Stu's Rusty Bucket

Monday, May 21, 2007

Wabbits

Joy and I went out to do some watering of the garden last night and we spotted a pesky brown wabbit suspiciously near my peas.. so I went over to investigate and he took off, straight through my veggie patch!!

Lil bugger..

Speaking of the veggie patch, it looks like only corn and bush beans are doing any good right now. No extra growth on the peppers, only 5 soya beans sprouted, and I still cant tell if any of the leeks or tomatoes sprouted or not…

sigh…

Something has nibbled on the october beans as well… mm.. Might have to get me an air rifle to keep the bunnies away.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Vegetables are Up!

The vegies are up! Looks like all my corn is up, lots of the beans are bursting through, potatoes are up. Everything shot up over the last few days, its great.

Still waiting to see on the leeks and tomatoes.

Peppers are surviving, may have lost a couple but I still have maybe 15 or more bell pepper plants alive.

Peas look great, despite several mowings :/ ugh.

Watching the beans grow is pretty cool. One morning there will be a bump in the mud (yeah we dont have grade A horticultural mega pro +++ topsoil here...) and the next day a mini earthquake has happend with a big crack appearing and suddleny this 2 inch bean plant with big leaves is in its place. pretty cool.

I think definatly I would like a bigger garden next year, or to build myself some raised beds. (I would love to make a coldframe this summer)

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Gardening

It was so beaut out tonight I grabbed all my seeds and headed for the garden.

• small area of corn (about 3ft by 5ft)
• block of october beans (3ft by 4ft)
• block of soya beans (3ft by 4ft)
• half a row of leeks (prolly about 8ft)
• half a row of tomatoes (not the good ones since they all died grrr).. about 8ft i think.

Saturday or Sunday I’ll do my flat of orange bell peppers

fingers crossed we dont get any more frosts or snow and the blighters might survive…

Now I just need to keep my eye out for the bloody groundhog…

my 16ft row of potatoes hasnt popped up yet.. mmm.

lets also hope the deer stay out of the garden too… Now if joy would just let me get that franchi 20gauge shotgun… i could play some sporting clays and take care of the ground hog and deer…

I have 3 planter boxes to put on the deck which will have

• parsley
• spearmint
• peppermint
• basil
• rosemary

we also have sugarsnap peas growing on the trellis of the deck

some watermelon out the front (hasnt popped up yet so I think that may be a loss).

I still have green beans and carrots to put in the ground but green beans will need support and thats some messing to do to get it to hold/stay up…

I also need to make more homemade yoghurt today

busy bsuy busy

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

House Work

So the garden has been tilled, and cleaned up. Potatoes are ready to go in the ground but we are supposed to get freezing rain on Saturday :( so I cant plant them yet.

We put the edge bricks down last night, now Joy just needs to get some of that black material that stops weeds and then we throw mulch down, and the front garden will be all nice and done!

Thursday, March 15, 2007

This years garden takes shape

One of our friends came with his roto-tiller the other night and tilled us up a nice patch in the backyard for a new garden. I think we are going to have problems keeping it moist, as we are on the top of a hill and all the water drains off.

Seed Savers Exchange also sent my potatoes out, I have 5lbs of Russet Nugget on their way. I don’t have a clue how much/many 5lbs of potatoes are, it could be 3 potatoes or 1 whole bag. I also don’t know if they have been cut into slips or are whole potatoes.  If they are not cut, I’ll have to cut them into eye segments and let them harden off and then directly sow them

I’ve got some seed trays to go and I need to seed them up tonight with bell peppers, tomatoes. This weekend if its not bad weather, I’ll direct sow some October beans, green beans, peas. (October beans are a dry bush been, rather than a pole bean. I have not grown dry bush beans before so I don’t quite know how much space to give them...)

Besides sowing, this weekend I need to get some wooden stakes and some chicken wire to fence the garden off.  I don’t want to take any chances with nefarious ground hogs, rabbits and deer eating my produce.

Lets just hope the ground hogs don’t try and dig under it :(

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Herb Drying

Since Ive moved my parsley into the house for winter, Ive started harvesting it to keep it going.

Just doing simple drying on top of the fridge, Ive amassed a small bag of dried branches which will go nicely in my cooking since I seem to use a lot of dried herbs.. Sometimes the fresh stuff is great in homemade pasta sauce but sometimes the dried is nicer too.

Now that I extended my kitchen windowsill with my homemade ‘sill extender’ I can stably put pots on it now, so next to my parsley I’ve got some basil starting.

Its a shame no other windows in the house are really capable of the same. They are too low (ie: good for the dog to get into) or not on the right side of the house for winter sun.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Hacked off Finger

Since tomatoes are plentiful right now I was making extra spaghetti sauce to freeze for winter, and while chopping the toms I chopped my little finger! ouch…

no finger went into the mix but it better taste good

I have lots of bell peppers! Right now they are all green but I have over 10 growing, which is pretty neat.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Potatoes and Peppers

Potatoes are up! Not sure if they are sweet potatoes or red potatoes…

The Bell Peppers are doing extremely well and should probably be repotted from their seeding tray.. Not sure what I am going to do with 100+ bell pepper plants.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Peas!

So two weeks ago or less, I seeded an entire tray with peas (about 108 i think) pots, and now they are all about two inches tall and leafing out!

Suddenly I’m not sure what I’m going to do with 108 pea seedlings so far in advance. I cant plant them since we are moving, and buy a huge amount of box planters is expensive.. and we are moving in june…

I think I will have to buy a bunch of planters and see what happens. Weed out the weak ones and plant a good dozen or two dozen…

Can you pickle peas in a jar??

No signs of any sprouts on my capsicums / bell peppers or my celery yet…