Growing tomatoes, 2015, Part 2 soil mix for containers

Tomatoes are heavy feeders.  In the ground they may develop root structures as deep as eight feet.  The plants can easily grow eight feet above ground.  Containers will limit the depth, of course.  With a good soil mix and careful feeding at least two of my plants exceeded eight feet this year in containers.

I used a mixture of one half potting soil and one half of a mix of amendments that I made myself..  Several brands of potting soil were used, depending on what friends found at local nurseries as they shopped for me. (Potting soil  is one thing that I could not find online--way to heavy to ship!) Here are pictures of two of the brands.

The second half of the mixture is made from one third coir fiber compressed in a block and re-hydrated. Pictured here

I bought this from Greenhouse Megastore on line.  Their prices seem reasonable and their shipping time is reasonable as well.  They carry a wide variety of containers and soils amendments.  Here is their url

https://www.greenhousemegastore.com/

The next component of my mix is perlite, about one half the amount of re-hydrated coir fiber.  Perlite expands in water and holds water for the plants. It is available at most nurseries and home supply stores.  It is also available at the Greenhouse Megastore and on Amazon.  Seedlings especially love this and will send rootlets out from the main root to connect to the perlite.

The last component of my mix is vermiculite.  Vermiculite also holds water and releases it to the plant.  It expands like a sponge when it is wet and will help transfer water to the roots of the plant so that plants have a good source of moisture.  It is available from the same sources as the perlite.


I used a bucket to make my mix in. Hydrating the coir fiber first is essential, because that will give you the base for your measurements of the next ingredients.  Either hydrate the whole block in something like a wheel barrow, or water the block and scrape off the hydrated amount into the bucket.  I could not handle the whole block and I did not want to waste water wetting it down over and over in between making the mix, so I chose the slower method of scraping it off.  Fill your bucket a little more than half full.  Add more water until the coir fiber is well saturated but not gloppy.


Now add the perlite. It is a very good idea to wear goggles and a mask when you do this for the perlite is dry and dusty.  Water it slightly and then stir it in.

Do the same with the vermiculite that you have done with the perlite.

These measurements aren't precise; it was all done by eyeball on the bucket.

Make sure the mixture is well mixed.  Use it to start seedlings or to transplant plants.


(edited on November 7, 2015)

Growing tomatoes, 2015, Part I

The harvest is in.  I lost count of how many tomatoes my plants produced, but for about three months I ate tomatoes everyday and shared them several times a week with friends whom I share meals with.

All of my plants were (and still are) container grown so that I could tend them in my power wheel chair.

Gardening has always been an empowering activity to me, connecting me to the earth and to my ancestors, many of whom were farmers.  This summer I found it amazing to pick my dinner, plan my dinner around what I had in the garden and eat simply and humbly.

It was even more empowering to me because I started out with two big drawbacks.  First, I am a power wheelchair user and I like to say that I live my life on wheels.  Second, the drought in California made gardening difficult.  I had been putting off my garden for several years because of the drought and this year I decided that if it was going to happen while I could still do it, it had to be now.

The plants did not take as much water as I thought they would, bringing my water bill up only a few dollars.  This was good.  A soil mix that held conditioners that hold water helped a great deal. A separate blog post will cover this.

Here are the varieties that grew in my garden this year.

Anais Noir, a beautiful heirloom that is so delicious! This tomato started it all for me when a friend gifted me with a perfect tomato from her garden in Santa Barbara at Christmas.

Sandul Moldavon, another heirloom that ripens to a rich, tomato red.  it tasted like the tomatoes of my Midwestern childhood and nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Sweet Solano, a yellow tomato, slightly more acidic than its larger, red cousins, but delicious none the less.  A bonus is that in spite of its small size, it produces lots of seeds for saving for next year.  Great tomato for salads or for lunch or for a quick snack.  A bit large to pop in your mouth right of the bush.

Purple Cherokee, was finicky in my garden.  It seemed like it thought it must go to seed right away and worked on producing one tomato that was ginormous.  Didn't weigh it after picking it so that it would stop hogging all of the plant's energy, but should have. It ripened in a paper bag, spilled forth an abundance of seed when I cut it and was absolutely delicious.  I dried part of it so that it will come out of the freezer in the winter to brighten a winter meal.


Black Vernissage, a purple tomato, bigger than a cherry, smaller than a small tomato.  Absolutely delicious flavor and lots of seeds.  Did have a problem with browning leaves (verticulum wilt?) and the plant died before the others.  To be fair this plant was in too much shade.  More sun next time!  See the plate above the small purple tomatoes are these. Yum!


Sungold, a highly regarded yellow cherry tomato did not do as well for me as I had hoped that it would, but to be fair it got a late start, could have used a bigger container and more sun.  Next time! Don't think I have any pictures.

Riebenstraube is a beautiful grape tomato.  I love it.  Planted late, the plants took off and are still healthy and strong.  Lots and lots of flowers, lots of clusters and now the weather is getting a bit too cold.  Picked them today will see if they ripen in a paper bag.

Where Did Spring Go?

The roses are blooming along with the calendula. The lavender is in bud and will soon be blooming. The rosemary is flowering and doing it's usual thing of trying to grow enough to take over the county or at least the yard. The cold weather has returned.

The sky is grey and darkly overcast. Drizzle is trying to turn into rain and I wish it would pour. On the other hand, I can be grateful that it isn't thundering and lightning. This house was not built for those kinds of storms, the real flash bang boom storms of the mid-West. I would not be sitting at the computer in that kind of storm. (I would probably be cowering over my knitting or trying to read a book.)

The roses like cooler weather. I have noticed over the years that the colors are always deeper and the flowers last longer on the bush when it is cold to cool. So loving the roses as I do, I will try not to complain. Just hunker under polar fleece in front of the electric heater and give thanks for my technological and electronic blessings. (Even the polarfleece is hi-tech, made, as it is from recycled plastic bottles! I have always thought this is a real hoot.)

It is a good day for domesticity, since the laundry needs doing and for "zazzling"--learning my way around Zazzle and figuring out how to do things there. I've been there for two years, just never developed it and I know that the items are lovely and they do a good job of printing. I just am overwhelmed by the amount of time it will take to develop this and not very good at self-promotion. Oh to have wings and to fly. (Or even just be as mobile as I was a while ago and get out of my house more.)

Cabin fever is showing in this post, so I will be grateful that at least I have not needed to contend with snow and have been outside in the fresh air from time to time. I wish everyone a lovely Sunday in the Easter season that is all too quickly going away. Soon it will be back to "ordinary time". Is there such a thing, really?

Sunday, March 1, 2009

A new month and old problems. Why can't I change the contents of my slideshow? This seems silly. I wasted an inordinate amount of time the first time that I set this up and now I have repeated the frustration.

The good news is that it rained all day today and there is more to come. I am heartened by this for it means that the garden will not have to be completely abandoned.

It is also the first Sunday of Lent. Is the recession penance enough? Or would it be practical to see how we can alleviate the effects of same recession in our neighborhoods and communities; by reaching out and helping one another.

My local church is reading a book about helping to build schools in Pakistan, while here in our very own neighborhood the local schools need help; here in our very own state the budget, even though passed, is still in crisis. That same budget means that many services needed by real people are in shambles. I would like to see Lenten practices that would focus on our spiritual lives first and then if we are inclined to alleviate poverty do so at home.

There is a certain feeling of disconnection to this and it makes me discontented.

I am nonetheless grateful for the rain and will try to figure out how to make the software work as well.

Gardening with the Best Assistance--Friends

Yesterday and today I played with my plants. Yesterday I dug in the dirt--a big bag of potting soil, but it is real dirt nonetheless. I have dirt under the fingernails to prove it! A small bag is residing on the porch waiting to fill pots for various transplants and will be refilled so that I can pot up new bulbs that came from American Meadows two weeks ago--tulips, King Alfred Daffodils, the fragrant ones, white daffodils and a new Amaryllis bulb, big Amaryllis bulb. I can hardly wait.

Today I messed about with moving pots and moving plants--at one point I was enmeshed or maybe ensnarled in potted rose bushes and trying to move a tomato plant by myself was a mistake. It did more damage to the plant than me, but there was a moment there when I wondered what I was going to next. Then I carefully grabbed one rose, between the thorns, and extricated it from me and the wheelchair. Next I did the same with the other. Then I admonished them to stay in their places. (Yes, I talk to my plants.)

My friend L came and expertly, patiently staked the remaining tomato plants before moving them. They are nicely in a row farther down in the patio from where they had been, getting more sun. They have tomatoes growing on them, so now we are hoping for ripening--and they need more water than I have been giving them for the grow bags were so much lighter than I thought they would be.

I smell of tomatoes and basil and dirt and wish my house could be equipped with a handicap accessible bathroom and shower. Someday, perhaps. I dream and dream also of the garden that will grow in the next season.

I am grateful for the exercise and sunshine, the warmth of the Fall day and the friendship of L who is home, all too briefly, from the sea.

Hummingbirds

Today I have had the exquisite pleasure of watching hummingbirds in both the back and front yards. I have become expectant each day now of seeing one or both of a pair who seem to be nesting in my pyracantha tree (yes, it really is) as they come to the pineapple sage in the backyard. Right outside the kitchen window, the show is framed for my perfect viewing as I wait for water to boil for my coffee or tea or as I wash dishes.

Then I put "fluffy", who had become the indoor basil plant, back on the porch. The weather is mild and she needs a bit of sunshine on her leaves. After a bit, with the front door open, for I am waiting for someone, I waited for something slow on the internet and looked out that door. Motion in the basil plant attracted my attention. Sure enough, there was my favorite bird darting from basil branch to basil branch and then over to the blooming pineapple sage I can just see through the screen door. This is perfectly wonderful!

Here are pictures of "Fluffy" while she was inside.





It is a perfect day, one of those days when just being is a blessing and when I wish that I could bottle it to release on a cold winter day or a hot summer one. I am grateful for the day and for my dear friend and housekeeper who came and cleaned for me today.

Harvesting the Basil

Five basil plants are now reduced to four. The largest bush, the one in the grow bag, yielded about 8 oz of minced basil in oil produced by processing it in the blender. My wrists, arms and shoulders have had a workout.



It is amazing to see a rather good sized bush, a fair pile as it sits on tissue paper on the floor to be photographed, reduced to such a small quantity. I have seen its precedent in apples. Many years ago a friend gave me a paper grocery sack of apples from her backyard tree. I peeled and chopped and boiled and canned and had--four pints of apple butter. It was amazing. Essence of apple and I have never done it again, but am glad I did it that one time.

The basil is going to be like that. A small cinnamon basil, not part of the count of five, is drying on top of my dryer. I will attend to it tomorrow, stripping the leaves from the stems and placing them in a separate layer above the basil or the roses. (I am always drying roses, almost always drying something.)

So now there are four. One is temporarily residing in the house as a house plant. One will be cut tomorrow and laid out to dry. The other two, outside, I hope to nurture along for a little while longer.

It was cold over the weekend so the basil wasn't happy. That is why one is in the hall. The others, overgrown in their pots, were hooded with white plastic bags and kept warm. With warmer weather this week, I hope they will be fine.

I am grateful for the plants, for the harvest and for the fact that I had the good sense to harvest only one and split the basil processing over two days--keeping the branches that I hadn't gotten to yet in the refrigerator.

Tuesday Once Again

Today I had the pleasure of playing with my plants. The basil smell of coffee grounds (which I sprinkled around them on Sunday) as well as of their own scent. It is a different combination. The roses have gotten leggy and suffered through the heat. I trimmed the dead flowers and dead leaves off the yellow one and was pleased to see two buds waiting in line to bloom. The red one is next and then the Mr. Lincoln. I also sprinkled chopped up banana peels around the base of the roses and the basils as this supplies potassium to the plants. It also feels good not to throw away the banana peels, but to put them to another use. (Eggshells are good for this too. They supply calcium.)

The tomatoes have grown even though the weather is cooler and the days shorter. They smell wonderful. I can hardly wait to see if they flower and fruit and I am wondering if some of the growth is "suckers" that should be removed. Not knowing a whole lot about them I am sort of gardening in the dark here.

Saturday my friend who brought lunch took this picture of my pineapple sage, also known as "Nature's Hummingbird Feeder".



This is a beautiful plant that smells like a ripe pineapple. I highly recommend it to anyone who gardens. Once established it will grow well from cuttings so that you will always have a gift to share with another gardener, or friend who loves hummingbirds.

I am grateful tonight for my garden and the friends who have been helping me with it.

Blessings

The fog has rolled back in and it is such a blessing. My stress level goes down markedly when the weather is not so hot. The shortening days are also signaling to all the plants that it is time to bloom. Red flowers on the pineapple sage under my kitchen window attract hummingbirds,for whom the plant has been tended all summer. The basils are producing flower stalks faster than I can cut them to keep up with them for potpourri and the smell of drying basil fills my dining room even as I sit here and type.

There is a feeling of peacefulness because of the weather and the garden that I wish I could replicate and send world wide. Maybe a new fragrance or room air freshner! It could be sprayed in meeting rooms world wide whenever leaders gather to discuss rancorous issues.

Planning the garden's next stage is also a blessing. Now that I know that the side yard will produce food I need to have someone turn the soil and then order the seeds. Kale and chard, turnips, parsnips, beets and carrots would be good for our fall into winter climate.

It will be interesting and useful for future years to see if the late tomatoes actually do produce. I am thinking of tomatoes from my own plants as part of Thanksgiving dinner--and definitely will give thanks for them if there are some.

Today my friend, who is my housekeeper, will come and make order out of my chaos and cleanliness out of my mess. She is a blessing of major proportion in my life, as are the friends who water for me.

In two weeks my sister and her husband will be visiting. Truly a blessing and some real excitement for someone who feels like she is rapidly becoming an old lady.

Blessings abound if only I look for them and I am grateful for them all.

Tomatoes Like Heat

The plants that have been transplanted into grow bags are thriving. They like heat much more than this old gardener does. Still it is rather thrilling to see what they can do when they are given good soil and sufficient room.

Tomatoes seem to grow exponentially while other things take more time. Roses, for instance have a slower tempo and even the herbs are not exploding out of their pots right now (except for the basils).

I am starting to plan a fall and winter garden--with only about three weeks of summer left. Carrots, radishes and green onions will grow in a long narrow container that a friend gave me last year. I need to find another like it, for I think that "cut and come again lettuces" would also grow in one of these at least for a short while. Those plants would greatly improve my diet.

Monday I came in from an almost perfect afternoon in the garden with my friend and the hummingbird to discover ants in the kitchen. Clean up the ants with 409. Wait. They find another spot. Clean some more. Switch to vinegar in water. Keep cleaning. This morning, nary an ant. The upside is that I now have areas of counter that I haven't seen in years (well months). The downside is that wasn't the way that I was planning to spend my time. Oh well.

Ordering vitamins and other things on line this morning was an eye-opener. The prices for the items aren't too bad but the shipping charges! I think that they are way higher than the actual and that what we really pay for is to get the package into queue fast enough to receive it in timely fashion. Note to self--plan ahead. This is part of the organizational skills of being independent without being able to drive.

It occurred to me that in the interest of getting people out of their cars and saving more costly fuel, we might consider seeing if we could get Congress to legislate a tax deduction for shipping charges. Retailers would hate this. Shippers would love it. People like me would find it most useful

Well, this is straying from the subject of tomatoes. Still I am grateful that my house is still comfortable, that the days are shorter than they were at the beginning of July when it was so hot in my house that I could smell the heat and that paint peeled and that the tomatoes are growing. The object is to have tomatoes in October and November.

Gardening with the Best Assistance--Friends

Today my dear friend who has adopted my yard work came and moved piles of pavers around so that the plants can be put on top of them. I now have a sort of rose arbor going down my ramp and the big, Mr. Lincoln is spotted where it will get more sun. The tomatoes and one basil are in 9 gallon grow bags, which I bought from Plant-It-Earth a few weeks ago. These look like they are going to work. The basil was just transplanted three weeks ago and was already root-bound. I would like to have this basil again next year and plant it in something deep--an old trash can comes to mind--to see how big it would become. Basil tree, anyone?

While my friend and I chatted a hummingbird came to my bower, sipping first on a rose and then a purple malva and finally on the blooming basil flowers. I was going to cut those off, but now I realize that I will need to be sparing so that I do not deprive this lovely creature of scarce food. She was so close that I could see her markings and her feet drawn up under her and hear the clicking of her wings; so close that I could nearly have touched her and so small that I could nearly hold her in the palm of my hand. Exquisite and beautiful, she reminded me to come sit outside just for the joy of it.

My young friend who is going back to school tomorrow came by just long enough to tell me her plans and water my plants.

Yesterday I ordered bulbs online with the hope of having more flowers to photograph in the spring. If the bulbs come, if I get them planted, if the squirrels don't dig them up and eat them!

I can tell when I am playing in the dirt and even more when I am looking at gardening catalogs and web-sites that my ancestors where farmers! I can usually plan enough for at least an acre. I imagine what my ancestors with farms near Adrian, in Michigan and Huntington, in Indiana would make of the web with all the glorious pictures and too many choices, not to mention of me, gardening in the wheelchair with the help of friends.

I am grateful today and looking forward to the evening when it will be cooler.

Gardening with Assistive Technology--the Low-Tech Way

Today I have been playing in the dirt with happiness that I was able too. My helpers are going back to college; the plants need transplanting and the potting soil is stacked up in the patio. I took a flat box and went to the soil with doubled trash bags to hold it and a small pot to scoop it up with. Then I pushed and pulled and tugged and went backwards up my ramp, sometimes with my foot in the box to pull it. It was a thorough workout. Officially, this probably doesn't count as assistive technology, but I have always have had the attitude, if it works, use it.

Two tomato plants are transplanted into grow bags full of this wonderful dirt that looks and feels and smells like it would be absolutely yummy for plants--somewhere between steak and chocolate, or maybe a combination of both. It seemed to my eye that the tomatoes had grown between morning and early evening when I went outside to water them again.

I have been watering by hauling refilled water bottles from the kitchen sink to the outdoors. As I was doing it, I was reminded of one of those movies about life on the prairie and how the women carefully hauled water and dolloped it out to their beloved flowers. A connection to my pioneer foremothers was established here.

Tonight I am grateful for the physical work, the time outdoors and the dirt under my fingernails. Even more, I am grateful for Ibuprofen!

Tomorrow I hope to take pictuers.

Of Basil and Moths

The first part, the basil is the yummy part. The basils were transplanted to new eight inch pots on Friday and seem to be happy there. Saturday I topped them by snipping a bag full from the leggy parts of each plant. One plant is now on the deck because there isn't enough room on the potting shelf. That one was tipping over in such a way that each time I wheeled up to it a lovely bunch came into my lap, like a puppy greeting me and saying hello. The snipped bunches filled my kitchen colander and looked like an amazing amount. I rummaged around and found the delightful mincing gadget that is part of the Braun "stick blender". Chop, chop, whir, whir. This too, is not a toy, even though it looks like one, but a real, useful tool. The basil whirled down to one small container that will feed me pesto for three nights.

All summer and even earlier, I had noticed an up tick in the the flitter bug population. These are small, almost translucent moths that seem to whirl and whirl just out of my reach. In fact, Friday night, I even sprained my thumb trying to whack one by clapping my hands. Instead of hitting the moth, I walloped my right (and sore) thumb by slamming the heel of my left hand against it. Pain throughout the hand. Try wheeling one handed. Doesn't work well.

Sunday I discovered the source of the bugs. A nasty infestation of cocoons in a blanket that had been left too long on the living room couch. I usually use the couch as a kind of extended shelf for holding things to be sorted. Won't be doing that any more. The blanket is past salvage and now in a trash bag. The sofa needs vacuuming--and then on a regular basis. Housekeeping clearly isn't my forte!

In fact, while I garden with passion and joy, I keep house like a geek. I have laughed about that from time to time with friends, who I suspect do the same. It is funny until it gets to the point where it is negligent, as in the couch with the moths. So I suppose that it is never too late to grow up and take responsibility even for the housekeeping. Resolve: less clutter so that the cleaning can be accomplished.

I am grateful for the basil harvest and that it was only moths and not mice infesting my couch.

Harvesting Dinner

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of harvesting my dinner. What fun. I have never seen basil so big and so green, even though I grew it for years. There were several beans to go along with it.





I put the shredded Parmesan on the plate, put the cooked buckwheat noodles on top, let the cooking water (buckwheat noodles take little water)reduce with the olive oil, basil and garlic to make a little sauce and it was delicious. Could have used tomato or sweet pepper for color. Next time.

This is inspiring me to grow more garden! It is so much fun to be self-reliant, to have absolutely fresh food and to use what is on hand. Now I think I want to try making my own yogurt for the yogurt cheese maker for this would be a yummy variation on the Parmesan. Yogurt cheese with chopped basil and garlic would also be good.

What can I make for myself today? Hmmm. More basil.

The new toy that I bought from my niece's Pampered Chef business (see link to the right) is not a toy, but an excellent tool. It is the garlic press, the best one that I have ever owned. It presses the clove through the skin so peeling is not necessary. It comes with a cute and clever little tool that presses the residue back up into the press to clean it. No poking with a toothpick to get all the garlic out. I love it and will be pressing garlic frequently now. Yum

So this morning I am grateful and happy.

Gardens

This is one view of my basil plants. They make a privacy screen of sorts between my front gate and my front door.

The marjoram has grown to be quite a pretty plant.

I am already dreaming of what will come next. Fall and winter vegetables would be good. I dream of kale and chard and onions and even more herbs. For next spring and summer flax and wheat and amaranth and teff--just enough of these major grain plants to have a demonstration garden that I can photograph for my writing and designs. I also want to put in a cover crop in the front yard, but finding helpers to do that may be too difficult. The front yard looks abandoned and it needs to be double-dug, not an easy task in hard, baked-clay soil.

It is amazing what sun, water, a good pot full of good soil and some tending will do for a plant. This marjoram was one of seven baby herbs given to me by a friend in a wonderful long planter that I still hope to use to grow scallions, radishes and carrots nearby where I can tend to them.

I think that the heat did in the beans. They were beautiful and delicious while they lasted. I hope for more next year.

I am setting up a Squidoo lens on Healing and Herbs and another on the mMeaning of Herbs. For like flowers, herbs also carry meanings that are symbolic--give your love basil along with the roses and the flowers can go in a jar while the basil goes into the blender to be made into dinner. Both signify love.

I am grateful to be recovering the garden and the lore that I spent time learning in the 1980's--two decades ago. It seems longer, but time is becoming compressed now--a sign that it will be time for me to go.

Prayer for a Farmer or Gardener

Last week while I sweltered, my plants throve. Basil is large and green and the best I have ever had. Marjoram in her pot looks almost as full and pretty as she would in a lovely well mulched spot in the ground. The roses are blooming. Indoors, each of the little pots in which I planted seeds a week and a half ago has baby plants in it.

The sea breeze, one of the most beneficent aspects of the climate where I live is blowing in on me as I write this. The house is a temperature that would be almost perfect any time of the year and wouldn't be anywhere near this warm in the winter.

Yesterday as I sorted a collection of holy cards that I have had for more than fifteen years, I came across one that has a prayer on the back titled, "Prayer of the Christian Farmer and Gardener". It seems like a suitable prayer to share in light of the weather disasters of June in the Midwest and California.

"O God, Source and Giver of all things, Who does manifest Thy infinite majesty, power and goodness in the earth about us, we give You honor and glory.

For the sun and the rain, for the manifold fruits of our fields, for the increase of our herds and flocks, we thank You. For the enrichment of our souls with divine grace, we are grateful.

Supreme Lord of the harvest, graciously accept us and the fruits of our toil, in union with Christ, Your Son, as atonement for our sins, for growth of Your Church, for peace and charity in our homes, for salvation to all. Amen."

That we have clement weather, rain in due season and respite from heat and from fire, from flood and from wind I pray. I am grateful tonight for cooler weather and for the friends who are making my beautiful garden possible and a blessing to me. Thank you all.

Saturday Blessings

Today's weather has been a blessing--summer at its absolute best! If it would just stay like this, I don't think many people would mind.

As I write I am looking out at my porch, the bag of potting soil under the potting bench, the basil plants in their pots on the top of it, tall enough now to begin forming a privacy screen between my half gate and my screen door. The rose bush that was looking most scraggly and shabby has come back beautifully in a bigger pot, fresh soil and a little shade. It is blooming prettily with pink roses.

The Mr. Lincoln is rapidly outgrowing its pot and will have to have a new one. (I think this is something like kids with school shoes. Every time you turn around they need new ones.) It is reaching toward the sky too and if each of the six buds it currently has mature, I will have six more magnificent and fragrant roses. M chose well when she picked this out for me last year.

The economic news this evening and yesterday has been so scary that I just cried and changed the channel to the weather channel. I can't believe the egregious stupidity and greed that went into making this mess and how much we are all going to suffer before it is over. Regulation and stability would make so much more sense.

On a lighter note I have added another goodie to my ultimate gadget wish list. Remote control for my bedroom drapes and I think it is within reach of my budget! Yippie skippie as my Mary Kay director says.

Over all I am grateful.

Dreaming Vegetable Dreams

Yesterday I transplanted five basil plants by myself thanks to having an IKEA shelf on the porch now to use as a potting bench. The five plants greeted me when I looked out this morning and they look so pretty and cheerful.

Seeds for four kinds of tomatoes and some sage will go in the pots just vacated. These pots are deep enough to give any seedlings a good start and that will allow time for friends to prepare the bigger pots for the tomatoes. These are getting off to a late start, but we can still pick tomatoes into early November here. The leftover seeds should still be viable to plant in the Spring.

My package from Bountiful Gardens came Tuesday and it is so good to be connected again to Ecology Action, an organization that does such good work around the world to promote sustainable agriculture. We do not need to rely entirely on big corporations, making big corporate profits and taking away independence from small communities and individuals. In addition, intensive, natural farming respects the earth and is a form of shepherding and stewardship. Stewardship is foundational to the so-called "green revolution" (and we need to take care of the ways in which that will be commercialized as well.)

I have been eating the first beans from my garden; the first ever beans that have been grown on my land. They are delicious. Pretty too, as there are both green and yellow beans. I am blessed not only by the beans but by the friends who have planted, watered and now are picking them for me. In a very real sense my garden is a friendship garden.

Bountiful Gardens catalog is a temptation. More vegetables than I could possibly ever eat! Herbs and flowers--oh no, not again! This time, I hope that I will remember that each plant gets bigger than I think that it will and needs enough space. (On the other hand my rosemary that I joke is trying to take over the county began as a cutting and is now more than twenty years old.)

Gardening is a life-time avocation. It connects us to the earth--it felt good to have dirt on my hands and to smell the good smell of healthy potting soil yesterday--and to the past and the future. It grounds us in time while at the same time reminding us that we will not always be here. It invites us to be good stewards and to enjoy the bounty, not only of the earth itself, but of our work as well.

I wish that everyone could have a garden even if it is just one potted tomato and one pot of basil. I am grateful for mine.

Gardens and Wish Lists

Yesterday I carefully planned and then executed an order to Bountiful Gardens. Twenty yards of shade cloth for various windows to stave off the heat during the next inevitable heat wave. Then lots of seeds. Four kinds of tomatoes--I am hoping that I will get fruit around the time that my sister visits and herbs and flowers. Now I just wait for the package to arrive and then find friends who can hang the shade cloth and plant the seeds.

In the meantime, from yesterday to today, I remembered the things I'd forgotten to order. So back to the website to construct a wish list. Oh for an acre or two somewhere--preferably not in a flood zone or in tornado alley. (I know I wouldn't choose anywhere too hot and humid.)

At heart I would have liked to be a farmer, a market gardener or at least have had a bigger yard, not for grass and bushes, but for food and flowers. Twenty years ago, I dreamnt these dreams and I am still here.

Another wish list of sorts is the wish list I am making for Vocational Rehabilitation. I need to network my skills and have a van of my own for reliable transport that I can use to do that as well as get out more socially and to medical appointments. Thanks to a friend who is also one of my Mary Kay customers I have found out about a great networking organization right here on the Peninsula that linked to something I had been looking for and not finding--the microenterprise loans through the SBA. It's about time, so that is a new wish list.

Then there is the much greater wish list--for peace, prosperity and justice. For inclusion of those who are disabled and the recognition that the workplace can and should come to us for telecommuting just as it comes to those who are able-bodied. I'd like to see this as part of the national political agenda, but I don't know how to make it so. Certainly, no one is talking about it--maybe the candidates don't realize that disabled people do vote. (I've had a permanent absentee ballot for so long that I don't remember how long!)

Still, I am grateful and my gratitude includes the weather and my wish list includes the weather--may it remain cool and may the firefighters win their battle to stop California from burning.

Catching Up and Giving Thanks

Today is cool, as it should be for this time of the year. It is so beautiful and so blessed after the nasty, brutal heat of last week. Saturday the thermostat in my main hallway said 88 degrees. Horrid. Once in my life it got hotter. I fear these summer heat waves even more than I fear my winter heating bills. (And I tremble when I open those.)

The basil loved the heat and grew inches. The roses also thrive, thanks to the kindness of a friend who watered them everyday. The garden is a blessing. It is fun to start cuttings from existing plants and watch them take hold and grow.

I am thinking about "living shade", plants that will grow to six or eight feet and cool various parts of my house. Last summer I wrote about sunflowers. This summer my neighbors directly across the street have planted a bed of them. These are the tallest plants I have ever seen! As tall as the roof of their garage now, the plants also have the biggest leaves I've ever seen and they are beginning to flower. So pretty, the huge disks of yellow and brown follow the sun. I love them.

There are other plants that will grow so tall. Flax, wheat, some pole beans, morning glories. I have been spending time on the website of Bountiful Gardens and making lists. Is it too late already to plant this? Pearson Tomatoes will mature in 80-90 days. I would have tomatoes in time for my sister's visit in the fall. What can I grow in the side yard to shade the bedroom?

In the meantime, I will resort to primitive things that work. White blackout cloth has replaced a makeshift cardboard in one large window. More to come, for the cloth is here. This fabric doesn't feel like fabric; it doesn't have a nice "hand" and it doesn't drape. It does the job of blocking light though and since it is put up right behind the air vent, I noticed an immediate improvement in air flow from the summer air fan. (Almost as good as air conditioning and much less expensive.)

Whiteboard can be used almost like shutters in houses in the nineteenth century were used and it blocks light and heat. (Cuts drafts in the winter, too.) A huge piece sits in my front hall waiting to be cut into two pieces and used to block more light and heat.

I don't have space to plant a tree and I don't think I have time either. Twenty years ago, we could have planted trees and now there would be shade. I can't maintain trees though. That is one thing a disabled person just can't do!

Overall, I am simply grateful to be here, grateful to have a sweater draped over my shoulders and ever so grateful for the blissful cool air coming in on me. Last time I checked the weather channel page, about 8:30 am, it was 69 degrees outside. Praise God!