Moolie - Happy Thanksgiving :)

[moolie]

Thanks everyone

My kefir grains are for milk.

They seem to grow really fast for some reason. I do make 48-hour kefir rather than 24-hour, so maybe that helps them grow. Whether I use the teaspoon sized chunk or the biggest it gets when it's grown like crazy, my kefir is quite thick with spots of whey here and there showing in the jar--almost cheese-like but when I swirl the jar it all mixes together into a thick yogurt-like consistency (then I can find the grains to scoop out into a new jar to start over again).

Neither my family nor I like the smell so we make it into berry smoothies at breakfast time or use excess in cooking (pancakes, waffles, muffins etc.)

 

[moolie]

Up early today, for a Sunday, because today dawned bright and sunny again and woke me up just before 6am

But I've organized my day and have some time to check the forum before we head off to church. That is IF hubs wakes up on time, he and I put in several hours on the garden bed yesterday and he likes to sleep in whenever he can

Hopefully the ground (still very squishy at the bottom end of the yard yesterday) dries out quickly so we can get those trees and raspberries in.

I also have a pet project to work on this week: we have a 8x10' steel storage shed in one corner of our lot. It's brown and a bit dented with a gambrel roof (barn roof shape). It's ok looking, but it's your average 80s steel storage shed.

So I bought a couple of arch-top wire trellis panels and a clematis a last week when we got the raspberries and trees (and a lilac for another corner of the yard). We have another clematis growing in a spot where I can't see it from the house, so I plan to dig that one up and plant a clematis at the base of each of the two trellis panels in an attempt to make the shed more pretty.

Now I just need the ground to dry out so I can get this organized

 

[savingdogs]

I love clematis, it was so hard to leave my last garden, the clematis had finally grown over an arch I had built 10 years earlier. Such a lovely plant.

Thank you for posting those garden pictures, that showed us a solution to some of the problems we have had this week.

 

[moolie]

I love clematis too

I'd love to have an archway, all covered in viney things like clematis, but there's no place where one would make sense here.

The clematis that came with this house (a lovely deep purple jackmanii) was growing on a cheap ugly trellis on a side of the house where no one really saw it from anywhere. So we pulled the ugly trellis out with the dried out old growth a couple of weeks ago when we tidied up the perennial beds (we leave the dried stuff on our perennials for winter cover) and chucked it--felt good.

The people who owned this house before us had no idea how to put a garden together (the perennial gardens at the front of the house and around the edges of our deck are just a hodgepodge) and they had super over chemical-fertilized-and-weed-killed the lawn and it's just now starting to respond to our policy of only watering deeply once a week (except when it's super hot) and more natural fertilizing routine. We do have dandelions that need digging out, but we feel the lawns are safer for our kids and cats this way.

While the new clematis gets going I hope I can train the older one to cover some of both trellis panels, but I know based on the clematis we put in at our old house that it won't be more than a couple of years and this one will go crazy too

SD, what garden problem have you run into and how did my photos help?

 

[savingdogs]

not enough sun! We moved to a higher altitude and since we have been here my green thumb has turned rather brown. We have both more critters and more frosts combined with less warmth and sunshine, even in areas of full sun. That is why those threads on here regarding those cold frames were interesting to me. When I see you and bubbling brooks in Alaska having so much success, I realize I need to change my methods. Right now I'm having the problem of a dumb robin coming and eating all my veggie starts, I should have devised some way to cover them before they came up.
But last year, we planted tomatos and by the time they got warm enough to ripen, we got a frost and they were all leathery! I need more heat! :/

 

[Denim Deb]

SD, if there's going to be a frost B4 your tomatoes ripen, pick them anyway, and stick them in the window. They'll ripen inside. They may not be quite as good, but they'll still be OK.

 

[moolie]

We do like Deb suggests (had to pick loads last fall because we got early frosts in September) and we also plant some of our tomatoes in big pots on the deck (well our whole garden last year was in pots on the deck!) and then just drag them into the kitchen to finish off when nights get frosty. Not as good as sun-ripened, but still pretty darn good--and just fine for canning tomatoes.

I keep my big pots in my garage over the winter to keep down the weather and sun damage, and one of the tomato plants just got cut off at the soil line--it actually sent up a new sucker and was turning into quite the nice tomato plant again in the garage until we got a real cold night and when I got in the car in the morning it had blackened and wilted.

SD, how big are your tomato plants when you set them out, and when do you plant them out?

This year mine are about 2-3 weeks behind (seeded indoors mid-April) and the photo a few posts above shows what they look like--they should be about 6" tall by now. I'm starting to harden them off a bit each day till they go into the garden next weekend or so.

We'll start to get cherry tomatoes in early August, and the rest (Romas and regular beefsteak style tomatoes) will ripen through August and well into September.

Then I'll cover them with blankets at night till the frosts seem like they really mean business and pick them green but starting to turn towards yellow (the fully green ones never seem to ripen and usually aren't fully grown yet but I tend to pick as many as I think might actually ripen anyway!) or move the pots into the kitchen.

 

[savingdogs]

well this is our third summer in this house, we didn't get tomato plants this year, and my seeds that sprouted did not last long enough for me to get them outside, we had such a long cold spell, but the other two years I bought seedlings, not seeds, as soon as I could in the nurseries and set them out in what I thought was the sunniest spot.

I was thinking of trying green tomatos next time, everyone talks about fried green tomatos.

I wanted to plant cherry tomatos this year thinking that would do better and I did have some seeds but I think it is too late now. I tried twice to start the seeds but both times the weather got too cold and I couldn't plant them outside and they withered out. so no tomatos this year I guess.

 

[moolie]

That's too bad, I love tomato plants--the smell is just part of summer to me.

Have you given up, or can you still get a plant or two from your nursery? Our nurseries still have them, but our season starts later.

 

[moolie]

More rain in the forecast for the next 3 days, so hubs got all the trees planted last night. Hoping for just regular rain rather than the deluge we had last week!

Sick kid home from school today, 15-yo has a stomach bug that's going around--I'm hoping the rest of us don't get it too as my friend was down for about 5 days with it.