So far, nothing has died of heat stroke; I hope this mess ends SOON!

Okay, done whining; on to the important stuff. Have you ever watched Paul James, the Gardener Guy, on HGTV? He had the best garden show for real gardeners, but they dropped him and put on all those landscaping guys. All well and good to landscape your yard, but how do you grow all that stuff after the landscapers have gone? I found his website and went to check it out.

He mentions a book called “The One-Straw Revolution” by Masanobu Fukuoka that inspired his gardening and changed his life. In the course of looking for that book, I discovered a concept called Permaculture. The basic idea is to create a self-sustaining ecosystem of your own, similar to the way nature would do it, only quicker. It’s all tied up with Peak Oil, climate change, and ecological disaster. I can’t say as I believe all the dire predictions; after all, who even wants to think about the kind of world it will be if all that stuff actually happens? Just in case it is even remotely possible, I’m going to plan my garden at my new house, whenever we actually buy one, to mitigate the ugliness as much as possible. Self-sustaining homesteads can’t be a bad thing, right? If you want to find out more, you can download The One-Straw Revolution here in pdf format.

So, once I’d discovered the concept, I needed to find out how one creates such an ecosystem. The book “Gaia’s Garden – A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture” was recommended as being especially helpful. It has been an absolutely fascinating read! Download the pdf yourself and see. Gotta warn you, though, it is a big (34M) file. It tells you pretty much everything you’d need to know, in a very easily understood, entertaining style. You can buy both books, and countless more, all over the web. Gonna do that soon as I can!

If you’ve got the time and interest, a wander around all the permaculture links on the net can be very educational. Inspiring, too, when you see all the things these design principles can accomplish, like turning several acres of desert in the Dead Sea Valley into green, producing farms. Totally amazing!

Lovely, you say, but why post about it? Why not? It’s my blog, right? LOL. The point of all this is that, when we do finally find the right house, in the right place, I’m going to give this a try. I guess I’ll make a separate page for permaculture-related stuff, and try to document the process as we go along. Wish me luck!

On to the blanketflowers. Pics and more
I found a few blanketflower seeds (I hoped) in a wildflower mix from Wildseed Farms (see link on left bottom), and threw them in the container with my Ruttya shrub I bought last spring. Obviously, I was right, since I have blooming blanketflowers. Here’s a couple pics:

Mouseover the thumb to see the big picture. Click for the really big pic.

Always loved these colors.

Like the way the blanketflower picks up the yellow of the lantana, and contrasts with the salvia.

And last, but certainly not least, my red mini-rose is blooming. The others all have buds, but not quite blooming yet.

Such a pretty little thing.

Today I turned over the part of my raised bed into which I am going to plant all my nicely growing baby hot peppers. I’ve got jalapenos (Hubby’s fav), Joe Parker Numex peppers, Ancho chiles, and an heirloom called Pasilla Bajo. The babies are filling up the yogurt cups with roots, so in another day or two, into the garden they go.

Since you’re not really supposed to plant sweet peppers too close to hot peppers, I’m planting two sweet peppers called Fruit Basket, that are bred to grow in hanging baskets. The baskets are all ready, just waiting for the babies to get big enough. They are going to hang from my tree; we’ll see how they do.

Well, that covers blanketflowers and babies; all that’s left are the weird ideas. A while ago, on GardenGirlTV, I saw a vid about a 30 minute flower garden. She used these things called “Garden Socks” into which she planted her 30-minute flower garden. If you’re curious, I found it on her resources page. Anyway, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a “sock” out of landscape fabric, and try to plant something in it. I finally figured out how to work it; am almost done with it. When it’s done, I’ll show you what I did, and if it actually works. Figured, what the heck, it could be fun to try!

Well, that’s annoying. All day I’ve been thinking about things to blog about, and now that I’m in front of the computer, can’t remember what I wanted to say. Oh, well. That’s the way it goes. Ta-ta for now…

I keep a copy of my blog running on my PC at home, and always try out new stuff there before I screw with the online version. Anything can happen, and I sure don’t want to kill my blog…

Also time to be making some more monster pots. Been putting this off because it makes a giant mess I have to clean…but it’s time to start the flowers I want, so I gotta do it. The pots I made back in April or so are holding up well so far, so it’s time to try again. I need a few 14″ pots, as well as a small trough in which to plant some creeping thyme and other herbs. I’m gonna use the top of a small BBQ grill as the form for that one. Wish me luck!

Later, time for Hubby’s birthday cake.

EDIT: Well, so far so good. I’ve updated and the blog hasn’t crashed. Now I’m trying a new toy, a video player… just a little e-card for Hubby.

[See post to watch Flash video]

Pics within:

Speaking of hot, can you believe this temperature? It comes straight off my local TV station’s Desktop weather thingy, so I ain’t lying…

Finally seeing pepper blossoms. This one is Lilac Bell.

My lone surviving Sesame plant is blossoming. Isn’t it pretty? I thought it would look nice against the purple basil in the background.

A garden overview

The container with Blackie, lavender, and lantana is looking good.

Lastly, my inside-under-lights lettuce, since it’s too hot outside. It’s growing better since I added a jury-rigged drip waterer, made of a water bottle with a hole poked in it, and fish tank valves and tubing. Working so far. The bigger plants were planted a while ago, the smaller ones shortly before I went to CoSpr, and last night I just planted some more seeds.

I had a bunch of things I wanted to do outside today, but with this heat, not happening. Not quite ready to die of heatstroke just yet…
I need to lift up most of the landscape fabric and put plastic underneath the seams, then tack it down better. Didn’t have time before I went to CoSpr to do it right. After that’s all fixed, I need to get some edging to go around the garden area, to hold in the mulch that should be there.
Hubby brought me a big blue pvc barrel, to which I want to hook a makeshift drip irrigation system for the raised bed, after which I can finally mulch that, too.
And we need to do some cleanup and rearranging in the yard, so that we can move Hubby’s picnic table to a better place, closer to the grill and out of the middle of the yard…LOL! Sigh…how long till winter?

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. While I was out trimming the runaway cucumber vine, I found 2 ripe cukes that had grown down behind the back wall of the garden. My first official harvest! As hubby said, nothing like $500 cucumbers…

EDIT: Hot or not, I went out and bathed the garden with Murphy’s Oil Soap, baking soda, and a wee little bit of my puppy’s flea shampoo. Hopefully washed off and/or killed all those nasty buggies I hadn’t noticed before. Garden looks happier, though it could just be from getting a nice cool shower after a REALLY hot day. Always makes me happier, anyway…

Here are some pics I took about a week ago that show how much the garden had grown while I was in Colorado. Compare them to these pics.

Pics within

Heatwave tomatoes living up their name, setting lots of fruit even in this heat

Hubby’s picnic table, WIP

Hubby’s picnic table, another angle

As I said, these pics are about a week old. In a couple days, after it stops raining, I’ll take some more, just to see how they grew after the rain. You can water all you want, but even a little bit of rain does so much more…

My shade arbor is done, SWCs filled and planted, including the pole bean seeds that are supposed to grow up the poles and shade my tomatoes.
Here’s a pic, even though you can’t see the baby plants in the SWCs.

The leftover part of the big blue SWC is planted with a sweet potato, while the blue SWC has two Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes. The white SWCs have Heatwave tomatoes, while the two SWCs in the back are watermelon and Kentucky Wonder pole beans. I put a couple gallon pots by the middle legs, on the outside, and put some pole bean seeds in those, too.

Oh yea, I put some more pins into the landscape fabric to hold it down better, too. The area will be mulched eventually, but before I can mulch I need some edging. If I just dump mulch, it’ll wander into the lawn instead of staying where it needs to be. Before I can do edging, I’d have to wet the ground, as it is so dry and hard it’s impossible to dig. In fact, in order to get the landscape pins into the ground, I had to poke a couple small holes in a gallon milk jug, fill it up, and let it drain. Then I could actually get the pins in the ground.

Ok, on to the tomatoes…one of the Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes actually has a blossom. I’m excited about that, even though I won’t be here to see it if it survives and turns into a tomato. Hubby will be happy, though. Here’s a pic:

I repotted an oregano and a sage plant, too, which I would have done at some point in the next week or so, but had to do it now. Don’t think they would have made it if I’d left them be until I get back.

Also had to put the cuttings from my SIL’s shrubs into yogurt cups; they rooted nicely in the Parks Biosponge thingy, except I used seed-starting mix instead. The sponge things don’t impress me at all.

While I’m thinking about it, remember when I told you I planted lettuce in a window-box under lights? Well, they are doing fine and growing well. I’ll post a pic if I have time before I leave.

This is it for now. Still got laundry and other stuff to do, and time keeps ticking away…

When I got home, I got started on my shade arbor, but it was miserable hot out there, as usual. I did decide where I want to put it permanently, got landscape fabric down, moved it, and fastened all the SWCs to the legs with tie wraps. It seems pretty sturdy, so maybe it’ll work.

Still have to get some wire fence over the top, to serve as the lattice support for the pole beans and whatever else I decide to grow. Hubby said he’d help me with that tomorrow. Could’ve done it tonight, but I suddenly realized I was very hungry and tired, so just called it quits about a half hour or so before I had to. I guess enough is enough.

I also got the squares in the garden bed amended, watered, and turned the soil over. Had to really soak the dirt, as it was dry as a bone. I don’t water unplanted dirt, naturally, so had to do a thorough soak. Was going to plant the peppers tonight, but the dirt was still too wet, so I guess I’ll transplant them tomorrow night. If I do it during the day, the poor things will fry.

Tomorrow I plan to fill the SWC’s and plant them, as well as sow the pole bean seeds. Hopefully they’ll survive and start climbing with Hubby’s help. Pics tomorrow, too, I hope.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far. I’ll post again, probably tomorrow, after it’s finished.

Apparently it’s easy to propagate by seeds or cuttings, so I may try that down the road some time. Got too much other stuff going on right now to deal with it.

Yesterday we went to brunch with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and his son and wife. We don’t get to see them as often as we’d like, so it was a nice visit. After we ate, we went to the BIL’s house for a “plant consult.” I answered my SIL’s questions, and took some cuttings from some of her plants.

Years ago, when they first built the house, my BIL planted some ordinary red geraniums in a little garden spot next to the shed, in memory of his grandmother who used to grow them. More than 10 yrs. later, the geraniums have grown into a huge geranium bush, as we have had no hard freezes to kill them. Unfortunately, they’ve also grown long woody stems that flop over and look very untidy. It does have new growth coming up from the roots, so I told her to just cut the woody stems down to the ground, and let the new growth have a chance.

Weird thing is, most of the geranium is red, but there is one stem that produced a mutation and grows pink geraniums. Anyway, I took cuttings from both stems, which I hope will grow. Any geranium that will survive 10 yrs. with minimal care is one tough plant!

I also took cuttings from two shrubs she has. One has pretty dark blue flowers that butterflies and bees just love; I just saw one at Home Depot the other day. Name starts with a “D” but I can’t remember the rest of it. Hers gets huge, and they have to cut it back every year to keep it from eating the house and garden. I’m going to keep mine in a container, assuming the cuttings take.

The other one only blooms in spring, with tight bunches of tiny white flowers that have the most heavenly spicy scent. Have no idea what it is, and she doesn’t remember, but I will find out eventually. Just have to do some googling. I took softwood tip cuttings and some from more mature wood, so we’ll see if they take.

Other than watering baby basils and peppers, and checking on flower seeds, that’s all I did in the garden yesterday. I did play with Monster Mud yesterday; the rosemary pot is finished, I think, with the exception of leveling the bottom so it stands up straight, and touching up the rim to make it look smooth. After it dries about 24 hrs, I’ll waterproof again. When that dries, I guess I have to decide what color to paint it, or maybe just leave it as is.

I also put another layer of Monster Mud on the styrofoam thingy, as it was still too light. Wind’s blowing today at 20 + mph, as it has been for the past day or so and will be for the next couple of days. If I put a beer cooler outside in this wind, they’d find it in the next county very shortly! I think it may be heavy enough now, especially after I fill it with soil and a shrub…

That’s it for now. Got laundry to do, a house to clean, and dinner to think about. No clue what to cook yet. Anybody got any ideas?

Here are a couple pics of my pitiful-looking bean cage. Here’s hoping it works better than it looks.

Not much else today. Going to start some flower seeds for my containers, now that most of the veggies are done, for now. Just think, I get to do this all over again, along about the end of June, for my fall garden.