The goings on of our family.
Carrots Love Tomatoes : Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening
I’ve been meaning to read this book for quite awhile. I’m waiting for theAll New Square Foot Gardening book to arrive from Amazon.com, so thought I’d get this one read in the meantime. I’ve been working on my planting chart but I want to finish these books before I decide what will go where.
It’s 27°F right now on the porch. My online weather icon says it’s 21°F. The forecast:
TODAY
SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE LOWER TO MID 40S. NORTH WIND 10 TO
15 MPH.TONIGHT
MOSTLY CLEAR. LOWS IN THE 20S. NORTH WIND AROUND 10 MPH.THURSDAY
MOSTLY CLOUDY. BECOMING WINDY. A CHANCE OF LIGHT SNOW
SHOWERS. HIGHS IN THE MID 30S TO LOWER 40S. NORTHEAST WIND
INCREASING TO 20 TO 30 MPH.THURSDAY NIGHT
MOSTLY CLOUDY. WINDY. A CHANCE OF LIGHT SNOW
SHOWERS. LOWS 13 TO 22. NORTH WIND 20 TO 30 MPH.
Brrr. Cold and breezy. I guess it’ll give me more time to plan the planting schedule for this year.
It was a bit dark the other day when I took the pictures. Today the sun came out for awhile so I took a few more pictures of the new porch layout.
This shot is looking out the door. There are a couple more containers to the left out of the frame. The chard is small but still producing. Great plants.
This cluster of small containers will have flowers and maybe some herbs. The dead looking plant at the back got killed back when it got cold but some of it is still alive. Hopefully it’ll come back this year as it warms up.
This shows the full layout for this year. The containers are arranged around the corner which gets the most sun.
We picked up some more soil to top off the boxes but I’ll add it when we get closer to planting. I need to get the planting chart worked out and then I’ll put it up. I ordered some more seeds for this year from Baker Creek. Marigolds – French – Petite Mix , Nasturtium – Dwarf Jewel Mix, Garden Peas – Little Marvel , Tomatoes – Orange – Patio Orange, and Watermelon – Bush Sugar Baby.
Watermelons! I plan to try growing them up the cage. This variety is only supposed to produce vines 3 1/2 feet long. That should fit well. A few slings to help support the melons tied to the cage and we should be all set. I hope it works out well. We can’t get much from the garden but fresh watermelons would be nice.
We’re getting the porch garden ready for the new year. I’ve got most of the containers pretty much set and added some smaller containers. I need to pick up a bit more soil to top off some of the boxes. I still haven’t taken out the chard and done anything with that box. I do plan to remove the plants but not yet. Today was a nice day to be outside. Clear skies and sun. It feels like spring. The forecast for the rest of the week shows rain and snow showers! Not time yet to plant the garden. I need to figure out when I’ll start the seeds and all of that still.
I made a lasagne last night which included layers of swiss chard from our porch garden – small leaves. The chard has hung on all winter even through freezing temperatures. Really a remarkable plant. I kept figuring it’d die off but so far it has done very well. Even as I start preparing the containers for this year I still have the chard from 2005. I’m not sure if I’ll leave it or not yet but if I take it out I plan to replant.
I’ve been waiting for this, eager to see what Kunstler had to say about Bush’s State of the Union speech.
Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler : Addiction
By now, President Bush’s wildly irresponsible remarks on energy in his state of the union speech may have already vanished down the memory hole, but the damage will linger on.
