The Victory Garden clings to life.....

With the autumnal equinox on us, I went out to the garden today to take a few pictures.

While most of everything has been in decline for a few weeks, my monster marigolds have finally taken off. I saved the seeds from the first time I planted these 3 years ago and planted them again this May. Finally after about 20 weeks they are in full bloom. Yes, that is a 4 foot fence in back. These are not your mothers marigolds! They smell great and also are supposed to keep away pests. I think it worked. I need to get an earlier start on these next spring, maybe a March planting. I'm going to save a bunch more seeds this fall when the flowers die. If you're interested in planting some in your garden let me know and I will send you some seeds. The plum tomatoes are surprisingly strong with a few greenies still ripening. These two plants have given our family more than enough fruit we could eat all summer! Actually only Andrew and I like tomatoes so it was enough for both of us. I think next year I will only plant the Roma variety and add a third plant in hopes of making some homegrown salsa! The 2 Brandywine plants died rather early right next to the Roma. I tried to plant a 3rd plant to replace one and it died also. I guess I wasn't destined to grow Brandywine. I'll stick with the Roma. The pepper plants were a bit of a pain too. Out of the 2 Anaheim, 1 Sweet banana & 1 Big Jim varieties, only one of the Anaheims were productive. I left the last few on the plant and you can see they have ripened to a bright red. They were slow to grow in the beginning and never really took off, even when there was fruit, there was only one or two peppers at a time.

Other things that didn't go as planned.... The peas got fried out in the hot sun; I didn't plant enough green beans so whenever some were ripe there was really only enough for one person at a time. But they did make a nice fresh from the garden raw veggie snack while doing lawn work!; The cucumbers, zucchini & watermelon never got past a few flowers. Looking back I think I definitely had some water issues. The combination of the late start, poor layout and a very hot South Carolina summer made for some very water stressed plants. Next year I plan to make some raised beds with a center trough for watering, similar to the ones here. An earlier start would also extend the growing season into milder temperatures when the plants can establish themselves better. One good success story I had was some Butternut Squash plants I found at a garden center late in the spring. They were selling them cheap because they had outgrown their seedling pots. I planted them in the early summer and now we are about to have tastey roasted squash with carrots!

I would love to hear about your gardening experiences this year. Make a comment or send me an email. I also like to swap seeds of flowers and vegetables, so if you're into that then let me know. ttfn.

My monthly rant.....

Since I don't want to bore anyone here with a rant today, I figured I would tell someone who cared.

The Honorable Sen. Lindsey Graham
290 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Graham,
I am writing to you today to express my support for you and your colleagues’ opposition to President Bush’s proposed plan for military trials for suspected terrorists. While I support the need for such legislation, I am worried about the potential erosion of Article III of the Geneva Conventions and the effects it may have on US troops around the world.
I am also concerned about the provisions that allow the use of secret evidence against a defendant and allow hearsay and coerced testimony. I understand how some may support these measures, especially for terrorists caught on the battlefield overseas, but I feel stronger that we cannot sacrifice what the Constitution stands for in order to protect it. There should be no exceptions to a defendant’s rights to due process in any court held in or sanctioned by the United States. We cannot protect the United States from this war on terror without also protecting the Constitution.
I am confident that you and your committee will be able to come to a compromise with the President that will create a courts system that will satisfy all parties concerned while protecting our soldiers overseas and defendant’s rights. I would again like to thank you for your service and am proud to have you as my representative in the Senate.
Your constituent,
James Keaveny

Vaporize my trash!!! or Why is everyone always afraid of failure?

Great article in the Boston Globe today about a planned trash incinerator in Florida. It isn't your ordinary trash incinerator but will use lightning hot plasma arcs to vaporize a current landfill along with new trash. Two similar but much smaller plants are working in Japan. Proponants say they will be able to get rid of the current county landfill in 20 years and produce excess electricity and slag for use in paving roads. Critics say the plant will never work as efficient as the developers quote and point to other plants in Europe that closed because of not meeting their efficiency goals.

I hope it doesn't fade into an argument about finding the perfect solution and a bunch of time and money is wasted while some progress can be made. This is the type of innovation that made this country great and will solve the world's problems, one at a time. So many issues get bogged down by proponents and critics arguing about who is right or wrong and the search for the perfect solution. Was the ipod or automated jumbo jet controls invented or envisioned with the microchip? No, but it was a step in that direction. Maybe this is the same type of step. Enough arguing, just try. Maybe the government could learn something from scientific & industrial innovations and apply it to social security or health care or...... Iraq??? No never mind, that would entail a politician actually taking a stand that isn't supported 110% by his/her polls, lobbyists or core constituants and being able to say they were wrong if it didn't work out and then to move on with other good ideas. Imagine Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Thomas Edison or the Wright Brothers not trying because it might fail or not succees 100% as hoped.

Reminds me of a great quote from The Great One...."You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Vacation 2007

Hey all, I was doing some thinking and I think for next summer I want to go on vacation to the Montreal Jazz Festival next summer. Not just by myself and Kimberly but if we can get others to come at the same time it would be one fabulous party! If you've never been to Montreal, let me give you my sales pitch. I have been there at least a half dozen times. More often when I lived closer. It's a great cosmopolitan/european style city. It has everything you could ever want, nightlife, museums, a casino, outdoor cafes, awesome resturaunts, a huge underground shopping area and of course a favorable exchange rate! Kimberly and I went to the Jazz Fest in 2002 and had a great time. If you have never been to Montreal, it is one of the greatest cities & vacation get aways of all time! When you add a 10 day outdoor music festival it becomes even more fabulous. When we went, it covered about 4 block radius and had about 6 outdoor stages, plus more venues indoors. All of the outdoor entertainment is free and runs from noon to about 1AM everyday from the last week of June and the first week of July. If you're worried about not speaking French, worry not. Just about everyone also speaks English and is very helpful. Throw in a lot of mercis and s'il vous plaits and you'll be fine. There are plenty of hotels downtown so there is no need to rent a car if you fly in. Just take a taxi from the airport and walk or use the Metro to get around town. We spent 5 nights there last time and we were thouroughly exhausted by the end of the trip so I was thinking of cutting it to 3 or 4 nights. I'm not sure of the dates yet, the website still has 2006 dates and entertainers on it. If this may be something you're interested in or want to know more, leave me a comment or send me an email. I just want to get people thinking about this. Dave has been to the Jazz Fest too, I'm sure he would love to tell you about his trips there.

Full frontal nudes!

Sorry for the spam comments. I have been trying to moderate the comments but look like I missed one. Be patient, I'm still fine tuning this.