Also, I'd like to thank Daphne and Granny for educating me on the dangers of grapes to dogs. Gosh, i'd never heard that before. Even though I will refrain from feeding them to her, I don't know how I will keep her from eating the ones that fall to the ground. Sigh....
In gardening news, the broccoli is still doing well, but the leaves were kinda droopy when this photo was taken. It was pretty warm this day, and definitely the reason for it. Also, when the swc was assembled, the effective water/soil exchange surface area was reduced drastically - in hopes of reducing the rate of capillary action. Initial tests conclude that the soil moisture level measures 3-4 with my moisture meter. That's fantastic! That is exactly what I was shooting for.....This should be really good for tomatoes next year.
Photo below - Remember those containers at the edge of the woods, that I tried corn in? Well, there's a good reason why they didn't perform very well....
They were filled with my (unfinished) compost that was heavily comprised of pine needles, which hasn't decomposed after all this time. No wonder they didn't grow well, because it looked awful!
Photo below - However, the compost that I made during the summer looks fantastic, and another container was filled for growing more onions. These are from seed, and are a granex hybrid. Granex is the original cultivar for the "vidalia onion", I believe. Boy, I hope they do well! Jude was lookin' at me like "Hey, retard.....why all the fuss about this dirt-looking stuff? Don't ya wanna play?"
This next look was convincing, so I had to put away the camera and play frisbee for a while.
Since moving the clocks back last weekend, it's already dark when I get home from work each day. With flashlight in hand, I still make the daily trek out to Jude's pen, and play with her for a little while. Sadly, all of my projects will have to be done on the weekends, now. I'll finish the roof on Saturday, and start on the soffets, too. The vinyl siding should be started the following weekend.BTW....I made my homemade spaghetti sauce the other day, and only have 4 pints to show for my efforts. As usual with anything I can for the first time - I reduced it too much. So much for pouring it from the jars - because it's really thick! heh. No biggie....water will be added to it when it gets used in the future. One thing's for sure, i'll be growing at least twice as many tomatoes next year, because it takes alot!
Take care, and happy gardening!
EG
6 comments:
Pine needles must take forever to break down. When I first moved in to this house, the compost bin was full. However, I had to remove of about 2-feet of pine needles before I could get to the good stuff beneath. For this reason, I won’t put pine needles in my compost bin. Instead I use it as mulch for my blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons. This year, I also used pine needles/pine straw to keep the weeds down between the rows of beans in the traditional garden.
I used a lot of my half finished compost last year, but I used it as mulch. It worked great. I'm hoping the compost I made this year will be better broken down. I have mostly oak in my yard and they are so slow to break down. Not as bad as your pine needles, but still they are hard. This year I mowed them before adding to the compost pile and I think it worked a lot better. This year I'm mowing all the leaves I collect before adding them to my leaf bin so I don't have to do it next year.
Mmmmm, you could put that reduced spaghetti sauce on Italian bread and just have crostini. Jude is pretty convincing, I'd have to say.
Jude is such a cutie.
Don't worry about the sauce - it's just concentrated. Extra strength! But I hear ya, I'll be growing more tomatoes next year too... there just weren't enough to go around... never mind for making sauce.
rachel - yes, they sure do! No pine needles for me!!!
Daphne - I use it for mulch around the trees, and it works very good for that. None for the compost pile, though!
stefaneener - crostoni? I don't know what that is....Ah yes, Jude is hard to ignore. Hehe.
Jenn - she sure is! I just can't get much done with her around, though! I agree. A little water added to the sauce while simmering - and it will be fine for pasta.
Hi EG. I'll have to check my blog. I haven't changed anything on it but I know it's given people problems before.
Your broccoli is looking nice in those containers! Your sauce sounds tasty... yep, more tomatoes for me next year too. I hope that they do better than they did this past summer. Now, the year before I had more tomatoes than I could deal with LOL But I've read that it was an off year for many tomato growers this past summer.
The time change is good and bad. I do like it because I can see to feed the critters in the morning before I head out. But, for the evening feed, I have to just try to get home earlier. It's important to feed the calves twice a day with the feed since the grass isn't growing any more. We have to spread the feed out over two feedings for the day. It doesn't do them good to feed them too much feed all at one time. But they do have plenty of hay to eat around the clock.
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