First Trade of 2008

April 5th

Tomato plants seem to be moving along nicely.


(L to R) Giant Beefsteak, Big Red, Old Virginia.

This afternoon I called in to see my friend Corky to ask if she had any eggs available. Supplies were good so I picked up a dozen. Her husband went down to the coup and selected them himself. How much nicer than getting them from the refrigerator at Wal-mart eh?
On his return he asked me if I liked Duck Eggs and promptly produced two from his pocket.


Mr Corky's Duck Eggs.

I accepted them gladly and in return gave him an Old Virginia tomato plant from my stock.
Hmm, scrambled eggs for Sunday breakfast are worth getting up early for.

Corky also likes turnips so I grow them and trade for her eggs.

Last indoor seed planting, honest

My Assistant Gardeners

March 30th
OK, so after expanding from one overhead lamp to two I found I had a few square inches of space left available on the growing table and decided to fill them.
I dug out 6 old 4 inch pots from the shed, filled them with a soiless growing mixture and stuck in a few seeds:

Yellow Crookneck Squash
Tendergreen Burpless Cucumber
Sugar Baby watermelon

All from heirloom Seeds

That's it. I promise. No more seeds in the house this year.
Any others will be directly sown into the plots

Earth Hour

Sat 29th March
This evening we did our bit for Earth Hour and switched off lights, computers etc.
Earlier in the day I'd been "Instant Messaging" my granddaughter back in England and she got her family and most of her friends to participate too so that was pretty cool.
I know that some critics have shrugged it off as a gimmick but we are keen recyclers in our home and try to be energy conscious all the time. Anything that raises peoples awareness of wastage of any kind is good news to us and we will give it our support.
We ALL need to care.

In the garden I try to be "green" using my home made compost from all that great stuff that would normally get thrown into the landfill. It gives me great pleasure thinking I'm getting all that good stuff back, and for free too. I like free!
I also try different homemade natural bug/beetle/moth/egg-laying/biting/flying/plant munching repellants. Some work and some don't. Hey, I'm prepared to share SOME of my horticultural wealth with the natives but not ALL of it.

That particular evening my wife had prepared a super dinner of Turkey and Leek Crumble which we enjoyed by candlelight. Nothing new about having a candlelit dinner in our house to be honest as we eat that way most evenings by choice.
Kinda adds to the ambiance doesn't it?