Category: Arts

Gardening: Z is for Zucchini

Erin Penn 8 Comments

2024 GARDENING / HOME IMPROVEMENTS

This year I added a raised garden after tax season. On and off for a little gathering all the parts, then two days of concentrated effort, but the home for Tomatoes, Yellow Squash, and Zucchini is complete! (Just like the A-to-Z challenge.)

First thing I did was get my containers in order. I bought mint and tomatoes in early April then never had a chance to plant them. Eventually I cleared out the growth from 2022 and 2023 when I ignored the pots, but by then the mint and tomatoes were mostly dead.

I went out and bought more mint and tomatoes, plus supplies for the raised garden. Now the deadline kicks in. I need to get the new plants in a container soon.

I got the raised garden back in January when I was flush with day-job money and hope that THIS is the year I will find time during tax season to get my gardening done before the heat of May kick in for the south.

Yes, I do this dance every year, and every year I fail, but this year I was determined. (shush you, yes, the mint died – which takes some very determined neglect, but this year will be different!)

I had the raised garden pieces. Eight screw-nut combinations are needed to attach each panel together and the end result would be a two-foot deep bed. One hundred and twelve screw-nut combinations later, I got it assembled.

Working on the table with all the nuts and screws until the parts get too big.

 

 

First part assembled.
Nuts-screws are really hard to tighten all by yourself, but I got it done!!! The empty form for the raised bed is complete.

 

Now that the form is ready. I need to go get the dirt. Being just me and my mini-van (their name is Grey), I will need to buy bags of soil.

Soil is purchased – nine bags, plus 3 bags I already have for a total of 12. I hope it is enough.

 

 

Now to get the final touch, those plants that I bought last week. Did I get all of this done in time?

Everything is planted. It looks pretty. Hopefully it will taste delicious in a few month. The wonderful things about making the raised bed is it should be easier going forward to get everything done in future years. We shall see.

I got this done by the May Heat Deadline – go me! (And thanks to everyone on A-to-Z for their visits. Have a great year.)

It is not enough. The raised bed is about half-full, but that is all the energy I have. I’ll add more next year.

Other Cool Blogs: V is for Vader (as a Gargoyle)

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Darth Vader, now on the National Cathedral. COURTESY JAY HALL CARPENTER

Gargoyles are monsters and monstrous concepts carved into stone. Artists take their inspiration for these monsters from a variety of places.

V is for Vader. But Alien and Gizmo (from Gremlins) also have found there way to the sides of cathedrals.

Find out more about some monsters you might actually recognize in

“Pop Culture Gargoyles Hidden in Gothic Architecture.” by Laetitia Barbier published on the Atlas Obscura website, 21 December 2018. (https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pop-culture-gargoyles-in-gothic-architecture – last viewed 17 November 2023.)

Geeking Science: Do You Want Fries in Space

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Photo by Mitchell Luo on Unsplash

Food is essential. No only for survival but also for socialization. If you have hung out on my website for any amount of time, you know that meals are a mainstay in my flashes and that I will Geek the Science out of food – everything from the science of Fried Chicken to how Nori develops in nature.

Time to talk about food in space. Last month I touched on soda being a non-starter in an environment where you can’t burp with any grace. Next question on the table, is space exploration going to be sans fries too? I mean, the movie The Martin, Matt Damon raised potatoes – are we going to have potatoes and no fries?!?

It was a worry for a bit – again the action of microgravity and gas which takes out beer and Coke – might mean the bubbling cauldron of oil won’t work but fries do look like they can stay on the menu after some tests run in parabolic flights. (Lea) Hamburgers – with yeasty bread and greasy meat and cheese, all of which are high gas items – may not make it, but at least we get to keep our fries.

Seems strange to test out cooking techniques for space-worthiness, but food is a necessity on earth and food will be a necessity in space. In addition, like the invention of Tang (Cordell), all knowledge adds to Earth’s present benefit as well as our decedents braving the Black.

Bibliography

Cordell, Lyndsay. “Tang: The Orange Drink That Got Its Start From NASA.” Wide Open Country. 18 February 2021. (https://www.wideopencountry.com/tang-drink/ – last viewed 11/14/2023)

Lea, Robert. “Space food: Why Mars astronauts won’t have to hole the fries.” space.com. 12 June 2023. (https://www.space.com/space-food-frying-works-microgravity – last viewed 11/14/2023)

Other Cool Blogs: Guerrilla Gardening

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Image – Guerrilla Gardening 15 December 2015: Brick Layers Arms, Southward London

Plants bring joy, and emotional wellbeing, and health to an urban area, but how to fit them in between the pavement and the buildings. Well, a little Guerrilla Gardening might solve the issue: Buckets of plants, replacing weed areas with flowers, creating moveable gardens of produce.

A great blog about how to go about this is GuerrillaGardening.org: https://www.guerrillagardening.org/

A friend had me make seed bombs for her to enhance the dead areas around her apartment building.

Related to this is urban agriculture, but guerrilla gardening is more about beautification than food insecurity. Either way – flower or food – it makes the world a better place.