First Onions!

Here's my first onions!!! 3 white and a red.  I picked them when one was blooming and the others were popping out of the soil just screaming "pick me, pick me."  I clipped off the tops and am storing them in the bottom of my pantry. Can't wait to find a recipe to be worthy of my homegrown onions.  I started these from a starter bunch from my local nursery. I'm so gonna get some more of these. I use the baby ones as fresh scallions for other recipes.  So easy.

Hypermiling Mentioned on NASCAR!!!

So I watched NASCAR the other night for the first time with a buddy and they mentioned hypermiling.  It was near the end of the race and instead of the drivers taking a pit stop and losing race position, the drivers were shutting their cars off to conserve gas.  What a novel idea?  Now if professionals are doing this to win a race, can't we all attempt to do a little hypermiling to win the race of life???  

First Strawberry's!!!

So here are some strawberries from my little box that I was doubting...but, it's producing now.  I must say that they are the sweetest, juiciest strawberries ever!!!  I plan on making a bigger patch in the front yard as it heats up down here in the southwest.

Happy EarthDay All!!! Here's a great idea for something to show the earth that you love her...Plant some tomatoes in hanging pots.  Here's my system that I use.  I got some 2.5 gallon buckets from the local hardware store, fill them up with some bobs mix and cut a 2" hole in the bottom.   Cut a small piece of paper bag to cover the hole and fill with a some good soil mix.  Pack it down good, put the lid on and flip it over.  Cut a small x into the piece of p.b. and plant your tomato, pepper, cucumber, any vine veggie. Water well and let her sit for a few days for the roots to set.  After the couple days, hang it from a solid hook, or build yourself a stand to hang it from.  Install your drip system and you're good to go. I already have 10+ tomato's with about 40 blossoms. I just planted a red pepper and she's doing great. Enjoy!!!
Here's my salad garden.  The arugala is doing great and already gone to flower. The rainbow chard is great, and great for you.  We love it in salads and steamed. Also in the box is some carrots, lettuce, spinach, dill, random squash's, okra and a tomato that popped up from the compost.

Here is the standing box on the east wall.  The broccli is starting to bloom, can't wait.  My peas are getting too much sun I think, but I do have a few blossoms. My new basil plant is thriving as are my radishes.  The green beans are doing good, just got few beans this morning.  The squash blossoms are huge, but not producing fruit. I tried to self-pollinate with a q-tip this morning. Lets see what happens...  

Enjoy your Earthday and plant something!!!!   

Bob

Happy April 20th!!!

Get outside and grow something:)  Oh yeah, earth day is on wednsday.  Today is just green day...

Drink Soda Pop? You're Drinking Bisphenol A (BPA)

Here is a scary fact that I found on Treehugger.com today:

"We have noted before that bisphenol A (BPA) is a key component of the epoxy liner in canned food and drink, so it should really be no surprise that new tests at Health Canada found it in pop cans. The chemical is thought to be an endocrine disruptor or "gender bender", and is now banned in many countries from baby bottles.

The levels in pop cans is low, with the highest level found to be 4.5 parts per trillion; you would have to drink 8,000 cans of pop or 900 cans of energy drinks to get to the daily exposure limit set by Health Canada.

But others say that those exposure limits are thousands of times too high."

Here's the link:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/bpa-is-in-your-soda-pop.php

Glad I don't drink soda!!! Say no to coke!!!

New BBGB garden!!!

So its official. The BBGB garden has a new location. My family has moved and I needed to move the garden. It was a shame to move an existing garden, but all plants have transplanted well and are now happy living in seperate pots. This is my elevated garden, square foot style. Constructed of 4x4's for legs, 2x6's for the container and some 3/4 inch plywood for the base. All the wood was leftover or found in an alley to cut cost and to save new trees.  I installed a drip system to save water and time.  So far I have planted broccli, basil, a bunch of different squashes that sprouted out of my compost, peas, radishes, and beans.   The other pictures are my onion box built from leftover wood I found and pots of thyme and mint.  Also is a strawberry box that I am testing, pots of garlic and chives, pot of japanese egglplant and big pot of oregano.  The reason I need so many containers is we have a lawn that I cannot turn into a garden just yet as we are renting our house and don't know how the landlord would feel with full fledged farm growing at his house. So i gotta keep it low key.

Green Exercise

So here's a new topic for the bbgb.com.

I've made a pledge to myself to exercise more and use whats around to me attain my goals.

For example: I was at the airport yesterday waiting for my plane, and instead of sitting by the gate and reading my magazine or going to the bar or just vegging out into those oh so comfy airport chairs, I decided to take a walk from one side of the gate area to the other for 20 minutes.   It was a great workout, passed the time, and helped me take a great nap on the way home.  Try it, you might like it. It's way better for you than getting one of those big pretzels or a ben and jerry's.