There's Seed Saving and There's Seed Saving Part तीन [teen]

It occurs to me that in my previous posts on seed saving (to be found here, and here) I was over-simplifying a bit.  When one is dealing with tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, what I wrote is right on target.  You see, all of these plants self-pollinate, so it is very common to be able to save their seeds without doing anything other than picking their fruits and following the simple steps I have outlined already.  So you can consider these plants to be the primary school of seed saving!

Now we can move on to middle school!

There's Seed Saving and There's Seed Saving Part Deux

Well the worst of summer seems to have passed.  At least here in Middle Tennessee.  Temperatures have dropped mostly into the 80's and rain arrives with almost plannable regulatrity.  The garden is humming along nicely with a steady flow of vegetables coming ripe.  The mulch has truly revolutionized our garden, as we had hoped.  It is not completely weed free, but, if you consider the level to which we are not weeding out there, it is certainly weed free enough!

Too Hot to Handle

We are now on the down side of the wave of blistering heat that has us covering our tomato patch with bedsheets (since the shade cloth has not yet arrived.)

Got Those Thermoregulation Blues!

Yahoo weather is telling me that the temperature in my tiny town is going to rise up into the hundreds this weekend.  This is powerful news to a little family that lives without air conditioning or even a fan.  This morning it was impossible to believe since it was so chilly when we woke that I put on a sweatshirt and sweatpants.  Now it's past noon, though, and the sun has moved out of the woods and into the middle of the sky.  I'm feeling the first serious warmth sink into my bones.  Am I worried?

Mulch Madness!

I know, I know, I keep going on about mulch.  I can't help myself.  Mulch is making such a difference in the maintenance of our whole place that I can't help but talk about it.  For example, currently we have no functional lawn mowers.  Solution?  Mulch!  Of course!  It is literally taking over the whole yard, and in the process creating future planting beds.

Garden Update

Okay, okay, I know, I shouldn't have left everyone hanging for so long, but I'm back now.  We had a great day of planting the other day and now I'm just praying for no frost for the rest of the spring.

We are really working the Ruth Stout - No Work Garden program this year.  It feels like a lot of work right now but I am confident that it will pay off around mid summer.  The principle component is mulch.  Let me repeat that in all caps: MULCH!!!  To help you understand I have some pictures of our recent work.

Savings Accounts and High Stakes Gambling

"A penny saved is a penny earned," right?  Isn't that what they always say?  And accordingly, the crustimony proseedcake (customary procedure for all of you non-Pooh readers) for people of my age bracket is to have savings in a number of formats.  There is the simple savings account, of course, but there are many others as well.  There are IRAs, 401Ks, stock portfolios, insurance policies and surely many others that I don't even know about.  In our society, people feel like they are flapping in the breeze if they do not have a diversified portfolio.  Well, I have a diversified portfolio of my own, but it does not involve a single of the formats mentioned above.  What I have is this:

So Many Questions!

This post is primarily for those of you who are looking to start a little bit of gardening, but who are not in a rural setting like mine.  You may have a patio or tiny yard and you may be renting, so plowing up your allotted bit lawn is out of the question.  In what ways might a person in this situation set up a winter garden or any kind of garden for that matter?