My Container Gardening Projects - Summer 2007

Word of the Day

Chipple - Residue left on one's hands and clothes after eating a bag full of chips.

I was able to pick more wild raspberries today than I picked the other day. One quart yielded 2 cups of crushed berries. Knock on wood, I'll be able to pick even more in a couple of days. The rain that we got, though very little, seems to have been just enough for the berries. It looks, knock on wood once again, like I'm going to have a bumper crop of blackberries this year. Sis and I plan to pick enough to freeze so we can make blackberry wine next spring. I also want to pick some for blackberry/grape jam. I don't think we'll have any problems reaching our goals since the bushes that I encountered today were loaded with green berries. The blackberries shouldn't come ripe until mid-August. About the same time as our first grandchild will be born.

We have had dribs and drabs of rain for the last couple of days. Not too much. Mostly sun showers. Unfortunately, with the rain comes mosquitoes. Next time I go out berry picking I'll have to arm myself with mosquito spray. It wasn't too bad out today but why mosquitoes head straight for my face, I have no idea.

My blueberries are slowing down some. It won't be long before I can remove the netting and fold it away for another year. My tame raspberries are still producing but I'm battling the chipmunks and birds for what I can get. Still...I'm getting enough for HTP and me to eat with enough leftover so that I should soon be able to make one batch of tame raspberry jam.

I'm going to have to see if I can grow a pot of herbs in Arizona this winter. I've been having success with my basil and parsley pot that I keep on the deck as well as my mint pot. I noticed that my cilantro is coming up nicely as well. I made pesto the other day and it wasn't too bad. Next time I make it I won't use so much cheese. I made Tabouli salad yesterday and have been enjoying it. BTW....Thank you Sis for having a well stocked pantry because my own pantry was sadly lacking. Next time I'm in town, I'm going to see if I stockpile some things like...bulgar wheat and lemons. The rest I had. Tabouli salad is made with cracked bulgar wheat, LOTS of chopped parsley, some diced tomato, chopped green onion, freshly chopped mint, a little garlic, and some fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. It's a really GREEN salad with red bits of tomato for a contrast of color. Lots of REALLY good green stuff but HTP isn't too fond of the stuff. I think the color turns him off. But...I love it and was craving it. One of these days I'll have to make cream-style corn for HTP. He loves it. I can live without it. I think I can count the number of times I've made it in the past 30 years on one hand. Poor HTP. That's OK because I can count the number of times that I've made Tabouli salad on one hand too.

HTP has gone off to the city to get the locks changed on our house. *sigh* We fired our bug man but since he has the key to our house here....'nough said. He never shows up when he's supposed to show up and when he does show up he doesn't do all that much. HTP and I think we can do a lot better on our own. AND....we'll be saving $51/month. Neither HTP nor I could figure out what this guy has been doing that is worth even close to that amount. Anyway, I'm going to have to get new keys to everyone who is supposed to have a key to our house. That's not too many people so it's off to the city to visit our "local" locksmith with all our door locks for HTP today. Me? I ate Tabouli salad for lunch and didn't feel a bit guilty about it.

My plans for tonight? Monk. The new season of Monk starts tonight.

Murphyism of the Day

Jones's Third Law of TV Programming

The show you've been looking forward to all week will be preempted.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

Three failures denote uncommon strength. A weakling has not enough grit to fail thrice. -- Minna Thomas Antrim