So call me a blog-hog

I totally know this is two blog entries in under three hours, and this one is totally gardening unrelated - something I'd promised myself not to do - but Granny over at Annie's Kitchen Garden just posted the most adorable rendition of her grandaughter singing the Barney theme song in response to my previous post. What a doll. She's right. They grow up too fast. I am ashamed to say I look forward to them being sick. When they're sick, they let me hold them and kiss on them. Give me a low fever any day. When I went to register the boy for Kindergarten, there was a sign that said "Class of 2022." I tried to stifle the thought of how optimistic that was now-days, but it made me realize they will be grown all too soon.

I figured I'd post my response to her here because I realized as I was posting it I was relieving more frustration that the garden couldn't provide...I suppose that's where gardening friends come into play.

Thank you Granny. More than you'll ever know (which is an acceptable sentence fragment since I understand I just posted I was an English teacher and I fully expect the grammar attacks to begin).

Here is my response to her, which is understandably WAY too long for a "comment," but oh well:

Granny, I'm bustin' a gut. The boy saw your film and wants to know when "the real Barney will come to our house" because obviously the girl singing that adorable song is the real Barney.

[Our] girl thinks the song is sung "we're a sleepy family". Barney is a new phase with her, but I'm okay with that because she kisses and hugs us which she's too busy to do otherwise.

Her first love is Elmo (Elmo must die).

Why is it that when Zoe talks to a rock, Elmo is indignant and rolls his eyes at her, yet he feels totally justified in talking to that fish of his? That, and Elmo must think he's Bob Dole, speaking in the third person like he does.

Speaking of, she brought Elmo into the bath with her tonight unbeknownst to me...you would have thought someone had done shot her dog the way she wailed.

Dora is bossy. (do this, say that, jump up and down..WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO!!!!)

Joe from "Blue's Clues" is an idiot...THE CLUE IS RIGHT THERE!!!!!

Franklin should know that his insignificant shell doesn't offer him any protection against Fox.

Curious George teaches kids to disobey their parents.

I don't need my kids influenced by a hyperactive sea urchin (Sponge Bob -- although I understand sponges aren't sea urchins).

And this afternoon, while I was administering a final exam and three students interrupted my class and then had the nerve to roll their eyes and suck their teeth at me when I told them to go away, I found myself singing children's songs (Sandra Boynton's "Dog Train" to be exact) to calm myself down.

I need therapy. That, or vodka. Lots and lots of vodka.

God love you, Granny. Thank you for providing the support I needed today. And I say that with the full understanding that you won't change anyone's grade because "God will bless you and your children for it" (see previous post).

The morning comes early. Thank God for a new day.

Frustrations and Fortitude

It's during weeks like this that I am eternally grateful to the boy for wanting to be a "farmer man." I teach 12th grade English and am responsible for making graduation and all senior activities go off without a hitch. In the past few days I've received emails from parents that:

• The way I dealt with tickets to graduation was a "pain in the butt."
• I obviously didn't consult the parents when I scheduled graduation for 10:00 AM on a Wednesday (BTW, this date and time is given to us by the county).
• The county website has us listed as graduating at the civic center and we're graduating at the arena.
• My choice for a videographer is not whom this parent would have chosen.
• The senior dinner didn't last long enough.
• I was ignorant in instituting a dress code for senior dinner (apparently teenagers don't own ties anymore).
• I needed to get input from all parents before making plans for any senior activities
• A mother is upset that all of the students will be dressed the same at graduation and her cat could do a better job of picking the date and time (refer to above).

And best of all

"God would bless [me] and [my] children" if I'd give her student 20 extra points and ignore the three essays and four homework assignments her daughter didn't turn in, in order for her to pass my class.

I had half a mind to tell the ticket, location and time, and cat lady that they were welcome to hold their own graduation ceremony in their back yard at the date and time of their convenience. "Pomp and Circumstance" is easily downloaded from their computer and the students could all dress as they pleased and they'd have a grand old time. Of course, they'd have to have a parent committee for all 446 of the prospective graduates in order to approve it.

I didn't, but that didn't stop me from wanting to. Never mind that it's finals week and I have to make sure I've prepared my students for their exam.

By the end of the day, I was ready to call that momma's cat and seriously felt I had the fortitude to drown myself in the water fountain. Either that or call up John for a BM...John, I'd take one electronically if you don't mind. :)

Then, I came home, walked out into the garden and saw:
My eggplant forming out of the blossom...it's a little white instead of purple. Do you think it will make it or is it poor pollination?
The tomatoes in their full glory.

My black radishes topped out 1 lb and 10 oz

My banana peppers starting to form.

The beans are starting to climb their hanger and will be at the deck soon.The purple beans are almost ready to blossom.

And put together a plate with a few carrots, the red radishes and black radishes that I pulled.

It didn't hurt that I could visualize these mommas as I ripped the radishes from the ground. I'm now peaceful, serene and content. I must say the martini helped me achieve this frame of mind. Now the 2 yr old girl is holding the boy's hand and kissing and hugging him singing the Barney theme song.

All is right with the world.

Although, I seriously am going to have to institute a Barney Free Zone in this house.

Mother's Day Growth and Meet Wolverine.

First and foremost, happy Mother's day to all the mothers out there and as well to the men who have survived it for I am sure you are just as "happy" that it's over and the pressure is off.

Mothers love hand made gifts from their children, especially those that remind them they are 6 foot tall and 38 pounds (see two posts ago for the full story). However, this Mother's day has not only found a place in my heart, but also in my mind because it made me remember something I tend to forget.

As all parents of small children know, it's rare that you can go out to a meal and not have someone comment on your children. Today when we went out for breakfast, an inordinate number of people old and young, men and women, came to our table, patted me on the shoulder, commented on the children and wished me a happy Mother's Day. I reciprocated in turn when appropriate and left breakfast with a smile and a glow around my heart. As we ran our errands and walked up and down the aisles of the stores, more and more people issued the phrase with a smile. I began to initiate the Mother's Day wishes as the morning wore on, saw the effect of it on others and mulled it over.

I didn't know these people from Adam. They didn't know me. Today wasn't like the Thanksgiving or Christmas season where everyone greets everyone until the phrases have little to no meaning to them. Today, I was greeted with endearing eye contact and a salutation full of sentiment for they, themselves, were all mothers or those who were remembering their own mothers fondly.

We are all in this together. I tend to forget this at times as busy as life gets. Consequently, it is with a warm heart and a thoughtful glance that I am wishing you all a happy Mother's day.

Then, there's Wolverine. I haven't known him long, but he's most likely only going to look out for himself. When we were in the hardware store today, I lost sight of the boy and found him with a plant in hand talking to one of the clerks. He had found a Venus Flytrap and the clerk was showing him how it closed up when it was tickled. He was fascinated and so was his father. They bought the plant but no amount of pleading on his father's or my part could convince that boy to name the plant "Audrey"; we all settled on his idea of "Wolverine" because of the spine like feelers on its edges.

The bean the girl planted at the "master gardener's" fair and the lima beans the boy brought home for Mother's Day from school are both sprouting. I'll need to find something to do with these soon.
I pulled the rest of the bolting onions to make way for the watermelon and found this oddity. The roots on the watermelon I was transplanting were very shallow...is this how watermelons should be? I'm worried they won't root well.

I also planted a yellow pear tom (my favorite) in the side box.

The beans in hanging baskets are starting to wind their way up the planter and onto the hook. Sooner than later they will be sprawling on the deck like I had envisioned.

The purple beans in the side box are about to flower, the eggplant has its second flower and the peppers are holding the spent flowers and you can see small peppers emerging. I hope they stay healthy and don't drop off like the others have. The SSpeas are getting larger daily and the okra in the pot seems to have the beginnings of flower buds on it as well. I think I'll be able to pick my first three or four Tuesday or so. I pulled all but two of the lettuces since they looked like they were trying very hard to bolt. Over all, it was a good gardening day.

The morning comes early. Particularly on a Monday. Sweet gardening dreams.

Mr. Pea, I presume...

I'm not watering for another three months, at least.

I'm amazed at how well the SFG kept up with the constant barrage of water. You never saw puddling or much of a disturbance of the soil. The ants, however, are another story. The little tiny red ants have found the soil. I'm half convinced that if I dug up a section of the beds I'd realize the whole thing was one big ant mound. They're crawling on the boxes, around and in the soil and worst of all, climbing on the fledgling plants. So far I can't tell if they're doing any damage.

I would not have thought after how many fierce storms we've had and a week without sun that the garden would have done much of anything this week. How very wrong I was. Just take a look at this and compare it with the pictures below taken last week.

Okra in a pot WAY too small.
Bush tom

Inside that bush tom
I didn't know eggplant flowers were so beautiful!
Pepper plants in pots
Side bed of bush beans, radishes and cucumbers

And here is what it's really all about:

Mr. Pea, I presume?

I don't know if I'm more happy that I didn't rip out the plants a month ago or if I'm frustrated that they took since January to bloom. Needless to say, I'm very, very anxious to get a few pods out of them. The plants have got to go in a few weeks to make room for something else. They've bought themselves a little time since I can't decide what to plant in the pot. I might stick some more okra in it. I still have several seedlings that need repotting, but I may be looking for something more exciting for that pot....Any ideas?

The morning comes early...even on a weekend. Sweet gardening dreams.

Gardening? What's that?

Not much gardening has been going on around here the last two days, I'm afraid. I pulled another few ounces of salad greens and two more black radishes the other day. The squash and zucchini are doing very well and the replacement beans are looking to root. The peas are blooming (and to think I almost ripped them out), and I'm attacking each pepper flower with a q-tip since none has been appropriately pollinated yet, and all this between rain bursts.

**addendum, I just sneaked out after writing this initially and saw that more pepper blossoms that I had hand pollinated had fallen off at the stem. Any ideas why? My soybeans are emerging, my eggplant flower is opening and my empty square of bush cucumbers that had so long refused to sprout, did so today. At least there isn't a blank...EG, you feeling me?


It's been raining on and off here, as in seemingly most of the country, since last Friday. Seems as though every storm has dropped tons of rain, mass amounts of hail and kicked off a few tornadoes. The toads are floating...seriously. We have another storm going outside right now and the news reports some places may get up to 5 inches. Gibson, our Great Dane, is doing his best Chicken Little impression pacing around as if the world is coming to an end. Occasionally he'll stick his nose in the children's faces and plead for them to heed his warning only to continue his rounds when they don't give him his required response.

The boy brought home one of those preschool fill in the blank Mother's Day cards for which he dictated the answers for the blanks to his teacher to complete. It's about time someone realized that I truly am 6 feet tall and 38 pounds. It's good to know that his misconceptions about my height and weight are just as solidly grounded in improbability as my own.

On that note, I think I'll polish off that piece of cheesecake in the fridge before I go to bed. I hear I don't need to feel guilty about it.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Thoughts and Transformations

Yesterday, the town next to us was holding what they billed as a "master gardeners' fair". I was very excited and brought a sample of my compost hoping someone could identify the creepy crawlies in it. I was so disappointed. The fair consisted of four booths, one guy selling raised beds seemingly made from rough pallet wood who yelped in pain each time he touched his work without gloves, another with spindly tomatoes, one selling marginally living flowers and shrubs and a lady with a big hat...none of which were master gardeners. I asked around which wasn't hard to do since I was the only patron of the "fair" and heard the lady with the hat was my best bet at the compost answer. She didn't want to look at my sample, but I politely pushed the issue. She eventually took a side glance at the container and said they were worm eggs; I replied with sarcasm that I had no idea that worm eggs had multiple legs and could run that fast. She waved her hand around and said something to the effect that compost was a living organism and that if I didn't have bugs, then I had problems.

*sigh*

What I did learn is that the town is setting up a community garden where you can purchase a 4x8 raised bed plot for $35 a year. The first year is going to be volunteer work and construction. Next year, hypothetically, will be the first year you can plant. She kept flip flopping if it was going to be a community garden where you'd have your own space, or a teaching garden where you'd plant your own stuff for schools and churches to come in and learn from, meaning they'd be in and around your veggies doing who knows what to your beds which doesn't thrill me. I can't decide if it's something I want to take part in or not. I'd love it because it is full sun and would allow me to plant more of the things I can't put in my sun challenged back yard. However, walking into a community garden run by a group that is shaky on their own dedication to the project has me nervous. I may, more likely, keep it in mind and check on their progress next year, which is a shame since I'd love to be involved in starting something like this, but I don't want to get all involved physically and emotionally and have them drop the ball which seems likely at this point. Maybe I can volunteer over the summer and see where the project is when I go back to school. That way I can form an educated and not simply judgemental opinion.

Otherwise, the transformation from a spring garden to a summer garden is taking place this month. The red radishes, lettuce and broccoli did phenomenally this spring. I think I may limit the spring crops to this next year and leave more blanks to plant summer crops after Easter. Here are the way things are shaping up now. I'll start from the front left and move across and then back.
On the end of the first large bed there is a zucchini peaking it's head out. Next to that are black radishes in front and carrots behind. Radishes are about the size of a golf ball and I pulled another today that rivaled a tennis ball, but they need to get much bigger. I don't know if I'll leave them in to maturity, but thin them to one or two left to mature. The carrots are irritatingly languid. I'm planning on putting sweet potatoes there in the next month so they may not make it. To the right of the bed I have three cantaloupe plants which are more than likely too close together. The small box with the bolting onions (why can't I grow onions? I've tried multiple times) will hold SB watermelon. I figured they can run in with the cantaloupe. I've heard that peppers and melons shouldn't be near each other, so what do I do? Plant peppers on the right of the second box as close to the melons as I can get them. Oh well. live and learn. On the left of the second bed is another zucchini plant just put in today.

The first 3x3 box still has carrots in front and lettuce in back. I put a squash in the middle to mature while the others finish out. The back 3x3 has four bush tomatoes in the corners. They won't bush out so much with the limited sun, so things should be fine having them in that tight space. I left a bucket out there, I now notice. Sorry about that.


You can see how sporadically my larger bed has filled in. On the back row you have four of cucumber, one tomato and three squares of pole beans. Working in the front by the cucumbers, you can see how spotty the bush beans filled in. Something is eating them as they emerge from the ground (I'm thinking the little creepy crawlies, but whatever) I just replanted, so we'll see if I'm luckier the second go around. There are six squares of bush cukes, and the hanging pot with the pole beans I'm hopeful will climb up to the deck railing is blocking a view of the six okra that may or may not make it with the limited sun. I put an okra in the blank spot at the end of the pepper bed and some in a pot so hopefully I can get something out of them one way or another. I also put some soybean seeds in pots in front and in back. If I opt out of the watermelon, the soybeans will also go in the small onion bed.

The peas in the front pot are blooming! Amazing...it's only taken since early January. They're pale and slowly dying from the bottom up, but they're flowering like mad. I'm glad I left them...we'll see if anything comes of them. I'll be pleasantly surprised if they do.

Granny and EG have calmed my fears about the limited sun in the back yard. Things may not grow as large or produce as much, but if anything I'm hopeful it will do the plants some good in the fierce GA heat of July.

The fierce thunderstorms are here and the morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Reflections and Realizations

I could do my best Sally Field impersonation right about now, but I'd alienate any past readers and certainly discourage any new ones from continuing. Granny, from Annie's Kitchen Garden (http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com) has gifted me with the nicest blogging award which I put on the side here. It's rather significant to me because it was from reading Granny's blog that I found out what blogging was all about; yes, I'm late to the embracing technology game. My students are still shocked that all my cell phone does is dial numbers which apparently puts me in the category of those still unable to program a VCR. I came upon Granny's blog and was inspired. She encouraged me along through my fall garden and I try to emulate her in my blog.
Thank you, Granny.

Today is the first day I've been home during the day to actually see the length of daylight I have left after the nefarious oak tree has filled out. It is worse than I thought. I've been cut from 6.5 hours to just around 5. This is going to seriously inhibit my attempts to grow most of anything back there and it's my largest bed with the trellis. I could have sworn that the sun was there longer, but obviously I was mistaken. Lesson learned build any new beds during the summer. I'm disappointed because this is where I've put my beans, all my cucumbers and my okra. I think the beans may do okay, but the cucumbers and okra will suffer.

The rain that fell yesterday and should continue through the weekend is much needed, but it also inhibits any pictures in this post. The pots all in the front are amazing. The black radishes in the back are really looking good as well. I pulled the broccoli out of the SFG this afternoon. It wasn't as bad as I thought. I brought the shovel, intending to sever the roots along the square, but started off just ripping the ones out only bordered by the other broccoli. When I realized how small the root ball was that came with it, I pulled out the ones near the peppers with no problems. Tomorrow I'll try to get a break in the rain and transplant my squash that I have in small containers. I'm trying to think if I want to try some SBwatermelon as well. I have a small box they could fit in and then merge in with the cantaloupe. I'm going to also try to start some soybeans in the new hole left by the broccoli over by the peppers.

OOOhh!!! My SSPeas in the front, besides being totally brown and a pale green have sent out flowers. I may just get two or three pods out of it after all.

I'm obviously going to have to rethink my garden plan now that I know for sure how much sun is lost in the SFG. Any idea what I could plant that would get the strong sun for only 5 or so hours a day? I'm afraid I'm going to be terribly limited.