I can't eat a lot of soy either. I actually only use low sodium soy and I cut the amount. If I use full salt soy, not only will my feet swell up, it will upset my stomach as well. I also can't have msg which will give me a headache or chinese five spice. I have actually used coconut aminos as a substitute. It tastes better than Bragg's liquid aminos as it does not have as much bitterness. Both of these substitutes still have more salt than I can handle.
I had a lot of shiratake noodles in the frig and this time I did preboil them to get rid of the smell. Actually, I have never boiled them before and never noticed any smell. I learned to do this because shiratake is a replacement for pasta in a low carb diet. It is not the same as pasta and I don't do that any more. I would rather use the pasta sauce as a topping for chicken.
I do have to use the tofu, so I may make tofu steak in a few days or eat it with green onions as a side dish.
The rain and wind finally has slowed down. I have a sea of nut sedge in my lawn, but the pump sprayer is broken so I had to buy a new one today. My niece came over and helped me clean up around the yard. I got the front yard almost cleared. It still needs weed whacking and I have pile of broken concrete I don't know what to do with, but all the empty pots are now cluttering the back yard.
I did repot a few things. I have all this left over media in the pots that need to go somewhere. I am reusing some of it, some I can use as fill. A lot the media I don't know what to do with it.
I got some house stuff done. My niece helped me change a broken blind in the bathroom. She doesn't know anything. Something that should have taken at most 30 minutes took closer to an hour. I used to be able to do this kind of repair, but anything done on a ladder for me is really tough and dangerous. I did not want to do the replacement without someone being there. I was supposed to fix a couple of screens, but, I had the wrong size spline. The frames are looking nasty too, so I am going with plan B. It will take me another couple of hours to try to rescreen the frames after I go and buy new spline. Instead, I am going to borrow my mom's car and take the screens to the screen shop and have new ones made. These screens are 28 years old, so I guess it is time for new ones. I just have to figure out how to keep Jack, my cat, from breaking the screen.
I got up early this morning and actually got a lot done. I got up at around 4:30 a.m. I did a load of laundry, made breakfast, set the robot vacuum off to do its thing, vacuumed the floor upstairs, once the sun came up, swept the stair case and cleaned one bathroom.
By 2:30 my niece had a hard time getting up off the floor. I was tired, but not as tired as I thought I would be. It was a long day and I actually was able to tolerate it for most of the day. Having to stand on a ladder and try to operate a cordless drill above my head, that was challenging.
I have one orchid in bloom. I think it is Maikai, but it must be a different one, since there is a color difference. It has been open for two weeks and still looks good. The popcorn oncidiums are starting to spike.
I have harvested some of the bok choy, and I have planted most of the main garden now. There isn't much space left. The marigolds are starting to bloom. Moorcap (red cascade) and Baby blanket roses are blooming. They are the only roses that I actually have to treat like a weed, they are ramblers. I have some cilantro ready to pick and I started a couple of other pots. I potted up the araimo. It had only about 3 inches of media left in the pot. It has been there awhile. I finally potted up the stone pine, divided the black bamboo, repotted Miss All American Beauty rose and I did have to throw away some pepper seedlings since they were showing signs of bacterial spot. It is a problem when it rains most of the night, every night. The sweet and thai basil also have some downy and I can cut back the thai basil, but any of the sweet basils that are affected have to be thrown away. Pickings at the garden shop is slim now. Thers is a lot of lettuce starts, but I can only find English thyme and I want French and lemon thyme. It may have to wait.
I thought the bitter melon was done, but that thing refuses to die. It is putting out more fruit.
I have planted summer dance cucumber and Poamoho beans. So far the beans look o.k. I put slug bait on the ground around the pots. If the marigold can stay dry a little longer, I will be able to collect the seeds. Lizards are everywhere, but lately, the butterflies have been staying away.
The calamondin and a couple of the other citrus. One might be a lemon, the other a lemon or a lime have at least one fruit. The kaffir lime has a lot of fruit. But, I will only be looking for seeds. Kaffir limes are pithy. I have thinned my carrots. This is only the first thinning.
I made finadenne with the tabasco peppers, calamondin, and green onions from the yard. The lemon was strong and overwhelmed the tabasco peppers. Tabasco only has mouth heat, it really does not simmer or have a lasting after heat.
I did repot a few things. I have all this left over media in the pots that need to go somewhere. I am reusing some of it, some I can use as fill. A lot the media I don't know what to do with it.
I got some house stuff done. My niece helped me change a broken blind in the bathroom. She doesn't know anything. Something that should have taken at most 30 minutes took closer to an hour. I used to be able to do this kind of repair, but anything done on a ladder for me is really tough and dangerous. I did not want to do the replacement without someone being there. I was supposed to fix a couple of screens, but, I had the wrong size spline. The frames are looking nasty too, so I am going with plan B. It will take me another couple of hours to try to rescreen the frames after I go and buy new spline. Instead, I am going to borrow my mom's car and take the screens to the screen shop and have new ones made. These screens are 28 years old, so I guess it is time for new ones. I just have to figure out how to keep Jack, my cat, from breaking the screen.
I got up early this morning and actually got a lot done. I got up at around 4:30 a.m. I did a load of laundry, made breakfast, set the robot vacuum off to do its thing, vacuumed the floor upstairs, once the sun came up, swept the stair case and cleaned one bathroom.
By 2:30 my niece had a hard time getting up off the floor. I was tired, but not as tired as I thought I would be. It was a long day and I actually was able to tolerate it for most of the day. Having to stand on a ladder and try to operate a cordless drill above my head, that was challenging.
I have one orchid in bloom. I think it is Maikai, but it must be a different one, since there is a color difference. It has been open for two weeks and still looks good. The popcorn oncidiums are starting to spike.
I have harvested some of the bok choy, and I have planted most of the main garden now. There isn't much space left. The marigolds are starting to bloom. Moorcap (red cascade) and Baby blanket roses are blooming. They are the only roses that I actually have to treat like a weed, they are ramblers. I have some cilantro ready to pick and I started a couple of other pots. I potted up the araimo. It had only about 3 inches of media left in the pot. It has been there awhile. I finally potted up the stone pine, divided the black bamboo, repotted Miss All American Beauty rose and I did have to throw away some pepper seedlings since they were showing signs of bacterial spot. It is a problem when it rains most of the night, every night. The sweet and thai basil also have some downy and I can cut back the thai basil, but any of the sweet basils that are affected have to be thrown away. Pickings at the garden shop is slim now. Thers is a lot of lettuce starts, but I can only find English thyme and I want French and lemon thyme. It may have to wait.
I thought the bitter melon was done, but that thing refuses to die. It is putting out more fruit.
I have planted summer dance cucumber and Poamoho beans. So far the beans look o.k. I put slug bait on the ground around the pots. If the marigold can stay dry a little longer, I will be able to collect the seeds. Lizards are everywhere, but lately, the butterflies have been staying away.
The calamondin and a couple of the other citrus. One might be a lemon, the other a lemon or a lime have at least one fruit. The kaffir lime has a lot of fruit. But, I will only be looking for seeds. Kaffir limes are pithy. I have thinned my carrots. This is only the first thinning.
I made finadenne with the tabasco peppers, calamondin, and green onions from the yard. The lemon was strong and overwhelmed the tabasco peppers. Tabasco only has mouth heat, it really does not simmer or have a lasting after heat.
I went out the other day and the snails are attacking the beans. I put out slug bait. Today I pulled out marigolds from the pot next to the beans and I found 2 snails. They might be the culprits eating the beans. I planted a red currant in that pot. It needed a home badly.
I fertilized the main garden. Things are growing slower now that the days are getting shorter.
The beets are starting to bulb up. I did the first thinning on the carrots. It seems a shame to pull out more than half the seedlings, but it has to be done.
It has been cloudy with brief periods of rain. I still have to water, but the pots are drying slower with the cloudy days so I can skip a day on most plants, but not all of them.
I finally weed whacked the front yard yesterday.
It was not a good day to work outside with the intermittent rain, so I finally christened my canner. I am starting slow with pickled onions and chili pepper water. I will find out how they taste in a couple of days.
I fertilized the main garden. Things are growing slower now that the days are getting shorter.
The beets are starting to bulb up. I did the first thinning on the carrots. It seems a shame to pull out more than half the seedlings, but it has to be done.
It has been cloudy with brief periods of rain. I still have to water, but the pots are drying slower with the cloudy days so I can skip a day on most plants, but not all of them.
I finally weed whacked the front yard yesterday.
It was not a good day to work outside with the intermittent rain, so I finally christened my canner. I am starting slow with pickled onions and chili pepper water. I will find out how they taste in a couple of days.
2020 is winding down, but my garden is actually still very active. I have cleaned up some of it but there is still a lot more to go.
This is actually the best time for me to plant cool weather crops. Cilantro can last up to 6 months if it is taken care of. In summer, I don't bother to grow it, it can't last more than a month. I have planted more lettuce and succession planting bok choy. I planted 3 komatsuna and I will get multiple harvests from them and the kale. The beans are taking a beating from the snails, but they are still alive and have a chance to make it. I have 4 Summer Dance cucumbers in the 18 gallon pot.
I still have more things to repot. I bleached some pots yesterday. I found some ground mealy bugs in some pots, I have to try to keep them from spreading.
The pictures of moorcap (red cascade), and baby blanket did not load, but they are also in bloom and for once they look tame. Usually they have 15 ft canes and are part of the jungle in the back yard. I will get more pictures of them someday.
This is the time of year when I don't mind my cat sleeping on top of me. He keeps me warm. Definitely extra blanket nights.
I have a lot of winter orchids budding or in bloom. "Maikai" is fading but has been up for three weeks. I have a few dendrobiums in spike. The popcorn oncidiums are starting to spike as well, but they will not bloom till around April or May.
Roses will be in bloom at Christmas if I cut them at the right time. They are blooming now. They will rebloom six weeks after pruning.
It has been raining on most nights and some afternoons, but not a lot and it has been able to dry out during the day.
The basil has gotten downy mildew, but the tropical plants don't have these issues. Summer Dance, Soarer, sweet pea currant, and charger have good resistance to disease and mildews. Unfortunately, nothing resists snails and birds well.
This is actually the best time for me to plant cool weather crops. Cilantro can last up to 6 months if it is taken care of. In summer, I don't bother to grow it, it can't last more than a month. I have planted more lettuce and succession planting bok choy. I planted 3 komatsuna and I will get multiple harvests from them and the kale. The beans are taking a beating from the snails, but they are still alive and have a chance to make it. I have 4 Summer Dance cucumbers in the 18 gallon pot.
I still have more things to repot. I bleached some pots yesterday. I found some ground mealy bugs in some pots, I have to try to keep them from spreading.
The pictures of moorcap (red cascade), and baby blanket did not load, but they are also in bloom and for once they look tame. Usually they have 15 ft canes and are part of the jungle in the back yard. I will get more pictures of them someday.
This is the time of year when I don't mind my cat sleeping on top of me. He keeps me warm. Definitely extra blanket nights.
I have a lot of winter orchids budding or in bloom. "Maikai" is fading but has been up for three weeks. I have a few dendrobiums in spike. The popcorn oncidiums are starting to spike as well, but they will not bloom till around April or May.
Roses will be in bloom at Christmas if I cut them at the right time. They are blooming now. They will rebloom six weeks after pruning.
It has been raining on most nights and some afternoons, but not a lot and it has been able to dry out during the day.
The basil has gotten downy mildew, but the tropical plants don't have these issues. Summer Dance, Soarer, sweet pea currant, and charger have good resistance to disease and mildews. Unfortunately, nothing resists snails and birds well.
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- The main garden: Lacinato and Curly vates kale, bok choy, komatsuna, perpetual spinach, Bonanza marigolds, Jamaican oregano, Thai basil, culantro, Right stuff pepper, Italian parsley, Romaine lettuce, Detroit dark red beets, Tokyo long green onions
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- cleaned up the jungle of parrot beak heliconia. Potted plants. Many citrus, peppers, araimo,
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- I did keep two pots of the parrot beak heliconia. More citrus, ginger, my stone pine Christmas tree, potted herbs peppermint, greek oregano, strawberries, cilantro, pepper, summer dance cucumber, and tomato seedlings.
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- front yard cleaned up; super chile volunteer
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- super chili is 4 ft tall
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- catleya nodosa hybrid in bloom. It blooms once a year.
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- the sun was to bright to see the blue ice calathea in bloom
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- yellow crown of thorns
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- Poamoho beans severely damaged by snails
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- sweet pea currant tomato. It grows wild in the yard, Tiny but very sweet and disease resistant
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- Summer dance cucumbers
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- I actually have 7 cukes on 4 plants right now.
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- Kuroda carrot
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- The front yard after cleanup and weedwhacking
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- The grass/weeds greened up after the rain. I did feel sorry for the grass and I did fertilize it. I still don't water it.
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- The tall rose got to 9 ft before I cut it. It is about 7 ft now. The gardenia is a tree gardenia pruned to 5 ft.
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- The rose is a hybrid tea "Francis Meliland"
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- Frances Meliland with many blooms right now
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- Cleaned up the driveway border. Alyssum, Angelonia, gladiolus (perennial), and just planted more mixed flower seeds.
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- false heather planted
I use low sodium soy sauce. Regular soy sauce is too salty for me. My mom thinks it tastes like water. I find regular soy sauce not only salty, but bitter and if I eat too much of it it will upset my stomach, make my feet swell from the salt and give me a headache. My sister will actually break out in mouth sores, but she doesn't care she will eat her mango with shoyu, sugar, and pepper anyway. Her favorite thing to do is to put mayonnaise and soy sauce on rice. I thought butter was weird. I kinda still do. However, we eat mostly short grained rice, not long grained. Short grain rice is not white after you put gravy on it.
When I cook for myself, there is considerably less salt than anyone else would use. If I cook for other people I have to actually add salt for them or tell them they will need to add salt at the table.
Today, I ate another cucumber from the garden. I have given some away, but there are still 3 more I will have to eat soon. I planted Chinese peas in a pot and they germinated quite quickly. The currant tomato died. The pot was too wet. Now, the Chinese rose beetles are going after the beans. I may have to move them to another location. They are easy targets there.
I really am getting stir crazy. I forgot 2 zoom meetings because I remembered a few hours before then forgot again when the time came. I need to set an alarm reminder. Sometimes I can't even remember what day it is. Except for dropping off some bill payments and Christmas cards at the drive thru mailbox, I don't think I have been out for almost two weeks. I really want to go shopping, but there really isn't anything I need to have now. I am trying to put it off until I have more things on my shopping list or I get to where I have less than a week supply. I have more than a week of eggs, and 2 onions. I don't have russet potatoes, I do have red ones. I don't have to do a major meal for at least a couple of days and I still have stuff in the freezer and the garden to eat, so I am staying away from the store for a few days more, maybe. I may still go out to McDonald's or get take out in a few days because, I am tired of eating the same thing every day and even if it is only a 10-20 minute drive, it would be nice to have a change of scenery.
I did go to the Herb garden on Tuesday, but someone had already finished weeding it so I only had some straglers to pull. I ended up leaving earlier than planned. I do have a drive thru volunteer event at the garden tomorrow, so that is something to look forwar to. If I remember.
When I cook for myself, there is considerably less salt than anyone else would use. If I cook for other people I have to actually add salt for them or tell them they will need to add salt at the table.
Today, I ate another cucumber from the garden. I have given some away, but there are still 3 more I will have to eat soon. I planted Chinese peas in a pot and they germinated quite quickly. The currant tomato died. The pot was too wet. Now, the Chinese rose beetles are going after the beans. I may have to move them to another location. They are easy targets there.
I really am getting stir crazy. I forgot 2 zoom meetings because I remembered a few hours before then forgot again when the time came. I need to set an alarm reminder. Sometimes I can't even remember what day it is. Except for dropping off some bill payments and Christmas cards at the drive thru mailbox, I don't think I have been out for almost two weeks. I really want to go shopping, but there really isn't anything I need to have now. I am trying to put it off until I have more things on my shopping list or I get to where I have less than a week supply. I have more than a week of eggs, and 2 onions. I don't have russet potatoes, I do have red ones. I don't have to do a major meal for at least a couple of days and I still have stuff in the freezer and the garden to eat, so I am staying away from the store for a few days more, maybe. I may still go out to McDonald's or get take out in a few days because, I am tired of eating the same thing every day and even if it is only a 10-20 minute drive, it would be nice to have a change of scenery.
I did go to the Herb garden on Tuesday, but someone had already finished weeding it so I only had some straglers to pull. I ended up leaving earlier than planned. I do have a drive thru volunteer event at the garden tomorrow, so that is something to look forwar to. If I remember.
I did not water the garden for four days because of all of the rain. I did go out and water the smaller pots. I should have at least looked at the rest of the garden. The Ohia and some of the bok choy were wilted. I worked to get a couple of more things done before the year ends. I have been reusing soil in my large pots, but the results are getting worse. Today, I dumped out a couple of the pots. One of them did have some soil mealy bugs. It is too big to soak so, I put it out as fill in a space where I don't grow anything. I have to bleach the pot. I found that one of the mint pots died and it also had soil mealy bugs from reusing potting soil. I don't have it in every pot, but it is in quite a few.
The katuk was infested and I successfully treated it with hot water and killed the mealy bugs and repotted it. It looks good now. The pot could fit in a 5 gallon bucket so I heated up water to 120 degrees and submerged the potted plant in the bucket. The kill time is 15 minutes, but I left it for 30 minutes. I checked the root ball and pots after and I did not see any mealybugs at all.
The mint pot was small, so I did dump that soil since it was heavily infested and bleached that pot for an hour as well. I had lobate scale on the ajaka basil and I pruned it back and scrubbed off the scale. I have had the plant isolated but so far the scale has not come back and the plant looks healthy now.
My cucumber vines are still o.k. but they have stopped producing, so I will be taking them out and planting more. I had 4 plants in one pot. While the pot could handle that, I need to do a bit of staggering of the plantings so I don't get so many cucumbers all at the same time. This variety was Summer Express. It also has good disease tolerance like Soarer. I did have some issues with the melon fly. The bitter melon pretty much grows wild and the fruit from the bitter melon is attracting melon flies so they are stinging the cucumbers. I need to bag the fruit of both of the plants to protect them. I do have cue lure so I will make a trap for them and spray or prune the ti leaves which is a host for the fruit flies. I think melon flies are also hosted by the bitter melon vine, but I would have to look that one up. I plan to start some zucchini. it also attracts fruit flies so it will have to be bagged as well. I have to make sure the zucchini is no where near the cucumbers.
The snow peas have sprouted and they are about 4 inches tall. They grow a lot slower at this time of the year.
The carrots are starting to form baby carrots. They are about the size of a pencil now, so it will be awhile. I did feed them last week with potassium nitrate.
The komatsuna and bok choy are ready to harvest.
I have layered the main garden three times now. It has done a good job controlling the nut sedge, but I am finding that only the shallow rooted crops are happy in the top four inches of soil. Since I am not tilling, but just layering the garden with newspaper and 4 inches of potting soil on top, the plants with the longer roots are smaller than they should be. I think I will have to double dig the garden when most of the plants are out so I can drop fertilizer and compost deeper into the bed.
The marigolds are starting to drop seeds in the garden. There were nematodes there so keeping it in marigold will be o.k. I will pull and get rid of the trap crop soon. I can plant nematode resistant crops in that section. Poamoho beans are nematode resistant. I have heat treated the trellis legs the hard way with a bic lighter. I really need a torch, but I don't use it much so I don't like to keep the gas container around. I don't even like keeping the bic lighter around.
The katuk was infested and I successfully treated it with hot water and killed the mealy bugs and repotted it. It looks good now. The pot could fit in a 5 gallon bucket so I heated up water to 120 degrees and submerged the potted plant in the bucket. The kill time is 15 minutes, but I left it for 30 minutes. I checked the root ball and pots after and I did not see any mealybugs at all.
The mint pot was small, so I did dump that soil since it was heavily infested and bleached that pot for an hour as well. I had lobate scale on the ajaka basil and I pruned it back and scrubbed off the scale. I have had the plant isolated but so far the scale has not come back and the plant looks healthy now.
My cucumber vines are still o.k. but they have stopped producing, so I will be taking them out and planting more. I had 4 plants in one pot. While the pot could handle that, I need to do a bit of staggering of the plantings so I don't get so many cucumbers all at the same time. This variety was Summer Express. It also has good disease tolerance like Soarer. I did have some issues with the melon fly. The bitter melon pretty much grows wild and the fruit from the bitter melon is attracting melon flies so they are stinging the cucumbers. I need to bag the fruit of both of the plants to protect them. I do have cue lure so I will make a trap for them and spray or prune the ti leaves which is a host for the fruit flies. I think melon flies are also hosted by the bitter melon vine, but I would have to look that one up. I plan to start some zucchini. it also attracts fruit flies so it will have to be bagged as well. I have to make sure the zucchini is no where near the cucumbers.
The snow peas have sprouted and they are about 4 inches tall. They grow a lot slower at this time of the year.
The carrots are starting to form baby carrots. They are about the size of a pencil now, so it will be awhile. I did feed them last week with potassium nitrate.
The komatsuna and bok choy are ready to harvest.
I have layered the main garden three times now. It has done a good job controlling the nut sedge, but I am finding that only the shallow rooted crops are happy in the top four inches of soil. Since I am not tilling, but just layering the garden with newspaper and 4 inches of potting soil on top, the plants with the longer roots are smaller than they should be. I think I will have to double dig the garden when most of the plants are out so I can drop fertilizer and compost deeper into the bed.
The marigolds are starting to drop seeds in the garden. There were nematodes there so keeping it in marigold will be o.k. I will pull and get rid of the trap crop soon. I can plant nematode resistant crops in that section. Poamoho beans are nematode resistant. I have heat treated the trellis legs the hard way with a bic lighter. I really need a torch, but I don't use it much so I don't like to keep the gas container around. I don't even like keeping the bic lighter around.