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liralenI have ended up with... uhm... 60 tomato plants.
Hm. Let's see. 12 for me. 12?!?! Uhm... six cherry tomatoes for three Topsy Turvy planters, three bush for that beefsteak tomato eating experience, and three first ladies so I can actually get some tomatoes earlier in the season... that makes... hm... twelve, enough to feed a family of four three times over. Or is that a family of three four times over? *sigh*
Anyway... the other... uhm... four dozen, minus a few for friends that want to do tomatoes this year at a buck a pop for a gallon sized tomato plant, go to the OUR center garden, which has room for... uhm... 20 plants? I guess I better get busy finding homes.
I spent nearly all of yesterday turning a bunch of them into the gallon pots with John and Jet's help. I spent nearly all of this morning transplanting another two dozen into the medium pots and then spent a good couple of hours in the afternoon planting sweet peppers in the seeding setup. These garden plants are getting to be nearly a full time job. Yeesh. So I treated myself to some pansy seeds as well. I love pansies. They seem to be everything but pansy-like, tough, cold weather flowers. Happiness for the brightness.
I sat in the garage to do the seeding and was treated to a spectacular lightning and thunder show. Crack BOOOM!!!
We had lunch at the local Cinco de Mayo celebration. There's a very large Hispanic population in the city and the city all turned out for the celebration in the park. I had barbacoa and carnitas tacos and we shared a strange rice crispy thingy topped with avocados, salad, and mayo and chili sauce. It was very strange but very good. And then a light rain happened. Jet got into a castle jumping thing and warmed up that way, but was quite happy to go home afterward. He and John played video games while I seeded, and then I played video games with Jet for a while until John whacked his little toe into a wall and then asked me to make dinner while he iced.
So I grilled a single strip steak for the two of us, grilled the first corn on the cob available to us, some veg, and some biscuits. Jet asked for a grilled cheese sandwich and he ate the whole thing with a few BBQ chips, a big bowl of oranges, and one piece of bubble gum. Happy boy.
The main problem with 60 plants is that moving them in and out in order to harden them, avoid thunderstorm damage (hail is always possible out here), and avoid freezes is a REAL PAIN. Especially in the gallon pots, as with the leftover soil from the new planter boxes, the things are *heavy* with the near-clay of the local dirt. So heavy we can't even put them on trays, so we have to carry them by themselves in and out. But it is better now, as they're all supported. We had them in trays and a little too crowded and they tangled all up and pulled out extra branches of each other. So I was mildly depressed about the sheer amount of damage they'd done to each other. And in just the day and a half since the transplant, they haven't all gotten that much better. But the really big plants are now doing *really* well. I'm happy about that.
And I should expect more losses with more plants to contend with as I'm not caring for them the way I could when I only had a dozen or two.
But with so many maybe I can just toss the few that really got hurt and still be just fine for both our garden and the OUR center garden. It's more than I've ever dealt with before, so this should be interesting...
Another thing I did was talk with John about how to figure out if I'm having fun or not, and since then we now have a standing joke of, "Well, THAT's fun!" Or "are we having fun, yet?" *grin* Jet and I rode our bikes with John on foot to the bike store to pick up John's bike. He had to get some spokes fixed, and the rain was rolling in. So we stopped and ate dinner at Sakura's which is right by the bike shop. On the way home it was raining pretty good.... "Are we having fun, yet?"
I guess I did have fun. I really enjoyed the dinner. I had a 007 roll, with sweet, ripe mango, salmon, yellowtail, crispy tempura bits, masago, and avocado. I also got my usual unagi and the spicy mayo on scallops. *happy sigh* The hot miso soup felt good after the rain. And I loved sitting out by the bike shop just watching my toes, the rain, and the bike tires of my bike and Jet's little bike.
Maybe all I needed was a good dose of rain? I'm not sure, but it's been raining yesterday, today, and hopefully through tomorrow to Monday. And I feel mildly better. I think, also, I'm also dealing in my back brain with the fact that my life has changed hugely. I have had stories and dreams percolating out of the back area and I'm not sure they're worth writing down or not, but they might be.
Hm. Let's see. 12 for me. 12?!?! Uhm... six cherry tomatoes for three Topsy Turvy planters, three bush for that beefsteak tomato eating experience, and three first ladies so I can actually get some tomatoes earlier in the season... that makes... hm... twelve, enough to feed a family of four three times over. Or is that a family of three four times over? *sigh*
Anyway... the other... uhm... four dozen, minus a few for friends that want to do tomatoes this year at a buck a pop for a gallon sized tomato plant, go to the OUR center garden, which has room for... uhm... 20 plants? I guess I better get busy finding homes.
I spent nearly all of yesterday turning a bunch of them into the gallon pots with John and Jet's help. I spent nearly all of this morning transplanting another two dozen into the medium pots and then spent a good couple of hours in the afternoon planting sweet peppers in the seeding setup. These garden plants are getting to be nearly a full time job. Yeesh. So I treated myself to some pansy seeds as well. I love pansies. They seem to be everything but pansy-like, tough, cold weather flowers. Happiness for the brightness.
I sat in the garage to do the seeding and was treated to a spectacular lightning and thunder show. Crack BOOOM!!!
We had lunch at the local Cinco de Mayo celebration. There's a very large Hispanic population in the city and the city all turned out for the celebration in the park. I had barbacoa and carnitas tacos and we shared a strange rice crispy thingy topped with avocados, salad, and mayo and chili sauce. It was very strange but very good. And then a light rain happened. Jet got into a castle jumping thing and warmed up that way, but was quite happy to go home afterward. He and John played video games while I seeded, and then I played video games with Jet for a while until John whacked his little toe into a wall and then asked me to make dinner while he iced.
So I grilled a single strip steak for the two of us, grilled the first corn on the cob available to us, some veg, and some biscuits. Jet asked for a grilled cheese sandwich and he ate the whole thing with a few BBQ chips, a big bowl of oranges, and one piece of bubble gum. Happy boy.
The main problem with 60 plants is that moving them in and out in order to harden them, avoid thunderstorm damage (hail is always possible out here), and avoid freezes is a REAL PAIN. Especially in the gallon pots, as with the leftover soil from the new planter boxes, the things are *heavy* with the near-clay of the local dirt. So heavy we can't even put them on trays, so we have to carry them by themselves in and out. But it is better now, as they're all supported. We had them in trays and a little too crowded and they tangled all up and pulled out extra branches of each other. So I was mildly depressed about the sheer amount of damage they'd done to each other. And in just the day and a half since the transplant, they haven't all gotten that much better. But the really big plants are now doing *really* well. I'm happy about that.
And I should expect more losses with more plants to contend with as I'm not caring for them the way I could when I only had a dozen or two.
But with so many maybe I can just toss the few that really got hurt and still be just fine for both our garden and the OUR center garden. It's more than I've ever dealt with before, so this should be interesting...
Another thing I did was talk with John about how to figure out if I'm having fun or not, and since then we now have a standing joke of, "Well, THAT's fun!" Or "are we having fun, yet?" *grin* Jet and I rode our bikes with John on foot to the bike store to pick up John's bike. He had to get some spokes fixed, and the rain was rolling in. So we stopped and ate dinner at Sakura's which is right by the bike shop. On the way home it was raining pretty good.... "Are we having fun, yet?"
I guess I did have fun. I really enjoyed the dinner. I had a 007 roll, with sweet, ripe mango, salmon, yellowtail, crispy tempura bits, masago, and avocado. I also got my usual unagi and the spicy mayo on scallops. *happy sigh* The hot miso soup felt good after the rain. And I loved sitting out by the bike shop just watching my toes, the rain, and the bike tires of my bike and Jet's little bike.
Maybe all I needed was a good dose of rain? I'm not sure, but it's been raining yesterday, today, and hopefully through tomorrow to Monday. And I feel mildly better. I think, also, I'm also dealing in my back brain with the fact that my life has changed hugely. I have had stories and dreams percolating out of the back area and I'm not sure they're worth writing down or not, but they might be.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-06 06:06 am (UTC):)
and the biking and the rain and the good-lord-i-want-that-sushi. mmmmm.
we should talk on the phone about this not working thing, i think. :) the prospect of open space and time is something i'm contemplating/fearing/anticipating/avoiding seriously and i think you'd have a great perspective. or at least be in the same boat as i. :)
hugs...
no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 07:17 pm (UTC)Yes, the neighbors will love them. Some of them want to buy some of the plants, too. A few folks at church have said that they'd love to take the plants home and bring some of the surplus to the OUR center, so I'm happy enough with that.
It was one of the good things about my job last year, being able to sell of the extras and make back my seed money, but John's willing to let us just suck up the seed and pot and other costs as it's all going to the OUR center, basically. So we can call it all a donation to them in kind.
Mmmm... sushi. :-)
Maybe we should talk on the phone about this not working thing. It's been weird, but... cool, too. Scary in some ways... so much time to 'waste'... but I've been starting to contemplate something called "voluntary simplicity", which isn't really what it sounds like in many ways... it's more about making conscious, thoughtful decisions about how I really want to live my life. What is really important and what's not? What costs am I paying in order to work? What am I really gaining by working? What do I really gain by doing things I don't get paid for? It's been very interesting to start seeing what I really can choose and what I can't.
I think the voluntary simplicity thing is more about knowing exactly what powers I do have even without the headrush of the technical things I've done in the past.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-06 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 07:17 pm (UTC)Thank you! thank you for reminding me!!
no subject
Date: 2007-05-06 12:19 pm (UTC)I'm glad you're figuring out that you are dealing with a HUGE change. It seems like you no longer have a lot of that "good job" or at least "job done" feedback that you get at work, which, if you're not deeply certain that the stuff you are doing has value (which it does according to my watching of your LJ), can really affect you.
Rain is cool. So are thunderstorms. At 6am, we had 5 minutes of a constant thunder peal.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 07:20 pm (UTC)Yay pansies!
Yeah, you're right about the lack of feedback. I hadn't thought of that, but that may be one of the things... not that I got a *lot* of feedback at work, but the things I got were positive, and some of it was just the 'being done with something I *know* was done right'. So much of what I'm doing now I have no standard to measure against. Plus, I'm unused to having to judge what I've done as being "good enough" or even "great". My inner critic is so strong I nearly never give myself even a pass, much less a kudos. So I need to learn that.
And, yeah. Value. Even meeting up with my values. Excellent spot there. Thank you.
Mmmm... rain... Wow... 5 whole minutes of thunder! That's awesome. :-)
no subject
Date: 2007-05-08 02:13 am (UTC)On the simplicity thing, I've been getting lots of messages about simplifying and have even been given books about that idea. Probably if I threw out my tv, my life would feel less cluttered and have more room for all the other stuff I want to do.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-08 04:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-06 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 05:17 am (UTC)Check them out if you haven't tried them
no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 07:23 pm (UTC)they're a heirloom tomato, too. So twice as nice!
I've tried them before. The plant I had was so prolific we couldn't keep up (okay, so we had a baby in the house at the same time, which is the other reason we couldn't keep up with it) and left nearly half the fruit to molder on the vines, sadly. So I kind of kept away from them, since.
But, thanks for reminding me!! Too late for me for this year (most of my plants were started more than two months ago), but I'll remember this for next year, as they were more prolific if less sweet than the "Sugar Sweeties" cherry tomatoes I'm doing this year.