11:20 AM My poor legumes

I think my beans and peas are on their way to little legume heaven. The vines are turning sickly colors and not much is happening with their growth. Honestly, I think it's rot. They're container planted and they're in the only container with a tray to hold water in. Add in the weeks and weeks of pouring rain we've been getting and they've been well over watered. Not to mention that a couple of those hard storms broke many of the vines.

So I guess we'll try again next year or in the fall. I think I'm going to try the bush variety of many of those guys instead of the fragile vines. That or I'll try the vines in an upside down hanging container.

Unfortunately, my Sage is also not doing so hot. But my African Basil from last year has bounced back rather well. And so has my oregano. In fact, all of the plants I bought last year in seedling form are still doing well. The two trees I bought this year as well. I think this may be a lesson for me. I just may not be cut out to raise my own seeds.

10:03 AM Here's how we grow

This is how I've rearranged things. I've strung some wire between the planter stands on either side of the box with the beans/peas so there's a guidance to grow up. Unfortunately, my little pomegranate tree isn't thriving as well as I had hoped.
This is my parsley/cilantro planter. The formed leaves are So Tiny!
Oh I just adore my lavendar. I'm so happy it is blooming finally. Unfortunately the storm last night beat it down even more. I may have to put something around it to re-train it, if that's possible.
Here's my beans/peas. You can see how I've only got 2 of the 4 really doing well and the growth of one far exceeds the other. I still can't remember what is what, so when they finally produce, it'll be a lovely surprise!

5:17 PM Surprise chill

I follow my local weatherman on Twitter. I just love Twitter, it's Fabulous!

Anywhoo, I just got a notice that my area may possibly get snow and/or sleet. Not enough to accumulate, mind you, but still, we'll get chilly enough for that kind of precipitation.

I am shaking my fists at the weather gods as I type this. My garden has almost All sprouted as well as my trees are finally here. Eventhough the predicted nasty weather is supposed to be North and West of me, I guess I'll be bringing in the delicates tonight.

3:06 PM No more waiting, it's here!

My little Dwarf Pomegranate Tree from Gurney's that is.

This little tree is very different from the Dwarf Fig. The Fig came as a sapling sprig with a couple of leaf buds emerging. The pomegranate tree in comparison is more like a bush and is Full of leaves. It's still very tiny in comparison to an actual bush or tree, but hopefully once I get it planted and fed it'll grow like crazy.

10:15 AM Join the Urban Garden Project

Among many of the blogs I follow, I try to keep up with other folks who are gardening in the Urban Jungle. It makes me feel like I'm less of a crazy person to see others living in situations similar to mine refusing to adhere to the hard and fast apartment living rules.

Today Urban Garden Casual posted an article about joining the Urban Garden Project. I signed on as quickly as I could fire off the e-mail, haha! So maybe my little modest garden will garner new friends and we'll receive some good advice from this network of Urban Gardeners.

Speaking of my garden, I meant to take photos of my crazy plants today. I'm going to have to get that vertical climber set up soon as those little beans/peas are growing like Crazy!!! And it looks like my sage and basil are also starting to pop up as well.

12:18 PM Continuing with the Spring lovliness

After yesterday's wonderful First Day of Spring surprises, this weekend has continued on with establishing a lovely and fruitful season.

Today I brought my little dormant dwarf fig tree out of the veggie crisper of the fridge and I gave her a home. I couldn't quite afford to give her a really pretty large home yet, but the helpful folks at Redenta's Garden advised me on a suitable temporary pot that can last her while she's growing. She'll get a prettier upgrade when she needs one.

So without further ado, here she is!

See how pretty her little buds are?

Yesterday I showed you pics of my first bean/pea sprouts. Here's an update on those. It just amazes me how Fast these things grow! Yesterday they were barely out of the soil and today, I can almost see leaves. Maybe tomorrow they'll unfold.

The section of the box that was just teasing me with the one teensy tinsy sprout has exploded like the original section. Those sprouts are about a day behind in development, so they look exactly like what I showed you yesterday.

Oh, remember my lavender that I planted last year that never bloomed?? This one:

Let's take another look at our little lavender.

Did you see it??? One more time.

It's a bloom!!!!! I'm shocked. Seriously, I'm shocked. The Only thing I did different is that I threw some of the dead branches of my basil plant in the pot hoping that the decomposition of those branches would help out a little. It seems I Could have been right about that. But now I also have some food/fertilizer for flowering plants and vegetables that I was told to get for the fig tree and I think I'm gonna put some of that in the pot tomorrow and see what happens.

Here's the whole garden collection all together.

I was planning on doing some square foot gardening this year, but now I'm thinking that I should stick with what I have now as I also still have my pomegranate tree coming. This is my first year to container garden any veggies, much less fruit trees and this many herbs, so I'm a little afraid that I will get overwhelmed and drop the ball. I'm thinking it may be a better idea to get this system established before I expand more.

Yesterday I also showed you a patch of crazy dandelions. Now here's the pretty pre-wish version. There are still a few of these left around the yard.

Miss Maizy Loo loves Spring too.

Nabisco wishes she could be outside gardening with Maizy and I.

But this is about as far as she's gonna get unless she can prove to me that she can behave outside, as in come back in when she's told to.

9:45 AM More than one sign of Spring

Today is the first day of Spring. Spring is a favorite season for many. For me it is because you can see so many wonderful miracles of Nature happening right before your eyes. Well, that and all the bright green colors everywhere. But mostly I am a huge fan of Nature's rebirth after the hibernation of Winter.

At my home today, I got to witness not one but Two signs of the beauty of Spring happening right outside my front door.

The first thing that I noticed was that the pair of birds who nest in my front Catalpa tree are back. And they're busy making their nest again in one of the holes in the trunk. I haven't identified the birds yet, but I want to try to figure out what kind they are. I'm pretty sure it is the same pair as last year.

This is the little male guarding the nest. Their nest hole is just to the right of the new leaf growth in the center there.

He's a bitty little guy. He's mostly black with a few brown flecks and his neck feathers can fluff out quite a bit. He's very talkative when I'm out there. Protecting his nest, I imagine.
And here he is with his mate. I had Just Missed them both waltzing down the sidewalk picking up paper for the nest. I wouldn't have noticed it if the piece of paper hadn't been so Big, haha! I need a zoom lens. You can sort of see that his mate on the left is brown.

The other sign of Spring that happened at my home this morning was that as I was goggling at the sheer numbers and height of the dandelions in the yard, I looked down and noticed that I have Sprouts!!! I can't remember which ones these are. I planted 4 different kinds of climbing beans/peas in this long planter. There's one other one which is starting to sprout as well, but it's so tiny, you can barely tell it from the soil, so I didn't include that picture. I'm so excited, aren't they beautiful! Dang, I need a macro lens too!

Here's the envelopes for what I planted in that long box. I still can't remember what order they're in, but I guess we'll find out when they all mature.

Here's that Dandelion patch I mentioned. Crazy huh? Yes, my apartment's management really needs to get back on the stick with the mowing. Eventhough it's really just the Dandelions which are growing like crazy.

Hey remember that Oregano I worried about killing???? Here it is today!

My neighbor finally came out to do something with it. He gave it a "haircut" as he calls it and it seems like that was exactly what it needed to start really filling out. I think I may give my oregano and my basil a haircut now and see what happens!

1:15 PM Cat Houses FTW!

As you all know, I have a few cats. I guess a few is an understatement when you add in the various fosters I care for now and again. But the point is that I have cats. And those cats Love their carpeted Tower of Power. I've actually set it over next to the most frequented doorway and they enjoy swatting people or begging for attention whenever someone passes by. That tower is nearly 7 years old now. And it's pretty darn shabby looking. It also won't hold more than one cat at a time. So I've been considering purchasing a second Tower of Power, this time with a little house in it for hiding. But the cost of such pieces of pet furniture is generally Cost Prohibitive in this economy. Actually, in Any economy for my budget.

So you can just imagine that I was Tickled Pink today when someone sent me a link to Caboodle Cardboard Cat Furniture!!!!! This little recyclable unit seems to answer my prayers for additional cat furniture. The size is right for the remaining cats to be accommodated, the height is right for gazing out the window, and most importantly, the Price is right for my pocket book!

One of these days maybe they'll engineer a taller Caboodle and I can get rid of the nasty carpeted beast once and for all. I'd go ahead and do it now, but I think the cats would revolt.

8:46 PM VHS Tape Recycling

Like most people I know, I still have a collection of VHS tapes. And the only reason I've held onto these tapes is because there was really no place to dispose of them except for the landfill. And we all know that if they go in the landfill, they'll be there for ETERNITY! Yeah, there's not a whole lot in this world that Eternal Life will bring something positive to.

Thankfully, today I stumbled upon a company that will take care of my VHS Eternal Friends. GreenDisk will recycle just about any kind of Techno Waste, but the biggest help to all of us, since there are other means to dispose of TVs and Computers and such, is that they'll take in, and dispose of correctly, all forms of media from CDs to DVDs to VHS tapes. If you're lucky enough to have a drop box around you, then this is as easy as dropping the items in a box for someone to ship, however, if there's not a drop box around you, they also take items in your own box up to 30 lbs. The only negative is that you have to pay regular postage on top of their small intake fee. So I would consider just ordering the TechnoTrash official box which covers shipping in the cost as Postal Service costs can be pretty high if you have a lot of stuff to send.

It's so important these days that we think about what we are stuffing into our trash bins as much of this stuff will never break down. I am happy to see that there are companies out there trying to accommodate us with solutions to the problem. They may not be perfect solutions, but they are a start. Now the next step is to make sure we are all purchasing recycled products. Even if we are recycling, we Must do our part to make sure recycling stays a viable industry.

2:36 PM Hope for affordable Solar Energy???

Last night I was on my way to pick up the first part of my "new" closet organizing system which is being free-cycled to me by a friend who needed to upgrade and I caught a piece on NPR that gave me hope about solar power and lowering energy costs.

Solar incentive opens energy window

Clicking on the link above will get you to to the story where you can either read the transcript or listen to the produced piece. They are one in the same in case you were wondering if the transcription was condensed.

So when are we going to shout out to the rafters that we want this kind of program to pay out solar panels via our property taxes in Texas?? Granted, I'm an apartment dweller, so it wouldn't help me one bit, but I'm all for making things much easier for homeowners as then eventually, either I'll become a homeowner myself or some program will come along for us renters. I know I saw a person mention wanting a setup that would go in a window like a window A/C unit somewhere. There's an idea that would be Perfect for us apartment dwellers!

10:28 AM Dallas Public Transportation Coming Along

Thanks to The Women's Museum's blog yesterday, I am all giddy over the news that the Green Line section of DART's public rail system is expected to be open by September of next year!

This means we'll still have to deal with the awful construction for the North Texas Irish Festival, but the State Fair of Texas can be traveled to by train. And since I've had a moratorium on concerts at the Starplex (Superpages.com center now, I'm Stubborn!) due to the $20 price tag just on parking alone, this means I can afford to start going to concerts again! Now if only the good festivals will stop going North up to Frisco, I'll be set! Ahem, Ozzfest, are you listening?????

10:24 AM Social Time for the Green Folk

Thanks to one of my new Twitter friends, Kissmyaster, who is beginning to blog over on Horticulture, I've been alerted to a great way to meet fellow Green Folk in Dallas.

Green Drinks says this about itself:

Every month people who work in the environmental field meet up at informal sessions known as Green Drinks.

We have a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business. Come along and you'll be made welcome. Just say, "are you green?" and we will look after you and introduce you to whoever is there. It's a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there’s always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organising network.

These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity. It's a force for the good and we'd like to help it spread to other cities. Contact your local node to get the latest info about coming along.

That sounds Fantastic! And there's a group that meets here in Dallas at Cafe Rembrandt every 2nd Wednesday of the month. I probably won't be able to make it this month, but hopefully I'll be able to meet and greet some of these folks so I can get fabulous ideas for my urban gardening.

Head on over to Green Drinks' website and see if there's a group in your city to meet with!

9:40 PM Inspiration while the weather is wonky

Yesterday Dallas was covered in ice. The surrounding areas lost power. I'm a Central dweller, so I didn't get the brunt of the icy conditions due to the cocoon of the concrete jungle, however, I came home to a Beautiful scene of ice covered tree limbs everywhere. Unfortunately my tripod is MIA, so I couldn't do the scene proper justice.






Anyhow, yesterday it was icy, today the high was in the mid 50s, but by Friday the high temp will reach just over 70 degrees. Up, down, up down. This is Texas winter weather. It won't Really freeze until the end of Jan. I'm not much of a snow bunny, so I'm already waiting anxiously for full on Spring to get here and stay.

And in the spirit of my waitin' and wishin' and hopin' and prayin' I've been looking at some cool urban garden ideas. I do have a small area where I think I may be able to cultivate some vegetables at my apartment complex, however the small space is REALLY small and I'm going to have to get pretty creative about what and how I plant. Not to mention, since my space is viewable to the street, it's going to have to be aesthetically pleasing as well. This presents a bit of a challenge. But you know what? I Love a challenge!

Here are the two coolest ideas I came across today:

Wading pool gardens. This idea certainly won't pass muster in the aesthetically pleasing department, but it reminds me of a very similar method by a different name - Square Foot Gardening - which can be contained as prettily as your building skills allow. I've been mulling this method around for a while. I believe I can make two or three square feet work in my little space.

Then there's also Veritcal Gardening. When I first started searching that method, I kept finding flower and shrub gardens build on building exteriors. But eventually I started seeing vegetable gardening. There's two ways to vertical garden for veggies. One way is to build a wire or wood trellis for vines. The other way is to build a wall of shelves for containers. I think I have begun to hatch a plan for two trellises. One for black berries and blueberries with strawberries spilling out on the bottom. The other will be for peae and cucumbers and greebeans.

These plans may take some more reconfiguring to get right. But I'll eventually have produce of my own to be giddy about. And I do have several more months to mull this over after all.

8:22 PM Say No to the Yellow Pages

A friend of mine on Live Journal recently reminded me of a way to reduce one of the most wasteful items of paper bundling known to man, aside from weekly direct mail, The Phone Book.

Sign this petition and stop the Yellow Pages from coming to you.

Paperless Petition

Speaking of direct mail beast, at DMA Choice, you can learn how to get your name taken off of direct mail lists. There are other services that do this, but this is the one I know of. Please feel free to comment with the information on other services in your arsenal.

8:18 PM Silly things people buy

Last week on Good Morning America a teaser was shown for some piece they were doing on shopping smart. And in the teaser, they showed a person walking out of a grocery store with a flat full of bottled water.

My first gut reaction to the image as presented along with the "saving money" strategy was, "water is free." I actually stood there brushing my teeth thinking about how silly it was to be complaining about the price of providing oneself with the basic needs of life and yet to be Purchasing something that is readily available out of the tap with no extra charge other than a person's regular water bill.

And then I remembered one of the places where I went to college. I have never tasted water so nasty in my life. It was absolutely unpalatable. But I couldn't always afford to buy gallon jugs of water all the time because I was a college student with no job. What I did instead was purchase a luxury item that was the smartest buy of my college career. I bought a Brita filtration pitcher. Upfront, the purchase hurt my teeny budget, but once I made that initial purchase, I was able to utilize the free water that was available to me from my dorm kitchen sink. And I only had to change the $7 filter once per semester. Buying water jugs was a $2-$3 per week expense.

Now people don't even bother with the gallon jugs anymore. Everyone much prefers the convenience of an individual bottle to carry around. But whereas a gallon was around $1, those little bottles which hold a fraction of the same liquid are also $1. People are spending probably 3-4 times as much on convenience.

Now that our society is focused on "going green" I hope that the bottled water fashion will lull to a stand still. Not only is it an unnecessary expense when times are lean, but it's also bad for the environment to throw all of those bottles in the landfills.

So if you need good tasting water combined with the convenience of an individual travel bottle, here's a few links that will not only help you out with taste, but will also keep your drink looking fashion forward.

Kleen Kanteen - Made of the same stainless steel as is used in food, dairy, and brewery preparation, it is purported to be Toxin-Free and won't leech Anything into your beverage. They've just upgraded their line to include some cute colors so your Kleen Kanteen can be a personal statement.

SIGG - Aluminum bottles with a ton of design options to satisfy your quirky style. Although this product is made of aluminum, they guarantee that the liner will NOT leech anything into your drink. The ingredients are not available for the lining, so be aware that you have no way of seeing exactly what is in that lining. Use your judgment on how careful you want to be about what you store your water in. They do promise that they are BPA-free.

CamelBak - This product comes from the company who originated the water hydration systems you see many bikers and various other athletes using. They changed the make-up to their plastic bottles to be BPA Free.

Brita - This was my first water filtration pitcher. I still keep one in my office.

Pur - Another filtration system. I actually prefer the taste from this version, but I think that's just a personal thing and not anything scientific.

8:11 PM Could this be good news for DFW air quality?

As a person who has recently been a passenger for mass transit, anything I come across mentioning improvements to said transportation perks my ears right up. I reside where mass transit is on nearly every corner. However I work where mass transit is here, there and maybe not. Having a car for me isn't just convenience, sometimes its a necessity. Trips to the grocery store are not viable unless I'm only buying dry goods as the only stores on my route are the ones across the street from my office. But that doesn't mean that I don't look forward to more improvements to mass transit. Oh no. I get excited when I hear that we're getting more train lines and that employers are further being encouraged to purchase transit passes for their employees. I think that if we could get over our cars we'd all live a little better. But mass transit has to be better before we get over our cars.

In this week's Dallas Business Journal there is an article about a possible new ordinance that is being discussed. Some cities want to restrict car traffic.
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2008/06/23/story1.html

Part of me sees the word "restrict" and it makes me squint my eyes with mistrust. I'm one of those who despises Smoking Bans because I feel that people should be allowed to do whatever they want to do provided it is within the law. We are in America, after all. But then the person in me who is constantly worried about oil prices and how we will sustain our energy needs sees this as just the thing that could push enough people over to using mass transit that could make Some Sort of Difference!

And in the process it makes me wonder why on earth it takes this much work and legislation to get people (including myself) to submit to what is right for us.




The latest addition to my line of car ownership is the First to have been made in this new millenium. So it's the First to have any sort of decent gas mileage.