The Pale Gardener

Anti-Concession Post #1

2010-01-31T15:57:00.001-08:00

Update #1: Double pointed needles are so not scary. I don't know what I was thinking. I have finished hat #1. Pictures to come...someday...someone take a picture of me in my purple hat? Damn I hate not having a digital camera and/or a phone that can post right to the ol' internety.

A Concession

2010-01-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

I concede.
As much I don't want to say this, I might have to put a bookmark in my blog for the time being.
After moving this summer my life has been one constant change of pace. I pretty much live in two houses, never with what I need for the day at the house I'm currently in, of course. It seems like I'm always playing a big game of catch-up and/or always trying to plan three days in advance because I probably won't be "home" for a while.
I find whenever I get the chance to sit down at the computer I'm always doing non-fun computer stuff and never have time left to use this wonderful machine to share with you all what I'm doing that falls under the category of, "keeping myself from going stir-crazy."
So to that end, I think I will put a, "temporary out of order" sticker on my blog.
That is not to say I might not surprise you with a mid-winter fun post or something like that. But I wanted to acknowledge that yes, I haven't posted in a month, and damnit it might be another two before I post again!
But don't think, my blogger buddies, that I have been sitting around staring at walls. Oh no, no. As crazy as life is, I have found time to enjoy some winter activities. Perhaps my mid-winter fun post will showcase some of my anti-stir-crazy accomplishments. Until then, here's a bulleted update of what The Pale Gardener has been doing with herself:

- Working on two different knitted hats using two different techniques

- Learning how to use knitting-in-the-round in unique situations (AKA I'm afraid of double-pointed needles still so I'm trying to milk the circular needles as long as possible)

- Also knitting a pillow cover

- Obviously on a knitting frenzy here, people

- I'm getting hitched! Yup, The Boy proposed to me over Christmas and I said, "yeah sure." :) Though a work in progress, the darling made my ring for me. He's the cutest thing and so freakin' talented!

- The Boy and I are doing some serious living-together-again searches. We have our eyes set on a really cute converted farm house out in the country - no more apartment complex living for us! We are just waiting to hear when the current tenant is moving out.

- I'm trying to survive another Winter here in NY. Though we really have not had any big snow storms, yet, so I'm waiting for that beast to move on in!

- On the table for the future: OUTDOOR winter activities - iceskating, hockey-gaming, snowshoeing, more knitting, dabbling in crocheting, garden prepping, back to schooling (next week, eep!), and more -ings!

So there was my attempt at converging a few potentially awesome blog posts to one lame bulleted list. I promise guys, I'll make it up to you. When we move into our new converted farm house (love my optimism eh?) I'll be sure to load this baby up with beautiful pictures of me frolicking around in my winter hat(s), carrying my pillow, all while wearing my engagement ring.

Or something like that. :)

Thanks for understanding, my blogger buddies, you guys are the best!

Knit Sweater: Check

2009-12-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-17T17:31:00.001-08:00

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...

2009-12-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-25T09:21:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-22T14:13:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-04T14:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-10-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-18T10:07:00.003-07:00

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

2009-09-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

*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!

2009-09-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-07-20T09:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-03T05:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

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....

2009-06-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-06-16T13:51:00.000-07:00

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.

Little green balls of yum!

2009-06-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

While I was out planting some new seeds* on the Apartment Garden porch today, I noticed our tomato plant has signs of yummy deliciousness!

I was given this plant from the girl downstairs...originally I wasn't planning on having any tomatoes because the E.S. Garden has enough for an army. So I don't even know if these are cherry or if they'll get to be humugo. Hopefully the former because the plant grew in a bit sparse and probably wouldn't be able to stand up to any mammoth tomates.

It was a great weekend to garden here in upstate NY! The E.S. Garden got a good working out of me, although I forget to bring along a picture shooter so no updates on that end. But check Flickr because the Apartment Garden has a nice update!

*I'm venturing into uncharted territory now...I planted some pumpkins and cucumbers. I babied them hardcore with compost and organic fertilizer, my fingers are crossed! We'll see how they do growing in a pot on a porch!

The Earth as we know it...

2009-06-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

*So I was having a conversation about this with someone and got so worked up about it I was like, "I need to post this on my blog." Well I get here, and apparently I already did...so weird because I don't remember it at all...hmmm. Anyway, I wrote a whole new one before I realized I already wrote one. So to beat a dead horse, I'll put my new rants in here. Look for the ol' italics. Think of it as a review of sorts.*

earth2100

What would our world be like if we didn't have fresh water? If people could not grow food? If there was mass migration and its effects? What if our polar ice melted so much that NYC would face a six-foot ocean rise?

Worst case scenario?
Humans could essentially be extincted by 2100. (Less than our children's lives!)

This program was fascinating, I recommend anyone watch it. Especially those who still have the crazy idea that global warming and human global destruction are just "scare tactics" and made-up lies for those damn liberals to get what they want.
It does paint the U.S. a bit rosier than it should, essentially blaming other countries for the downfall of society, but hey, this is ABC so I guess we take the good with the bad.
The program was shot really interestingly in a very graphic novelish way. (Think Sin City) And it follows a girl who was born June 2, 2009 up until 2100.
Many will say it's a scare tactic, that it wouldn't really happen that way, blah blah blah. But I think there are some very good things to take away from it. OK, so NYC would probably not likely try and build a wall around the city to prevent the rising ocean current from getting in...but...hey, we've done stranger things. So we may not go down THAT way, but the program showed everything negative about human nature and why we would bring ourselves down, one way or another, if we keep acting the way we do.

Anyway, I am quite passionate about the environment, so from now and again I will get on my soapbox and rave a bit about this beautiful planet we live on.

If you enjoyed this maybe you should forward it to all you know who still leave the water on when they brush their teeth, who drive huge vehicles to transport only themselves, who don't recycle, who eat too much meat, who don't attempt to take care of this precious, vulnerable world we live in.

Forward it to all you know who have young children or who plan to have children. Because our world is going to be a vicious place to live in if we don't do something now. And we may not have to face the total wrath of it, but our kids might, and damn, I know I don't want to have to apologize to them their whole lives.

Knockout!

2009-05-31T14:38:00.000-07:00

Votes were counted, briberies were offered but refused, and the results are in!

Winner of the 1st Annual 2009 Who Has The Most Diesel Seedlings Contest:

Any who have followed the travels of these seedlings should not be surprised by the winner. Jiff's pods prevail! Frankly coconut fiber, you suck:

These pictures were taken on the same day. The coconut seedlings are yellowed and droopy while Jiff's pods are lush and green.
What you typically see before transplanting a healthy seedling is a well established root system around the medium you use.

Healthy rooted seedling

I do not have a picture of the coconut fiber seedling but when I took it out of the six-pack the medium crumbled away. The roots were growing straight down and through the bottom. So most of the root was wallowing on the plastic bottom instead of in some nice, helpful dirt. It makes sense they would be so yellow and unhealthy looking.

In other news...

I embarked on quite the lettuce seedling thinning process recently

I had a ton of 1" pots and old Tupperware laying around so that made for easy temp. storage containers. I plan to give away many of the seedlings, I have plenty to keep for myself.
See the finished products here, and here.

It has been a busy few weeks over in the E.S. Garden. Enjoy the pictures of the flowers, they are especially wonderful. Thanks to the boy for taking lovely pictures, much more pro-fes-sion-al than myself. I've been over there quite a bit planting, weeding, mowing, and planning. We've had more greens than we know what to do with. The asparagus continues to grow enough so we're picking it every few days. We've had a taste of the radishes, as well, and wow are they little fire balls. I'm attempting to grow some apartment garden radishes, let's hope they can still enjoy a more confined living arrangement.

As you can see we've been very busy over here at The Pale Gardener!

Get your soil tested

2009-05-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

There are many reasons to get your garden soil tested. Many plants thrive in certain PHs, some do very poorly when a PH is too low or too high. By testing your soil, you will be in the know about what's in all that dirt. Then you can adjust as needed. Many fertilizers and other supplements will state right on the package the percent of nutrients included and you can adjust your soil as needed.

Here's another great reason why you should get your soil tested, and it's a bit more serious than having the best tomatoes:

For Urban Gardeners, Lead is a Concern

As we all know, lead is quite the scary substance!

Fortunately there are many ways to test your soil.
Cornell Cooperative Extensive will test your soil for you for a small fee. And here is their PH testing kit. They will even give you recommendations after they've tested your soil!
For those living outside of New York State, you may still send your soil to Cornell CE, however, they will not be able to give you recommendations because their recommendations are based on the soil composition of NYS.
I recommend doing a Google search for soil testing in your state, you're sure to come up with something more local.

New Home

2009-05-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

We have successfully upgraded living quarters for some of our plants. It was a relatively pain-free process. For normal, run of the mill plants, the big parts to remember when repotting are :

-Start out with a clean pot. That way any yucko fungus or bacteria is cleaned away from the previous inhabitant.

-When repotting it's generally accepted that your new pot should be a size larger than your current pot.

-I like to breakup the root ball a bit before I plop it in. I've read that you can even trim the roots a little before you put it in its new pot. Just make sure the cutting device you use is clean.

-Leave a little space at the top of the pot so there's enough room to water without making a mess.

-Water the plant after it's all set in its new home.

*I just want to note that I am still new to this whole blog idea thing so I often forget to take pictures midway through the process. I will try and remember next time. For now, all I have are the finished products.*

Here is our aloe in its happy new home. This was not originally on the list of repots but part of the plant was heading right over the side and making it a bit of a balancing act trying to get it to stay up sometimes. So I figured it was time to upgrade. There were many, tiny, new aloe plants growing interspersed in the soil so it was a little tough to make sure none of them were sacrificed and burried alive (wow that sounds so morbid!). It has been in its new home for a few weeks and it seems to be adjusting nicely.

I split the jades up into two pots. There were four plants in one teeny pot and generally you want one to two in a pot. I wanted to use wider mouthed bowls so they could sit a decent distance from each other. I recycled the old pot that held the aloe plants for the first set and I used the old pot that housed the fern for the second set of jades. They have also been in their new pots for a few weeks and are doing very well.
I also moved the jades back from the window a bit because they were starting to look a little pale. Since then they're back to their deep green color. So it seems jades like more indirect sunlight. Now they are about ten feet back from the window when before they were about three feet from the South-West facing window.

I'll be moving some of my plants out on the porch in the next few weeks. I can't wait to get some floor space back!

I was over at the E.S. Garden yesterday mowing the lawn, and everything is getting so green! I brought home fresh greens and asparagus. Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Happy Day!

2009-05-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

In approximately 7.5 hours I will be sitting down to my A&P II final for the semester. After that, freedom until August.
I do love school, don't get me wrong, I especially love what I'm doing now. But...it will be nice to be able to come home after work, not plan out three meals for the day at 630AM, and of course, attend to my apartment garden. Which by the way, is coming along quite nicely. The sunflowers are taking right off and I even have some chamomile popping up!
I planted some cress and chives over the weekend. The cress package was not lying when it said it was fast growing, the plants are an inch tall already!
E.S. Garden is also booming. The asparagus is growing like a weed! We have to pick it a few times a week! Boy do I love that asparagus...makes your pee smell funny though.
OK TMI, Jess.

Pics coming soon!

Til then, wish me luck!

Where in the world is the The Pale Gardener?

2009-05-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

modeling for us is little Alf. he is the coolest dude ever. and the cutest.

So for all of you out there who read my blog you may notice that if you have it linked, it does not work. That is because I changed my url. In my extreme intelligence, at the time, I spelled a word incorrectly and it has been driving me crazy ever since. I've always been a lunatic about spelling, and grammar for that matter. (it's their banana, not there banana) grrr
...oh wait let me hop of this soapbox here...
So here's the new url to update your bookmarks:

http://thepalegardener.blogspot.com/

Because I know people are just bringing down the internet trying to find my blog.
Psshhh.

Jiffs V. Burps - Round Dos

2009-05-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

Ah Spring is fully upon us here in Upstate NY. And it is lovely. Last weekend was way up in the 80's...a bit warm if you ask me. But it was a great weekend to ~~play outside~~ study for exams. Yes, that is plural. I had two exams in one week in one class. Gotta love it. But enough academics.

I am happy to say the seedlings are doing great! I did not mention yet that some of the seeds I planted, I planted on a whim hoping they'd germinate because...well...they are three years old. Which in seed years ehhh can go either way. The old haggards include: thyme, chamomile, and sweet marjoram. The sweet marjoram is doing great, the thyme is doing so-so and the chamomile is either taking its sweet time or it's a no-show.

From left to right:
Rows 1-2 - lavender - coming along slowly, but looking good.
Rows 3-4 - lobelia - sapphire trailing - exploding! I have to trim them back because there are far too many in each cell
Rows 5-6 - sweet marjoram - other than the sunflowers, these are doing the best! Who knew! Now I have to figure out some recipes using sweet marjoram...
Rows 7-8 - lobelia - crystal palace - also doing wonderfully. Will have to trim these back a bit too. Damn you teeny tiny seeds!
Row 9 - thyme - I'll be able to get a few plants out of these.

What you can't see on the end are the Mexican sunflowers, and the chamomile, which isn't even worth showing because it's not doing a damn thing.

Let's take a look at Burpee shall wee?

From left to right:

Row 1 - thyme - a few sprouts are up, still holding out it will fair well.
Row 2 - lobelia crystal palace - chugging right along. They're not getting leggy yet, which is nice.
Row 3-4 - sweet marjoram - man, I'm going to have a lot of this herb.
Row 5-6 - lavender - also not doing too great in this medium so I'm hoping it's just taking its time coming up.
Row 7 - lobelia - sapphire trailing - 2 thumbs up.
Row 8-9 - a picture of the chamomile not doing jack.
Row 10-11 - new plantings! I planted gaillardia in here. They are doing just great. Pretty perennials they are.
Row 12 - another row of Mexican sunflowers - we'll have a lot of these too!

OK, now that we've taken a look at our seedlings. Who's in the lead this week?
I would say Jiffs still has a good lead. Worth noting, however, is that though Jiffs is beating Burps, both are doing about as well, comparatively. That is, the lobelia in each are doing well, the chamomile in both are sucking, the sweet marjoram in both are doing well but are a bit leggy. And so on, so they are growing at a steady, constant pace as individual mediums. Aww, I've raised such independent seedlings!

I've updated Flickr with some more seedling photos.

Next on The Pale Gardener: updates on our repots! Who gets their own room first?

Jiffs V. Burps - Round 1

2009-04-24T08:44:00.001-07:00

So, as luck would have it, I have about three weeks left in my semester which entails three exams in one class - two of which are next week. And what do I get? I get sick for the entire week prior to said exams. So here I am, day five of feeling like I got run over by truck, in a weird coma from NyQuil (I never could handle that stuff) and certainly not able to focus on anything in a textbook about the digestive system.
I can't do nothing even when my brain is about ten steps behind the rest of my body. So I thought I would try to handle this blog, it requires no foot movement, generally...

...left hand...right hand...space bar...

I am happy to say that our seedlings are doing just great, they survived their lonely weekend last week and we have a clear lead developing in our contest!

The cheaper, more traditional potting mix prevails so far! Since I planted so many different things in the same flat you can see there are many pods still void of green. They'll fill in soon. The missing pods are what you see on the right, the Mexican sunflower really took off! I already have some transplanted into tubs that are sitting on my porch now. Take a look.

And how did our coconut fiber friends fair?
So far...

So unless ol' coconut makes quite a comeback, looks like Jiffy may just win!

Update on the E.S. Garden too!

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any parts of this that make absolutely no sense. I blame it on the drugs.

We Have Lift-off!

2009-04-16T17:40:00.001-07:00

Seeds have been planted! Actually, I planted them about a week ago, so I speak the truth when I say some are already pokin' their green goodness out of the soil. But I had this whole plan of doing a little science experiment aand using two types of mediums to grow the same plants and seeing which grew better and it was going to be great!
Well I did do it, I'm just behind on blogging about it. So we're going to pretend it's a week ago.

OK, so, la la, it is April 11th and here we go with Jessica's Science Experiment to the Stars!

I bought two different seed starting kits:

Jiffy seed starter - $5.89
Burpee seed starter - $7.99

So what I did was plant the same seed in both both starter kits, at the same time, and I'll compare both to see which one grows better plants.

So far this is my synopsis of the two:

Burpee:
I was very excited about this because it was different than other seed starting kits I've seen. This is a coconut fiber-based medium. The box touts its ability to drain well, preventing root rot and such.

Pros:
+ It came with plastic tags so I could label each cell group.
+ Relatively mess-free. I live in a small apartment, without a yard, so mess-free is the way to be!
+ The coconut comes in a compact sphere and it expands in seconds when water is poured on it.

Cons:
- The cells are very deep so I can see it being a pain trying to get them out when the time comes.
- Although the fiber expanded quickly it didn't expand evenly and it took me a while to break up all the bits.

Jiffy:
Pretty standard mix. Comes in netting.

Pros:
+ The netting will make transfer very easy.
+ Expanded quickly and evenly.

Cons:
- Doesn't come with tags. I made homemade ones...out of cardboard...they were soaked quickly...not my brightest move.
- A little messier than the coconut because the pods don't sit in any container, so the dirt spilled out a bit.

So what did we plant!

- Two varieties of lobelia
- Mexican sunflower
- lavender
- thyme
- chamomile
- sweet marjoram

I have a few more I still need to plant, but it's a bit early and I don't feel like transplanting things 8 times before I can bring them outside.

As you can see, I don't have any veggies. I will plant a lettuce mix, but I'm going to plant it right into the soil. The rest will be grown at the ol' p-rents house and I will share all that goodness as well.

Next week on The Pale Gardener - I'll let you all know which medium had the first sprouts! ooooo the suspense! I'll also post some pictures of the E.S. Garden (my new name for the parent's place) it's coming along wonderfully!

Keep your fingers crossed the seeds survive the weekend.
The boy is turning 25 tomorrow (Happy Birthday Nick!) and we're going out to visit my bro for the weekend. So I hope when Sunday rolls around I don't come home to poor little dead seedlings.

As a side...I mean dessert...well, could be a side too

2009-04-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

If you have not yet gathered by the: blog title, big picture of a crazy bead plant, or the rambles of a sleep-deprived individual about plants and dirt and messy times, that this is a blog about gardening...

Well, there was your introduction.

I will occasionally post other interesting tid-bitties of info. about things not concerning gardening. Cause hey, I have other interests too! Like this and this and studying for this and also this delicious hobby.

So consider this my first off-topic post!

Delicious Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter (oh yeah)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 (3.4 oz) packages instant pudding
4 cups chocolate chips

Do the normal stuff, mix dry ingredients first. Separately beat the wet ingredients, blah blah like normal cookies. But after you cream the butter and sugars add the pudding and then move along with the rest. Mix the dry and wet together. Bake at 350 for 9-12 minutes.

A few things I've noticed:
Now I know any baker would want to strangle me for saying this, but sometimes I am not really specific about measurements. The big stuff, yeah, but little piddly things like vanilla and what not, I do what I want yo! So the pudding situation. The recipe says 2-3.4 oz packs. Well, I've made these twice. The first time I had one package of chocolate pudding that was 4.6 oz. and I only made a half batch because damn, half a batch is plenty enough for two people. They came out wonderfully. The second time I had 2 packages of vanilla pudding coming in at 3 oz. each, and again I made only a half batch. They also came out delicious. So yeah, the pudding amount is debatable from my point of view. Also worth noting, at least the second time I didn't get instant pudding and still, yum-o (yeah OK Rachael Ray).

These cookies remind me of Freihofer chocolate chip cookies. So for those of you who have been graced with the Freihofer Taste of Heaven, then get ready because they are homemade now!

By the way, the knitting cat above. I actually hate cats, I like knitting though. Just thought I'd point that out in case you thought that cats were an interest of mine. They certainly are not. Well, unless they are someone else's cat and they just need a petting from me. I can do a petting.
Also, you know how hard it was to find a good picture of a nurse that wasn't a sexy nurse?

What's that smell?

2009-04-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

Sweet article on urban composting. I have not tried it in my apartment yet. I keep some food scraps and bring them to my parent's compost pile during the warmer months. Scraps are so hard to store for long periods, though, so it would be smart to start my own smelly decomposing pile of fruit and veggie leftovers.

Give it to the worms!

P.S. A real post is coming soon. I promise. I have an exam today so that has been priority. But I have a neat little experiment in store for you all. Get ready!

Give it the ol' college try...

2009-03-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

Felder Rushing gives some good tips and persuasions to those still on the edge about starting a garden. And his definition of "garden" can fit almost any of our lifestyles:

Slow, Easy, Cheap and Green

I want to be friends with this dude.

To-Do's

2009-03-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

For all of those unfamiliar with the gardening forecast for Upstate New York from the months of October-May-ish let me give you a little sniglet of info. - THERE ISN'T ONE.

So to keep me quiet and off the streets (and to pretend I am being productive whilst I procrastinate studying for my A&P exam...) I thought I would compile a bit of a list of my to-do's for this Spring.

Jessica's Let's-Get-This-Spring-Thing-Going To-Do List

~Repot these plants:

* Jade - Poor thing, really should only have 1-2 plants in each container.

* Columnea - Early Bird - This thing was barely a few strands when I bought it from Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses and now it has taken right off!

*Asparagus Fern - It kinda sorta took a dive off the back of the toilet. Yeah I placed the plant precariously on the back of it, and yeah I even thought to myself, "wow that's going to fall". Yes, yes, we all hope to have these moments of clarity...and then straight up ignore them.
Anyway, after I recovered the crushed plant from its tumble, I noticed a big ol' root poking out the bottom, so that is a good sign we need to go up a size. Sorry fern, you're gettin' a little rounder in the middle.

And finally, one of my favorite plants, also purchased at Lyndon Lyon:

* Begonia - Emerald Jewel - Such a neat plant. Very fragile though. As you can see it is headin' out of dodge without a road. Every time I place it down I have to angle it just right or else it topples over.

So repotting is a bit of a delicate situation. Any houseplant book you read will talk all about being sterile and bacteria and all those scary things that make you not want to touch your beautiful, but overgrown plant. Ah yes, but we must. And we will. Soon. Very soon. Happy Spring to all!

Jess

P.S. I actually started this post last week, but because I had that test, (as noted above) this week, it has taken me an ungodly amount of time to finish it. In case you were wondering, I killed that test. Got an A, in yo face digestive and respiratory system!

Ok, Ok...

2009-03-06T10:33:00.001-08:00

I know, this doesn't look good for me. I can't even get past the first post! I promise once the weather gets above 25 during the day, I will be more motivated to do plant-type things and therefore more motivated to blog!
First I'll set the stage for you all. "You all" being, like, me at this point. Regardless! Here we go:

The players:

The reason for this blog:

And you can see many, many more pictures of the jungle after I get around to setting up a photo site.

Also playing a roll in this production number:

Me of course!
Yes, the short, sunburn-prone individual above will be providing the entertainment for this evening.
However, don't show up every night, this girl is a nursing student (with high hopes of being a midwife!) so between a full-time job and part-time school, shows will be infrequent and possibly quite bad.
Fair warning to you all. (yes, yes still just me)

Also included in my rabblings but currently I am too lazy to post pictures of because, damn it takes a while to edit each picture so it doesn't take up 5 feet of scrolling space are:

-The full-time, humugo garden I help take care of over in ol' East Schodack.
- My doodle-bop animal buddies that I share a home with. Alf, Lola and Floyd.
- The great BF who may or may not want his mug posted on my blog. That will be determined.

Eventually I will get a photo space set up so I can post the beautiful pictures there where my lazy self will not have to edit each one for perfect height and width proportions.
In the next month I'll start planting some seeds and will get ready to transplant all the houseplants that are dying in their too small pots.
Until then, all us Upstate NYers are ready for Spring! (Although it was comforting to have a real winter again...finally)

We all come around...

2009-02-13T10:03:00.000-08:00

Well here is my very first, brand-spankin'-new attempt at writing a blog.
I hope it helps me channel my inner nature lovin' self a bit more. And may even open me up to *gasp* more homely, crafty-type activities.
This is especially important since here, mid-february, in deathly cold Upstate New York, we're all about to go jump into a raging fire just to say we were warm...seconds before death hit.
Anyway, I will follow shortly with a list of characters I hope to incorporate into my life-on-the-web.
Please, enjoy.

-The Pale Gardener