Friday, May 22, 2009

Playing on Youtube again

I was going to download a couple of songs to my iTunes, but I need to be sure I was remembering the right songs so I fired up Youtube to verify the songs before paying for them.  Well, that led to spending a good couple of hours viewing various videos after I found the particular song I was looking for tonight.  I started out looking for Mac Davis "Baby, Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me" and found Nancy Sinatra's "Bang, Bang" and "These Boots are Made for Walking."  That led me to viewing a few duets Nancy had with her brother Frank, Elvis, and Dean.  Once I hit Dean that is where I got stuck.  Love, love, love Dean Martin!!!!

Dean Martin & Goldie Hawn



 Dean Martin - Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime 1965



I particularly love the comment starting at 1:40.  It's where Dean says, "I feel sorry for you people who don't drink.  I mean it, because when you wake up in the morning that's as good as you're going to feel all day."

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Another garden update

5/17
Still haven't gotten plants (seedlings) into the garden, but they are definitely ready to go into the ground.  My purchased plants (tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers) are really needing to get planted.  I was finally able to put them outside today as it warmed up above 65°F.

My rhubarb seems to have weathered the recent frost/snow.  I am not sure about the strawberries.   They look about the same.  I won't mind if a few of them die off as they spread a bit too far last year.

Ignore the grass and weeds.  Why does that stuff grow so FAST!

Rhubarb

 
Strawberries
 


The raspberries are doing good.  My sister is sending me some wild raspberry plants, about 6-7, so I have to figure out a good spot for them.  We plan to have the house resided so I need to take that into account.  I don't want to have to move them or have them damaged during the work.  Same goes for planting my roses. 

My son counted up my seedlings the other day and out of 62 started, we have 52 sprout.  Much better than I expected.

5/19

Seen at the bird feeders on Sunday.....how they got some time alone without the sparrows, I will never know :)


This was seen Monday at the humingbird feeder.  We've had a couple humingbird visitors as well, but my camera wasn't at hand :(

Friday, May 15, 2009

Snow and Garden pics

 The deck in the early morning
  
Snow build-up in a tree.
  
Just a slight dusting 
  
 The poor rhubarb......ignore the grass that has yet to be pulled out.
  
My strawberry plants......and grass that needs to be pulled.  Why do the grass and weeds grow quicker than anything else???  I bet they won't be affected by the snow and below freezing temps :(
  

Thursday, May 14, 2009

More of *this* fell during the night.



 
  
  

A couple of garden updates

A few photos

5/10/09

Strange view, not sure why I picked this.  Please ignore the messy sink :)

 
Green Beans
  
Peas
  
Cucumbers
  
 5/12/09
I think we can take the top off now :)
 
 Cucumbers (other variety, 1 started 2 kinds as I thought 1 was a packet of duds)
 
Green Beans
  
Cucumbers and 1 row of Watermelon
  
Peas
  
I weeded the garden a bit on Tues with the help of my son (his idea).  It started raining afterwards.  It rained all day on the 13th and this is what I have on my deck at the moment.  

 
  
  
Yep, snow! in May.  This is most definitely Minnesota.  Just more proof why we don't plant until Memorial Day or early June.  

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Garden update #1

I have seedlings coming up in my mini-greenhouse!!!  Peas and cukes are coming up!!!  Woo Hoo!! *doing the happy dance*



 
 



Waiting now for the green beans and watermelon seeds to sprout. 

I just picked up some more manure/compost (160 pounds) yesterday along with a zucchini plant, early girl tomatoes (12), cherry tomatoes (12), andgreen peppers (5, but I'm only keeping 2).  Today, I bought some yellow onion sets and basil seeds.  I still need some green bean seeds in case the ones in the mini-greenhouse fail to sprout.  I also want some backup cucumber seeds. 


 
  

I need to get my herb garden started, but it's a whooping 45°F outside so no rush. Yesterday, we made it up to 70° which is the first for 2009.

I also picked up a couple of rose bushes.  This time I *know* they are alive. 

Just look at those green shoots.

Monday, May 04, 2009

Garden news. WOO HOO!!!

I just bought a mini greenhouse to start some seeds tonight. I started pea pods, 2 kinds of cucumbers, green beans and a few sugar baby watermelons. The only ones I truly care about are the cucumbers and beans. The others are for fun because I had the seeds and extra peat moss.




I will be buying some tomato plants and onion sets in a couple of weeks. We will buy either cherry or Roma tomatoes along with a sandwich type probably Early Girl as we have an extremely short growing season. I might run up town and grab some zucchini seeds to toss in the mini greenhouse tomorrow. I don't need much as I am the only one who will eat those.


Can't plant until Memorial Day or later due to frost.  I'm hoping it will be dry enough to get into the garden by the last week of May.  We'll see.

We have 2 raspberry bushes. Maybe 3 if I am wrong about the one dying. Those aren't high producing yet, but I'm hopeful. We have several strawberry plants. I need to prune those back so they produce rather than feed the runners all time.

We have one well established rhubarb plant. We transplanted a couple last fall into the garden. I am not hopeful for their survival, but they were free so no big loss. We only make blueberry-rhubarb freezer jam so it's not like we need lots of rhubarb.

I would like to do a herb garden. I have a couple of packets of seeds for chives and Cilantro/Coriander. I have a planter I need to fill and set up for that. I don't cook a lot with herbs so I'm a little unsure of what to plant or how to use it.

I don't compost at this point. I have thought about it, but we really don't produce vegetable scraps to make it worthwhile. I also prefer to compost my leaves back into the yard each fall so that's not viable. I try to keep the grass cut short so as not to need to bag. We did buy some Miracle Grow garden soil/compost stuff last year to add to our garden. That helped and we will probably use some more again.

For us, we have feast or famine with the water. Either it's extremely wet and we can't get into the garden or so dry we have to water 2x's a day to avoid everything shriveling up and dying. We're on the prairie so we get the constant wind.

I am thrilled to say that the rabbits won't be getting into my garden this year. I finally have it totally rabbit and deer proof. I have chicken wire all the way around to keep the rabbits out, and a 4 foot snow fence to keep the deer out. Woo Hoo!

Mom is in charge of the flower beds and will put whatever she wants in those. I will do a few pots with mums and begonias mainly. I think we are going bear minimum on flowers this year. I believe mom wants to work on the height of her flower bed and build up the soil another 3 inches or so.

Bare pantry

My son cleaned out our pantry (dry goods) about 10 days or so ago. My son, who is 24, works in Retail/Grocery so he's the king of expira...