Gardening 2023

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Cooking with green tomatoes today.  Didn't sound appetizing to me but it was okay.  Yes we had fried green tomatoes.  It's alright, nothing I would crave.  Some kind of casserole.  Who knows what's in a casserole to begin with, okay too.  Tomato crisp, just like apple crisp, love anything where the brown sugar is the main taste.  A tomato cake, it wasn't green, taste like any other cake but you know I'm just there for the frosting.   

SIL asked me to babysit today.  Didn't bring up any issues, I haven't talked to my daughter yet.  But as I was almost to my car, she asked about going to the zoo next week with the SIL standing right there.  I tried to say I was too busy, which I am, only had Friday and he has a doctor appointment.  My daughter picked up on my reluctance but he jumped in and said we could go with him to his doctor's appointment and leave from there.  I'm babysitting tomorrow so I'll talk to him about it.  I wonder if his grandma always took his family places hoping his parents would be parents and she was just jumping in to make up for his parents not doing it.  I can see a kid wishing his parents would be parents and resenting the grandma doing it when she was only trying to make up for their lack of doing it.  He did say his grandmas raised him but the way he talks he lived with his parents. 

No worries about me wanting the parenting role.  I've done that for my kid and many others.  I turned down a street kid just the other day.  I feel for him but I don't want in the middle of that mess and hopefully his grandmother will have a chance to help him.  Please put that mother in jail.  Charges aren't bad enough to keep her there for any period of time.  She'll get out and take that kid but maybe, he's old enough to say he's staying with grandma and she'll hit the road.  You know, just until she gets settled in a new state and he'll never join her.  The kid already wants to run away from her, smart move on his part but he's only 15 by two weeks.

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Canceled the last fall tour we had.  It's going to be cold and wet Saturday morning.  Those folks weren't coming anyway.  Fall tours weren't well attended.  Don't think we'll do those next year.  Instead, I think I'll organize a fall festival for us.  My people need some fun.  They've been working pretty hard.  Wheelbarrow races, name that tool, some demonstrations, a craft, monarch tagging and some food.  We haven't done one of those in a while.

Steering committee tomorrow and then I'm off until next Wednesday.

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I am so lost with SIL.  Now he's okay with the zoo trip.  Says he wants to do some family time like that.  But he complained about me buying the Halloween outfit.  Did not say your wife told me to pick up some clothes with my Kohl's cash.  I texted her every outfit before I got it and she wanted the Halloween one.     He did say his family was dysfunctional, again, and that I am a really good grandma.  I really need to have a chat with my daughter although she may be as lost as I am.

[cineater]

Yea, Marsha passed the cinder block wall we built.  We want to go up another cinder block in the back but we can't unless we built it different.  But she did suggest we could use 2 of the 4 inch toppers and raise it that way.  Something about the adhesion of the blocks makes it work as opposed to one 8 inch cinder block.  Don't ask me why that wasn't mentioned in the beginning but we're good to go now.

Looking at it, the front of the cinder block box is a little off and the half wooden box above it is way off.  Don't worry the plants will cover it up.  I just want it known, I worked on the back wall and the two halves of the side wall.  They are fucking perfect!    We've been doing quite a bit of stone laying and wall building lately.  I'm getting a real feel for it.  I like it and I haven't crushed my fingers, yet.  Still a little nervous about that.   

[cineater]

Donna got state Master Gardener of the year.  Seems to be some confusion over whether the Native Garden got a project award.  I didn't watch the convention.

I'm two for two on my nominations.    Well deserved for Donna and Marsha last year.  Love when my people win a little recognition for all their hard work.

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The native team did win the award for project of the year.     We're still waiting to hear if the pantry garden wins Extension their award.  That's a few months away.

We're getting lots of awards this year.  We haven't really focused on entering us into things and now I'm kind of out of award things to enter us in.  Guess I'll look around at the national level.  I would like the whole demo garden to win an award.  I think we've turned it into something.  I'd like the Botanical Gardens here to take note but then I haven't been real impressed with them.

I'm just sitting in the garage all day getting the canna bulbs and elephant ears ready for winter storage.  It's going to take days.

[cineater]

That's the new pantry sign.  It's only temporarily up there.  It won't be zip tied to 6' t-posts when it's permanent or outside of a bed or two inches off the ground.   

When I say I have trouble getting Kevin to complete a project, you see what I mean.    It gives Marsha and I a moment to share a laugh. 

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Wait, that's crooked right?   

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNpsm97SG6U  Good talk on how herbicides are causing tree damage from drift, volatility and rain, ie they weren't any where near where it was sprayed.

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I saw on a show where they took a dead tree and drilled holes in it for your cavity nesting bees.  We have a bee sign we were going to attach to a post and put up in the Bee Bar garden but now I'm thinking dead tree.  Like the picture below but we'll  use a smaller trunk and make a pattern with the holes, not all over the place like they naturally do.  At least that is what they did in the show and it looked pretty cool.

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Beka is not too hot on the dead tree.  She's worried about it attracting termites being that close to the building.  Yeah that is a possibility.  I think we could paint it with some kind of deterrent around the ground area.  She may not like the idea too but she did mention doing some circular wood pieces for nesting spots.  Would still have the termite issue.

We're going junking for the garden this morning.  A garden friend is moving from a house to a condo.  We're going to look over what she has.  Stop by the recycling center for cardboard on the way back.

Haven't heard from Marsha, no text, no email either.  We were talking about glueing together Catherine's wall today.  And we need to go raid the highway cliffs for rocks.  I'm in the middle of collecting plant orders from the leads for plants they want out of the greenhouse.  All that involves Marsha.  She may be resting but she has a lot of work coming up.

Nothing exciting in the junk.  Beka did get a pretty nice bird bath out of it.  A couple of trellis for the garden.

[cineater]

Nailed down the Tool Sharpening class for our members on Nov. 11th with Jim.  This is the official closing date of the gardens.  We sharpen all the tools and winterize the place.  We'll play out there until the weather drives us away but no more new projects and the goal is to be wrapped up by then on any projects.  Kind of sad the season is over.  I walk straight into plant sale from here.  I'm not management, just labor in the plant sale.  The rosemary is coming home with me in November so I'll start growing earlier than normally.

Three loads of leaf mulch coming in tomorrow.  It's wheelbarrows till it's gone.

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It was good to see Phebe out working with her pantry team.  They seemed to like her and she was right in there with them.

I worked with my bed renovation team unloading soil.  It's not good to stand behind me when I'm in the trunk bed throwing dirt behind me.     Melanie jumped back just in time.

Marsha got a third of the cottage garden wall glued down.  Ran out of the glue stuff but she is tired and she can't risk and bumps or cuts that cause internal bleeding.

Leaf mulch is in.  Saturday is a heavy project day.  We need to speed it up.  Snow storm coming in on the Rockies and will get to us late next week with rain and chilly weather.  I'd like to be almost wrapped up by Wednesday.  We'll get a break in the weather in November but the extra volunteers will quit showing up at the end of October.  Menard's hasn't sent me the rebate money yet and I'm not waiting much longer for it.  Not sure where the garden budget is at the moment.  We're still well into the black but unexpected things are coming up.  On the other hand, we have done really well getting shit for free.

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Field trip day.  We went to the Danforth Science Center.  One of their missions is to feed the world.  They've been trying to improve the cassava plant (tapioca).  It produces tubers people in South America and Africa eat.  Important plant for food.  They are trying to develop a fungus resistant variety.  Okay but if you take away the food for the fungus, what does the fungus eat?  Are you creating another problem by fucking with the fungus?  The simple solution is less people to feed in areas not ready to support human life.  A pill simplifies that.

In my mind, everything in nature is exactly as it should be at the time it is in.  It is always under development.  It's only when man comes in and interrupts the natural process where things get thrown off.  Man always thinks the goal of any planet should be to support life.  Is that the universe's goal?  Seems to me there are a lot of planets with different functions.  Maybe the ultimate goal for the universe for this planet is total rock.  Might not give a shit about the fungus in the long run.  But those of us who are concerned about supporting life should be thinking about the fungus too.  It has its place in the food chain as does everything else.

[cineater]

Geez, I swear that phone call with Marsha went for more than an hour.  She's trying to tell me how to behave, what to say and what not to say and disagreeing with what I say.  How many other people has she called tonight before she got to me?  I know the meeting was this morning and they went to lunch afterwards.  She had many hours between then and me.  Can we revisit that antidepressant situation?     Wasn't the only garden person I heard from all a buzz today.  They're probably wondering why I'm so calm and not feeding into it.  Don't know.  Just told them, can't call me tomorrow, I'm going to the zoo.  That is the real zoo, not this one.    Geez people calm the fuck down.

[cineater]

Beautiful day.  I got there at 8 and left at 4.  The greenhouse got cleaned without me.    I've done it for years so it was okay I was over running wheelbarrows.  Freely let them borrow my team members when they needed more help for something.  They got done first, sat around chatting, watching us run wheelbarrows.  Yeah I noticed but they brought donuts so it's okay they were out of our way.

We were on the bed renovations.  Extra soil added, wood chipped skirt on the end of the chocolate garden and all three beds got leaf mulch.  Half the hardscape got installed.  They are really starting to come to life.  Beka and I ran over and got the toppers for the cinder block walls.  She was dragging, "we still have to haul all this over to the wall".  Hell no, I'm driving through the yard and pulling right up to it.  And we did.    One block short and we have to cut a few before we can start glueing down.  Beka's surprised we got this far.  She thought it would be next spring.  All my projects come in ahead of schedule.  I'm pushing it until all we have to do is plant next spring.

Really not sure what got done in the rest of the garden.  It was pretty clear if you talked to me, you were going to end up running wheelbarrows.     I'll check it out tomorrow.  I'm working some of my own stuff.  We need to get some stuff done on Monday and Tuesday before it rains.  A little highway robbery.  Supposedly everybody does it.  Sounds like something I heard in high school.  I guess we've got Marsha's husband to bail us out if everybody's wrong.   

Compliment of the day, "you're stronger than you look".  Hate to give it up.  I'm in such good shape at the end of the season and have to drag my ass through it every spring.  Now if I can just get my hands to stop gripping wheelbarrow handles when there's no handle in them.   

[cineater]

Done!  20 pages of plants.  Don't know how many plants on each page.  21 gardens placing orders and I'm compiling the master list.  My list will get added to Marsha's master plant sale list.  On black Friday this year I'm sitting down with her and ordering seeds because that's when some of the dozen of companies we order from have a sale.  She says we order about $2,000 worth of seeds.  I say, holy fuck!     Can we get the company credit card?

Update, Tom is coming Monday to cut our stones and we'll be glueing them down.  Looks like first hard frost could hit next week.  Kevin is going to be looking to blow out our water systems.  We can still get water from the frost freeze pumps but it's all hoses that have to be drained every time you use them after that.

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Maybe I'm not in that good of shape.     Shouldn't have stopped but it was hot out there.

Got all the Crepe Myrtle trimmed back.  It's not the right time of year to do it but I had to get them off the windows.  Would have made staff nuts if they were banging against the windows all winter.  I didn't plant those.  Never plant a bush in front of a window. 

We're a go for tomorrow.  Not sure if we will glue the blocks down because Marsha is coming to take us to pick up rocks along the highway bluffs.  Told her our goal is to not get Beka arrested.    Marsha has chemo again next Monday so the push is on to get things done with her.  The chemo build up is really starting to get to her.  If we have working weather next Saturday, I need to focus on finishing up her area.  They still have boardwalks to lay and trees to plant.  We'll see what they get done on Wednesday.

[cineater]

Done!  We got the blocks and toppers glued down on the chocolate bed.  Beka's too pure to break the law so we bought the stone instead of picking it up off the side of the highway.  I am not going to be the one to start her off on a life of sin. 

Okay, I am no stranger to the caulk gun but I need a minute to remember how to do it.  So I fucked up the first tube and the gun.  I forgot to punch a hole in the inside seal.  Kept using the trigger wondering why the push part was so far into the tube.  It couldn't go out the front so it went through the back.  Gave it that one more pull and a piece of metal flew off the gun.  Oh yeah, I forgot to punch a hole in the seal in the front.  Scraped out all the adhesive I could get, threw away the gun and tube before Marsha got there.     Nobody tell on me!  I just have to get the adhesive off my fingers before I see her tomorrow.

We have a few plants to put in on Wednesday.  Otherwise, the bed renovations are done until the spring.  I'm still looking for two wrought iron porch pillars for a trellis in the moon garden and need a post for the bee garden.  I did get to smell the chocolate mint plant.  Smells like Girl Scout cookies. 

Kevin totally forgot about the tool shed.  He scheduled a garlic planting work session at the same time through our Monday newsletter.   

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We're done, killing frost coming Halloween night.  I'm not ready for that.  The next night goes even lower.

Working on the master list for our greenhouse order.  Marsha added how to grow the seeds to the information I needed.  Took me all night.  Most the growing information is for starting the seeds in the ground.  And she needs to know what date to start the seeds so all of the plants can leave the greenhouse by the third week in April.  That team meets at my house tomorrow to go over everything.  How long is that going to take?  I have a feeling I'm going to be playing pissed off pinball for real tomorrow night.