I'm back!

Whew! Things have been crazy here. I should have listened to my fiance and eloped lol  Our wedding is less than 2 months away, and I have found a job!  hopefully I start monday but I'm still waiting for the medical clearance.  I have had some problems with some of my seedlings. The biggest problem is a big fast black cat... He doesn't eat table food, weighs 17 pounds and hasn't list any weight even though he's been on a diet for years.  Turns out he likes broccoli seedling leaves... I put 3 trays of seedlings on the dining room table when I brought them in from outside (was working on gardening them off). I woke up the next day to 3 trays of sticks in dirt... I saw RED!  So I planted a bunch more and this time when bringing them in I put them on the kitchen counter... Sticks AGAIN!!!!Anyone want a cute fat cat??  So I've started more broccoli...AGAIN.  I wonder how cat sure tastes hehe
This weekend we are finally getting the wood for my flower beds. I'm kind of deciding whether to reduce my original layout since it looks like we'll be moving next year to be closer to my new job & my fiance's job.  I have peas and lettuce praise under a frost blanket and they are doing wonderful. I'm also going rip pick up some pvc pipes to build a hoop house.
I still have pictures to put up but it will have to wait until I get a few minutes to breathe.
God bless you all!

Update:  I got the call from HR and I start work on Monday!!! =)

PANIC!!!

Ok so I'm freaking out just a little bit (ok a LOT on the inside) because I just realized it's March already and I have so much to do!!

-I'm suppose to be planting lettuce and broccoli outside!  But then I look at the weather and it says it's going to be 25* tomorrow. ugh this weather is driving me crazy.  How can I harden plants off when it's still freezing outside (sure wish I had those mini hoop houses set up already!) I'll have pictures of how everything is doing tomorrow or Friday.

-The wedding invitations have to go out in 2 weeks YIKES!  The place I'm using told me I'm good with the timing since I sent out Save-A-Dates but I am still flipping out because I realized today that the girls and I need shoes, I need a headpiece/veil, the girls and I need our dresses altered, I have NO idea what to get the the girls for a gift for being my matron of honor and brides maids and then my sister asks me: what room do you want pictures taken on the morning of the wedding. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Who cares!

*DEEP BREATH*

Then to top this all off, I received an email from the place I went to for the 2nd interview yesterday. They want my references.  My friend who was recently hired by them as an RN said that if they are requesting my references that means I'm IN!! I just might have a job!  And not just any ol' job. It's a job that is actually what I do: administrative assistant (experience in the financial industry).  Woohoo!!!  But I'm trying not to get excited yet because I haven't been made an offer yet.  The downside of this job is the commute will be about an hour each way but at least I don't have to take the train into the city (NYC).  My dog will have to go into daycare because I'll be leaving so early I won't have time to walk her before leaving. The hours are 8-4 so I'll be out early enough for us to still go to the dog park in the summer :)  Life will be great!

It was beautiful outside today so I was laying cardboard on the areas where I want to add new raised beds.  I guess it was an odd choice, but when my sweetie asked me what I wanted as a birthday gift I said "CEDAR!!"  hahaha  So, we're going shopping this weekend to buy cedar wood for my beds.  After being outside and locating the sprinkler heads, I have laid out where I want my new beds.  The sprinkler heads really are in the worst place for having these beds but I'm trying to keep my gardening contained to one side of the yard (at least for now!).  I will be more then doubling my space so hopefully I'll have lots of veggies to freeze and can.  I want beans and tomatoes for over the winter.

Happy Gardening Everyone!!!

Blogger Awards!!

I want to thank Lynda from Cortina Creek Farms for giving me this award. My first award! Lynda has a great blog and she's a really nice person too :)

Now I have to divulge 7 things about myself and pass this award on to 15 other bloggers.

Lets see...

1 - Today is my birthday :) I'm 46 and am busy planning the 'big' New York wedding I never had the first time around.  I have had a very busy day but very enjoyable.  I had a 2nd interview this morning with a big hospital service here that went very well.  Hopefully God has this job in his plans for me!  And the wedding invitation planning is officially underway.

2 - I am a Tea Party nutcase :)  I attended my first meetings in the beginning of 2009 and went to my first rally on Tax Day 2009 (April 15th for our international bloggers) and brought my mom with me.  It was a great experience to be around other people who were fed up with the spending of our new president, Obama, the dems and the establishment republicans aka career politicians who don't have a clue what 'We The People' want.  I loved how so much emphasis is put on our Veterans that have served for our country to give us the freedom we enjoy and the camaraderie with others who love this country and are willing to stand up to get things back the way the Founders meant for it to be.

3 - I come from a Chinese heritage.  My grandfather was born and raised in China.  When he was 9 he had to quit school to go to work because his family was very poor.  He often times went hungry.  When he was 16 he was a merchant sailor and when the ship came to the United States, he jumped over board and swam to shore.  He had a cousin who lived here who helped him get food and shelter.  He learned to speak Engrish :)  and I loved it when he got mad and swore because it was very funny "Sum Ditch!"  :)  All of a sudden us kids figured a way to swear without getting in trouble lol  My grandfather was an entrepreneur.  He owned a lot of chinese restaurants all over New York City, Long Island and Connecticut.  He met my grandmother in one of his restaurants. She was Italian raising her brother and money was tough.  They were often hungry but when my grandfather fell in love with my grandmother, he told her that she would never be hungry again.  And he made sure that everyone in his family was well fed.  He brought his brother and his brothers wife and 4 children over to America.  I remember all the summer BBQ's we had over his house and our big family seemed quite normal to me.  It wasn't until I was older that I realized how very blessed I was to have such a big close family.  We still celebrate Chinese New Year every year with the whole family in Chinatown in NYC.  It's a LOT of eating authentic Chinese food (not this americanized stuff in the local chinese restaurants).  I have wonderful memories of my grandfather and I miss him very much.

4 - I went to college for Nursing for a year when I was 20 but when I became pregnant with my oldest son the choice was either I attend college or my then husband because we just didn't have enough money for both.  I figured I was going to follow in my mothers footsteps anyway and be a stay at home mom  so I dropped out of school.  As it turned out I still had to work but just not during the day when there was no one to watch the babies.  So I would take care of the kids all day, and was a home healthcare aide at night and during the day on weekends.  In the evenings of the weekend, I worked nights as a cashier at a local supermarket.  I think back to how much I worked and I have no idea how I wasn't a walking zombie. Ahhh to be young again lol

5 - I volunteer at my churches food pantry and the nursery.  The nursery has about 7 kids under the age of 3 and I do that Wed. mornings (until I get a job).  They are adorable and I sleep well at night after spending a morning with them.  I love helping and giving to others.  I think I was a born caregiver.  :)  I've also volunteered to help with the garden beds outside around the church this year.  This will be the first time doing that.

6 - I met my fiancé online.  We live 40 minutes away in neighboring counties and I always tease him that MY county  is better then HIS county  hehe  When I first met him, he called me 'electronic brat' because he found out just how much I love electronic gadgets.  I love technology!  I have a laptop, a mini laptop, a smart phone (android) and am looking at a tablet.  I have always been able to have the latest technology and hopefully I always will. Everything is getting smaller and faster! :)

7 - I like to crochet mostly blankets and scarves.  I have been doodling with crocheting since I was 12. I remember my grandmother and great aunt teaching me the techniques that they used.  Before that I never even knew my grandmother knew how to crochet.  Very nice memory :)  I have yet to attempt anything more difficult but I recently bought a pattern book so who knows, I just might challenge myself as soon as things slow down a little.

Here are the blogs that I read and find excellent sources of information, amusement and just pure entertainment and would like to give this award to:

Hazel-dene
.09 Acres
Compost in my shoe
Tim's Square Foot Garden
Sinfonian's Garden Adventure
Our Engineered Garden
Backyard Farming
A Gardener In Progress
Full Freezer
Backyard Organic Vegetables
A Country Farmhouse
Obsessive Neurotic Gardener
From Seed To Table
My Garden, My Hobbies
Uncle Dutch Farms
Urban Veggie Garden Blog

There were definitely others that I would add to the list but I can only put 15.

Happy Gardening!!!

Ski trip took a rough turn...

We have an annual family ski trip every year with my siblings and their families and my parents and some close friends with their families. It's a great time for all, with plenty of company for all ages.

I guess I should have known something wasn't right when we arrived at the hotel first on Friday.  (Confession: being on time is a challenge for me.).
My oldest son, 23, came with us which he hasn't done in the last few years so that was really very nice.
My middle son, 18,  wasn't able to be with us (very weird not having him with us) because he had a school charity function that whole weekend at his college.  *It's worth mentioning that Penn State Univ. raised a record $9.56 million for childhood cancer.  The kids worked really hard. The motto: FTK! (For The Kids!)

Then, Sunday morning we were the first ones down for breakfast...  My fiancé said: Something is not right here when we are early.  :)
That morning my youngest son, 16, started not feeling good and didn't ski.  By the afternoon he had a fever.

Best Part:


Sunday night my 18 yo surprised me by coming to the hotel from his college to see us for a couple of hours. It was so wonderful to have all 3 of my boys with me - sort of with me.  The 16yo was up in our hotel room sleeping with a fever, but at least I had them all in the same building!  I really miss my 18 yo.  He's the only one that watches NCIS, CSI and American Idol with me.  I kept hugging him and he was really good about it even with having a couple of his frat buddies with him.  We have so much fun watching 'our shows' together.  We've had some of our best talks during the commercials.  For now, I have to be happy with text messages :)

Rough Turn:


Sunday night I had my 16 yo stay in my room so I could watch him overnight instead of the room we had for the teenage boys (I have to say - I don't know what it is about teenage boys but they were in that room for 2 days and it had the gross teenage boy odor.  ick!).
Monday morning we woke up to 4 inches and still snowing.  Luckily by the time we left at 10am to go back home the snow had stopped.
We arrived home to 3 inches of snow... the guys shoveled our driveway while I lugged all the suitcases and stuff into the house.  By the evening, I had a fever and sore throat.
By Tues morning my fiancé called me - he had a fever.
This morning my sister called me and her 2 yo just got a fever.  What the heck is going on?!

I had enough and went to the doctor to find my white blood cell count high and was given antibiotics for the throat infection it seems I had - I get these often.  I think it's related to the removal of my tonsils and adenoids when I was 3 yrs old but I can't get any doctor to actually say that has made me more susceptible to infections.  What I do like is at my doctors office they take a bit of your blood from your finger and test it to see what your white blood cells are up to.  I am totally against giving antibiotics 'just in case'.  That's part of why we have so many antibiotic resistant strains out there (that and not finishing your medication).   If there isn't a bacterial infection, let my body's immune system do the miracle it was made to do - fight infection.

Back to Gardening! :)

I hope I'm feeling better in a day or so because I've changed my garden plans yet again and I have to plant another 5 tomato plants.  My birthday is coming up in a week and my fiance said he'd get me whatever I wanted.  I want the cedar raised beds for my new beds so hopefully I'll get at least one of them :) I also had to actually 'think' about the fact that growing potatoes means I need a deeper bed then what I use for my other veggies.  As it so happens, the one bed I have decided to make raised would be perfect.  I won't add compost soil to the raised bed at first.  I'll add it as I need to build up the soil around them as they grow.  I'm really looking forward to this growing season!

Over Wintering thoughts

We're on our way to our annual family ski trip and I'm reading a copy of Mother Earth News Living Series: Guide to Organic Gardening.  One of the articles discusses low tunnel growing for over wintering veggies. Its a very interesting article.

The veggies that over winter well for an early spring crop are:

Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Lettuce
Onions
Peas
Spinach

This gives me a few ideas of what to grow over the winter for the 4 seasons challenge.  Peas, onions and beets are pulling at me so I think I'll look into adding those to my winter plan. 

It also gives an easy look at how to build a low hoop tunnel,with the help of a conduit bender available at Johnnys Selected Seeds (will include link later after arriving at the hotel).  Since we always get snow here I'll be using metal conduit for my tunnels to give them the strength to hold up under snow.  I'm hoping to have the money to do this sometime in March so I can get some other veggies out early. 

When I get back home I'll be sowing the last 4 Broccoli plants.

Blessings!

2011 Growing Challenge: 4 Season Gardening!

I have joined this 4 Season Challenge & the Seed to Seed Challenge over at One Green Generation.
Join us!!

The 4 Season Garden challenge is to obviously garden in all 4 seasons - Now the winter is going to be a challenge for me (and perhaps some of you as well) but it's something I've been thinking about and wondering how to make it work on a budget.  Now there's a challenge!  With all the snow we still have (I actually can see 1 corner of one of my raised beds), growing things under lights in my basement is looking good!

2 - Grow something new each season and grow it from SEED! I'm growing a bunch of new things this year and all from seed.  In the spring, I have new lettuce varieties and broccoli.  In the summer, I have corn and potatoes along with new varieties of pole beans, bush beans, cukes, tomatoes and carrots.  For the fall, I was planning on growing what I did in the spring but perhaps I can kick it up a notch by adding something.  Oh the possibilities!!

3 - Spread the word! Blog about what your doing, tell people about what your doing, or go to the website and comment about what you're doing. Encourage 3 others to start gardening!! I know I've already encourage my bestest friend who lives in Texas to encourage his soon to be fiance who has been wanting to grow a garden.  She just planted her first strawberry plants today! :)

An optional challenge is if you can't grow it, buy it from a local farmer.  I definitely plan on doing that this year.  I have to learn about preserving veggies (freezing/canning) since there's not much available in the winter and I don't know of any local farmers that are even open to the public right now.

Seed Sowing Saturday

I sowed De Cicco Broccoli & Rossa Di Trento Lettuce last week but had issues uploading the pics.  I'm going to be following the sowing schedule of Dave from The Home Garden & doing Seed Sowing Saturdays.  I like the schedule it puts me on since part of my issue last year was not having seeds sown at the right times and running out of summer growing season so my great plan fell apart.

These are the first Heirloom seeds I started to grow this year.  The reason I picked Rossa Di Trento Lettuce? It's from Italy!!  Also it sounded very fancy. The fact that its so pretty was a huge bonus.  I love a pretty salad!  Will let ya know how it tastes!   I only put 1 seed in each section hoping to not waste any seeds with having to thin them.  Every seed grew!

Look at my itty bitty 1 week old lettuce seedlings!!!

I love this seed sowing container!  I can grow 49 seedlings in it.  I bought 2 last year from Veseys and I'm going to need to buy another 2 this week.  I planted 49 lettuce last week & another 49 today in my 2nd container so I just need to sow 28 more and my spring lettuce plants are done. These containers enable me to grow solid seedling plugs without damaging the roots when I remove them like other containers I've tried.

The cover has spikey things on top and are used upside down to put a small dent in the soil so you have a place to put your seed.  Best part?? It's dishwasher safe!  I love it!  It's also self watering with corners made to easily add water.  It is easily the BEST container I've ever tried.

This is my first year growing Broccoli so I'm really looking forward to seeing how it comes out. I'm starting out small - 4 plants last week, will plant 4 more in a week and then 8 in the fall (possibly more if I swap out lettuce spots for extra broccoli plants).

Here are what my 1 week old broccoli seedlings look like. Aren't they so cute??

Today I sowed another 49 lettuce seeds but this time I used Grandpa Admire's.  I really liked this one because it's slow to bolt which is what I need in the heat of the summer.  It's also a butterhead so I'm thinking it's a great mix with the loose leaf lettuce I sowed last week.  WOW going to be a lotta lettuce!!

I put 1 seed in each spot again so hopefully they will germinate as well as the last batch.

Below are very sorry looking lettuce plants I've been trying to grow over the winter without lights in my kitchen window. Obviously, not very successfully.  I have them under lights now so hopefully they'll grow  (don't know why I didn't do it earlier then now!).

Here's my current set up. I have a metal shelf with a T5 high output light.  It has 2 different types of lights: 2 for growth and 2 for blooming.  I've ordered 2 growth bulbs to replace the blooming ones since I'm interested in good strong seedlings.  I have another light set that will be here hopefully by Monday so will be able to put like-heighted seedlings together to help with light intensity.  That will give me 2 shelves worth of room.  Over the summer I'm going to have to seriously consider what I'm going to do so I can grow veggies over the winter.

I want to send out a huge THANK YOU to Lynda from Cortina Creek Farms for sending me celery seeds.  This will be my first time growing celery and I'm very excited!  I will be saving my own seeds this year too and will be sending some your way!!

Happy Sowing Everyone!!!