When we first got to Arkansas in June, the back deck was in the sun all day. I was amazed that the space on the north side of a tall building got any sun. It was a perfect place for a container garden. As the days started getting shorter the shadow of the tower started covering the garden, the tomatoes started to wilt, and the okra seedlings went limp.

This week I moved all of the plants to the south side of the house. Everything is much better now.

The garden looks much smaller out in front of the place. I’m glad I didn’t start it in the parking lot, I would have planted too many vegetables and herbs.

I found some pictures my sister scanned and posted on the internet. I’m organizing photos to frame and hang on the wall, and want more of these to look at every day.

Also, seeing all of the happy pictures from the 70s at Sarah’s service just made me long to look at my own more.

While we visited my parents last Saturday, they offered up bucketfuls of produce, but we still had to pick our own asparagus and green beans. Ty started at one end and I started at the other. He made some sort of mention about being a good bean picker, and that I should try not to miss any beans. I told him I had to come over and watch his technique because mine was rusty.

As I placed my hand on his back, I engaged him in an old family tradition. Surreptitiously placing a green bean leaf on his back, I pretended to observe and learn from his technique. At that moment, my mother laughed, “I remember when the kids were little and would go out to pick beans.” She was about to tell the rest of the story about how we would try to tag each other with the leaves without the person being tagged knowing.

I bolted up from the patch, and placed a hushing finger to my lips. She walked around behind Tyrone and looked at his back and just started laughing and laughing and laughing.

Ty unknowingly wore the leaf all night, even to the horse track. I just told him about the leaf last night, and he says he found it. In running a load of clothes 5 minutes ago, I found him to be incorrect. The leaf was still stuck to his shirt! So here is the warning: if the leaf is still fresh, it comes off in one piece. If the leaf is a week old, it will crumble in to hundreds of pieces and litter your laundry. The joke is on me.

In this picture the joke was on Jen, but she was in on the joke:

As I type this, my nose is on fire!

We got home from Nebraska on Sunday, and on Monday, Tyrone whipped up a batch of fridge pickles, with layers of green beans, cucumbers, peppers and onions.

I had a few pickles today, including a hot pepper. At that point I must have touched my nose, and now it is ON FIRE!

Also baked some zucchini bread yesterday. I doubled the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook’s recipe and baked it in a round cake pan. MMMM….

Working on the pictures to post on this blog and how to say a few other things, but as I said, right now my NOSE IS ON FIRE!

In Nebraska, we start container gardens and regular gardens in April or May, and start seedlings indoors as early as February. This year I wasn’t able to do any seedlings because of the move. In Arkansas, everything has been picked over by June. I couldn’t find a tomato tree for under $14!

The first week I just started some seedlings.  Even though the deck is on the north side of the building, it gets sun all day long.

The second week it finally rained, and I bought a tomato plant. I planted some okra, and it grew a half inch after the rain.

The third week we cheated and bought some bigger plants to catch up.


My best container gardening find has been cheap second-hand Styrofoam coolers. Most large planters are $4, and even more for attractive ones. I like the look of the Styrofoam, it is light, I’m saving it from the landfill. Maybe I’ll paint it someday, I like how spray paint dissolves the outer coating of Styrofoam.  Note the drainage holes at the bottom of the cooler.  There are beets in this planter, maybe I’ll put some carrots in the other one.




We have a two-story set of stairs with two landings appropriate for plants, however the owners, Covington Properties, were unable to paint the stairs before we got in. Right now I only have one plant out there in case they decide to paint the stairs next week.  We’re hoping to put more out there soon.

Planted a bunch of things this weekend. Found a really cool seed-starter: clear plastic organic egg cartons. I planted some basil a couple of weeks ago here’s how it is turning out:

Started some tomatoes (cherry, beefsteak, roma) since my dad said he isn’t starting any this year. (YEAH RIGHT.)

Took this picture while shopping at a thrift store with Ty and some friends: Kathleen and Elaine. They took us in while we were in the mile-high city.

Took the train out on Thursday: the longest day of the year. The windows on the train meant there was an almost imperceptible rosy-fingered dawn starting at 4:30 AM. The seats were quite comfortable, and the scenery was great. It seems must less stressful than riding in a car. The train was an hour late getting in to Lincoln, and 1.5 hours late getting into Denver.

More on the trip soon!

Garden update: The potatoes are DEAD! The tomato plant is going completely nuts and even bloomed a little while we were away. The heat really helped.

We seem to be having a bunch of problems with our plants. Figures, most are reaching “adolescence”.

The top tomato plant broke off in the wind about 2 weeks ago, but the top kept growing. The residual moisture must all be gone now, because the top half has died. Consulting with Mom tomorrow on if the plant is worth keeping or if it will produce tomatoes. Tyrone thinks it would be fun to have a stocky tomato plant.

The potatoes have faced a plague of slugs. The internet has many “natural” remedies, but it has just as many sites that disprove the natural remedies. Right now we’re taking the “Tyrone goes out every morning to commit slugicide” approach. This morning he got 20. Think the slugs got the beet seedlings too. These beets don’t exist anymore:

We have a big scruffy buck rabbit running around our back/front lawn, and he could be the culprit too.

Finally, most of the soybeans are doing great. I took a pot of a few beans to work, and I was surprised to see fast they reached 11 inches. My cube mate and I were so proud of how fast they grew:

…then my mother tells me that they grow fast and spindly when they don’t have enough light. Sure enough, the next day, they were all bent over under their own weight. Well the bright side is that I have another empty terra cotta pot!

Last night Tyrone cooked an awesome dinner consisting an unusual blend of foods: Peanut Butter (no sugar/salt, just ground peanuts all buttery), rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, lime juice, garlic, red pepper, spinach, sauteed mushrooms, shrimp and onions. I’m pretty sure it was based on this Tofu with Peanut Ginger sauce recipe. Try it! I couldn’t stop eating it. The spinach acts like noodles delivering the sauce.

Today, we’re going to harvest a few of our radishes!

In other news, the nasturtiums are up!

Makes me excited to try this Nasturtium Salad

Started knitting something on Monday night, put the turtleneck on hold. This project uses bulky yarn and big needles, and I’m going to jump back to it as soon as I get this blog entry in.

Now for the “excuse my crafting, this is what I have really been working on lately post”.

Last spring I decided that since we are at war, Americans should be conserving materials to help the war effort. One way to do this is to grow your own food. It really reduces the amount of fossil fuels devoted to transporting your food, and allows you use the compost from your plant-mass garbage. Some may argue that I am being less American by not purchasing food and supporting our GDP in a time of war, but I don’t listen to those people.

So into being sprung the VICTORY GARDEN 06, inspired from the WWII era victory gardens. It was for the most part, a failure. We had some herbs, but nothing else came up besides weeds.

This year, things are really taking off:

My mother brought down the chives on the end. Yes, that’s a plastic bucket. It has got a gaping hole on one side, so it isn’t useful for much else. We’ve got herbs and beets planted on the end, too. We are going to have way to many potatoes. They are great to grow, as they come up faster than any of the weeds in our yard, and love to be covered with more and more dirt.

This is the little planter I tried to crochet together with twine. As you can see, most of the side is BRICK:

Here’s the lettuce. My mother says we should start picking some of it.





Got the snap peas in late.





Planter radishes and onions. The radishes are about ready!





Here are the green beans. Planted a second round this weekend.




Ty and my summertime favorite: PORCH MINT! It grows under our deck, and we use it so often that it isn’t a pest.

We’re still tempering the tomato plant with the outdoors. It really can’t take the wind too well yet, even with a cage.

Huzzah! Sarah and Jen showed up for porch beers and knitting at Katie’s house last night. It was like old times. Got a bunch of knitting done, updates on the Turtleneck Tube Vest tomorrow.

Here is our new horseradish “Western Wasabi” plant (we’re on a rhizome kick):

Not sure what these flowers are, but they come back with more force every year. One of the many perennials in the front yard yet to be identified. My mother, Mary Lou, gave us the swan gourd last year. We dried it out and it looks pretty cool.



Lilly of the valley is blooming too. I don’t smell it very much yet, it should be at full force by tomorrow.