What's In Your Greenhouse?

I have been thinking about living in a house again. I've been in a condo since the fall of 2005. There have been a lot of good things about living in a condo--like outside doors locked at 5 pm. This has given me a feeling of safety as a newly single woman. And there are more conveniences: garbage pickup, recycling, ground maintenance, covered parking, cheap to heat, no yard care. The last one is a plus and a minus. Right now, if I still lived on the mini farm, I'd be checking out the green house on a sunny winter day. Here, a greenhouse would be pretty warm on a 50 degree day. If one had heated beds in the greenhouse, tomatoes could be growing, ready for a head start in the garden. I've also would start broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage in my green house. These plants all transplant fine. With the coldframe, I've started greens, radishes, onions. Even in Spokane when the temps are pretty low at night, I had early vegetables. It was an amazing thing to see, these little plants in a neighbors coldframe. I got excited and built my own. It's easy, just build a box with the back side taller than the front. Get a used window from the salvage store and hinge it to the top. Set it up next to the house on the south side. You'll be pleasantly surprised how much heat it generates. But a few bricks in there to hold the heat and night. Radishes in no time. Ciao, Flower

Tool Care & Mushrooms

Fall is a good time to fix broken tools, toss out rakes that have rusted apart, fix broken handles if the metal part is worth it. If you have clippers to sharpen, do so before the next pruning job. There is nothing worse than dull tools. If you have a good sharpening in the area take the tools there. I have sharpened tools with a wet stone, although not too effectively. If you have a grinder, you can do a good job at tuning up old equipment. See Garden Tools and Equipment

Now old equipment can be toned up too. So get to the gym during the winter months. Or if you can, walk in the rain, do your Pilates, and work in the garden. My friend from Rainyside goes out every day. She says she never gets the winter blues. I think it might be a good practice to get out on warmer days, but probably not rainy days. I'm a wimp, what can I say. Getting out lets you the wonders of nature, like this Amanita Mescaria.

Anyway, get to the gym on the rainy days--and the library were there are plenty of gardening books.

All for now. Happy gardening, Flower

Community Garden

I'm a bad gardener. Well, actually, the way I see it, I always have lots to eat from my garden, but I'm a lazy weeder. My first father-in-law said, just do a little every day. He even set the hoe down on the soil and demonstrated how to use it. Who doesn't know how to use a hoe. No, it wasn't that. It's just that it's backbreaking and tedious. And the plot I have is in real need of amending. Not the kind of amend you do on your knees at bedtime, just the kind that takes several trips to the farm and garden store and hauling (without a husband strong like ox) just little old granny me. I'll survive. Don't worry.