monday's mountain musings

Wow! Where does time go? I swear I need just four more hours of day during the summer months, we can subtract it from the day length during winter time can't we?

The gardens are coming along splendidly with the exception of my ginormous zucchini plant that got broke off due to weight and then got a cut worm in it. Tobacco is finally starting to grow well but as per usual is having its bug issues. Everything else is blooming and growing baby veggies.

The last few days have been extremely warm for these here mtns of Georgia. Getting up and out to tend gardens until the sun gets over the mountain and then we do short stints with multiple breaks through out the remainder of the day. A couple more days of extreme warmth and we will be back to more normal temps. I can not really complain. After all the rain we had, the very warm sunny days has really kicked melons, okra and peppers into full growing gear.

This week we should be having a bit of company for a day or few. A net friends son is stopping by for a bit of R&R in the mtns on his leave from the giant sand box overseas. Hopefully he can chillax n unwind a bit before making his journey to visit everyone out west. It will be nice to have some company for a while.

Our first day lilies bloomed today and as usual are beautiful. Did you know that every part of some of the species of day lily are considered edible? Nutrition wise they are high in vitamin c and are quite high in protein content. They are also  known to be used medicinally through out history and in Eastern medicine but research  and information is limited. While some parts are better than others, very few people know that they are edible at all. I was introduced to eating them several years ago by a dear sister and since her initial introduction of them to me, I have used them several ways. I like to walk around nibbling on the bud just before they open and I enjoy them in a salad or stir fries too. The roots or tuber is edible as well as the flowers and leaves. As per usual use caution when trying them the first few times in case of allergic reaction or tummy upset. For some nice recipes using day lilies go here. There are several other sites with recipes as well  just do a search.
Not all species of day lilies are edible be sure you know  what species you are eating before doing so.

garden update 6-10-2010

monday's mountain musings

I know...I have said this before but I am saying it again and this time I mean it, I think. After tomorrow we will be done planting until fall crops need starting. That should give us a near one month break before we need to be getting  broccoli and cabbage seeds going for a mid august planting in the gardens. Break is not really the proper term as  things will be ripening in larger  amounts here very shortly, keeping up with weeds is always a chore and with any luck tobacco will be needing its daily worm plucking sessions but   that aint my job cuz those buggers are just gross so I let manthing tend them nasty buggers and I tend the  tomato patch. This way we keep the tobacco off and away from the tomatoes to prevent mosaic.

The gardens are really starting to take off now. I love watching everything fill out, grow and start producing,  the scenery around here changes so quickly it is almost hard to keep up with. Our early corn is starting to tassle, tomatoes are forming,  cucumbers,  some melons, squash of all sorts are flowering and beans climbing everywhere.  I ripped out the tomatoes and cukes in the GH as they  had a mildew or somethimg starting on them and I was not going to take any chances. So I planted some butter beans, new cukes, melons and okra in there  to take their place. I also have beans and okra growing on the balcony to see how they do up there. A full update on the gardens will  come on a rainy day this week. The picture above is one of my direct seed tomatoes that  I put in the hot tub. It is about 8 inches tall already and only a few weeks old.  I am starting to think direct seeding them may be a time saving solution for a good portion of our future tomatoes  as some of our rogue tomatoes are near two foot tall and flowering just behind the ones we spent time seeding, transplanting and then planting.

Tomorrow we are planting more tobacco and direct sowing some for an experiment. We have several rogue plants that self sowed  from last year and they seem to be doing much better than the transplants this year. We have one more round of transplants to go in but instead of giving us more plants we seem to just be replacing ones that are dying off. Some winter type squash will be inter planted with the tobacco as will some pumpkins.

In other news...
The drive way is now fixed back to proper condition. we were very lucky that the folks   doing the work for us were as slow as they were and could be here  the day after we called them. On a sad note the ol feller flat out told me that next time we called he would likely be out of business. It was pretty sad seeing a big,  burley ol Vietnam vet  that has been in business for himself all his life  dam near cry and tell me he  doesn't know if he can make it once he loses the last truck in his business. As we talked about  our situation, gardens, the oil spoil and economy in general he told me  of how he had no electricity until the age of 15 and his grand parents that has raised him had  raised nearly all  their food. I  just looked at him n told him he would be fine and to look at gardening as his new full time job with  hauling gravel as a hobby.

School is going along pretty well. Next week is the  half way point of my first block of classes already. If  it continues on at this pace I will be finished before I  know it.