Gardening Update

I have two small green tomatoes growing so there is enough sun in this location to produce something. The plants themselves are quite tall now and perhaps 20-30 blooms? I can see that they should have more sun but I must work with what I've got. I can't chop down the forest trees, the corps of engineers would not like that. I've also got a couple of pepper blooms (the small white flower) and a few blooms (purple) on my two japanese eggplants. Unfortunately my basil plants are not doing very well this year. Either not enough sun or the cooler weather so far? Last year I had too much basil, and this year not enough. I guess that is what gardening is all about though, you never know quite what you're going to get. It's all a big experiment.


The peony plants I put in last year as little nubs put out 3 beautiful flowers this year - very fragrant but too heavy for the stems. The rain storm 2 nights ago knocked them down so I've got little tree sticks trying to hold them up. Next year I will need to get some peony supports. On the weekend I chopped down the lilac bush at the corner of the garage. I will be hacking out the roots this coming weekend. The branches were covered in some sort of white fungus and it just didn't look too healthy. I was pushing it anyways trying to get a lilac to do well here in the southeast - it is just too humid for them. That corner seems a little funny without the tall lilac, but now I can easily see the big hostas and the hydrangeas - perhaps they will do better with a bit more sun? Or perhaps they will do worse!

Kayak Time

Last night a very powerful storm system came over us around 3:30am, strong enough to make me get up and check the weather satellite picture to make sure there were no tornado warnings issued. Luckily the super heavy stuff passed about 10 miles south so all we got was lots of rain (about 1 inch in 1 hour) and a brilliant light show from all the lightening. Poor Harley had to be let in the bedroom so she could hide under our bed. Today was very windy and it looks like a mini cold front is coming in. Strange weather this spring. After grocery shopping this morning we went out to get ourselves some kayaks. With the lake level still 8 feet below full pond, we aren't putting the power boat in the water just yet. And the canoe is landlocked due to the beaver dam. So these kayaks will get us out on Lake Hartwell and give us a good upper body workout. I wanted to get sit on top ones so if I tipped over it is no big deal. There is also a little storage spot behind the seat that will let us strap in a small cooler for beverages. It was too late in the day (and too cool actually) to test them on the water today, but I am looking forward to the weekend, it should be fun. Andrew's back is still only 2 weeks healed since he injured it, so no sailing just yet. But an easy kayak should be ok.

Campus Supported Agriculture

Yesterday after work I went to the introductory meeting for this years CSA program. I decided to join up to support our student organic farm and get fresh fruits and vegetables that are grown right here. For $350 I'll get 16 or more weekly pickups of whatever is looking good that week. They will also have fresh cut flowers and eggs and a few local hormone free meats from the Clemson meatlab thrown in now and then. It will be one or two milkcrates of stuff each pickup - the farm manager said to start making friends with neighbours since we will probably need to give some stuff away once the crops really come in. Yesterday we got the anticipated produce harvesting schedule and they also gave us some mesclun and loose leaf lettuces just for fun. So weekly pickups should be starting in 1 month. Each Wednesday I'll drive the truck out after work to the farm just beside campus and pick up my share. This should make me use more vegetables in our evening meals, and I will also be learning what it means to "eat in season". Last night along with our meal of linguine and clams, we had a big salad of mesclun and cherry tomatoes. I am not sure if I am a fan of mesclun, the mix was quite leafy tasting, and I had a couple of really spicy leaves which took me by surprise - wasn't expecting such heat from a lettuce leaf.