Clearing Veggie Bed #1…

This morning before I started on my freelance work. I started clearing Veggie Bed #1.

I first cut down the String Beans that were done producing. I found a lot of old pods that we didn’t harvest, but I’ll dry them and either us it for another planting, of use it for soup or another dish that calls for beans.

Old Beans Clearing Veggie Bed #1

I then removed the trellis and hack away at the old Tomato plants. I harvested all the fruits that were left. The Roma type below is a variety called ‘Mamacita’. I think the round ones are ‘Rutgers Select’.

Last Tomatoes from Veggie Bed #1

I then cleared away two Eggplant plants that didn’t produce for us. I keep forgetting that Eggplants don’t do well for me, but I end up buying a couple plants in the spring hoping my luck would change. That didn’t happen this year :P

I then evened out the soil and collected the wood bark mulch. I then removed all the old SFG dividers that were either warped or have disintegrated… replacing them with the PVC divider from my last entry.

SFG with PVC Dividers

It’s almost ready for fall/winter planting!!!

PVC DIY Projects…

Yesterday, Me and my Mom went to Home Depot to get some narrow cement hollow blocks to make a narrow garden bed along our north fence. Something my Mom has been asking me to build/fix.

I also decided to get some PVC pipes and connectors to build a cold frame that I want to put over Veggie Bed #2 to protect a Pomelo tree and extend my Peppers growing season, since it’s starting to get cold. I quickly drew a sketch for the cold frame and figured out what supplies I needed.

As I was gathering the PVC pipes and connectors, I had another idea to make dividers for my SFG (Square Foot Garden). So I got more connectors and pipes and somehow got all of these to fit in my Honda Civic Coupe… Note that those PVC pipes were 10 foot tall!

Once home, I started to assemble the cold frame, but it started too look like my plan wasn’t going to work, since I couldn’t bend the pipes as much as I could. So I sketched another plan and decided to leave this project for tomorrow when I can get more connectors and pipes.

Mini-Greenhouse/Cold Frame Plan

So I put my cold frame plans aside and built out the SFG dividers. I figure out to cut the pipes into 10.25 inch length. When I add the connectors to it, it comes out to about 12 inches center to center, which is the right size.

This morning I cleared out Veggie Bed #1 and placed the SFG dividers. Here’s how it looked like:

SFG with PVC Dividers

Not bad. I was really happy with it. This will definitely last longer than my other failed attempts using nylon rope (which disintegrated after a season), dowels (which warped and just got old) and wire (which was hard to see).

Free Twitter Icons…

Cute Twitter Icon by Mirjami ManninenI wanted to jazz up my Twitter feed posts, so I searched online for some free twitter icons that I can use. Here are several that caught my eye:

Continue reading

Gourd Lady + Erasing Plant Labels…

I just happened to catch the Gourd Lady on the Tonight Show.

I’m erasing some used plant labels, so I can reuse them.

Erasing Plant Labels

My New Method of Overwintering Coleus…

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my ideas on a new method to overwintering my Coleus cuttings.

Super Peat Pellets & NatureWorks PLA Cups

Since then, I received the Super Jiffy Peat Pellets and the NatureWorks PLA 9 oz. drinking cups and lids (which are biodegradable and compostable!!!). The Super Peat Pellets were pretty big compared to the regular Jiffy Peat Pellets that you get at the store.

Super Peat Pellet vs the Regular and Small Jiffy Peat Pellets

First step was to expanded several Super Jiffy Peat Pellets by adding water to the pellets. Continue reading

Second Batch of Coleus Cutting + Jem + Dark Outside…

Cute Twitter Icon by Mirjami Manninen“Taking my 2nd batch of Coleus cuttings to overwinter. Since I took a cutting of Coleus ‘Gem’, I can’t get the theme song to Gem off my mind.”
— Here’s a link to the Jem and the Holograms theme song on YouTube…

“I just went in from gardening outside and looked at the clock… It’s only 5:30pm?…”
— and it was dark already…

@thefrugalgarden That sounds delicious! :: RT Kabocha curry corn soup hits the spot.”
I have to search for this recipe…

Seventh Generation Renews Photo License…

Just got a call from Seventh Generation. They want to use one of my photos in product package for one more year!

I finally found the laundry detergent that has one of my photos on it!!!!

Here’s the original photo:

Orange Flowers

Eye-Fi Pro X2

When I purchased my Canon EOS 60D. I just splurged and decided to get a new Eye-Fi card with it. It’s a bit pricey, but I thought it would be worth it, because it automatically uploads the photos from my camera to my computer once it detects our WiFi network (and any other WiFi network I set the card up with).

Eye-Fi Pro X2

It also geotags the photos, although I’m not sure how accurate it is. So far the geotagging info has been pretty accurate.

In addition to all that, the Eye-Fi software can upload the photos to various sharing site. In my case, the photos are uploaded to a private folder on my Flickr account.