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dragonlady7I don't think I've done a gardening update in some time, so I may blather on about that for a while. The rain and wind kept me up most of the night (about 2 to 5 am), and we had a bit of havoc with the wind, but nothing damaged I don't think. My biggest jade plant, which is in a cobalt-blue ceramic pot about 8-10" in diameter, was knocked off the upside-down drywall bucket holding it up at a level with the kitchen stoop, but it doesn't look like the pot was broken. (I haven't ventured out yet to pick it up.) The spider plant is still hanging from the kitchen awning, surprisingly enough with most of its little spiderling shoots intact. A folding metal/plastic lawn chair left set up in the driveway folded itself down, but also appears unbroken. The grill was left out but simply got a good cleaning for once-- the wind didn't even blow the lid down.
So there's our Hurricane experience. The tomatoes, I can see from here, are still on the plants.
The garden update, then: Beans seem to have been cut short by the dry hot weather. I watered them less faithfully than I did the peas, although "less faithfully" means something to the tune of every other day, but we did go away in the middle, and Z didn't care enough to step in when I was too busy to harvest. So they've sort of petered out-- one bean dried on the stalk and Z was amused enough to remove its seeds. He likes collecting seeds from things we grow. I only just explained to him that if the plant was a hybrid, its seeds will revert to one of the parents, so we can't just harvest the seeds and replant them and expect the same results. But, given that we've never started seeds before, I figure our maiden attempt can be made this way with whatever we've collected, and we'll see what happens. We're not fussy.
The back fence and trellis is all morning glories now. They're beautiful, all tangled together. I got a packet of 'mixed colors', so the back fence happens to have deep purple, bright blue, magenta, and white-pink all mixed in. The herb garden fence isn't tall enough and the two plants there are both white/pink, so they're less exciting and rather more messy-looking. But the south fence, behind the sunporch, is magenta and deep purple, and is having some success at looking artistic. The back fence is the best because the twine bean trellis is there. My second crop of snap peas are about three feet tall now and are bearing peas, intermixed among the morning glories-- I'm quite pleased by that. The regular peas are still disappointingly small and confused. I may not try that variety again. Well, there's still some left of the seed packet, so I guess I'll try them once more, indoors.
My indoor-gardening idea is somewhat hampered by the fact that I can find no information whatsoever except about growing marijuana. And despite Z's curiosity on the topic (which I admit I sort of share, although I hate smoking things and unlike him have tried the mary jane once or twice [college kids] and found it to be nothing exceptionally transcendental), I really am primarily interested in growing, y'know, like peas and lettuce and stuff. Really I'm not that interested in maximizing my resin production. Urgh.
So I'm trying to sort of extrapolate from the Set Up Your Grow Room articles on the marijuana sites, so that I can figure out what's plant-specific and what's general purpose. Really-- I want lettuce and sugar snap peas and maybe some tomatoes if I remember, and perhaps a hot pepper would be novel. If I can get the conditions right I'd grow some flowers, too-- maybe force some bulbs, maybe plant the seeds I collected from the disappointing sweet peas (it was too hot and dry and sunny for them, i think). Partly I just want to have a corner of the basement be brightly lit and cheerful and alive, to keep the winter a bit at bay. So I'm being amused by the whole thing.
And it all comes back to narcotics eventually. Bah.
I am so terribly tired-but-not-sleepy, which I am hoping will develop into a superlative nap later. Nothing like napping on a rainy day to remind you what sleep is really all about. Ahh.
At the moment, though, despite the whole tiredness thing, am also restless and full of an unsettled feeling like I really ought to be doing, which would be great except I've really no idea what it is that I ought to be doing. I've been puttering around the attic and basement, and am wondering how advisable it would be for me to just knock a hole in the wall already and run current up to the attic. I have all the fixins to make an outlet. Maybe I should do that today. Not that I really truly know what I'm doing, and not that I have any means of getting to the hardware store should I find myself lacking a component, but restless energy is not to be entirely discounted. Once there's electric up there the attic is that much closer to being a real honest usable space, and this house is that much less claustrophobic.
One thing I should point out: the attic in this house isn't really an attic, it's a second storey that's simply never been finished and has instead been used as storage space. It has real windows, and rafters, and all, but just isn't finished because nobody ever quite needed the space.
In other news, we haven't heard anything from the Smiths (Adam's family) but we assume they're ok, as apparently it's true that Baton Rouge wasn't that badly hit. Katy emailed a little bit ago with some new pictures she'd taken-- one of Adam looking his particular unwilling brand of cute, and one of herself and her two close coworkers at one of their promotions.
So there's our Hurricane experience. The tomatoes, I can see from here, are still on the plants.
The garden update, then: Beans seem to have been cut short by the dry hot weather. I watered them less faithfully than I did the peas, although "less faithfully" means something to the tune of every other day, but we did go away in the middle, and Z didn't care enough to step in when I was too busy to harvest. So they've sort of petered out-- one bean dried on the stalk and Z was amused enough to remove its seeds. He likes collecting seeds from things we grow. I only just explained to him that if the plant was a hybrid, its seeds will revert to one of the parents, so we can't just harvest the seeds and replant them and expect the same results. But, given that we've never started seeds before, I figure our maiden attempt can be made this way with whatever we've collected, and we'll see what happens. We're not fussy.
The back fence and trellis is all morning glories now. They're beautiful, all tangled together. I got a packet of 'mixed colors', so the back fence happens to have deep purple, bright blue, magenta, and white-pink all mixed in. The herb garden fence isn't tall enough and the two plants there are both white/pink, so they're less exciting and rather more messy-looking. But the south fence, behind the sunporch, is magenta and deep purple, and is having some success at looking artistic. The back fence is the best because the twine bean trellis is there. My second crop of snap peas are about three feet tall now and are bearing peas, intermixed among the morning glories-- I'm quite pleased by that. The regular peas are still disappointingly small and confused. I may not try that variety again. Well, there's still some left of the seed packet, so I guess I'll try them once more, indoors.
My indoor-gardening idea is somewhat hampered by the fact that I can find no information whatsoever except about growing marijuana. And despite Z's curiosity on the topic (which I admit I sort of share, although I hate smoking things and unlike him have tried the mary jane once or twice [college kids] and found it to be nothing exceptionally transcendental), I really am primarily interested in growing, y'know, like peas and lettuce and stuff. Really I'm not that interested in maximizing my resin production. Urgh.
So I'm trying to sort of extrapolate from the Set Up Your Grow Room articles on the marijuana sites, so that I can figure out what's plant-specific and what's general purpose. Really-- I want lettuce and sugar snap peas and maybe some tomatoes if I remember, and perhaps a hot pepper would be novel. If I can get the conditions right I'd grow some flowers, too-- maybe force some bulbs, maybe plant the seeds I collected from the disappointing sweet peas (it was too hot and dry and sunny for them, i think). Partly I just want to have a corner of the basement be brightly lit and cheerful and alive, to keep the winter a bit at bay. So I'm being amused by the whole thing.
And it all comes back to narcotics eventually. Bah.
I am so terribly tired-but-not-sleepy, which I am hoping will develop into a superlative nap later. Nothing like napping on a rainy day to remind you what sleep is really all about. Ahh.
At the moment, though, despite the whole tiredness thing, am also restless and full of an unsettled feeling like I really ought to be doing, which would be great except I've really no idea what it is that I ought to be doing. I've been puttering around the attic and basement, and am wondering how advisable it would be for me to just knock a hole in the wall already and run current up to the attic. I have all the fixins to make an outlet. Maybe I should do that today. Not that I really truly know what I'm doing, and not that I have any means of getting to the hardware store should I find myself lacking a component, but restless energy is not to be entirely discounted. Once there's electric up there the attic is that much closer to being a real honest usable space, and this house is that much less claustrophobic.
One thing I should point out: the attic in this house isn't really an attic, it's a second storey that's simply never been finished and has instead been used as storage space. It has real windows, and rafters, and all, but just isn't finished because nobody ever quite needed the space.
In other news, we haven't heard anything from the Smiths (Adam's family) but we assume they're ok, as apparently it's true that Baton Rouge wasn't that badly hit. Katy emailed a little bit ago with some new pictures she'd taken-- one of Adam looking his particular unwilling brand of cute, and one of herself and her two close coworkers at one of their promotions.
