You have no idea how much I enjoy pickles!

I had 24 seedlings in the store window, but now there's @ 15. I noticed a marked difference this week by watering them daily instead of weekly. They should go in the ground on Sunday.

Labels: garden

Yesterday I spent 6 & 1/2 hours up at the garden getting all the weeding done and getting it into shape.
I found out that spearmint from last year is evil and sent shooting roots under almost the whole plot.
We will confine the spearming to 1 pot this year. I got 4 black pearl pepper plants from the same seller at the Evanston Farmer's market that I got them from last year and they're in the ground now ready.
We need to get some soil and then get the rest of the plot planted, etc. Nights this week will be used for that.
Pictures later tonight.
Teflon did help for more than 2 hours.

Labels: garden, update

Mopeds:
We've got helmets now, which makes me more comfortable. The QT50 just needs a turn signal flasher and a headlight.
The Express II needs work, this work is daunting.
Also getting them plated and titled looks hard and expensive.

Garden-
Yeah, we ended up there on Saturday. 1st visit this year. I was dreading it, but all in all it wasn't horrible. The spearmint from last year took over 1/2 the plot, with weeds in the other half.
There's baby birds in the birdhouse, I saw that crazy attacking bird too. And some garden neighbors.
I have my seedlings in the store window still, a place to buy more cherokee purple tomatoes, some rare radish seeds coming from Australia, & a lot of work ahead of me. Exciting.

Weight loss-
What's that? I may be back to my old weight. Stress eating is fun, seriously.

Music-
1/4 of the tracks for the year are done. Still going steady.

Pictures and better posts may occur in the future.

Labels: garden, moped, music, update, ww

The Evanston City Gardening letter just came out, sneakily detailing that no more compost is being provided.
Yay extra cost this year. Their website still says it's available free.

Labels: garden

I started some seed on Sunday and put them in the store window to germinate, knowing the boss wouldn't notice them for weeks.
He noticed today and then asked what the hell was growing in the window, yet he took the time to read what I wrote and actually knew:
mystery peppers & purple jalepenos

Labels: garden

I made my first batch of hot sauce tonight. It's good.


It's hot, too.

Labels: followthru, garden, hot sauce

My hot sauce bottles arrived, but I got shorted on "reducers". I may make the sauce tomorrow night and then bottle next month.

Labels: garden, hot sauce

Today I decided to get off my ass and back onto my bike. I haven't ridden in @ 3 weeks. I dunno what happened, The Gout, the headcold, rainstorms, & the laziness. But it had to stop.
I hadn't been to the garden in 2 weeks until Sunday, and wanted to get back to watering almost daily schedule. Sunday there was tons of weeding to do, 3lbs of hot peppers and a few tomatoes.
Anyhow...I got up and got out of the house, then went to get some air in my tires from the bike shop. I go to do this and it drains air out of my tire, I then notice a post-it 3 feet from the hose saying "our airhose is broken, feel free to come inside while we're open and fill up", well it was 3 hours before they opened. This angered me because this is the 2nd time this has happened to me there.
So, I ride off North to the gas stations. I get to the first one and realize I'm not carrying any money. So, no $0.25 for the air pump. I proceed to weave my way from Greenbay & Emerson to Golf & McCormick, hitting the 3 gas stations, but none are free air.
I end up along the sculpture parks by the river, but the low air tire is making me work extra hard, so at Dempster, I decide to go home, as I'll never make it to the garden in time to water and get to work on time.
So, as I pass Dodge, I decide to go in to Lake St. as Dempster is very busy. I get over to Lake, but they're doing construction, so I have to get on the sidewalk just a block before Asbury. Up ahead I see Nancy-Fertility Clinic and her double-wide stroller on the cell phone and can see I'll never get past her and that she's oblivious to me. Here comes an alley, so I can get back into the street where I belong (adults on bikes should ride in the street). As I turn into the alley ramp, it's all sand and gravel and the bike skids. I am able to slide out from under the bike and catch myself on my hands and the roll. I don't hit that hard, not knocking the wind out, but close to it. I barely scraped anything, my pants didn't rip, and I'm pretty OK, just shaken.
I get back on the bike, but the chain had popped off, but I fixed it and headed off.
I catch up with Nancy-cellphone at Ridge and see that she's still gabbing oblivious and that there's 2 seats in the stroller with one kid, the empty filled with crap.
I get home shower off and head off to work.
Work is a whole other post, as the letter we got in the mail may be the coolest bit of ridiculousness ever.

Labels: garden, update

I went to the garden today. I usually ride out there on the bike listening to my iPod Shuffle and a book on tape. Yesterday I put the new Chemical Brothers CD & the new (from last year) Squarepusher CD and was jamming out to those.
My garden neighbor lets the weeds crowd into my space, so I was at the fence with a scissors and clipping away the intruders.
I clipped my headphones cord too. Silent ride home.

I know there hasn't been any pictures lately, but fear not, website updates are in the works (for ALL my sites!) and I plan on doing some web comics to catch it up.

Labels: garden, update

Well, one of the benefits of growing hot peppers is making your own hot sauce.
We finally ID'd the other hot pepper plant that is fruiting, it's Habenaro. Last Sunday after being stir-crazy indoors with my bout of gout, I got Teflon to take me over to the garden, we hobbled in and I picked a lot of Habenero & Black Pearl peppers. She got at some of her tomatoes.
I went home and started going with a recipe I got off of this website: Pepper Joe.
I peeled the peppers and seeded them, next time I wear gloves, I got 1st degree chemical burns on all my fingertips.
Followed the recipe and made some hot sauce.
It's hot! And tasty.
If you come over and are having a snack that could use some hot sauce, just ask.

Labels: garden

Labels: garden

Wow, Thursday already. Well, given the fact that I made a pig of myself and haven't ridden my bike at all this week, I'll be skipping tonight's weigh-in.

We've been busy getting ready for the 3rd annual garage sale Saturday. I'm selling, not 1 or 2, but 4 Macs (3 CRT iMacs & Jenny's old iBook).

Also, Eric & Hannah got married over the weekend, and we're cat sitting their "special" cat.

I cannot wait for Sunday's official day to myself.

The garden is coming along. The medusa is starting to fruit already. I will do my last nitrogen based fertilizer tomorrow, then it's on to a fruit inducing one. My purple jalepeno pepper seeds finally arrived, so now I need to get a pot and germinate one and get that going.

Labels: garden, update, ww, yardsale

I didn't go to the garden today because I didn't, but I wanted to water and was mad I didn't go, but it's raining now.

Labels: garden

So, I went to water today & there were 3 pepper sprouts in the hot pepper bed, so some of the mystery seeds have germinated. Yay!
I used a fertilizer heavy in nitrogen on Saturday and everything was looking great (except for the "Mr. Stripey" tomatoe plant, which may not make it).
I'm going to do 2 more treatments like that and then go for a potasium heavy fertilizer to enhance fruiting, as too much nitrogen makes big giant plants with no fruit.
I have pictures, but haven't gotten the hang of the new computer to upload, so hang on.

Labels: garden

Yesterday I did not want to go to the garden. I'm glad I did, though.
I was looking at the radish bed and noticed sprouts coming up in rows in the same pattern I planted. So the radishes are coming.
I took pictures today, they'll be online tomorrow.
Also, I think my lone pepper seed I planted near the medusa pot is sprouting. Well, something is, at least.

Labels: garden

Well, no radish or pepper seed sprouts yet.
Seems to be taking a beating.
And a ewgross vole came at me, looked like a mouse and Nigel combined.

Labels: garden

I went yesterday to water, but didn't have time to get the pictures online. Here they are:

Labels: garden

We ended up buying some plants to plant. Weird as it seems, it's pretty late in the growing season.

So, the beds are planted:
tomatoes (+3 sweet pepper plants + leeks)
hot peppers (mystery seeds + 3 plants from the farmer's market)
herbs (catnip + lavender + spearmint)
radishes

Exciting!

Our resident bird:


Jenny


Full plot:




Tomatoe bed:


Hot Pepper bed:


Herbs bed:


Radish bed:


The medusa pepper plant:


Marigolds:






Tim:

Labels: garden

I would've posted these yesterday after I got home, but I had to get to work. Then last night I was all in DJ mode and made a DJ mix and got my podcast going again, so here we are, day late but not $1 short.

When I got there yesterday I was the only one there. There were lots of birds. Not just sparrows and the gateguarder & the grey birds from the bird house, but exotic birds that I am sure escaped from the PetSmart™ across Oakton.
This bird was hanging out by our plot:



Here's the plot:



Jenny's Marigolds (the ones that seemed to hold up):






Reverse low angle (have you noticed I try and also make sure you see my bike and that I rode it there?):



One of the pepper seeds (all out of focus and pre-"plooped"):



And this cat was over by Asbury & Crain crossing the street. The picture doesn't cover how badass the cat actually is, but this cat was badass. If you know either of the Siamese cats in my life (shout-outs to Stella & Birdie) you'd know that my opinion of Siamese cats is that they are not badass in the slightest.
Anyways, take a look (& yes I made sure it got across the street safely, but I bet the cat would've gotten all ninja-like like in that movie Cats & Dogs):

Labels: garden

I rode over there today (I map quested it, it's almost 5 miles round trip).
The damage wasn't bad. Teflon's Marigolds took a beating. Probably some of my pepper seeds washed away. I did see plenty in the bed, floated right to the top of the water, I bet. So I took my finger and went "ploop" and pushed them down and brushed some dirt over them.
I still have 1 last pepper seed packet due, I will germinate those at home and transfer plants.

Labels: garden

Maybe I should have skipped watering the garden a few hours ago...it's raining very hard.
My shallowly sowed pepper seeds probably washed away....
sad.

Labels: garden

This is the bird that guards the main entrance:, he's fierce:




The garden itself:

Labels: garden

Labels: garden

I got a call from the city regarding my garden zone application.
I am 3 down from getting the last spot at the James location, but am right up there for getting a Twiggs location spot. There's 2 spots, and 1 guy in line ahead of me.
There's a problem with pilfering over at Twiggs, but how bad can it be?
I'm trying to drive over there tonight to have a look, as it was the absolute last place I wanted a plot at.
And here I'd just resigned on having a garden this year.

Labels: garden

Eft & Teflon Garden Zone...

I was unaware the wife wanted to be involved.

Labels: garden

I've been thinking of getting a public gardening plot this year.
To get outside more, exersize (ride my bike there to work on it), and to grow some veggies.
Waiting for info from the parks department.

Labels: garden