Knit Sweater: Check

I previewed earlier my first attempt at knitting sweater. And I am happy to report back my success! The sweater turned out as perfect as could be, and Jessica looked absolutely adorable. But before I unveil our star-baby for this evening, I will first take you on a trip down the path of The Pale Gardener's brain to see how I managed to creatively see how the sweater would fit just right.

I had the whole cute little thing done but it was hard to imagine what it would look like on the little one and I wanted to make sure one size wasn't sticking out all weirdly or that one arm wasn't shorter than the other. So I thought about it and realized Walter, my stuffed turtle, would do just fine as a stand in model for Jessica.

Now Walter, don't be shy...

I was so happy! It fit Walter perfectly...and I was pretty sure he was about the same size as the human baby Jessica. Let's see...

Even if it only fits her for two weeks, it looks so awesome! This little girl was so fabulous in her new sweater. It was particular helpful when we went to San Francisco where it was a bit windy and chilly.

Overall, the sweater was not too terribly difficult. I knit the entire back and then the two front pieces. Then I bound them together at the shoulder and began the hood off the back piece. Then with some clever understanding of the instructions I knit the sleeves directly off the back piece and the front piece and tada! Lastly I knitted a really neat button and I crocheted a buttonhole and attached those to the sweater:


The button was quite simple, I just knit a 4" long and 1/2" wide strip and then tightened it back on itself and secured the back. I did a simple slip stitch? (I believe that's what it was, this was my very first time crotcheting and I'm still a bit shaky on terminology) for the buttonhole latch and then sewed it onto the sweater. Very simple, and easy to maneuver with a small, wiggly child.

So obviously it wasn't all bing-bang-boom here's your sweater. There were many frustrations, and removing of stitches. I think the hardest part was trying to decipher the pattern directions. Every book and every author writes patterns differently and many times, at least to me, it seems written in a totally foreign language. And because I am so new to knitting, I haven't quite pinned down the typical patterns so I find it difficult to visualize the finished product after reading the sometimes quite bizarre instructions. Fortunately for me, I had my knitting professional, (AKA Mom), at hand to show me exactly what the heck was going on. I learn better by watching someone do it, and not by reading the technique.

So here I am! Full fledge into the knitting world. I'm not too sure what my next project will be. The Boy's roommate knits a lot and she told me about a hat that does not involve knitting in the round. I know I will have to eventually learn how to do that scary task, but I'm one of those dip my feet into the pool-type people so I may try this first before diving into the deep end. Plus, it will give me a chance to work on neat patterns and ribbings.

Check out some more pictures from my trip to California. It has been frigid here in New York so take a look at these to warm up your bones.

Here We Are

It had been a fairly quiet winter so far here in Upstate New York. I was noting how odd it was that I didn't see ANY snow yet. Of course, I do work in a basement, so truthfully there could be a blizzard outside and I would have no idea. But really, there wasn't much to speak of in the snow department. That is...until this...

and then there was this...


Oh happy winter all!

Thank You For Flying With Us Today...

Sadly, I am back from my adventure out to beautiful Napa, California. To say the trip was absolutely wonderful would obviously be an understatement.
While I get over jet lag, being on a plane for six hours, and having to eat nothing but those 100 calorie Nabisco snacks (that's what happens when you fly the cheap airline, my friends) - here is a little preview of what's to come:


There is some of this...


and some of this...


and of course lots of this...

Adventures in Knitting

I have known how to knit for quite a few years but unfortunately my "skills" did not expand past knitting in a straight line. That is, I could make a mean scarf but that's about it. So years and and many dozens of scarves later I decided I need to get out there! Meet some new patterns! Some new techniques! I'm a nice person, I deserve to meet a nice winter hat or an adorable baby sweater.
So I did it. I ventured out into the unknown, knowing I may be disappointed and come home, alone. I searched many venues; magazines, the internet, my Mom's long lost patterns. Many things were too involved, being a newbie, I needed something simple - regular needles (none of this knitting in the round stuff), and if the pattern had 15 abbreviations before I got to something I understood - we let that one go too.
Finally I found my match. This baby right here. It takes regular knitting needles and basic skills: knitting, purling, increasing, decreasing, binding off. The only issue has been trying to comprehend the directions. Every company/person writes patterns differently and sometimes I read something and think to myself, "what the hell did I just read? We are knitting and not taking apart a car engine, right?"
Aside from those minor road blocks it has been going very well! I've only had to back track and take out stitches a few times and I can generally see a sweater coming together.
I know you've been waiting in suspense for some progress photos so I won't make you wait any longer:
I know what you're saying, "um, this looks like three teeny scarves with two screwed up sides." You're right, this proves nothing of my new found skills quite yet. I promise though, this is the back and two front pieces of the cute little sweater I will bring with me to California. So I am on a deadline people! I best get myself knittin'!

A Trip for Two!

Do you see this face? Do you? Cause I get to see this face, up close and in person in two short weeks! (Click on the picture to see the fantastic drool puddle beginning on her mouth.)

Yup that's right! I bought myself a plane ticket to go visit this little lady where she now resides in sunny Napa, California. As you may recall, she entered this world in this somewhat less glamourous state Sorry to any readers out there in Idaho, but come on, this is Napa we're talking about!
So I am not only excited to see this:

Sorry, my sister JUST got a computer so now I have to catch up on almost 4 months worth of baby

But I am also extremely excited because The Boy is coming right along with me! He and I have been dating almost four years and other than my younger sibling, he has not met either of the others. So the awesomeness of this event is like gazillion fold!
Oh yeah, did I mention that my older brother will also make the trek up from San Diego?!
Monumental I tell you! Monumental!

This Week on The Pale Gardener...

After the MANY votes of my poll were counted, verdict says that the blog will be a nice mish-mash of information. Frankly guys, thanks for getting me off the hook because it is MUCH easier to write blogs about well, whatever the heck I feel like, than about gardening in late February. "So today I watered!" Yeah, not interesting.

So what do I hope to accomplish at some point this coming week? Blog plans include:

- Show you all my knitting skills while I continue to work on an awesome little sweater for this adorable little cutie!

- Share some stories about my fun trip to Maine last week.

- Tell of an upcoming trip.

- Enjoy Thanksgiving and family and maybe even get some awesome food shots up here afterwards.

Short work week for us lucky ones! I hope you all enjoy it!

My Real-life-Translating-to-Blog Resolutions...

Resolutions are sometimes an evil beast. You make these promises to yourself, are extremely happy when you accomplish them, but if you don't, pssh let down city here we come. So let's preface this post with the thought that I'll probably let myself down at least once.

*Sigh*

OK, now that I have that out of the way.

As my astute readers, I'm sure you've noticed and I've alluded to the fact that I am no longer in an apartment. So the whole, "what happens when you mix a garden lover with an apartment complex," thing isn't so much applying anymore.
So I said to myself, "self, what should we do about this predicament?"
Well, self must be in indecisive mode because she was worthless for definitive answers. But here are some thoughts about the where the heck I can go with this here blog:

- Still be garden-focused but now it can be more open-space gardening and include a disclaimer that gardening only happens here in the Northeast U.S. a few short months of the year, so be ready for random jibber-jabber?

- Rock the houseplant route for a while. There is something to be said about having all of your plants originally in a centrally, gas-heated, Southwest facing apartment only to move them into a wood stove heated (read extremely dry air), Northeast-ish facing house. That is quite the change for creatures of habit like hibiscus, begonia, etc.

- Go for a bit crafty. I have picked up knitting again (having a new baby in the family will do that to you). And I now have a place where I can use a sewing machine that isn't in a closet and I have a "summer" dress just itching to be made. (OK soo late on that one, but I can always wear it next summer, right?)

- Don't change a darn thing about the page and hope no one will notice.

- Mix it all into one! Hey, the cold winter is so on its way and I will need anything and everything to keep my sanity so whatever I wanna post, damnit, I will post!


What do you all think? What would you like to see? Or have you forgotten I existed and only clicked this page by accident?

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Lunch Lady Patsy and Janitor Willie!*

Oh what's that? Halloween was days ago? I know. I just thought I should follow suit with the rest of my slackerness. Don't want to go changing it up too much on you guys! Whoa!

Tomorrow you can bet there will be a real, live, (not to be confused with the undead) post.
Promise.
Until then, please enjoy a picture of my little brother on Halloween. This picture brings tears to my eyes every time I look at it. That is how hard I'm laughing. I'm actually laughing at it right now. Please, do yourself a favor and click on Rodeo Steve to get the full-sized, full effect of his beauty.

*Bonus points to whoever picks out the sweet reference on our costumes (hint: you can only really see it on mine)

Pond Fun

If you remember way, way back to the Spring, (yes, I know, it seems absolutely forever ago, especially now that it's in the 30's when I wake up in the morning!) the E.S. Garden had a pond that looked like this:

My Dad modeling nicely for us

Now here we are, the middle of October and it looks more like this:

There is a pond in there, somewhere, I promise

So you might say it's a bit overgrown. The plan was to dig this out and make it into a nice little area with a bank and even an island! This was a project we just didn't get to this year. Mostly because it never dried up down there! Ever! The entire summer, that area was at the very least soaking wet. This is very unusual. Usually the froggies have long packed up and moved to wetter ground by July. This year I think we had a froggie family reunion going on in our pond! We must have had two dozen frogs in there at one point and some of them were no little teeny things either. I always liked walking along the path around the pond and hearing all the frogs in front of me jump into the water with a big *thunk!* as I approached their lounging area.
So the hope is next year we'll have a few weeks of dry land so we can dig out this here pond because darnit I want to iceskate on it in the winter!
The Boy and I recently took a peruse around the pond and snapped a few pictures in the process:


And here are our goof-asses enjoying some pond fun:

What do You Get When You Cross a Turnip With a Cabbage?

The rutabagas are one of a few veggies that did absolutely awesome in the E.S. Garden this year. They have been poking out of the soil like this for quite some time now but we were waiting for a frost to pluck any of them up to devour. They always taste much better after a good frost has hit.
Now, you may be thinking, "what the heck can I do with a rutabaga?" They are a bit obscure in mainstream cooking so I am always trying to find new ways to prepare the rutabaga. One of my favorite ways to cook them is to mix them with potatoes and make a mashed rutabaga/potato mixture. It's extremely simple to make.

Jess' Rutabaga/Potato Mixture o' Deliciousness

- a few potatoes
- a few rutabagas
(usually about half and half is what I like to do)
- cook them like you would cook potatoes to mash them
- add some milk and butter or whatever you like to add to your potatoes
- salt, pepper and some parsley
- mmm, mmm, you're good to go!

Any other favorite rutabaga recipes out there? Shoot em' my way, I'm always looking for ways to cook them, and as you can see we have quite a few to use for experiments!

Proof of Mohawk Jess

In response to my recent 7 things post, a buddy of mine may have thought I was yanking the chain of truth about some of my more wild hairstyle days. I am here today with proof; cold, hard evidence to lay these rumors to rest and, well, have a good laugh that I would actually do this to myself. (I was 18, what do you expect?)
And here we have a few pieces of nostalgia for us all to get a kick out of. Feel free to click on the image in order to appreciate history in its full size. (Please don't mind the horribly unflattering pictures.)

And there we have it! And no, I am not being choked in the first picture, nor am I forcing my friend there to drink a beer. We thought it would be a funny picture if the non-drinker had a beer in his hand...ha.

Just in case you were thinking of giving yourself a mohawk but didn't quite know how to approach the ordeal, it goes something like this:

- Lose a bet in order to get the mohawk
- Take ratty old scissors, any old kind will do, non-hair cutting scissors would be so punk rock, and proceed to cut hair off but make sure you leave that nice skunk pattern down the top and back.
- After said hair has been cut, go back with a set of clippers (can be ratty and old too) and buzz that head right down, remembering to leave your mohawk in place.
- Shake off the hair and presto! You have your mohawk!
- Now, we must also spike the mohawk to be extra punk - with a longer mohawk I found the best product to use is Elmer's glue. Forget the gel, hairspray, pomade route, we need some anti-gravity staying power and you will only find that in glue.
- To get the mohawk nice and straight I found that by taking a piece of cardboard and cutting a hole shaped like your head, it makes a nice "table" for your hair to sit on while you coat it with glue.
- Let the glue take hold for a few minutes while your head is resting on the cardboard cutout.
- Remove head from its resting place and presto! again! You have your full blown, punk rock, mohawk.


Now, go on out there and get bad-ass!

The Peskiest of all Pests

I have never been a fan of insects. The creepy crawliness of them just....eck....I am getting the chills just thinking about bugs and their many legs walking on me...ooooo!
However, to the gardener, many bugs are helpful little critters: spiders protect our plants by eating tons of other harmful bugs, ladybugs eat aphids, centipedes eat those slimy slugs, and there are many other examples of creepy bugs doing great things to keep our gardens looking wonderful. So that means my shivers need to be subsided temporarily and when I see (or feel!) an insect, I must turn and walk away, knowing that it will then go eat something else that is trying to eat my garden.
There is one such bug, however, that I cannot find any useful purpose for. One that has been known to carry diseases and if nothing else, packs a wallop of annoyance and unending itches.
That insect, my friends, is the mosquito. And boy did it show its face this season! In years past, we could wander around the E.S. Garden pretty much all day up until dusk hit. Then the mosquitoes would come out in full force and we either had to arm ourselves with bug spray, find some campfire-shelter nearby, or run inside and hide.
This year we saw a whole new side of that obnoxious buzzing creature. It did not matter what time of day you were outside - morning, night, whenever. You were instantly barraged with a wall of mosquitoes. Normally the mosquitoes don't bother me quite as bad as many people. This year they showed no mercy, no preference. They were out for any and all blood.
And that certainly squashed some of the garden-love I had for this year.

Fall Update

Cosmos Bipinnatus

Here in Upstate New York we have had quite the "summer". Lots of rain, hail, below average temperatures, sogginess, blight, mosquitoes, flooding...ahhhhhhh!
But fear not, all hope was not lost, and there were some beauties to keep us smiling!

Tithonia Rotundiflora - Mexican Sunflower

Ipomoea alba - Moonflower

I started the Mexican sunflowers over at the Apartment Garden and replanted them after I moved. They took some time adjusting to outdoor garden life, but soon they started budding like crazy and not long after that the beautiful orange flowers were all over the yard.
Moonflowers are easy to grow and have such a beautiful color to them. I love purple flowers and this is definitely one my favorites. We have them trailing up trees all over the garden.

Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes

Despite the tomato blight that has destroyed thousands of tomato plants and has virtually killed many tomato farmer's crops, our plants overall came out OK. We had more cherry tomatoes than we knew what to do with! I think I had cherry tomatoes for every meal of the day a few times.

Our basil also did wonderfully. We made lots of pesto, basil pizzas, basil and greens salads. I probably love the smell of basil more than I enjoy the taste so I definitely sat down in the middle of the basil patch a few times this season and just smelled and smelled and smelled. Ahhhh....

And now...for the not so good...

poor little cucumbers (they should be green, by the way)

The E.S. Garden is set up in a way where about a third of the garden is sloped down and is in the lowest part of the yard. Most summers this isn't an issue because usually we're dealing with a drought, or at least a severely decreased amount of water. This year, however, (and last year for that matter) we were wet for almost the entire summer. Just to get an idea of how soaked we got this summer, here's a breakdown of the number of days it rained (and by rained I mean more than a trace, I left out the days that it still rained but not enough to measure) :

14 days of rain - June
18 days of rain - July
9 days of rain - August

July? Are you for real? 18 days of rain? That would mean we had 13 days of no rain. Which isn't to say sun. Because the number of actual sunny days, I'm sure, hovered around five or six. Yes that is pathetic. That is why we have poor cucumbers like the one pictured above. And why our tomato plants look like this far earlier than they should:


So I suppose after seeing our pathetic sunshine forecast for the summer, I can understand why we suffered in the veggie area. Other than tomatoes and basil we had a great crop of swiss chard, our rutabagas are blasting right out of the soil and are almost ready to enjoy. (My favorite way to eat rutabagas is with mashed potatoes. Mash them both together, mmmm delicious!), our other herbs did very well and so did some of our peppers. The carrots came out great and this year we even had some red ones come up in our mixed variety! The flowers also faired well, overall, especially the sunflowers. I think they didn't mind the rain as much as our veggies.

September is coming to a close so normally we would be waiting for our crops of squash, pumpkins and other root vegetables. Unfortunately our squash plants were some of the first to go to the squishy, squishy pile. The delacotas and winter squash were planted at the very bottom of the garden and were rotten very early on. Our pumpkins went the same route and we did not plant any potatoes this year. So we're waiting on our trusted rutabagas and we're already chowing down on our fall crop of greens, spinach and carrots.

I'm sorry, I've been keeping promises like a middle school girl as far as my blog posts are concerned. Thanks for not breaking up with me or telling me we can't be friends or beating me up in gym class. I appreciate that.

Seven Things You Don't Know About Me

*Psst* It's me strangers! I'm back with a fun little post that my blogging buddy Water Roots so kindly asked me to share.
It's funny, blogs get you in touch with people you would probably never encounter, ever. Though, depending on the blog, and although deeply detailed, we only get to know a small sniglet of a person's life. But damn, do we know that small sniglet like it's our own! So I thought it was great for Water Roots to share a bit about herself that I wouldn't normally get from reading her wonderful gardening blog and so I would like to share a bit about myself.
She was clever enough to tag fellow bloggers and ask them to share some things about themselves, hence why I am posting my blog. I am still a new blogger and don't have the massive crowds of followers like many do, so I cannot really tag my buddies. Though, Unspeakable Visions here is your official invite. :)

If there's a rogue blog-watcher out there, first off, "HI!!" and second, feel free to join the fun and let me know about yourself as well.

And here we go, a bit about me:

1) I work in one of the libraries of the university I graduated from. I sit in a cubicle in the deep, dark, basement (well not really deep and dark, but very basement-y). Here I catalog books both in print and online. You know the title page of your favorite book? Flip it over and read all that boring copyright information. That's what I over analyze to death everyday. It's interesting, but not my choice for a career. Plus, the whole basement thing is a little much. Where I work was originally created as a place for storage...now it houses humans. You can imagine how lovely the decor is.

2) My dream career is to become a nurse midwife. I've always been very passionate about women's health and how we approach it in the U.S. My Mom was a lay midwife for a short period of time in her younger years and she had all four of her children at home with a midwife. I'm sure she's the person I get my passion from. Ideally, I would love to have my own practice or shared practice. I would love to be able to go to women's homes, where they are comfortable, and help them give birth in a relaxed, calm environment.

3) I am the second youngest of four kids. My two older siblings are my half siblings but we never really say that. They spent much of their childhood living in California while my younger brother and I lived in New York. I always wished we could have spent more time together but alas, that is usually, unfortunately, not up to children to decide. Even though we've lived on opposite ends of the country for much of our lives, we are all very close and have surprisingly similar personalities. My older sister is the one who just had the baby. I'm trying to keep up with her growing by living vicariously through cell phone pictures. I promise myself I will see her at least one more time before she turns a year old.

4) Though I may seem quite "boring" looking now, growing up my appearance often led me to stand out from the crowds. Funny thing is, I'm often quite shy, I've always liked to blend in and not be noticed, I hate being the center of attention and am always the one off to the side watching what's going on, not being involved in the goings on. You'd never know this by my choice of appearance for most of my teenage/early adult life. I've had every normal hair color and most abnormal hair colors. I've had short, spiked, blond hair, I've had a black mohawk, and I've had long dreadlocks. I pierced my lip, my septum and had my ears gauged large enough to stick a thick marker through them. I wore fishnet stockings and plaid skirts with combat boots. It's hard being a kid. I guess this was my way of dealing with what we all thought was important at the time. (Oh how naive we all were!)
*For the record, I still have that septum piercing. Though it stays tucked up into my nose for the most part. :) *

5) Growing up my family did not have money. At all. We never went to Disney for Spring break (I never went to Disney until I was 22!), I didn't get to join Ski Club, or have the coolest clothes, my Mom made my clothes. But from the time I was about eight to my early teens my parents would take my brother and I to Nova Scotia, Canada for almost an entire summer. We drove all around the province and camped at some of the most wonderful campgrounds I have ever seen. We ate lobster and scallops right off the fishing boats. And we got a taste of how our wonderful Canadian neighbors lived. I still don't know how they did it, they must have saved the entire year for those trips. But it was an amazing experience and I miss that place terribly. First chance I get, I'm heading back there. I'll take the ferry out of Portland, Maine, just like we did when I was a kid. And hey, now I can even gamble on the boat!

6) I love, love, love to watch hockey games. Sports in general are good to watch as long as I'm live, at the game. (Though football and other such sports as golf and tennis are not my cup of tea.) We have a local team, The River Rats, (great name eh? Brings a lovely image to the mind doesn't it?) whom I love to watch. Hockey season is coming up and I'm already planning out date nights. The Boy and I especially love to go together because it's one of the few things we get to do with our busy schedules. Last year we took my parents to a game and it was great to watch my Dad get so into it. He loves making up funny names/phrases for players. Mike Kennedy, for example, would go something like this, "Kennedy! Can he getty it right in that goal!" Get it...Kennedy, Can He Getty...yeah...suffice to say it's an interesting few hours of grammatical fun!

7) The Boy and I have been together for almost four years. Our story is a funny one: Once upon a time we met while in the same 4-H club...when we were 15...young love is so funny. He lived a good hour from me but we had awesome taxi-driver-parents who catered lovingly to us. He broke up with me for another girl named Jessica. That jerk! :) Over the years we were still friends, catching up every now and then. After he moved back from college we became pretty close friends, his Mom would always tell me he was in love with me. And then one day he must have learned the err of his ways so many years ago and indirectly let me know it. I wasn't having it. Not one bit. Not after getting my heart broken once! Oh the horror!
Alas, after many months, he wore me right down, he did. And on New Year's Day back in 2006, after he spent an entire day taking care of my hungover, puking self, we decided we'd give it a shot. We were great friends then. I never regretted it for a second and still don't.

So there it is a little look into my past and present. That was fun to do and brought back a lot of great memories as I was thinking about things to write.
As far as the, ya know, gardening goes, I have finally managed to snag some photos from the garden, get them onto a computer, and then get them onto my IPod to then get them back to a computer where it will be feasible to write a decent update. *WHEW*
Shockingly I imagine my job would not appreciate me using their time to update you wonderful readers with wonderful pictures, so I'll try and snag some time this weekend and I will whip out the best darn blog update there is.

A New Future Gardener Joins the Family!

Here is the newest part of our family, my beautiful niece! (So weird to say that! I am a first time aunt, if you couldn't tell.)
She was born July 28th (the day I predicted, by the way!) and very happy and healthy. Momma and Poppa are doing great as well!
We had a great time out in the western part of the U.S. I had never been to the upper midwest and we were able to drive right through it. Very nice. Here's a taste of some of the great views we had as we drove my little Scion xD across the ol' USA.

North Dakota

Enchanted Highway, North Dakota

rest stop in Montana

Coeur D'Alene, Idaho

Coeur D'Alene, Idaho - sunset

And one more picture of that little cutie:

one of my favorite pictures of the little girlie

So there is a little taste of how I spent six days in a car and five days in a two bedroom house with an infant. Oh wait, that may have sounded bad...

Head over to my Flickr to see some more pictures of the little cutie.

So right now I am still living out of boxes, pretty much living in two different places, trying to sign up for a class that I probably won't be able to get into because I slacked on the whole matriculation thing, cats and dogs are living together. It's just insanity, really.
This all means, blog time has become non-existent at the moment so bare with me as I piece my world back together. I promise, when I am bored this winter and not taking classes because everyone and their mom is going to community colleges - I'll be blogging up this whole world wide web, yo! Yeah!


Nerd...


Til' next time, my blogger buddies.

Back from the West!

Hello fellow readers!

I am back from my journey across the U.S.!
My new niece is a wonderful, adorable, poopin' machine and, hey, she's named after me, so she's on the right track so far! ;)

I'll post a picture of the little cutie soon and I will update everyone on what has been going on in the garden this past...month...yikes!

In the meantime, I'm sure you're all aware of the horrendous amounts of rain we've received here in the Northeast. It has been terrible, really. We have gone from rain almost everyday to upper 90's and humid. So the exact opposite of what makes happy little plants. It has been a rough year, but we'll gather up some highlights, I promise it's not all bad!

While you wait, here's an interesting article about the blight and how the "Walmarts" of the world are contributing to the problem.

Road Trip!

Today is the due date of my first niece! (It is also my brother's birthday and my uncle's birthday, weird)
Though, little Jessica will probably wait another few days...
I however, cannot wait, so let's get here already!

Meanwhile, this is what I will be doing soon...


View Larger Map


And boy am I excited for a road trip. My Mama and I will be taking a few days and hopefully enjoying some sights along the way.
I could be gone any day now so wish us luck and hope for a happy, healthy, little baby girl!

What's That Saying About Losing Your Head if it Wasn't Attached to Your Neck?

Alright I'm just going to get it all out there...

Blogs will be few and far between the next few weeks. Many a things are taking up my life these days:

1) I moved.
2) I now live in a house so this blog's theme could get a little tricky.
3) I do not have a computer at my new home yet and who knows when that will happen. (I'm holding out for a Mac so we'll see when I can get myself one of those expensive little devices.)
4) I am going to be Aunt Jessica in t-minus any day now!
5) The above means I will be driving 2,000 miles across the country any day now.
6) The above two mean this here blog will be the least of my brain waves for a while! (Sorry Blog World)

What else?

Well as far as the Apartment Garden goes it is now taking up residence over at my new house, joining its friends in the E.S. Garden. My tomato plant ripened its first tomato! My big mouth was halfway into the delicious, little morsel when The Boy kindly asked if I wanted to document this occasion with a picture. It was too late. The tomato was heading towards its fate. I promise I will restrain myself the next time.
Everything else will be planted in the ground to enjoy the second half of its life being able to stretch their roots a bit more.
I'll do a round-up of the Apartment Garden successes and failures when I return from the land of...hmmm not sure quite yet. I'll let you know that one too.

Some (small) Rewards

A lobelia and mint bouquet grown in our own Apartment Garden!

I've said it a million times, I LOVE lobelia. Such a beautiful, fun, plant. Very unique shape and such a great color! Yes it is perfect. Certainly one of my favorites.

I hope everyone's holiday weekend was fun and exciting! It actually didn't rain here and I enjoyed some fireworks in the backyard of a friend's house. Couldn't have been better!

Dear rain: Get over yourself

I am taking it as a good sign that I've never really heard about this crazy, destructive disease of the tomato plant. As the article says, the rain has helped spread the disease quickly. However, it is worth pointing out that the magnitude of the spread is largely due to the fact that many plants come from the same large grower and supply to places like Walmart and Kmart. Making it much easier for the disease to spread from plant to plant as they sit in humugo greenhouses.
Another reason to buy local, friends.

Yes, I can appreciate all the wonderful things the rain does for us. We wouldn't survive without it. But daaamn it was 69 yesterday and it has rained something like 20 out of the last 25 days.

On a positive note, the rain has forced me to stay inside and get things done that need I to do. There's a big change a comin' for the Apartment Garden...oh yes...

Tips and Tricks: Part 1

I got to looking at some of my posts and I realized I don't really have too many "tips" per say, on taking care of the greenery. So then I started thinking about all the things I do to make my life a little easier when it comes to taking care of houseplants. Because seriously, it can get to be some overwhelming craziness sometimes!

One of the biggest questions I hear from friends about their plants is, "how much should I water it? I don't remember when the last time it was watered."

Well here in this 954 Sq. ft. apartment of ours we share a space with many types of plants with many different needs: Plants that need a lot of light. Plants that can deal with almost darkness. Plants that need a lot of water. Plants that don't need very much water. Plants that need to be fertilized every two weeks. Plants that need to be fertilized every month. Plants that could probably survive a nuclear attack. Plants that if you look at them the wrong way they die.

So what is one to do to keep track of all these plant needs? How could I possibly know when I fertilized and watered each of my 60 some odd houseplants and potted flower garden/vegetable plants?

Do I have a super amazing memory for which I remember every minute detail of my plants?

Hell no.

This is what I do:

Apologies for the crappy pictures. I always think they're going to look good until I get them on the blog. Any suggestions?

My big secret lies in the strength of the calendar. I keep track of everything I do to the plants on here. Whenever I fertilize a plant I write it down. When I water a plant I write it down. (However, in the summer I don't do this quite so much because I water much more frequently. It is very helpful in the winter when you may go weeks at a time before you water again.) I even keep track of when I planted seeds this Spring, so I could have an idea of when I could expect some yields.
If you're wondering why the name Floyd is on the calendar. That is our leopard gecko, Floyd. We keep track of when he eats because he is a bit round these days, so we put him on a gecko diet. We also keep track of when we buy his totally overpriced heat lights. They say they last 3,000 hrs. If it lasts half that, we're doing pretty good. So I guess we enjoy torturing ourselves knowing how much we're getting ripped off.

But back to our plant calendar.

This method has been very useful. And like I said earlier, it is very helpful in the winter time when some plants can go very long periods of time without needing water.

However, I should say it is good to know your plant's cues for when it needs water. You may forget to write a watering down on the calendar and if you're following it too closely without looking at your plants, you may do unnecessary damage. So look at your plants!
Stick your finger a knuckle into the soil to test if it's dry, pick up the pot every now and then and check its weight, check for droopy looking leaves. All of these are good ways to tell if your plant needs water or not. The calendar is a very helpful guide, but don't take it as the word of the plant gods. Your African violet may not always need to be watered every 10 days. Maybe sometimes it's every 14 days. But the calendar will help you see these patterns and help you water your plants more effectively.

We can't be perfect all the time

Our first semi-disappointment with the Apartment Garden has come up involving the lettuce.

A few things are going on here:

- The lettuce will grow to about the length you see here in the picture: 3-4 inches and then just stop and then croak. Dead. Poor little lettuces.

- Obviously we've begun a crop of mushrooms in here. Implying dampness, perhaps?

So what's the deal, yo?

I consulted the wise Momma of mine, she has been gardening far longer than I've been on this planet. Here's her take:















You can see in the picture that the soil line is about four inches below the top of the pot. I didn't have a whole lot of dirt so I tried to be conservative and not use as much. Turns out that was a bad idea.


What my brilliant idea caused was a lack of air circulation around the seedlings. My Mom thought damping-off disease may have cropped-up causing the little leaflings to wither and die before they had a chance to grow up. This also explains the whole mushroom issue. The lack of air circulation caused a damper-than-ideal environment helping to grow the mushrooms, as well as the fungus causing damping-off disease.
I do remember the first week or so that I transplanted the seedlings, it wasn't very sunny and I'm sure that helped keep the soil nice and wet.
Any other ideas? Share away!

Luckily, I did not put all my lettuces in one basket.




I put many seedlings in their own pots, with sufficient soil, and they are doing quite fine. This one here, (and plenty more! As many as she wants, really), is waiting to go to its new home with Unspeakable Visions.






On a much happier note, the Apartment Garden is not down and out! Our radishes are doing so well! Much better than I had hoped! I'll be able to eat some in the next few days.
The lobelia is starting to poke out some beautiful purple buds, I just can't wait to enjoy that wonderful trailing plant!
I have already used tons of chives, cress and thyme. What a wonderful thing to have a grocery store on your porch!
Head over to Flickr to enjoy some more success stories!

Three cheers....

To taking half days at work and coming home and eating your work-lunch anyway.
To work-lunches being composed of E.S. Garden delicious, spicy, greens and asparagus.



To sunny days after a few days of much needed rain (not so much the hail).



Enjoy your weekend!

And then it was snowing...

If you know me, you know I complain a bit about the weather in New York. I am not a fan of winter. I do not do any of the fun winter activities that one does to help the burning hatred of cold, wet, miserable, winter. (I tried to snowboard, once, with the boy about three years ago. The falling...oh the falling...I do not need to feel that way again. Those sort of sports, in my book, are reserved for learning at a young age. When you have no fear, when nothing hurts, when the knees don't crack just from getting up off the ground. You feel me?) Wow, that was hell of a parenthetical phrase.
I would like to do some snowshoeing perhaps, that would be fun. Because damn I am willing and able at this point to find something that can help me enjoy hate less the bitter-death temperatures and accident causing ice crystal-covered dust specks.

Oh right, so the hail!

I (well mostly my car) lucked out and I was not home when it rained pellets of up to 1 3/4 " (That was the official diameter given on the news, but I didn't see any quite that big).

modeling nicely for us: The Boy's hand and shoe

Not something you see every day...in the middle of June...in New York. Can we say global warming?

Though this does put things into perspective. I bitch about this state quite often but really, I shouldn't complain:

+ We can (and do) use water like it's going out of style, and it's cheap.
- Many states have crazy water restrictions: like only allowing you to water your plants from 12 -2 AM every other Wednesday.
+ The extent of severe weather in New York is mostly damaging hail and other ice-type storms. (Though we did have a tornado way back when and apparently a small earthquake not too long ago??)
- Many states have to deal with hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes for many month out of the year, sometimes daily. (The Boy's family lives in Alabama and they are under constant tornado watch for pretty much six full months of the year.)

So yeah, I can't complain. We have it pretty good here.
Oh New York, you keep a tight reign on me, you do.