Busy gardener

[Eric Hardy]

Lovely selection, Eric! You put me to shame! I have an eighty-nine year old very long standing friend who still does almost as many things as you and does his own digging at that age . That puts me even more to shame 

PS I just read this out to Anthea and she said "But we DO have LOVELY flowers !!!" 

[ideasguy]

Well spoken Anthea!

I imagine the garden has contributed in no small way in keeping your eighty-nine year old friend fit and healthy. Its great exercise, and as we all know very rewarding, both for veg growers in the produce and to plant lovers for the satisfaction.

P.S.
I ran this through the spell checker.
It offered an alternative for eighty-nine.
Guess what it suggested?
lightning
I'll bet he has been all his life!

Great range of plants there Eric (palustris). That and the huge range of flowers and shrubs you grow That puts me to shame!

[Palustris]

Forgot about the Capsicums and the Chillis and the Corn Salad and Spring onions and Mizuma.
Still think there may be other things yet too.
Cannot take credit for the Veg, as I said my wife grows them far far better than I ever did.
There are some I would love to try as well.
We have a few nice flowers too! 

[ideasguy]

Indeed you have (a few nice flowers) Eric.
And just as a reminder, heres the web site we've done with your photos:
http://www.ideasforgardens.net/palustris/

[Palustris]

Said I had forgotten something(s). Currants, red white and black.

[Eric Hardy]

What more? Aren't veggies on your data base Eric 

[Palustris]

  Never got round to putting the flowers on it never mind the Veg and fruit.
Also forgot about Jostaberry.  There are also Yard long beans to add to the Veg list.
When you list them like that it does seem a lot, but then we do not eat much meat. There are 3 freezers all full of produce which hopefully will last until next seasons crops begin.
And in 10 mins or so I shall have a bowl of home made from home grown things, Leek and Potao soup with a generous sprinkling of Chives and a piece of home made bread, followed by a couple of Court Pendu Plat apples.
Then I shall carry on moving the contents of one of the compost heaps on to the Veg patch ready for SWMBO to dig in next Spring. Trying very hard to get all the jobs like this done before I am off my feet for 6 weeks or more.

[Eric Hardy]

Sounds as though you could withstand a seige, Eric  . Your lunch sounds terrific too.

You mention being off your feet for six weeks. Is this a hip operation or something?

[Palustris]

As long as they did not cut the electricity we could last a fair few weeks! 
Actually we have been stocking up since I am the only driver and so no shopping trips for my wife. The nuisances have just told me that the opereation to fuse the bone in my big toe has been postponed till after Xmas. Very very annoying as we had made all sorts of necessary arrangements for it before then. Now we have to work out how to do it all later.

[Kathy & Laurie]

Just had to jump in here guys and make a comment.

We're not 'busy gardeners' at the moment as we're still up to our eyeballs in getting our house in order for selling.  Currently have the painter and decorator in - he was delayed about two weeks from getting started as he got swine flu    Anyway, he's over that now.

I have been monitoring the Forum activities to keep up-to-date with current events.  Haven't really had time to get involved too much though, but decided I'd better say something.

Sorry to hear about your hospital disappointment Eric, seems to have thrown a spanner in your plans. 

Our garden is pretty much taking care of itself at the moment, so not much to worry about there.    We've never really got into vegetable growing.  Kathy can blame me for that.  She can pretty much eat any vegetable going, but I am the picky one.  Carrots, peas and potatoes are about my range of preferred vegetables I'm afraid.  I know, very boring  but that's just me.

Keep up the good work.  This topic is going well, and I'll keep looking in on you from time to time. 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Nice to hear from you Laurie. Knew you were busy!
Youve put a lot of effort into getting your house at its best for market. It will make it a very easy move for the lucky new owners.

Best wishes for the op, Eric!

[Palustris]

One of the vegetables I would really like to try is Seakale, but no one seems to sell the seed. Leasways none of the seed companies we deal with and single packets are often very expensive.
We did try Skirret this year, but nothing germinated, so may try again next season.

[diegartenfrau]

I finally got caught up with organizing my new computer and office.
My family for a Christmas present gave me 2 weeks off, to not have to do a thing (although I had to point out several times were kitchen things are stored >lol<) so I could just completely goof off, no cooking, washing laundry or cleaning. It was a very well needed and appreciated vacation.
I took the time to work on a spread sheet for planning my vegetable plantings.
Every year I always do the same thing, I go through all my information I have, which is spread over magazine articles, books and computer, to organize my seed planting, some of it I manage to input into IG, but mostly I don't get far.
I know once it is in IG it is a lot easier, but getting it in is a lot of work.
So I got this book which is practically a Encyclopedia for growing your kitchen garden. Mainly a data book with all the important information, all you need to know how to grow your plants, organized by alphabet.
With the information all neatly organized I managed to get my spread sheet done in a week. Now I have all the info for my growing region neatly organized and it will help me also to input this data quicker into IG. Which will be my next project. I like to finally get the IG going to keep better track of what I am doing out there. So far not having all the important data in there it has been a fruitless labor. A bit too chaotic for me >lol<

If anyone is interested in this chart, which is for my Pacific Northwest region, Eugene, OR you can find it on my blog
http://diegartenfrau.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-garden-season-just-around-corner.html

We also had some very cold days in Eugene. The coldest it has been since I lived in Oregon. So my Winter garden, which I finally got going so well this year.....it all froze, even the Brassicas, Kale. All my lettuce....futsch!
So this winter I am not harvesting anything. But on the bright side...it gives me more time to goof off >grin<

Unfortunately the freeze came during my busy Christmas baking and I forgot to bring my 4 year old perennial chili peppers into the sun room. But who would think it would go from one balmy, sunny day to a killing frost day over night? Luckily I always save seeds so at least I can start new ones.

I am getting ready to browse for new seed varieties, one would think I have enough already. I am still on the search for a better producing open pollinated cauliflower and broccoli for this region. My squash did terrible for me last year in the cool summer we had, so I will be looking out for some new squashes to try out, then I always try to find more short season, cool region Tomatoes and Peppers, which sometime will not produce as quick out here.

So I read Palustris is looking for some Sea Kale seeds, I just found some here
http://fedcoseeds.com/seeds/SeedsOrderItem.php?id=3099&listname=Kale

fedco is also one of the companies which is in the process of..../maybe they are done...removing Monsanto connected seeds from their offerings, they have lot's of open pollinated seeds

then here: http://www.bountifulgardens.org/products.asp?dept=66

and in the UK, where it is easier to find
http://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/vegetable_seeds/seakale_seed_lillywhite/

I wish you all a Fruitfull harvest for the coming season

Isabell