quilts last year I assumed I needed to make new quilts for the boys. When I didn't get around to doing that, the boys came up with their own solution. They use the denim quilts (these are summer weight) with the skinny quilts on top like a throw blanket.

See the denim quilt poking out from underneath? Are my boys brilliant or what?

Gardening Gripes

The garden, source of inspiration and aggravation all at once. Longtime readers will recall the currant bush snafu.

As it turns out, the law making my currants illegal in the Adirondacks was changed back in 2003 although no one seemed to know about it, not even the good folks at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Warren County who are reputed to be the be all end all on answers to questions such as these. Here's a link that outlines the new law which now considers only my white currants outlaws.

Since the currants were thriving in the acid soil and partial shade of the Adirondacks, we've decided to move them back, except the white ones of course. I don't anticipate any problems with transplanting because these are such hardy, forgiving bushes.

However, there is one problem, I can't tell which bushes are which until they have fruit on them. It looks like they won't be moving until June! Not ideal but not impossible either.

This Saturday marks the last of our Winter Sun Farm pickups. I plan to check out the Seed Savers Exchange table that was there last month.