Start Your Engines...

The weather in St. Louis today was in the 60s, certainly something we haven't seen in a while; but yearn to have on a regular basis. Especially when one gets home and finds this large box sitting on their front porch.


I'm going to try and take a crack at a bigger garden this year, so of course I need supplies. I found IGC online and not only was their selection outstanding; but the prices are sure hard to beat.

Here is what I got...






20 square KORD square pots (4"square by 3.5" deep)
10 KORD regal pots (4" round by 3.5" deep)
Plus, these 40 inserts for seedstarting.

This of course means you have to have seeds to start. Well, who would have thought; but today was extra special because there was another package in the mail. This one from Baker's Creek Heirloom Seeds.



Here is the pile...20 different items.


The contents are as follows:

---Chinese Red Noodle Bean

---Black Aztec Sweet Corn

---Yok Kao Cucumber

---Yamato X-Long Cucumber

---Tigger Asian Melon

---Green Zebra Tomatoes

---Pink Oxhart Tomatoes

---Striped Roman Tomato

---Cream Sausage Tomato (weird name, I know for a tomato)

---Yellow Pear Tomato

---Moon & Stars Watermelon

---Old Homestead Bean

---Half Long Carrot

---Early White Vienna Kohlrabi

---German Giant Radish

---White Icicle Radish

---Dad's Sunset Orange Tomato

---Siletz Tomato

---White Queen Tomato

---Golden Monarch Tomato

My Dad and I of course are new at this, so there will probably be some disasters; but some surprises along the way I would imagine too. This garden of course gives me great fodder for blogposts, so return throughout the season for photos and reviews.

Unconventional Vegetable Garden

Last year was my "real" first try at growing vegetables and it was a success...although I only grew tomatoes. Since then, I've been wanting to have a full-fledged vegetable garden, not only do fresh veggies taste great; but the $$ I will save is wonderful too.

The only problem is that my yard is not exactly garden ready, and I'd hate to just smack down a bed anywhere, so I'm going with container gardening for the interim. My Dad and I have been looking for some useable containers and found these great, large animal troughs at a local farm store. The only problem is that they were $75 a pop.

That is until Saturday, when we took a random trip to our local Lowe's and came across these beauties.

Yep, that is a plastic pond, it is 100 gal. and they were clearing them out for the low-low price of $15. No Joke !!!

Although it's unconventional, we think they'll make great containers and since they have an non-linear shape to them, they might look better in the landscape.

Don't you love DIY-thinking.

What can I say about 2009 so far

Let's see, it started off with spending 2 weeks in China, for work. During which time, I got sick and we all know that being sick (while away from home) is so much worse. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball in my own bed, not some strange hotel room where I've been living for a week and half.

Then, the following week, we hear the news that the company I work for is looking to cut payroll and will be laying people off. At which time they proceed to give the option to leave "voluntarily" with a bigger severance then one would get if they were to be let-go. Every employee has 5 days to make this "voluntary" decision. I honestly believe that 5 days was cruel and unusual punishment, how can you decide your or your family's future in 5 days...especially in this economic environment. Nevertheless, many people took the offer and now the rest of us are in the process of waiting to see what will happen next.

So, needless to say, there hasn't been any work done on the house so far this year and probably won't be in the near future unless I were to get a tax refund.

I know many of you are in similar situations and I guess knowing that there are others out there, makes one feel not so alone. People have survived much worse.