Today my project was continuing my yard cleanup since it was warm and mild this morning. Yesterday got almost too hot to be outside, but I did get some mowing and garden cleanup done. I discovered just how much I enjoy the smell of wormwood after I ran it over with the mower :).
This morning Yeyda and I got our work clothes on and headed outside though it did look a bit grey. We were pleasantly surprised to be greeted with mid-70s temps and a light breeze. So I got straight to work amending garden soil and emptying the pots that were done for the season into the garden. I added some more kitchen waste and water from the hose (we haven’t had a decent rain recently) to the compost bin. In the middle of transplanting some plants the wind started to pick up and the clouds got more grey. I carried on. Yeyda was playing in the yard and became annoyed with the wind and asked to go inside. It was still fairly warm so I encouraged her to ignore it and keep playing. This lasted for only about five minutes.
The wind really picked up and the temperature dropped. You could see the uneasiness on Yeyda’s face. I asked if she wanted to go inside she could just push open the back door since I’d propped it open. Half way to the door the wind started to howl and whistle and it freaked her out. Discomfort turned to fear and panic so I took her to the house and let her go inside to watch TV while I finished cleaning up what I didn’t want to blow away.
There were six – one cubic foot size planters, two buckets, one tomato cage, two small plastic containers and a wheelbarrow that I had to get out of the wind. I’d already lost a hanging planter and a garden-knee cushion to a storm earlier in the year and didn’t really want to sacrifice any more of my garden implements to the weather.
Once I got those items secured and put away I figure I had better harvest the tomatoes from my volunteer tomato plants. The fact that I had volunteer tomatoes amazed and delighted me. I had previously been told that it was a waste of time to harvest tomato seeds from store bought tomatoes. Reason being that most vegetables and fruits available in the store are hybrids and the seeds usually do not render the same fructiferous result when planted. You may end up with undesirable fruits that are far from the juicy, bright red toms you bought the year before. Not in this case.
Every time I cook or prepare food with tomatoes I end up with seeds and juice that run out. This gets added to my compost heap. Sometimes, unfortunately, there will be one or two that will dry out or get mushy and inedible so these too go to the compost heap. Apparently when I moved my compost heap this spring a few remains of tomatoes were left at the very bottom and since it was still warm they sprouted. Now I have grape tomatoes, Roma tomatoes and very nice salad tomatoes growing in what otherwise would have been the remains of last years compost waste heap. Not bad for little effort.
Well, so that was my hour outside this morning. Now to move on to one of my many other projects that need attention. Where to start? Hmmmm.
Firstly, I’m a mom and wife. Professionally, IT consulting is my job and blogging is the outlet for my passions. I write about things that affect the everyday life of a stay-at-home parent or any parent for that matter such as parenting, relationships, discipline, the media, product reviews, giveaways, social media, food, cooking, gardening and anything else that might come my way.
