Wednesday, May 2, 2012

5-2-12

11:00am

Went to Kroger and Dollar Tree this morning.
Got a few things for the garden from Dollar Tree.

2- 2 pound boxes for $1.00 each.

Place a teaspoon or so of epsom salt around tomato 
and pepper plants to increase
magnesium and sulfer in your soil to produce better plants.
As plants get bigger you can mist the
pepper leaves with a combination of
2-3 tablespoons epsom salt per 1 gallon of water.
Or you can also water your plants
with 1/2 tsp epsom salts to 1/2 gallon of water
for each plant.
Do this once or twice a month.

For tomatoes and peppers, apply 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt granules around each transplant or spray (1 tbsp. per gallon) during transplanting and again following the first bloom and fruit set.

Why Put Epsom Salts on Plants?

Magnesium allows plants to better take in valuable nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus.
It also helps in the creation of chlorophyll, which is vital for photosynthesis. In addition, magnesium greatly improves a plant’s ability to produce flowers and fruit.
If the soil becomes depleted of magnesium, adding Epsom salt will help; and since it poses little danger of overuse like most commercial fertilizers, you can use it safely on nearly all your garden plants.

-Calcium tablets.
(600mg calcium with 200 IU of Vitamin D
  or antacids with calcium.
(500mg calcium)
$1.00
I opted for the antacid tablets since there was 
60 in a bottle and the calcium tablets only had 30.
Crush 2 tablets into a powder form and
add to each hole when planting tomatoes.
Use with tomato plants to possibly
prevent BER blossom end rot.
Then once a month make a mixture of a gallon
of hot water with 8 crushed tablets.
Shake container to mix and let cool to
room temperature before watering tomatoes.
This will be enough to water 4 tomato plants.
You could also add eggshells to your soil
which contain calcium. 

I will also be watering my tomatoees
using the 2 liter bottle watering method. 
This allows the water to slowly drip down into the roots.
When watering tomatoes you only want to water
the bottom root area.  Try not to get the leaves wet. 

I then plan to string trellis the tomato plants
to keep them upright as they grow.
To learn about stringing and suckering tomatoes
check out this video.

Once tomato plants start flowering you can then
buzz pollinate them by using a battery powered
toothbrush gently touched to the backs of the flowers.
This simulates the vibrations of bee wings 
and pollinates the tomatoes.
I also have an old coffee can that I am saving
all coffee grounds, egg shells and any
tea bags in to put into the garden.
Plus I can also vegetable scraps in there as well.

Kroger

I had two free coupons from Kroger for
-2 liter 7Up & 100 count bottle of ibuprofen
then I had another free coupon for
Just For Men Hair color.


I picked up some stuff for supper tonight.
2 containers cottage cheese marked down to .59 cents each,
1 box ziti pasta $1.19,
1 can Hunts 4 cheese pasta sauce .99 cents
1-2 pounds deer burger
 and I'll add in some leftover shredded cheddar
cheese that I already have.

-----------------------------------------------------


1:50pm


Only in Ohio can you have a wind chill
and a heat index within a week of one another.

I decided to go out and work on the tomato bed.
It will be 12 feet long by 2 feet wide
and will have two rows of tomatoes in it
every square foot.

Tomatoes love the heat and the place I'm
putting them all definitely has plenty of it!
It's 83 out but feels like 85 degrees.
I was only able to get four 4 foot boards
in the ground.  I dug a trench, put each board in 
and then packed mud on each side of the board
to stabilize it.   I gave up and retreated to the house
and some shade after getting this far.
It's too hot.  This is more of a morning project.
I've got sweat in places I would rather not talk
about at the moment!


I keep watching how the sun and shade travels in the garden.
At least 6 hours of morning to afternoon sun
hits two of the 4 foot boxes while in the
afternoon to evening the tree shades those
and hits the other 2 four foot garden boxes.
All the while it has pretty much all day sun on
the tomato beds.
Well I'm going to chill til it's time to go pick up
the boys from the bus stop.
My muscles still hurt and the pain is traveling
down the backs of my legs which
made squatting down in the garden almost
impossible.  Each time I would sqaut
my legs would shake so bad.


-----------------------------------------------------------------

 3:00pm


I wanted to share with you a couple other
things I got at Dollar Tree.
Two 4 oz. bags of shrimp.
I'm guessing there's about 12 or so
shrimp in each one.
I know mom gave me a weird look and
wondered why I bought them.
For starters I wasn't sure if they would
get them back in stock so that's
why I bought a couple bags now.
Any guesses yet as to what I will use them for?


Catfish and Carp bait.
Thaw 'em out, let 'em ripen up,
put 'em on a hook, cast it out
and reel in a big one.
I've use them before and mostly
caught catfish with them.
On my other line I'll use cheese 
dough ball from the bait shop.
The carp like that kind.
They also carry anise and what smells like bubble gum
or it could be strawberry.
And then I'll switch out if nothing's
hitting and use night crawlers. 


The kids and Tony fish for bluegill,
crappie and sunfish with your typical
wax worms and sometimes red worms.


I need to show 'em all how to hunt for
night crawlers and save the expense of buying them.
When I was younger I remember at night
we would pour buckets of water with
dish soap in them on the ground
and wait for them to come up.
Maybe I'll do this in our front or side yard.
I need all the worms in the back yard
for the garden.


 ----------------------------------------------------------


8:45pm


This evening we went over to Tony's work
to pick up another 5 gallon bucket full
of scrap metal to start cutting up and taking
in Saturday morning.

Came home and since the backyard was shady
and the sun was setting decided to go
back out into the garden and work some more.
Got the sides of the tomato bed done.
Still need to have some wood cut for the ends.
Then I worked on getting the other 4 beds
measured out and placed exactly where they will go.
No fun with measurements and making sure
everything lines up from walk ways to
the beds.  Was even thinking about possibly 
making another long bed on the other end
of the four box beds.
Tony's bringing me home some long screws
then we'll work on pre drilling 
the garden boxes and screwing them together.
Plus I need some wood cut up for the fourth box.
May not be tomorrow but sometime in the
near future.


Wearing down quick.  My whole body 
feels inflamed including my stomach
which I can feel throbbing.
My arms and legs start getting shaky
and I feel like I don't have much strength at times.
It took a LOT of effort to even pick up a shovel
today and dig if that tells you anything. 

Broke down and finally turned on the
air conditioner after it hit 84 degrees in here.
Plus I wanted to get it going before tomorrow.
It's supposed to be up around 90 degrees.
Plus it's good to check air conditioners
early in the season to make sure everything works.


Here is hubby's newest project that he started
out of the blue.  He is now starting
to sand down the Trans Am and paint it.
It will be awhile before we do the paint.
It takes time to sand down with different

grit sandpaper and even out all the surfaces
then finish with a wet sand and then primer.
Ahhhhh!
We did this about 7 years ago
and I know all the hard work that goes into it!




No comments:

Post a Comment