Now that things have really wound down (or, soon will), what will you be doing with those hours you would have been otherwise spending in the garden?
Steve
no, my "activities" won't involve tobacco
Those Hours of the Day
There were too many lunches this year that I could hardly finish without dozing off for a few minutes. Usually, I had things to do after lunch and it was only through bribing myself, with the promise of mid-afternoon coffee that I could get up and get back out the door ...
Now that things have really wound down (or, soon will), what will you be doing with those hours you would have been otherwise spending in the garden?
Steve
no, my "activities" won't involve tobacco
Now that things have really wound down (or, soon will), what will you be doing with those hours you would have been otherwise spending in the garden?
Steve
no, my "activities" won't involve tobacco
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I have the same problem everyday. I try to delay lunch as long as possible because I know if I sit down, I don't want to get up again. Once I get on the computer it is hard to get off.
I still have lots to do in the garden year round, I just need to get as much as possible done in the morning. So that means getting out the door on time and doing what needs to get done. In reality, I can only do about 3 hours in the garden at a stretch before I peter out and need a break. Unfortunately my "break" lasts about 2 hours. It is getting motivated to get out a second time for another 3 hours that is a challenge.
I still have lots to do in the garden year round, I just need to get as much as possible done in the morning. So that means getting out the door on time and doing what needs to get done. In reality, I can only do about 3 hours in the garden at a stretch before I peter out and need a break. Unfortunately my "break" lasts about 2 hours. It is getting motivated to get out a second time for another 3 hours that is a challenge.
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applestar
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In the summer I woke up just before dawn... Around 5AM when it was just starting to get light.
Now if I wake up at 5AM it's pitch black outside. A month ago I still got up and puttered around, then went outside. Now I just turn over and go back to sleep!
In the summer, I endeavored to get stuff done in the parts of the garden that stayed in the shade until 9AM (FULL SUN AREAS) and then move to other parts of the garden that stayed in shade until 11AM (SEMI SUN AREAS), then hurry up and finish because there were nowhere else to stay out of the sun and keep cool. Now, it's getting cold enough overnight that I sometimes don't go out until after 8AM.
So... I think I'm just sleeping more....
Now if I wake up at 5AM it's pitch black outside. A month ago I still got up and puttered around, then went outside. Now I just turn over and go back to sleep!
In the summer, I endeavored to get stuff done in the parts of the garden that stayed in the shade until 9AM (FULL SUN AREAS) and then move to other parts of the garden that stayed in shade until 11AM (SEMI SUN AREAS), then hurry up and finish because there were nowhere else to stay out of the sun and keep cool. Now, it's getting cold enough overnight that I sometimes don't go out until after 8AM.
So... I think I'm just sleeping more....
I used to be a great walker. Not so much, these days.
I used to find a place on a Geological Survey map and head off to find it. As long as I had a watch, clear sky, compass, and that map - I'd be willing to go cross country. It was a lot of fun!
I stay on level ground for a (short) walk, these days. Still, there are places to catch a bit of fresh air and a view. I tend to use a map since I can get a little mixed up on back roads. The map leads me to much narrower escapes in more settled locations than years ago and, I've been to most of them before. I will just need daylight and a little nice fall weather, is all. Oh, and a thermos of coffee is nice to have waiting for me back at the pickup.
Steve
I used to find a place on a Geological Survey map and head off to find it. As long as I had a watch, clear sky, compass, and that map - I'd be willing to go cross country. It was a lot of fun!
I stay on level ground for a (short) walk, these days. Still, there are places to catch a bit of fresh air and a view. I tend to use a map since I can get a little mixed up on back roads. The map leads me to much narrower escapes in more settled locations than years ago and, I've been to most of them before. I will just need daylight and a little nice fall weather, is all. Oh, and a thermos of coffee is nice to have waiting for me back at the pickup.
Steve
I should get a pedometer. I am not a good walker, my posture is bad and it only gets worse the more I walk. My back hurts, my hips hurt, then the knees and the balls of my feet. If I don't have shoes with good arch support the muscles in my calves pull. Some days it feels like I have been walking for a couple of miles. Not much by some peoples standards, but as I said I am not a walker. The only time I can walk fairly long is when I have a shopping cart in front of me to lean on and keep me walking straighter. I think that is what I need, a shopping cart for the garden.
The days are getting shorter but it will be long by some peoples standards. The beauty of living so close to the equator is that the days only change by about 3 hours. I have a 12 hour day still, but by December the sun will not be up till about 7 a.m. and will set by about 5:30 p.m. Still a lot of time to spend outdoors as long as it isn't raining. Then I probably will spend more time on the computer and then there is the ever present clutter that needs to be cleaned out although it is hard for me to throw anything away. I really need to go through my closet. I have a lot of clothes but I always wear the same ones and there are a few that really need to go to the rag bin already.
A long with the holidays come all of those holiday parties and all that rich food. I put on about 5 pounds a year and it never really comes off. I usually bake for the holidays, but I hardly bake much at all. The good side of that is that, I eat a lot less of that stuff, but still more than at any other time of the year.
Which reminds me I need to juice and zest some lemons for lemon meringue pie. The lemons are ripening now and may not be around in December.
The days are getting shorter but it will be long by some peoples standards. The beauty of living so close to the equator is that the days only change by about 3 hours. I have a 12 hour day still, but by December the sun will not be up till about 7 a.m. and will set by about 5:30 p.m. Still a lot of time to spend outdoors as long as it isn't raining. Then I probably will spend more time on the computer and then there is the ever present clutter that needs to be cleaned out although it is hard for me to throw anything away. I really need to go through my closet. I have a lot of clothes but I always wear the same ones and there are a few that really need to go to the rag bin already.
A long with the holidays come all of those holiday parties and all that rich food. I put on about 5 pounds a year and it never really comes off. I usually bake for the holidays, but I hardly bake much at all. The good side of that is that, I eat a lot less of that stuff, but still more than at any other time of the year.
Which reminds me I need to juice and zest some lemons for lemon meringue pie. The lemons are ripening now and may not be around in December.
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RainBird23
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- Location: PNW Zone 8b except when I forget to bring the pots in
What an interesting post, I'm glad I had to ask myself this question. I think this year I'm going to find ways to make winter a garden season also. I'm working on some sprouts and my nephew is going to give me a grow light he got for his cactus that was smaller than he needed. Maybe I can get some herbs growing indoors. I certainly admire all of you who have true gardens! Also second the walking. While the weather is pretty wet here, I do love wind and rain, it's really no worse than taking a shower if you have the luxury of going home and drying off afterward. Maybe I can watch what does well here in the winter and learn how to add some much needed dark-days color to my garden for next winter. There are things growing all over; I just need to see them as potential residents of my garden, not just hillsides and vacant lots.
You are certainly in the right place for walks in the rain, RainBird.
"Human fascination with water is amazing.
We're constantly going to beaches, pools, lakes, rivers.
We're swimming, we're snorkeling, we're scuba-diving.
We bathe in it.
Our bodies are mostly made of water.
Everyone's carrying around these bottles of water.
We can't get enough water.
Unless it rains then we're like, ''Oh, look, l'm soaked.
l am literally drenched.''
For some reason, we have a huge problem with small, flying water.
lt'll just stop us right in our tracks.
''l felt a drop.
We're gonna get caught in it! Everyone cover your water bottles.
Run!'' ~ Jerry Seinfeld
& digitS' ... in flannel and denim and wool
"Human fascination with water is amazing.
We're constantly going to beaches, pools, lakes, rivers.
We're swimming, we're snorkeling, we're scuba-diving.
We bathe in it.
Our bodies are mostly made of water.
Everyone's carrying around these bottles of water.
We can't get enough water.
Unless it rains then we're like, ''Oh, look, l'm soaked.
l am literally drenched.''
For some reason, we have a huge problem with small, flying water.
lt'll just stop us right in our tracks.
''l felt a drop.
We're gonna get caught in it! Everyone cover your water bottles.
Run!'' ~ Jerry Seinfeld
& digitS' ... in flannel and denim and wool
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rainbowgardener
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- Location: TN/GA 7b
What I do with those hours this time of year is work on making Christmas presents. Pretty much all my Christmas presents for some years now have been home made. Takes starting now to do that. I can't wait until the last minute and then come up with homemade gifts.
I also work on getting a lot more exercise to make up for not working in the garden.
Take care of 20+ containers of plants I brought indoors and starting in Jan, a huge seed starting operation.
Keep the house better since we are in it more.
I also work on getting a lot more exercise to make up for not working in the garden.
Take care of 20+ containers of plants I brought indoors and starting in Jan, a huge seed starting operation.
Keep the house better since we are in it more.
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rainbowgardener
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- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
I just made a big basket that I donated to a charity to be auctioned off at their silent auction as a fundraiser. It had a bottle of purple basil infused white wine vinegar, a bottle of herb infused good olive oil (in matching pretty, tall narrow bottles), four 4 oz containers of my herbal tea blends, a jar of purple basil jelly and one of sweet and hot pepper jelly, two homemade bath size soaps (lavender-vanilla, and sage-juniper) pretty from my Celtic knot mold, a tin of 1.5 dozen lemon-almond biscotti, and a nice bottle of wine. Everything except the wine homemade and with my pretty rainbowgardener labels on them. Asking minimum bid $50, but I think it is worth more and I hope it brings in a bit more. ....
Part of what I do with the extra hours.
Part of what I do with the extra hours.
That's great!
I just turned a whole bunch of tomatoes, that were green a couple of weeks ago, into soup! It has already been well received by DW. The addition of Dijon mustard with honey turned out well.
I used to say that I was tired of harvesting so many green tomatoes out of my garden. If I was gonna grow it, it had better show up - sun-ripened!
I still feel that way but it is okay if the season ends with a bucket of green tomatoes to bring in. Sauce for pasta and tomato soup may be what they are good for. Their flavor fresh may have been lost but I can do fairly well with them and have time now that garden clean-up has ended.
On a little side-note, this is how it ended. We are having temperatures well below freezing and wind gusts, above 32, also! That's 32 miles per hour ... a little less wind tomorrow but colder -- wind chill, subzero ...
In my haste to get last minute clean-up finished at a distant garden, I locked my keys in the pickup yesterday! I had another 2 hours of unintended work while I waited for DD to leave her job and bring me my spare keys ..!
Steve
I just turned a whole bunch of tomatoes, that were green a couple of weeks ago, into soup! It has already been well received by DW. The addition of Dijon mustard with honey turned out well
.I used to say that I was tired of harvesting so many green tomatoes out of my garden. If I was gonna grow it, it had better show up - sun-ripened!
I still feel that way but it is okay if the season ends with a bucket of green tomatoes to bring in. Sauce for pasta and tomato soup may be what they are good for. Their flavor fresh may have been lost but I can do fairly well with them and have time now that garden clean-up has ended.
On a little side-note, this is how it ended. We are having temperatures well below freezing and wind gusts, above 32, also! That's 32 miles per hour ... a little less wind tomorrow but colder -- wind chill, subzero ...
In my haste to get last minute clean-up finished at a distant garden, I locked my keys in the pickup yesterday! I had another 2 hours of unintended work while I waited for DD to leave her job and bring me my spare keys ..!
Steve
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rainbowgardener
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- Location: TN/GA 7b
OMG!! Polar vortex has struck again already. Tuesday the HIGH is predicted to be 34 degrees (!), low of 17. That high is lower than our LOW would ordinarily be this time of year.
I hate this, I hate it, I hate it! I grew up in Southern Calif and I have never learned to like winter. For years I have wanted to move south. My partner who grew up north of here, kept telling me, global warming is coming, Cincinnati will get to be nicer in winter. Well global warming is here and most of the world and much of the US IS warmer than it used to be. But some how climate change (which is a more appropriate term than global warming anyway) has recently (at least last year and this year) been leading to our area having this polar vortex thing and being much colder than usual. I've been robbed!!!
but thanks for the compliment Applestar!
I hate this, I hate it, I hate it! I grew up in Southern Calif and I have never learned to like winter. For years I have wanted to move south. My partner who grew up north of here, kept telling me, global warming is coming, Cincinnati will get to be nicer in winter. Well global warming is here and most of the world and much of the US IS warmer than it used to be. But some how climate change (which is a more appropriate term than global warming anyway) has recently (at least last year and this year) been leading to our area having this polar vortex thing and being much colder than usual. I've been robbed!!!
but thanks for the compliment Applestar!
Have you ever seen the movie called the Day After Tomorrow? It posits that a sudden polar vortex could cause a new ice age as a result of global warming and the disruption in the atmosphere.
Increased volcanism, greenhouse gasses, cyclical changes in solar radiation and ocean circulation are all theories that point to a cooling period that follows a warming period. The little ice age was one of those cooling periods that followed the medieval highs.
Have you seen a movie called The Day After Tomorrow. It posits that super polar vortex could form and cause an instant freeze of the northern hemisphere as a result of global warming.
Increased volcanism, greenhouse gasses, cyclical changes in solar radiation and ocean circulation are all theories that point to a cooling period that follows a warming period. The little ice age was one of those cooling periods that followed the medieval highs.
Have you seen a movie called The Day After Tomorrow. It posits that super polar vortex could form and cause an instant freeze of the northern hemisphere as a result of global warming.
I ordered my seeds about a month ago. I planted the dracaena right away and they are starting to pop up. I cut some dracaena stalks in the fall, put them in water and yesterday potted the ones that put roots out.
I have already germinated my begonia seeds and they are doing well under lighting. My plan is to have them in the greenhouse at the end of March and full hanging baskets of them to sell in May.
I have been watching several UK gardening programs and discovered a great program called The Big Allotment Challenge. I hope it's ok to post the link to this show. It's great and I am hooked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNzDapoAkHQ
I have already germinated my begonia seeds and they are doing well under lighting. My plan is to have them in the greenhouse at the end of March and full hanging baskets of them to sell in May.
I have been watching several UK gardening programs and discovered a great program called The Big Allotment Challenge. I hope it's ok to post the link to this show. It's great and I am hooked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNzDapoAkHQ