Showing posts with label lacinato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lacinato. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Lacinato Kale etc... and Twitter

I am glad I have given this lacinato kale its own large pot. It is a very graceful vegetable. I should however being eating more of it. Lately it's been mostly beet greens. I should freeze some.
I've decided to not do posts with 4 different photos that don't relate directly to each other. I am influenced by twitter. Twitter seems more useful to me as the people I follow often share information with others via links to all sorts of things and I may pick and choose as I skim through the various tweets and click on those that catch my interest. I was initially wary of posting more than once a day but so many people tweet 20 times or more and I still get useful information from them.

I am slightly saddened when I remember growing up with a paper delivered to my front door every morning by a local teenager. I used to read the whole newspaper and absorbed all sorts of information without all the distractions that exist in the way that we get information today. It was in a way more limited in that as I read, if I had a question about something I could not just google it on the spot like I do everyday. Anyway I am on twitter mostly tweeting my blog posts and I am looking for more people to follow.
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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Bored Cats

Sally was a very bad girl this morning. She took a dump in my flowerbed that borders the sidewalk. For a second I thought, "Hmm, one of the dogs walking by will take care of that." I ended up digging a deep hole, in a dark corner, far away from anything growing because she unfortunately has done this before. No, I don't compost their kitty litter though I suppose I could. That gets disposed of another way.

I don't think that there's much I can do to make her stop except to stick bamboo skewers in the ground. If she does this to this highly visible bed, I might resort to that.
Here's another bored looking cat, the feral boy I sometimes call "Cheedarhead". I actually brushed him while he ate this morning. I always make him eat at my feet so I can pet him. He pretends to hate being petted but I think he likes it. I think he liked the brush. Cat hair, actually, any hair, and nail clippings, are an excellent fertilizers. I've been burying it just below many things I have planted.
Abe is nipping at the catnip which is finally growing beyond its dome. I am very, very pleased with my birdseed sunflowers. I have no idea how big they'll get but I haven't seen any bigger than mine, at least in my neighborhood.
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Friday, May 22, 2009

Beau Désordre

I was in Africa once. I saw what was called the "Zairoise miricle" that people could live and breed without any real government. I enjoyed the local music I heard there. Years later I bought a bunch of records at a flea market, 5 for a dollar or something. They were from the 70's I think. I had scant knowledge of what it was but I believe I found some Soukous. It was different than most of the African music I heard on the radio, and to my ear better. Zaiko Langa Langa was one artist and this was described as being "beau désordre", beautiful chaos. I think that that could describe my garden.

These pots are looking very nice. I got my lacinato kale, very stately, next to the salad bowl.
I just let the chamomile take over the swan. It looks a bit weedy perhaps, but I don't care.
My strawberries are getting luscious.
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Friday, May 15, 2009

Dew!

This morning was foggy and I realized as I drank my coffee this morning, dewy. I yelled for Todd to grab my camera to document this and here it is.

I planted this lacinato kale last week I think. It's looking lovely already. I haven't harvested any yet but it is good eating. That and red russian are my favorite kales right now.
 
Here's a closer view of a leaf. It was just beautiful.
 
Next we have an artichoke leaf.
 
And finally a cabbage leaf over some mizuna which I still need to harvest. No hurry though.
 
I think I am going to try to do a post a day, if only because I now have super duper fast uploading. My garden is growing at warp speed. I think I might do another post when I finish this. I think it's just easier to upload only 4 photos at a time but I take so many beautiful pictures so I must post more.
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Saturday, May 9, 2009

Garden Eyecandy

This might be obnoxious but I haven't been updating fast enought to catch up with my garden. Everything is just exploding!

This tomato is not in an ideal habitat but this isn't about perfect tomatoes, it's about fun and maybe sharing with the neighbors. It's a cherry, either juliet or super sweet 100. Don't be fooled by it's shady spot. I have plans to somehow train this against the railroad tie wall where there is plenty of sun. I just think I will have to tweak the balance of nutrients in its soil more carefully than a standard planting.These feral chamomile have miraculously not been tread upon. Either my neighbors understand that this isn't a weed or they just think I am crazy and are afraid to damage this flower. I think that they somehow understand that I am up to something special.The saladball is slowly filling out. I plant something else as if this were a sketch I sit with every few days. Always a work in progress. It already looks different than it did from this photo which is maybe a week old.For some reason this little bay laurel makes me happy. It suffered so much this winter and now it looks alive.These cascade hops are in their second year. What a difference a year makes! Maybe it will be worth harvesting this year.This blur of plants are pretty much all greens and all edible. OK, a few aren't but they aren't weeds. I thin them pretty much everyday. It sorta forces me to eat my vegetables. There's mizuna, red cabbage, pansies, florence fennel seedlings, onions and probably something I have forgotten. Damn! I have surpassed the 20 item limit of things I may tag this blog with. Sure, I could have made it 2 posts but whatever.This lacinato kale should be pretty graceful in this pot. I tucked in some allysum and some chervil thinnings from the salad bowl. There's even a basil plant, just basic basil. Now if I can find some red russian kale, I will be happy. I might have to grow it myself. hmph. One disadvantage of Pittsburgh is a lack of exotic stuff. Now if there were enough of a demand I WOULD put more effort into growing my own to share or perhaps sell with to other gardeners.These wallflowers are nice, and half haven't started blooming yet. Tansy, monarda and calendula have yet to flower. This wall is built of found things. I am quite fond of thrifting, indeed, my latest project is the result of thrifting, actually a good find. More on that shortly. I don't know if I have said it here, but I sorta feel like recycling in whatever form is a very patriotic thing to do. I don't want to be preachy, but when I think about things coming from far, far away and using fossil fuels to do things when it's all in your backyard it kinda upsets me.This cat always looks scared. here is a rare view of my backyard. It needs a lot of work. This was taken through my kitchen window. I don't think this cat is feral, she's just a scaredy cat.
These are my tulips at their best this year. Already more than half of them are done blooming. Just this yesterday I heard a very small child say very clearly "TULIPS" when he passed by with his family. This made my day.
These oyster mushrooms show a new direction I am going in garden synergy. If my experiments work out, I'll share them. Honestly for the most part if I show you something here I think you should try it for yourself. The stuff I am trying that I'm not sure about, I don't share.
These ants with amber distended bodies fed from my hummingbird feeder until I filled the ant guard with water. I really do not like ants but these look like jewels. These ants are actually, at least on my browser, a fifth of the size they are here. The black surface they are walking on is a cast iron shepard's hook which looks fairly smooth in normal vision.
I hope that in the future that I will stick to my goal of posting twice a week. I think the poison ivy set me back. Anyway, already I have a lot to document.
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