Florence's Discussions
The philosophies supporting growing food
Replied Feb. 24, 2008
The philosophies supporting growing food
Replied Feb. 21, 2008
The philosophies supporting growing food
Replied Feb. 20, 2008
Florence's Page
Profile Information
- Where do you live and garden?
- In the mountains of south central Idaho
- How long have you been growing food?
- forever!
- Favorite foods:
- All vegetables (except Brussels sprouts). Sadly, my husband does not like legumes in any way, shape, or form (except split pea soup.) Chile, white bean soup, lentil soup, and baked beans are some of my favorites.
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HOW TO - ADD A LINK
Several people have experienced difficulty putting working links into comments and blogs etc and I know it is clumsy.... so here is how you do it.....
First type the text you want to appear.... ie IAN'S PAGE
Then go back and highlight the link text.
Then hit the hyperlink button...a pictogram of a chain link.
Your browser may intervene and request permission to allow temporary scripting or some similar message. Allow it and go back and highlight the text again
… ContinueCreated by Ian Jun 7, 2009 at 7:28pm. Last updated by Ian Jun 8.
Forum Policy
Hi, I'm starting to put together a few guidlines on using the discussion forum on here.
I would be happy to hear any comments you may have. This is very much a work in progress so plese feel free to ask me to add anything you think is needed.
I don't want to make our community hide bound by rules and regulations but I think that, as the community has grown, some explanation of what is expected is needed.
Administration
You can refer any que
… ContinueCreated by Ian May 23, 2009 at 1:55am. Last updated by Ian May 25.
Climate maps
Hi following recent discussion I have put climate maps of the USA, Australia and Europe on here for reference..
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Created by Ian Sep 12, 2008 at 6:20pm. Last updated by Ian Apr 14.
Recipes, Recipes, Recipes
Hi Everyone, I've started to collect together recipes from various posts on the site and put them all together here.
If you have a recipe you want to add on here, just post it on the site and leave a comment on my page telling me where it is and I'll go and fetch it back here.
They are organised in Contributor Order but I'm open to better suggestions!
BEVA'S RECIPES
… ContinueCreated by Ian Jun 2, 2008 at 9:54am. Last updated by Ian Apr 13.
US STATES ABBREVIATIONS
US STATE ABBREVIATIONS
AK - Alaska AL - Alabama AR - Arkansas
AZ - Arizona CA - California CO - Colorado
CT - Connecticut DC - Dist of Columbia * DE - Delaware
FL - Florida GA - Georgia GU
Created by Ian Jan 27, 2009 at 4:27pm. Last updated by Ian Jan 27.
HOW TO - MAKE COMPOST
Recently there was an excellent discussion about composting. I’ve pulled together all the various comments here. You can also watch KGI's video on composting here.
KATE’S ADVICE
I used to have a tumbler that we made from a wine-barrel but
1 you have to fill it up all at once
2. it seemed mostly
… ContinueCreated by Ian May 30, 2008 at 5:29am. Last updated by Roger Jan 15.
Notes Home
Welcome to Notes.
To view notes that are in the system hit the "all notes" button above.
ContinueCreated by Ian May 28, 2008 at 12:10pm. Last updated by Ian May. 30, 2008.
A Note about Notes
I have just written this note so that I can see what we can achieve by using this new feature.
If you read this and have any suggestions then please leave a comment on my page or email me.
Ian
ContinueCreated by Ian May 28, 2008 at 6:19pm. Last updated by Ian May. 28, 2008.
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What';s the tree removal cost if I may ask?
Daffodils in Europe, espescially in Wales, where I lived before moving to France are traditionally for St David's Day - March 1st. We had daffodils out in the garden a little before that and this weekend I'm planning to cut the leaves back - six weeks after the end of flowering!
But anywhere in the world, the daffodil signifies the arrival of spring so look ahead and put that long hard winter behind you and start to imagine the new growth you'll soon be enjoying.
Our last frost was several weeks back and now I have quite a few things growing in the garden - strawberries in flower, I noticed a few flowers on my peas today, my early lettuce is ready to start picking and I shall harvest a few leaves from it tomorrow. The early lettuce is growing in a container but I also have a few plants in the ground which are a couple of weeks behind those.
MY potatoes are up and I shall need to start hoeing them up soon. As this is my first year I shall probably cover them with compost rather than hoe up - It'll be good for the bed. I also have wild leek going to seed and onion and garlic gaining girth every day.
Pity about the rhubarb!! hang on to it and I can bring it back when I visit the US next! Maybe next year or the following one.
The geraniums generally survived, we lost just about 3 plants but we had about 30. I grow them to put around the terrace of our holiday apartment which we rent out in the summer. If you go to the website you can see a picture of the entrance - probably with the geraniums in place. This is the first year I have over wintered them - of the 50 plants I seem to still have about 25 to 30, ready for this year.
Gardening season is in full swing here, but problems with my foot have put me behind with work on the apartment so I'm juggling gardening and house maintenance.
I spent all morning painting wood preservative under a timber ceiling and then after lunch spent several hours weeding. The weather here has been wet and sunny so things are growing like crazy. I read somewhere that greenhouse gases mean that plants will grow faster and stronger!
I haven't had eggs and bacon and english muffins for breakfast since I was over in Maine at the new year! I'll have to mention it to Sylvia! :-)
I posted a couple of pictures of garlic and onions but I'm having problems with the camera - maybe it's time to buy a better one.
All the best and enjoy your garden.
Ian
Sadly, Gus destroyed your sculpture in one fell swoop yesterday. We tried to get it back in shape, but failed. Nothing survives a 3 year old, it seems. So, we ate rootbeer floats and filled up squirt guns and adjourned to the garden.
My snowpeas are up, and some of the radishes and spinach, but it's still pretty cold at night.
Thanks for your wonderfully, newsy, message. Great that you'll be seeing Penelope, make sure to give her my regards. The one thing I miss about this site is that being here in France I don't get to meet any members. The few who are on here from France aren't too active so I haven't been able to strike up a friendship with anyone local.
The sand dune at Pyla is right on the beach, the winds leave the coast of Maine and blow across and then pick up the sand and dump it on top of the dune - at least, it works something like that. At 350 feet it's a bit lower than yours but is still the highest in Europe. Bruneau sounds a great place to camp with your grandsons, just take a hat to keep the heat out!
I understand travelling 50 miles in a snow storm. When I came to the US for Christmas, we arrived in Boston and drove to Camden, Maine in a fierce blizzard. It took us nearly 6 1/2 hours. Still the daffodils and tulips sticking their heads up is a good sign and spring will soon be with you.
I'm afraid in my little veg plot I have chosen everything that is easy as this is really my first year. I have had some success but lots of failures. I seem to be able to drown seedlings without any effort and they just rot away! My real problem is that I'm still too impatient wanting to get things out in the ground. We had a late frost night before yesterday and I had left some geraniums out - they are going to need a lot of tlc if they are to recover. On the other hand I do have potatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage, lettuce and peas all braving the cold and there are some radish and spring onions in the ground, which will appear in a day or so.
I cut my first rhubarrb this year over the weekend, We had friends for Sunday lunch and I made a rhubarb and plum crumble. The plums were last year's crop from the freezer and the rhubarb was cut Sunday morning. It was delicious with only a small portion left - which I have just eaten for my dinner!!!!
I'm glad you enjoy the photos. The garden is beginning to come to life now as many of the fruit trees blossom and flowers and shrubs burst forth. The first flush of spring has now passed with our daffodils all gone and the forsythia pushing out leves where the blossom was.
Enjoy the Poetry Ferstival and catching up with Penelope. She has been keeping me up to speed on the weather in Idaho - I'm quite glad I live here! Maybe you'll be able to take in France on one of your adventures. I'd love to meet with you.
Ian
I never imagined France would have sand dunes. We live about 150 miles north of the Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park (they have a web site) and what is considered the "tallest single-structured sand dune in North America (470 ft)." I haven't been there for a long time, but I'm thinking it would be a fun place to camp with the grandsons for a few days this summer -- although it gets pretty hot that time of year.
Since I last wrote, we spent spring break in Tucson with our eldest daughter and family. It was a wonderful 85 degrees. The wildflowers were in bloom. We even went swimming. When we arrived back in Idaho, a spring snowstorm was in process and we had to drive for about fifty miles in it from the airport. I suppose Penelope told you that we are still having occasional snow showers here. At least our snow is slowly melting back and I even have daffodils and tulips sticking their heads out of the ground. A little bit of hope.
I also ordered seeds, but decided to give up on broccoli, onions (except Egyptian), pototoes (they take up too much space and I can buy organic at a good price), radishes (we pick a few and the rest go to waste), and other vegetables that don't yield enough to qualify for taking up space. We get great asparagus which takes little fuss, and all the greens are well suited to our short growing season. Rhubarb, carrots, beets, peas, beans, bok choi, and such are productive. I'll put a few tomatoes in our makeshift green house.
We'll be seeing Penelope next week for the annual poetry festival in Pocatello. I'm really looking forward to it as I haven't seen her since last fall.
Enjoy your garden, Florence
Your American Indian Tribe project sounds very interesting. That sort of indigenous research simply doesn't exist in Europe.
I think I would prefer to scavenge if I could. There are some pretty good sources for things around here although increasingly it is all being farmed. Our own hedgerow has extensive numbers of wild plums which fruit prolifically in the summer. In fact, I had some with my dinner last night, from the freezer. They were still delicious.
The five acres keep me fairly busy, although the work involved in building the apartment we let for holidays is still taking up much time. I am due to finish that work this month or next and then I have a swimming pool to build - also for the holiday lets.
The coast (Atlantic) is about a 2 hour drive. We went there a couple of weeks ago for the day with some friends who were over from the UK. There is a sand dune there which is the highest in Europe, standing at about 500 feet. There are a couple of photos of it on my photos.
Because of all the work on the buildings we have been doing, the garden has taken a back seat until this year. So, not harvesting anything at the moment but am planting ready for later in the year. This week I have planted some onions, garlic, potatoes and cabbage. I also have peas and beans coming on and some lettuce plants waiting to go in. The first tulip is just about ready to bloom, and one of our hedges has turned white overnight. I think it's hawthorn but I'm not sure. I've also got quince in flower, the nectarine is in blossom, and I think I saw some cherry blossom today. The plums are not far away from blossoming either.
Bonne journee
Ian
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