Notes for further gardening

- I think the beds closest to the house should be for annuals and bulbs.

- I have many packets of seeds that I'm going to plant and feed with worm poop.

- Rather than chop down the junipers in front, I think they should go in the back to form part of our screen. I've read that they do well in shady, dry soil.

- I forgot that I need to get more Vaccinium (aka blueberry and related) bushes for the backyard. One more trip to the farmers market should do it for this year.

- We decided to wait on moving the cherry tree in back to the front. I read that early spring is the best time to move a tree so hopefully I'll remember by next spring.

- A good place to study up on native species for CT: is American Beauties Native Plants, located in Lebanon, CT. They even have landscape plans for creating a bird garden, a butterly garden, etc.

coming together

After some trying years, the front yard garden design has really come together. It was truly a collaborative effort: J and I, with the help of informed sources (her mom and Sara Stein), were able to create something that makes us both happy. The kids are involved, too. They see how happy we are to plant together and they want to be involved. They have their own tools and are all too eager to carry around pots of perennials and set them down on their designated places.




I've recently learned of one more Sara Stein book that she wrote, before her death in 2005, called Noah's Children: Restoring the Ecology of Childhood. I must read. I'll see if the library has it, or if they don't I have to see if they'll order it for me.

So far, so good

The new worms are very happy! Yay! They’re eating like crazy and I hope they’re breeding too! I even set up a new tray for them. I’m so relieved. I was starting to think our worm colony was going to be a worm graveyard but that’s not the case. I’ve got the expandable worm tower and I’m starting to see some really nice black, rich-looking castings in the bottom. If things go well, I’ll harvest the tray in another 2-3 weeks. I read I can make compost tea with it and spray it on the lawn! WOW. I’m so excited.

I’ve also set up our outdoor compost tumbler. Yeah, I’m a little compost crazy. But something’s gotta be done with all these !@#$$ leaves! And we have no shortage of food scraps.

See more progress on: start a worm compost

New crop

Okay, so I’m still mystified over the disappearance over the first generation of worms. It was like a little lost worm city of Atlantis. I suspect that they all died off and turned into… compost.

So, I decided to get new worms. Local worms. Raised 25 minutes away from here. The farmer didn’t do pickups, or I would have driven out there, collected them and transported them home myself. I had to settle for a priority mail shipment. They came very quickly, and I dumped them right in. I also “plumped their pillows” a little bit: adding some new newspaper; spritzing some water in it to raise the moisture level (our house is very dry in the winter); and preparing their food by chopping it up and microwaving the heck out of it (5 mins on high). That last bit was a tip from the worksheet I got with the original worms. The preparation breaks down the food so it is more suitable for the microorganisms to prepare it for the worms. The idea was to acclimate the worms as fast as possible.

And acclimate they have. These “new” worms seem more vigorous, eagerly crawling out sight when I lift the lid and expose them to light. They’re crawling in and around the food, a good sign that they’re eating. And they’re crawling into the bottom-most bin, and leaving dark, rich-looking castings behind! Woo hoo!

I’m very optimistic about these new worms. Soon it’ll be warm enough to move them into the mud room, right off our kitchen so I can keep a closer eye on them. I hope they start to procreate soon, and I can prepare another tray for them to crawl up into.

See more progress on: start a worm compost

Um, where have all the wormies gone?

So, remember when we got those worms? Well, now they don’t seem to be there anymore. I mean, you buy a pound of worms… that should be like, 300-500 worms or something right? And we did lose a few due to stress in the shipping. But I looked in the worm bin just the other day, after leaving them alone for a few days and now they seem to be… gone. What happened? Did they die and their worm corpses are have already decomposed? Well, they’re not TOTALLY gone. I saw a few baby worms here and there. But no adult worms. I even looked around the bin, on the table, on the floor. No worms.

There are, however, these teeny white mites, which I’m told are some of the organisms typically seen in worm bins. They aid with the decomp. So did they go to town on the adult worms? I’m confused. I checked the moisture level and gave them some food scraps and decided to leave them alone for a couple of days. Hopefully those baby worms will grow and breed and we can get the population up again.

I’m mystified.

See more progress on: start a worm compost

More foods you can eat

"Mushrooms can ward off colds They contain more of an immune-boosting antioxidant called ergothioneine than any other food, say researchers at Pennsylvania State University."

This was #4 in the 50 Mind-Blowing Food Facts I read about today.

Shame :-(

I just took the ecological footprint test at myfootprint.org. My footprint is 15 acres! By comparison to the average for my area (24 acres) it is low. But the site also said if everyone lived like me we'd need 3 1/2 planets. Better send out more space probes to look for some M-class planets out there.

They're here.

Okay, so the worms finally arrived last Friday. We set up the worm tower with bedding and fresh food scraps and then just dumped them in. The instructions said to check on them in three days. So we did. I think some of them were too stressed and didn’t make it. But most of them look pretty good and healthy. They were crawling in and out of the food, which was a good sign. It smelled a little funky; not rotten or anything. But it was definitely an earthy, humid smell. Dead worms maybe? Checked on them again yesterday and it seemed a little wet, so I added a bit of paper. And then today I added some coffee grounds and eggshells.

I read in the instructions that we should avoid citrus peels in the worm bin. Oops. There were a few citrus peels in that original handful of food. Must remember to put those only in the outside compost.

I think I’m going to leave them alone for the next few days. It’s hard to not futz around with them because I’m down in the basement doing laundry and I get curious about them so I turn on the light and open it up. And they apparently HATE light, which is why they will stay in the bin. Other worms, I’ve read, may CRAWL OUT of the bin. Boy wouldn’t that surprise the dog. She probably would try to eat a worm that was crawling around on her floor.

See more progress on: start a worm compost

My bro, Burrito Joe

My brother leads a charmed life. Besides having a cushy job with benefits, a swank apartment in the Bay Area, a side job doing music reviews, another side job as a freelance web designer, his own record label, and regular dj gigs, he built and runs a site called burritobot.com. Because of this site, he was interviewed by the local wacky morning dj show on a Bay Area mainstream radio station.

Sick of hearing about what you can't eat? Here's stuff you CAN eat:

The 29 Healthiest Foods on the Planet

Hm. Time to make a smoothie.

At $100 a pop...

It may be worth it to learn how to tune a piano myself. I found some simple directions here:

http://piano.detwiler.us/

Then again, do I really have the time to sit around tuning pianos? If my kids weren’t so loud all the time maybe I’d actually hear the strings… :-)

See more progress on: learn to tune the piano

Casual interest

I don’t really want to be a connosieur; lord knows I’ve got too many interests already. I’d just like to have a passable knowlege for when I’m standing in the wine store not knowing what the hell to buy.

Also, I would like to know if the benefits of a daily glass of wine outweigh the negative effects of alcohol…

See more progress on: learn about wine

Small Space decor

The thing about making-over our downstairs bathroom is that it seems like a one-person-at-a-time job, since it’s so small (you have to close the door before you sit on the toilet, otherwise it will hit your knees). Since our upstairs bathroom which was so lovingly renovated by J is the “sanctuary” bathroom, I feel like this bathroom can be the “fun” bathroom. Here’s what I’m thinking:

Method 1: strip the wallpaper, paint the walls, “Bin” the cabinets and the monstrous mirrored vanity and the side shelving. Paint over it in fun color. Replace toilet seal and toilet seat. Put in new dirt-hiding flooring: probably 12×12 vinyl self adhesive tiles in a color or pattern.

Method 2: strip the wallpaper, paint the walls, “Bin” the cabinets and REMOVE the monstrous mirrored vanity and the side shelving. Cut in built-in shelving on the side wall; hang curtain or bamboo blinds to cover. Install large flat (round?) mirror over sink. Paint walls in fun color. Replace toilet seal and toilet seat. Put in new dirt-hiding flooring: probably 12×12 vinyl self adhesive tiles in a color or pattern.

I really like method 2 but it will obviously take more time. The shower stall, too could use to be replaced but I don’t really want to get into any demolition or, horror of horrors, TILING.

See more progress on: paint the bathroom

Garden Notes 2005

Usually I record these thoughts in a file on my computer, but I thought this may be a better place for them. This year was "an outdoor year" as J deemed it; we concentrated most of our home improvements on the exterior landscaping. We started with 4 cubic yards of bark mulch to replenish the mulch we laid down about three years ago. We also dismanteled our existing compost pile and spread its contents throughout the perennials in the yard. We would have liked to keep it, but the tall maples surrounding our yard keep increasing our shady areas every year, plus it seems like our yard is too small to accomodate the ideal 3-bin composting setup. We have considered getting one of those prefabricated bins, but they're not cheap.

North side bed: Johnny One-Note Daylilies
Noticing that the plants hadn't spread all that much, we dug down to the landscaping cloth we'd put down and discovered that the plants were being hindered. So we ripped out a bunch of the cloth surrounding each plant, gave it some compost and mulch. Well, that did it because the entire bed exploded with blooms this year! J was diligent about about deadheading the blooms as soon as they wilted to prolong the blooming time, and her efforts resulted in the longest flowering period we've had with them. Even so, the hot dry weather we've had this mid July cut off most of the plants before they were ready. It was advertised in White Flower Farm's catalog that these would last until October! That hasn't happened yet, but some of the plants that don't get as much sun are readying themselves for a second flowering.


Front Window Boxes
In last year's notes I wrote, "Started indoors in peat pellets in mid April. Could even wait until late April to start indoors. Set outside to harden off in Mid May. Transplant to window boxes by Memorial Day." Well, I didn't really stick to this timetable. I don't think I got seedlings transplanted until mid-June due to the August-like weather we had in May. I didn't want them to fry, since I had nursed them along from seeds under grow lights in the basement. This year I started pansies and phlox indoors from seed and they were the first to bloom. I just direct-seeded the nasturtiums into the boxes since they are so quick-growing. They are just starting to bloom now that the pansies and phlox are waning. I came across the nasturtium seed packet recently, and I might sow a few more of them to take us into the fall.

The "self watering" window boxes are working out great! I love that I can just fill up the reservoir and the roots will draw it up as needed. This is ideal for someone like me, who tends to forget to check if the soil is dry until it is too dry. I wish the pots were better looking aesthetically, otherwise I'd use them for my houseplants, too.

I must remember to pull out the pansies and plant them in the garden for an early spring second bloom. Two years ago we let the pansies go dormant right in the box and I thought they'd died because we had a pretty harsh winter. But they actually came up again the following spring.

Front Yard Garden
This is our sunniest, most care-free spot. The Cornell Pink Azaleas were beautiful in the spring as usual but they're still pretty small; must research what to do to encourage more growth. The Dwarf Kalmia (Mountain Laurel) were transplanted here as well and they're faring better than they did in the shady south side bed. Luke picked out and helped plant a red verbena that has just flourished in the northeast corner of the garden. But the nearby Gaillardia, which gave such a great showing last year, has so far not bloomed, even though it has spread. I believe that they're not getting enough sunlight because the oak tree has spread out and shades that side of the house more than it did. In fact, it's really encroaching upon the house and we may want to consider pruning it back. But to do that we're going to need to buy or borrow one of those long-arm pruners like what Anita S. has. If the Gaillardia don't put out any blooms this year we're going to have to move it in the spring. The other perennials from J's mom (Centaurae thistle and perennial phlox) have really spread out this year, putting out more blooms than ever before. And the Coreopsis has REALLY REALLY spread. We may have to dig some up next year and give it away or swap it so that it doesn't take over the whole bed.

We also have a couple of unimaginative shrubs in the front, two junipers and two of another evergreen shrubs. "Say no to 70s bushes" is J's sister's philosophy, and intellectually we agree, but then that would leave us with nothing to hang our Christmas lights on. Maybe we just need to do some drastic pruning to the low bushes. J pruned the junipers last year quite heavily and the mockingbirds refused to nest in it this year. It's also hard to part with them because without them our front yard would look completely dead in the winter. We're going to have to look for better alternatives.

We are entertaining the thought of extending the front beds out to the walkway next year. Cut down on some lawn and put in some more flowers. Of course that would mean putting down some more mulch. I could get on board with that.

Coming up, notes on: South Side Bed, Backyard Beds, the Lawn and my Container Grown Tomatoes

The Mother of Invention

Over the weekend, I ran out of coffee filters. Apparently I use these really specific coffee filters (unbleached brown basket-type) because I haven't been able to find them in my normal day-to-day living. It seems I have to actively seek them out, but in the meantime I've devised this method worthy of this site's name:

1) I put the kettle on with the amount of water I use, measured by the numbers on the outside of the auto-drip's carafe (which inconveniently do not directly correspond to the U.S. or metric standard).

2) I measure out and grind the coffee and place the grounds directly inside the carafe.

3) When the kettle whistles, I pour the water over the grounds and steep for a few minutes.

4) I use a fine-mesh strainer to strain the grounds as I pour it into a glass measuring cup.

5) I pour a cup of coffee and prepare according to my current coffee preferences, which recently I have had to adapt to my current non-dairy lifestyle. (No steamed milk, no half & half; instead, a combination of vanilla rice milk and a drop of the refrigerated Coffee Mate French Vanilla.

While this produces excellent coffee, superior to that which emits from the auto drip, it is what I'd call a pain in the ass. Plus, the supposed benefit of not using the tree-killing basket coffee filters is somewhat balanced by the amount of water it takes to wash the various implements this process uses. Also, the black sludge that is left in the strainer, at the bottom of the carafe, and at the bottom of the glass measuring cup is just ugly.*

What's an alchemist to do?


* The recent "Green Issue" of ReadyMade Magazine advises sprinkling used coffee grounds in houseplants as a cheap fertilizer. But how long can you do that? I've already sprinkled two days worth of coffee grounds in the relatively few houseplants I have. Maybe I'll place some in a hose sprayer bottle and water some outside plants...

Cheap-ass silkscreen

Hey, I love my Print Gocco, but this is a viable alternative at a very, very low cost. I'm all for frugality (even if only in theory), so if you're feeling adventurous, try this:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/craftgrrl/3674467.html?thread=32252771

Adventures in Gocco-land

Some notes on my recent Print Gocco run:

1) The ink dries very quickly on the screen. Keep alcohol wipes handy to wipe the back of the screen an dissolve the dried ink. Also, wipe up any stray ink in the work area.

2) Wearing an apron is a smart idea especially if, like me, you are prone to wiping off your hands onto your clothes.

3) I don't think one is meant to save the screens, but in a burst of frugality, I managed to clean the ink from the screen by wiping it with the Riso Cleaner, and then using a wet tea bag (just happened to be there) to unclog the printing area of the screen. I was hoping the tannic acid would help, and it did.

4) when printing, use a firm hand to press the stamp down evenly, then hold it for a few seconds to let the ink penetrate the fabric

Almond Milk

One of our cars is broken, so I couldn't run out to Wild Oats as planned to pick up some almond milk, so I decided to make my own.

1 cup roasted almonds (roast raw almonds in oven at 300-350 for half hour-ish)
4 cups filtered water

Soak almonds for a few hours, or overnight. Pour in blender and blend. Strain through cheesecloth. You will have to squeeze the cheesecloth in order to extract all of the milk from the almond pulp. Sweeten to taste with honey or maple syrup.



So then I tried to make pignoli cookies out of the leftover almond pulp. As I was not using any form of measurement, I failed miserably. I wish myself better luck next time.

Coconut Rice Pudding With Berry Rhubarb Salad

Mmmm mmmm good. Made this for a friend's party and it was a hit! Substituted soy milk for the cow's milk to make it vegan and carambola for the rhubarb because there wasn't any rhubarb. Plus, I subbed whipped coconut milk for the cream, which turned out I think to be totally optional. I doubled the recipe, so there was a lot left over (little goes a long way), and Peterson made it into -- what else -- ice cream! Yay!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup arborio rice
Two 14-oz. cans unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

Strawberry-Rhubarb Salad:

1/2 pound fresh rhubarb, very thinly sliced
1/2 cup or more sugar
1 pt. strawberries, hulled, sliced
3/4 cup whipping cream, softly whipped

Preparation:

For pudding, blanch the arborio grains in a large pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain, rinse and drain again. Combine the blanched rice, coconut milk, cow's milk, sugar and split vanilla bean in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until the rice is very tender and the liquid is thick enough to leave a path on the back of a spoon when a finger is drawn across, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Stir often, as the rice may scorch, especially near the end of cooking. Remove vanilla bean and cool pudding completely.

For berry salad: Toss the rhubarb with 1/2 cup sugar or more to taste in a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or until sugar's dissolved and pink syrup has formed. Stir in sliced berries.

To serve, fold whipped cream into the cooled pudding and serve with strawberry-rhubarb salad.

Yield: 6 servings
Preparation: 2 hours (long simmering)

Recipe by chef Heather Ho of Boulevard restaurant in San Francisco, Calif., as it appears in The Secrets of Success Cookbook by Michael Bauer (Chronicle Books, 2000, $19.95

Avocado variation

I tried the avocado variation on the coconut milk ice cream today, but I used an entire avocado and nearly 3/4 cup sugar! Holy mama is it rich! It's like Häagen-Daz. It's all the fat. Boy howdy is it yummy. Here's the recipe:

1 can coconut milk
1 Haas avocado
3/4 cup sugar

Blend ingredients together using hand blender, or if you don't care about lumps, mash together with fork. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions (about 20-25 minutes). Transfer into airtight container and freeze for a few hours to firm it up.

Next variation on this variation: a [somewhat] lighter version omitting the coconut milk and just using the avocado for the fat content. Substitute honey (slightly warmed to make it runny) for the sugar. Tiny bit, maybe 1/8 cup soy milk... Or maybe a chunk of silken tofu to add some body. Hmmm...

Note about avocado ice cream: Filipinos enjoy their avocados sweet, not savory (like guacamole). I like it both ways!