Some time ago, I had a Kitchen Gardeners International “Eat the View” campaign widget in my sidebar. In my rearranging and changing formats, it did not return. “Eat the View” is a campaign designed to encourage the White House to convert a portion of presidential lawn into an edible landscape. Roger Doiron, founder of KGI, recently uploaded this YouTube video of digging a new garden on his “white house” lawn.
I enjoyed the video so much, I wanted to share.
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After reading HausFrau’s The Fruit Tree Commitment at Peak Oil Hausfrau, I became….um….wellllll….envious of her lovely peach tree and harvest. Being envious when visiting HausFrau is nothing new though, it is a common occurence with her solar cooking successes and victorious efforts toward sustainability.
I have a confession to make.
I have a love for pear trees, which is weird because I rarely even purchase pears in the store. Store pears always seem hard and difficult to eat. I love everything about a pear tree..its shape….its produce (no matter the variety)….its juicy, coarse texture….the jewel tones of its flesh…. and the clean, crisp aroma of a fresh pear which emanates from that very first bite. In my mind nothing beats ice cold pears with a side helping of cottage cheese. Pear butter or pear preserves smeared over hot biscuits or pear relish served with a yummy pork roast warm my heart and tummy in the winter months.
I have planted three pear trees in my life. I very lovingly planted two pear trees in my Texas backyard so that they could be trimmed to form an archway into my vegetable garden. Many hours were spent on their care and dreaming about a future bounty. Unfortunately, the ex and his new wife gained custody of the pear trees and organic vegetable garden before I ever saw one bit of fruit.
After DH and I were engaged, he received a promotion and a transfer to a new location. One of the things I first wanted to plant was a pear tree, so we purchased an 8 foot Bartlett and continued to search for another variety to compliment. DH had to move immediately and I had to stay behind, until after we married, so he was left in care of the new “baby”.Another unfortunate demise of my pear tree dreams came when we realized that there was a severe problem with water where we had to live. Pear dreams quickly turned into pear disaster.
Now, twelve years later from the second debacle, I am going to attempt another hope for having my very own pear tree. Maybe I will even have three…Bartlett, Orient, and Keiffer. Locally, there are no fruit trees to be found, so I will be purchasing online. I realize that by purchasing online I will be settling for smaller trees, but it appears that an online purchase is the only way I will get one (or three) planted this fall. The Arbor Foundation has a great selection of trees of all varieties and has free gifts with your purchase or if you become a member, you can get 10 more free trees. The other exciting find at The Arbor Foundation is that shipping is only $4.95 for any amount of trees that you purchase.
This morning, I drew a rough schematic of our front and side yards so that DH could help me determine how many trees I could plant. If you are going to dig….say, three holes…why not go ahead and dig 7 or 8 more. If I purchase some of the dwarf varieties I can get more diversity in our fruit diet. My neighbor planted (what she thought) was an ornamental dwarf plum in her parkway and it presents her with the most beautiful dark, sweet bountiful harvest you could ever imagine every year. I hope that my eyes are not bigger than my husband’s digging prowess, but I plan to order:
So that is 11, did I count correctly? Yep, 11 trees! I am probably being considerably too ambitious here. DH jokingly says we can start digging holes now (which may secretly mean…YEAH! less to mow…lol).
Anyone have any suggestions, critiques or similiar wish lists?
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These past few days (or has it been weeks?) I have been missing in action here at TSB, partly because of travel, but mostly because I am feeling a bit overwhelmed in several areas of my life at the moment. In order to forge forward through this mental fog touched with a bit of laziness, I thought I would post a couple of update photos (maybe that will put me in a more positive frame of mind…haha!).
My morning glories are beginning to show some movement, which is a good thing since it seems that I am not going to be able to train my roses to grow over my arbor.
The walkway in the backyard is beginning to take shape. Moving the rock from the old “patio” area under the tree has proved to be difficult and back-breaking. I think we have enough materials on hand to take the walkway to the alley behind the house. I am very disappointed that I do not have my concrete patio poured yet. This darn weather is making many projects drag out….and I just know that as soon as these storms stop, the temperatures will rise quicklly making the work even more difficult!
Currently, my tomatoes are back on the side porch with the last threat of golf ball sized hail. Fortunately, we did not get any…but you know that the reason we didn’t is because I DID move those tomatoes. If I had left them in place, the hail would have surely shown its face…haha!
My beans are beginnging to show some signs of growth, as is my basil…so maybe things will start happening around here. I really need to find some kind of mulch before the heat waves begin. I don’t want to put down grass clippings because we have so many weeds in our yard….and DH doesn’t know where the grass catcher is anyhow. We have had neighbors volunteer their clippings, but all of them use chemicals on their lawns…so that is not an option. I might have to just bite the bullet and purchase some straw.
Wanna’ know how I know it? Because I just planted 20 pepper plants, 2 more tomato plants, 2 eggplants, watermelon, squash, brocolli, dill, asparagus, beans, and morning glories…THAT’S WHY! LOL! It never fails. These are in the ground, so I won’t be able to put them all up on the porch this time if it does decide to hail.
I am not certan where this day went. One moment it was morning and now it is evening…and I have no clue what happened in between. I did run to the greenhouse in Mullinville and bought several vegetable plants. When you buy 20 or more they are only .65. One thing interesting, I was able to drive 58 mph most of the way to and from Mullinville and I got 31-33 mpg. I was pretty happy.
Well, not much exciting to report for the day. I am just sitting here eating a salad that I made from store purchased produce, except for the alfalfa sprouts that I sprouted myself and the 4 spinach leaves I “harvested”. That was a little exciting to me. I think I have decided that I prefer the alfalfa sprouts over some of the other types I have tried these past few weeks.
Not much else going on here, just thinking I am a bit tired and may head for the bed a bit earlier tonight.
As an end of the year gift one year, my students gave me a gift certificate from Headrick’s Nursery to purchase a tree. This is the second year the tree has been planted, but part of my Mother’s Day gift was to make a flower/herb ring at the base. We used reclaimed bricks from a building that was torn down in Mullinville and some of my new compost. I transplanted a plant from another location in my yard.
Unfortunately, right after it was planted, Blondie (the Wonder Dog) decided to take a walk and take in the new aromas from my exquisite compost.
We also filled the new vegetable bed with the new compost. I can hardly wait to start planting.
On/Day/1! What an incredible idea! The only way it could be better is if I had thought of it first..haha! In my sidebar you will find a widget for telling the 44th president what you think is important. The suggestion that took me to this fun site is to tell the next president to “eat the lawn”. On/Day/1 is a place to “share your ideas for a better world.”
Before today, I had no idea that this event existed. I know that August 24 is a few months in coming, but I thought I would post this interesting video about the need for turning our lawns into vegetable gardens. The gentleman in the video discusses the many reasons why everyone should dedicate at least some portion of their lawn to a productive garden, but his mention of $3 gasoline dates it slightly. Oh wait…$3 wasn’t that long ago….the fear of $4 gas is becoming more and more real.
Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about a family in Colorado who makes money from growing vegetables in their front yard.
Countup Timers at WishAFriend.com
