50% chance of rain today, 60% tomorrow. Glad I have the new rain gauge in the ground. It holds 8 inches. If we get a hurricane, I'll know how much rain it is dumping.
I look at the plants on the deck and in the net room, and I'm amazed most of this came from little bitty seeds. The celery is really getting tall, maybe 8-12 inches, the onion set greens are from 12-18 inches, greens on bunching onions 8-12 inches, several types of peas for containers 6-10 inches, one is already blooming, Brussels sprouts 6-7 inches, broccoli 6 inches, various peppers 6 inches, first T squash planted is 6-7 inches, other 3 T squash is 4 inches. Four tomato plants 8 inches, six other types tomato seedlings I just put out a few days ago are still small.
The Egyptian Walking Onions greens are 12-16 inches. The three blackberry plants will have open flowers beginning tomorrow and days afterward. They looked so dead through the winter, and I got them as sticks through the mail, I was afraid they wouldn't grow but they are doing great.
The tobacco is getting really big but I hate to mention that as Johnny may sneak in and get mine to add to his since he lost 50% of his and has started seeds again. I have 11 or 12 tobacco plants in total. Big pots are on the way for all the tobacco and seedling tomatoes.
I'll look up the strawberry preserve recipe in the book I have to see what I need, if anything, to make those preserves. I bought a ten pound bag of sugar and glass canning jars this week and I have pectin if I need that. Just as with growing plants, I've never canned anything but I can follow directions and I have the Ball book and the other big book with all the recipes I would ever need to can veggies in a water canner.
I'm making chicken and dumplings. The carrots, celery, garlic, and thyme came from the garden. Since it's a little cool today, I may make a loaf of bread, too, to go with the soup.
I may be poor, but I do eat well. ;)
/johnny
I find stuff all the time that I have forgotten I have. I also have lots of times that I can’t find stuff that I know I have.
When we moved from the trailer into our house, my keys disappeared. I looked every where and in every box as we unpacked - no luck.
Had to get new keys made off hubby’s. About 8 years later, I was cleaning out a closet and there they were. I still can’t figure out what happened. Here today, gone tomorrow, and back again sometime in the distant future.LOL
We got about 1 1/2 inches of rain yesterday all totaled. My rain gauge isn’t too scientific. I have an old can about 6 inches tall. I stuck a ruler in it and marked off the inches with a permanent marker.
I set it out in the corner of one of my garden beds, and sink it about halfway into the ground, so it doesn’t get blown around.
Today we almost got to 60 degrees, and the sun has been shining and it’s a beautiful day. Most of the yard is too wet to do anything, but the Mel’s mix beds did not disappoint. It was dry enough to be able to plant something.
Hubby didn’t get to the feed store before they closed, so he went to the other place in town that sometimes has gardening and other homesteading stuff. No luck on the mushroom compost or the cheap organic meals.
He did find a package of organic fertilizer though, and bought it, so I used some of it today, and planted another batch of potatoes. These are Butte Russets from the batch I grew last year. Another 15 potatoes.
So I have planted 45 seed potatoes so far. I’ll plant another 15 from the grocery store potatoes that sprouted before I could use them all. It’ll be interesting to see how they work out.
Their bed has a mixture of our old clay dirt, and some Mel’s mix all scrambled together, and it just wasn’t dry enough to plant it.
Gotta go finish cleaning up the kitchen now(never ending job it seems) and make space for the groceries. Hope to get a chance to finish up the lettuce planting before I run out of steam.