Gunplumber

I'm still getting it with Mozilla - talked to Darlene about it months ago. I'm still getting warnings.

Lots of flowers, but only 2 tiny green soon-to-be tomatoes. Put a bird net up. Hopefully, that will help.

Strategic use of walls for partial shade. Tomatoes get full sun sun from maybe 8-2. Took this pic at 7 AM and you can see they are still in full shade. Beans from 7-12. Potatoes from Noon to 5. Zucchini is full sun, but seems to like it. Also, I have everything on sprinklers - 10 different zones on timers, and individually adjustable heads, so i can be very specific about how much water for each and how often. At least until they grow taller than the sprinkler heads and disrupt my carefully calculated spray pattern. I can also add an adapter between the riser and the sprinkler head, to run a drip line (or cap off the head to drip only) to get even more specific. I've put a lot of time (and money!) into the infrastructure so I don't have to work as hard. This year, I pulled out a lot of the original pipes that went across the beds. Now there are no pipes more than 4" from the planter side. It makes digging safer. I kept snapping pipes in the large bed when I'd step on them - hidden by weeds or plants.

Me Too! The plants are 3' tall and dense but I only saw the first flowers yesterday. I switched the tomatoes and beans from last year - this year the tomatoes face west and the beans face east. The beans at least seem to like that better. I am not exaggerating to say the pole beans are growing 4+ inches a day. I pulled the first of the potatoes yesterday. And they are supposed to be the small ones. They were left over from a BBQ at the end of January, and by end of Feb had gotten a bit mushy. So I buried them. The leaves on a few plants were starting to brown and I'd read that was the sign they were ready, but it's still early. The skins were so fragile they came off with the hose. But it's the first time I've done potatoes. If I only knew the nightmare of irrigating that planter I'd not have done it! I'm all for over-engineering stuff, but the guy who built the 4' non-load-bearing decorative wall made a 2' x 2' foundation for it. And I had to bore under it to run an irrigation line to the planter. Took me all day. But it paid off! The radish flood came and went. I've got about 20 plants going to seed. Just couldn't eat them fast enough. Planted a second batch, but smaller this time. I'll try to keep them in 3 week increments. Zucchini is out of control. Giving it away and freezing it. It's growing about 2" a day.

repurpose.

Some recipes say to soak in lime water . What does this do? I'm wondering the if the garlic is purely for flavor or if also an antibacterial?

So I have a bunch of peppers, and will have more cucumbers eventually. Some I'm drying, but I want to play with pickling. I do not want to can them. I do not have room in the fringe. I don't want to freeze them. I am not looking for best seasoning combinations, as I have a hundred recipes for that. What I'm looking for is the bare minimum to salt and vinegar and whatever for the sole purpose of preserving a bunch of hot peppers. What I'm having trouble doing with all the recipes is extracting the mechanical process from "this combination of dill/garlic/alum/etc. tastes best. Maybe I don't understand what pickling is, but I thought it was a way of preserving without the regimented procedures for safe canning.

It is with regret I note that life done got in the way. I have a wonderful new air conditioner in the shop, which in AZ is not a luxury item, but bare necessity. But as a result, my savings and emergency fund are depleted, and I simply cannot afford to go this year. I'll miss seeing ya'll.

still don't know. Putting in an new A/C today has drained all the savings. Will trade ammo for plane tickets . . . (grin).

best way to get someone to look is to tell them not to . .. . it's in our nature.

Oh, I thought it was the 101st Airborne birthday (grin).

Amen! I've been feeding them to the horses. I can't eat this many. Maybe next year I'll stagger the planting in 2 week intervals. My eggplants are really small Is this normal?

Girl child is seeing what other squashes can be made to taste like pumpkin pie, with the addition of copious amounts of sugar/spice and pie crust. Canning - not yet (dat's wimin's work!)

Did I mention that I'm getting bored with squash?

So how does one make cast iron function as an air conditioner?