Resilient plants

Amazing how plants find a way to develop even in seemingly un-growable situations.

I have this large piece of plastic from a truck bed lining that i was storing raked leaves in and walked by it one day and noticed a little plant started growing in it. Its a plant thats been in the front yard of my house for as long as i can remember and suddenly it has a cousin growing from a pile of leaves in the backyard. i looked it up and i'm almost 100% that it's a firespike plant (Odontonema Tubiforme). i guess there's hope for my new veggie box even if everything doesn't break down completely!

right image from google

New Veggie box

Made the new veggie box yesterday and started to fill it today. Its lasagna style layering with leaves on the bottom and grass in the middle and this hay type stuff on the topmost layer. I need to add more to it b/c it's gonna compress as it breaks down and has a bunch of negative space between everything. put some lining in the bottom to help conserve water a bit. Its has a little bit of drainage tho so i dont flood the poor guys out.

I need to stop by $5 coffee land (aka starbucks) and see if they have any spent coffee grounds i can have. I don't like the idea of walking in there and asking for stuff, seems very awkward. Maybe if i buy a coffee it'll go a little smoother. It's against every fiber in my body to go and pay that much for coffee tho. I hope they have little cup sizes next to "venti" and "grande" b/c i haven't the faintest clue what is what.

i don't know what the timeframe is gonna be for the box to be plant-ready. probably a year, which seems like a reeeealy long time to wait. if it overwintered and was ready by spring that would be amazing. there's no way  i'm sure...

Searching around, buzzle.com says:

Gardeners consider fall an appropriate time because of the availability of the organic materials they get from falling leaves and the general yard waste. Then you can let your garden break down and be ready by the spring time. 

create in fall, plant in spring. nice. i'm assuming that's consecutive seasons :) Everyone seems to have a different opinion of what layers go where, but i think i'll be fine. the only thing i think i'm gonna stick to is putting compost on the topmost layer. Since i lined it at the bottom i'll probably have to add my own worms i'm thinking, as virtually no contact with the natural ground beneath it (where i'm sure all the little wormies inhabit).

 

Quick update

The pickled okra seemed to be too vinegar-y for my taste. the recipe i saw called for a 1:1 of vinegar to water but i think i'm gonna tone it down to 2:1 and add some form of pepper in there next time Procedure was fine, but the ingredients need to be tweaked a bit... made some stew out of some of them with tomatoes and that was good tho. haven't tried to fry them yet, but i've had them that way and they taste incredibly wonderful.

The hibiscus propagation was a total fail. Funny too b/c i was looking and it said to put them in indirect sunlight and i was like meh and just put them out full blast in the july heat. again, procedure great but time of execution and lighting conditions were way off. i've had one root before but i think i did it in early early spring, which is when i will do them next time. i would take pictures but it's way too sad.

The compost i was making in the food grade cylinder has worked out well. originally i had drilled the holes in the side too small and the water was not being able to drain which supported all sorts of... lifeforms and was an overall mess. now that it's dried out a bit more it has that nice earthy smell and looks very plantable-in-like.

Going to do a layered (lasagna type) veggie bed for next season and a SIP planter box. i'm late on getting things ready for fall, but if the bed overwinters it may be good for spring... or so i hope.


Random sidenotes:
            1. My birthday is coming up and i would greatly appreciate giftcards to home depot or lowes, or something electronic b/c gadgets are neat.  : )
            2. went online to look up this flavored ceylon tea that i love (b/c i dont think i can find it in stores anymore) and the shipping was 20 bucks! i'm sorry, but i have a cap on things and more than 6 bucks for shipping on anything is kinda crazy to me. i quickly closed the page and realized i better start calling around local stores if i really wanted it.

Pickling Okra

I tried to do my first jar of pickled okra today with much success. Hopefully the recipe i used doesn't make them taste all funky (i just guess-timated the dill and pickling salt). The top button was depressed when they cooled so i think they're gonna be alright. next year i'm gonna plant so many okra plants its gonna be ridiculous.