Have just been reading about (and ordered some to try) “soap nuts”
Which lead me to wondering if anyone has tried using Yucca root for laundry/cleaning? Basically the same thing, natural saponofins (or how ever its spelled). Or will I have to be the first to try it??
Thanks!
Like a lot of people, I’m dancing the compromise between working for a living and being more self-reliant in my daily life. It goes in fits and starts and is hindered by many factors including the weather, my own age, and the up and down demands of our business. Fortunately, we work from home, so at least the matter of commute time doesn’t come into the equation, as well as the ability to put in time when I MUST outside with extra time at the desk when I must – even if its 6am or a sunday afternoon.
This morning needed to get the grape plants into the ground, move a couple of the pepper plants that went in over the weekend, get some potatoes in dirt, and water everything.
First the grape plants. Bought a tall arched arbor that goes between two grow bags. Got it assembled over the weekend and Monday moved the pots with the grapes near them. While in that area of the garden, pulled some of my onions (they were in one of the grow bags I wanted to use for a grape plant), shifted around some soil, dumped a grow bag that was doing nothing, clipped the flowers off the rhubarb, and snipped off the bulbules from some of the walking onions.
For the latter, do not have enough room to let them walk around, so I snip of the bulbules and plant them in a little pot I keep for the purpose. by the fall they are ready to be planted elsewhere for the winter, with a spring harvest. This never gives me a lot, but does allow me to keep them alive and aclimatized should I ever want to expand them.
Today went round and found one of the grape plants had fallen over and leaves that had hit the ground had all turned brown and crispy. Just a couple of days! Anyway, got them planted and fertilized all the way around the blueberry, the grapes, the blackberry, the rhubarb, the nectarine and the fig.
Speaking of the nectarine, see ONE fruit trying to form.
Then into the main garden. Seeds are coming up for the replacement zucchini and two of the spaghetti squash. This would have encroached on two of the peppers I had planted over the weekend, so moved them. had been keeping a section of the garden open for bush beans, but my instead plant them in the raised bed next to the kitchen. That has not been much of a success yet as I keep forgetting to get out there and water it regularly!
Have not planted any basil this year
Did get some potatoes in a large grow bag outside. Last year potatoes had done okay, but kept getting eaten, so immediately put up some protection for these seed starts. The ones planted in the greenhouse succumbed to Verticillium fungus, I think. Everything was growing well and suddenly they turned yellow, wilted and died. Had added some manure/compost to the soil and hope that was not the issue!! Have added the same to the pots that I replanted with existing turmeric plants and they are also doing poorly. Right now, have a salvia in the pot that had the potatoes in it. don’t know if that will be susceptible or not. Of course, it could have come from the seed potatoes also.
After all that garden work, watered and then set up the solar oven for some chicken breasts for lunch. The sun hadn’t reached around to the point where I set that up until then.
When all this was done I had spent about 2 hours working in the garden, maybe more.
and I thought about how hard this would all be if I had to do enough of it to completely satisfy our food needs for a year – every single day – and I admire our ancestors for their back breaking labor. It also made me appreciate why they were so anxious to embrace the “time saving” appliances of vacuums, refrigerators, toasters, washing machines, etc.
Thornless boysenberry, Monrovia. Will it stay here? maybe no. Seem to be doing fruits in the Eastern garden. Will revisit this soon.
cutting back on my veggies, but also squeezing more in, almost square foot gardening. first planting got caught in a cold snap and some have been completely lost, and some are maybes. Bought some other seedlings, and a neighbor gave me some.
starting upper right, an armenian cucumber, two beefsteak tomatoes and in front of them are all romas. you can tell which are stunted vs the just planted seedling. the little things sticking out of the ground are Ollas and usually have caps on them.
some overlap with the picture above un named beefsteak tomatoes in the back, plus a possible recovering beefsteak planted a month or so ago. Romas in the front. There is also two better boy tomatoes from the neighbor, one upper left, one more center between the ollas. There is also a recovering Brandywine tomato back there
Have an early girl in the greenhouse which has fruit on it that are starting to ripe. they are small, but it will be the earliest we have ever had tomatoes.
moving past the tomatoes to eggplant and chards
at the end is this grow bag of snap peas, two small ollas in the bag to keep watering even
outside the fence is White sage, only one plant from last year is coming back and to the right is my comfrey which has been in the same spot, in the same bag for probably close to 10 years now.
eastern bed, you can barely see a little toilet paper roll with a couple of zuchhini seeds starting to bud. Then some sweet peppers. This had been about 5 zucchini plants that got nipped badly by the cold. There are still two plants in the greenhouse and we’ve already harvested on zucchini off them.
middle, sweet peppers and some sort of melon from the neighbor. that’s all she called it, a melon. Melons haven’t done well for me in the past, we’ll see how it goes
sweet pepper, and again with the toilet paper roll and spaghetti squash seedlings
more sweet pepper and one spaghetti squash that is showing maybe a couple of little leaves
In addition to making jerky in the solar oven, did a piece of pork yesterday for making pulled pork. Set it up early and let it sit in the sun at 200F from about 9am to about 4am. Since I had a chiropractor appointment this AM, put it back out to warm up so it would be ready to eat when I got home – just had to do a quick veggie and a grain and we were eating. Came out tender, and was just the right temperature! Gotta remember this is a real option at this time of year for cooking meals.
So after the surprise 65F night time low, the next night was 31F! and even with the covers, pretty much everything under there took a hit from the cold. Don’t know if they’re dead dead, or just the top leaves and the plants will recover. Since we’re still have COLD again, will just wait to replant
Even the best laid plans . . .
 | carolee on spring is springing |
 | morgaineotm on gf non fried chicken |
 | SaraC on gf non fried chicken |
| morgaineotm on seeds |
 | megadiversepiedmont on seeds |
