Friday Five

[learnteach]

1. Pickles are good. Pressure cooker? Good. Fondue? Fabulous. Fresh Farmer's Market Feed? Fantastic! I seem to have slipped into an earlier mode of food. Now, to learn how to can, to work on my sundrying, to learn how to salt meat.

2. The computer can suck my good habits right away. I need to get away from this thing. So what am I doing?...

3. Companion planting, I want to learn more about it. Anybody out there doing much of it? And why did the tulips fail again?

4. Best Gig ever: Substitute teaching...on a martial arts beach campout. No, really!

5. Still haven't had a chance to teach my demo lesson. Might be a fail. Ah well!

6. This California Election? Why are we wasting the money?

Comments

[fighter-chick.livejournal.com]

Canning is fabulous. Get the Ball Blue Book--it's the canning/food preservation safety bible. Also, I'd be happy to teach you/hang out for your first canning go-round.

How did your tulips fail?

I do some companion planting. The second planting of pole beans will go into the first planting of corn--bean vines use the corn stalks as stakes. Another is pumkins and corn--the corn stalks help shade the growing pumpkin fruits. (I can't do that one myself--yard is too small for pumpkins!) Strawberries and borage are classic--the borage sweetens the fruit. My personal favorite: ringing my cucumbers and beans with marigolds as slug & snail bait. Tough on the poor marigolds, but highly effective in keeping the cukes and beans from getting eaten to death before they get a chance to grow big.

I do lots of marigolds;

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

also nasturtiums. Did the corn/pumpkin thing last year, the pumpkins also keep the corn mulched. Beans didn't do well enough. This year also adding basil to the tomato garden, and reprising the corn/beans/pumpkin patch, still using indian corn.

Re: I do lots of marigolds;

[fighter-chick.livejournal.com]

I don't want to do in-ground nasturtiums. My garden is...very fertile, and I've had overgrow issues with nasturtiums before.

All but three of my marigolds were eaten to the ground last year. But the lemon cucumbers survived. I always apologize to the marigolds when I plant them. ;-)

[channel6.livejournal.com]

No kidding on the Special Election---geez. Did they really think people would vote in favor of these things at a time like this?

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly! And the cost of the election... wtf were they thinking?

[evilviscountess.livejournal.com]

Tulips like a bit of cold when they are dormant so you might need to dig them and put them in the fridge for a while so they think it is winter.

[aastg.livejournal.com]

evilviscountess is right about the fridge thing, and it does work. Also, however, they don't do well in good old California hard pan. Unless you're growing them in pots, you'll need to improve the soil: loosen it up, mix it with new soil, compost, all that.

Or you could just grow them in pots like I do - its a lot less trouble. You'll still have to do the fridge thing, but it's still easier.

Did the fridge thing

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

Leaves come up about 4" then die. It's either the Varmit Cong, eating them; the soil not being loose enough/rich enough, or the roots of the California Buckeye poisoning them.

Re: Did the fridge thing

[fighter-chick.livejournal.com]

Coming up 4 inches, then dying, doesn't sound like the gopher to me. Do the leaves turn yellow before/as they die? If yes, it's most likely a nutrition deficit. Next year, give them some food when you plant them, then another shot as the leaves come up.

Pickles in the pressure cooker!?

[martianfencer.livejournal.com]

I plant radishes, lettuce, and carrots together. The radishes come up right away and get et, then the lettuce gets big and gets et before the carrots need much space.

I also plant lettuce and cilantro between my tomatoes, so they will stay cool in the shade.

I would do the corn/squash/beans thing except that my growing season is so short.

I'm having my best tulip year ever. In the past I've had problems with critters eating the bulbs. Maybe my cats are finally paying their rent.

People around here gape in astonishment when I tell them about Californians digging up their perennials to put in the freezer for a few weeks every year.