Shades of Purple

I will admit, while I’d love to go completely organic I am very at home using my Miracle Grow, soap and beer for my garden and it shows compared to the neighbor who is completely organic. Even though his soil is also less nutrient rich, but ours is still less than perfect.

Which means we have 7 foot tall tomatoes, four foot tall squash and two foot tall radishes.  The corn is growing at a saggered rate, taller in the back and shorter in the front. Very bizzare. The carrots are struggling as usual, but the neighbor didn’t have any come up so I’m guessing its not asbad as I think. My Big Mama tomatoes just started blooming although they are still rather short compared to the rest. I think I’m going to be giving away alot of tomatoes this year.

Yup, even in our little hole in the wall area we have beautiful wild Maine blueberries. Everything from short groundcover to small shrubs to towereing monstorous bushes. And since most of it is not landl owned by anyone I’ve always helped myself when I had the time. The tiny berries make wonderful baked goods as they distribute better. We even made dog biscuits with them last year.

This week I decided to stop and pick some while out with Boris. Boris decide he likes blueberries. Really, really likes blueberries. Like he sits better for a blueberry than he does for most treats. Its rather funny actually but they make nice training treats. Small, quick to swallow and not messy. Your hands don’t smell like bacon for a day afterward either. Needless to say we’ll be picking alot more. Some to freeze, some to eat, and some to train.

Today I made my prototype for a fleece toss ring for Bo. Its got 18 tassels on a rope ring. He absolutely adored it which is good. The rope rings we found are a bit bigger than what we saw but they are perfect for our larger dogs and about the size of a large frisbee. Which is good as he can finally catch it easier than the actual frisbee. They are part of my attempt to spread the love and help people get gerat dog toys big enough for their pups without spending a ton on catalog orders. We’ll see if anyone thinks they are worth it.

So despite the extra effort we put into the garden this year (revamping the bed with new edging and adding topsoil and a peat moss/manure mix) the heat is killing my seedlings as soon as they touch the ground. Except my peas and beans of which half rotted.  The tomatoes seem to have done the best, we only lost two of those so far. Out of 15 that were in thats not too bad. Hopefully the paste tomatoes I transplanted continue to hang in there. I’ve never grown paste tomatoes before but they sounded fun. We also have two grape, four cherry 100, three beefsteak, and two cherokee purple which are thriving.

This weekend will probably mark the last attempt to put in cucumbers, pumpkings, melons, and squash before I give up for the season. Any later and they won’t be harveting till after the first snow which won’t do anyone much good.

So while I was cruising through the new Shaw’s flyer making my grocery list I noticed that Jones NY soda 12 packs are 4/$10 while the regular Coke/Pepsi is 3/$10. When did Jones soda get to be cheaper than Coke/Pepsi?!?

Not that I’m complaining mind you, I’d prefer the flavorful, real cane sugar varity of Jones to Coke or Pepsi any day but it used to be a premium beverage that was more expensive. Now it would appear that only the glass bottles have kept their higher price points. I know what I’ll be adding to my stockpile. Mmmmmm…fufuey.