The front yard small as it may be is looking great due to the roses. Each year certain bushes always produce well. Other years some rose bushes produce more than other years. This year the yellow rose bush is more prolific early than it has ever been. The blooms are even larger on the yellow roses.
The white roses by the fence and the long stem red roses by the door continue to produce beautiful flowers every year. My pink roses on the other side of the garden haven’t been as plentiful the past 2 years but the hybrid purple roses behind them are growing and popping out more flowers this year.
I gave them a nice feeding of slow release fertilizer and a mix to fight off insects like aphids so they will continue nice and healthy this year. I put down some more black bark down earlier this week to keep weeds out and sets the flowers off nicely with that background.
Night time shot of roses earlier this week in the evening after putting the black bark down.Full shot of the roses in the front. The way the homes are configured the grass or white rocks in the front aren’t mine or they would be looking different.
April 3, 2022
by dhoytt Comments Off on Removed Replanted Gourmet Collard Greens
I removed the “gourmet collard greens” that seemed to have gone to seed that I had replanted from last year and brought up from seed . The gourmet greens had a huge amount or aphid like bugs the other collard greens didn’t have. I think I could have nursed some production out of them but figured the other collard greens would take up the slack without all the bugs that weren’t on them. I placed some celebrity and large cherry red, tomato plants from the discount pack that I had in the place of gourmet greens and some stevia from last year.
The stevia from last year I had in a planter and had given up on them. Apparently the stevia had just went dormant suddenly back in February after seeming to flourish then in a week was gone ! Very unusual to see a plant go from flourishing to dormant that quickly, then I noticed growth in the planter box and it wasn’t even getting water but the stevia came right on up!
I also made some adjustments on the drip system and tested that along with some snipping of rose bushes in the front of the house. A lot of tiny buds ready to bloom into roses in the front very soon on each of the rose bushes, with some having blooms already.
Gourmet collard greens pulled up.Garden spot where the gourmet collard greens were pulled from with more tomato plants and stevia in their place.This side of the garden blooming but will need weeds pulled aggressively this week.
I am already at the latest version of WordPress but also upgraded a few modules and themes along with the Fedora 34 OS I use for my webserver. I also updated my separate Fedora 34 Linux relay server and W2019 Data Center OS I run my streaming music from @ https://dhoytt.com/snake-ice-radio-blog/now-playing/
I upgraded my cloud offering I used to upload at times from my phone to my NAS systems at home as well as other behind the scene systems.
March 28, 2022
by dhoytt Comments Off on The Music Stream Continues
Just like that back up and streaming music over the internet from my upstairs home computer room to wherever you are ! The w2019 server with streaming software is up that then relays to my Linux Fedora 34 system with ShoutCast and Icecast.
This is the place the music happens and you can keep up with what’s playing real time: https://dhoytt.com/snake-ice-radio-blog/now-playing/My music console where I input the sounds back up after reboot of W2019 Data Center OS.Confirming relay software starts after reboot of system following system patches on Linux Fedora 34 system OS.
March 28, 2022
by dhoytt Comments Off on Patch Updates Streaming Servers
That time once again updating my W2019 Datacenter streaming server along with my Fedora 34 IceCast\Shoutcast streams that connect to the streaming server to serve up the music. I shall be back online in a bit back streaming music.
March 28, 2022
by dhoytt Comments Off on 2022 Vegetable Garden in Pool Ready Good Food Weekend Done
Finished my custom pvc pipe tomato trellises for now. I even added some more vegetables to my already over crowded vegetable garden when I couldn’t find poblano\ancho chilli pepper plants sprouting in my garden. I picked up some poblano\ancho peppers, Fresno peppers and another habanero pepper plant as well putting them in various spots.
I went to the old traditional pool store I had used for most of the time the past 25 years until they consolidated to one store in 2009. This store was quite a bit further out than the second store they had they closed and picked up some pool filters, I left my automatic pool vacuum to be repaired as well. I normally do repairs myself on my pool vacuum but with supply chain slow downs and no time I let them do it. They also had the filters no one else had in stock locally. After finishing vacuuming all the dirt from my garden excursions that collected on the pool bottom and some shock treatments, getting my pool salt content up to what it should be making sure the chlorinator was working the pool water is looking inviting! Once the pool gets a bit more warm I will start up my pool workouts doubling my cardio from treadmill sessions and eventually back to my road courses.
This week I picked up whole chicken as my protein of the week. I fire cooked with pellet apple wood on one of my Traeger grills after a nice 24 hour plus brine. The cook went well and the chicken was tender after letting it rest for awhile with the juices pouring out when cut. Even the breast meat was as juicy as a thigh. I ate with some store bought lobster ravioli and shrimp in garlic sauce along with some collard greens from my garden.
On my pvc pipe trellises I used tie wraps and heavy duty rubber bands made to resist heat and outside weather. On one row I will use traditional wired tomato baskets to test against my custom trellises This also satisfies my mission not to have useful things around the yard not being utilized and in my way.
I already have lots of tomato blooms and one beefsteak tomato on one plant. I should start seeing produce from recent plants as soon as two weeks. My transplants from the previous season are already producing as they recover, especially the herbs.
March 27, 2022
by dhoytt Comments Off on Brisket 2 Weeks Ago Various Dishes
Picked up a small brisket from Costco a couple of weeks ago, injected it with a custom beef enhancing mix and rubbed it down with my custom beef rub. I smoked this baby on my Traeger pellet smoker starting Friday into Saturday evening using hickory pellets.
Over the week I made sandwiches, various breakfast treats but the best leftover meal I made was beef stroganoff with the tacos being almost as good. The spaghetti brisket with marinara sauce wasn’t a hit, not bad just not the right sauce with a smoked brisket.
March 20, 2022
by dhoytt Comments Off on Experimenting with New DIY Trellises in Garden
Below I have some DIY trellis pictures I am trying out to grow my vegetables vertical this year with several varieties. I want some sturdy trellises that will fit the dimensions of my garden so DIY is the key. Most trellises from the stores have cheap connections and aren’t the correct dimensions nor are they adjustable like I intend my trellises to be. plus cost a lot more than they are worth.
I think I will go with four 5 foot 3/4/ inch PVC braced at the top with 1/2″ PVC and plastic stakes with flexible metal core at 9″intervals for my tomatoes. I played with drilling in the PVC pipes and threading the flexible plastic stakes with the metal core through the PVC pipes and then tying them off with Velcro. I will not be drilling through the PVC using that technique it took too long and the PVC chipped off or broke a time or two.
Will go with this for my tomato plants at 9″ steps.. 3/4″ PVC, plastic stakes with flexible metal core tied with tie wraps.Will use this style for tomatoes this year 3/4″ 5′ high, connected at the top but using 1/2″ PVC at the top so I can breakdown easily.Was going to go simple with 3 /3/4″ 5′ long. Without braces the tops come in on each other. The 4 post 5′ braced trellises I will go with are in the back ground.3/4″ PVC with the flexible plastic stakes and flexible metal core drilled through the pvc pipe and tied with garden Velcro 9″ apart. Thinking o using this style for squash, cucumbers or maybe peas would me the best choice.
March 7, 2022
by dhoytt Comments Off on The 2022 Vegetable Garden is Officially Started
On the larger west part of my garden, I got the whole garden foundation set finally. After nearly emulsifying the soil, roots, and remaining plants that I didn’t transplant I made rows and redid the drip system Sunday.
I ended up making 12 inch rows with 10 inches between the rows to get my cultivator through later when I want to get weeds easily and also so I can service the crops and remove weeds from on top of the rows with ease.
This year I wanted to try some ¼” soaker hoses instead of my typical drip fittings with sprayers and bubblers. I ended up running them both in parallel with a water faucet splitter to go back and forth and test with. Should this work, I will use on the other side of the garden as well. The goal is to use less water and let the water soak in the soil and hope the roots go deeper to get the water. So far it seems the soaker puts a lot of pressure on the system and comes out way too slowly. I switched over to my old system for the night and foreseeable future until I can test some more.
I ended planting dill, yellow bell peppers, poblano peppers, jalapeno peppers, Ichiban eggplants, summer squash, black beauty squash, 2x yellow pear tomato plants, 2x red cherry tomato plants, celebrity tomato plant, minefield tomatoes, Bok hoi, more Swiss chard, mixed salad greens, more sage, and bush beans
I also started from seed, mustard greens, spinach mustard greens, beets, turnips, burgundy gush beans, bush beans, peas, potatoes, and red onions. I think I missed some plants and seeds that I planted but will list them later.
I still have some areas to fill in and have some more tomato plants from a discount six pack. That’s way too many tomatoes but will find a way to utilize them.
For now, I will turn my attention to cleanup and building some DIY trellises to grow my squash and cucumbers vertically this year to save space in the garden. I will use pvc pipe and fittings that I already have plus another 10 feet I got from the store to cut up. I did some vertical gardening last year. It’s going to get interesting
I even used my GoPro camera to show some footage of making my rows. Boring I know but I must use that equipment sometime since I haven’t been fishing. I have been waiting to finish this post until it finished joining the various video chapters into one video but it’s taking too long and I’m going to bed.
The rows are made 12 inches wide and 10 inches in between for my cultivator to remove weeds in the future.Laying out plants and seeds prior to planting for planning purposes.Faucet splitter I’m using to test out 1/4″ soaker hoses and my normal drip layout.Everything laid out for now.The other side of the garden currently with my replants not recovered yet.
March 5, 2022
by dhoytt Comments Off on Vegetable Garden Getting Closer to Finish
This is the weekend to get this vegetable garden in full gear. Check out the changes as I get the garden set. I chopped up the roots pulled some weeds and the pesky mint plants and roots. I then threw some mulch into the mix with the rototiller. I also got a chance to use my new electric cordless 80v Kobalt cultivator that I just picked up.
I took the 5HP Intek Crafstman rototiller down 2 feet to turnover the soil and chop things up going over the garden twice, then a 3rd and 4th time to get the mulch mixed in.
Next to get the rows in and this year I will try out some 1/4″ soaker hoses on my drip system to see if they can lay between the rows and still effectively water the plants. I’m thinking this will get the roots to go deeper and help me use less water as well.Many plants will do well without getting the leaves wet constantly I believe. I tried this years ago at this house and about 15 – 25 years ago at my other house I used a 3/4″ soaker hose connected to my hose pipe controlled by a mechanical timer.
