SuperGarden Sunday!!!

I'm not much of a football fan... Yeah, back in the 80's when the Niners were doing well (Joe Montana/Jerry Rice days), I *kinda* got into it - but "It was the Law!"

Now I can take-it-or-leave-it. In fact, in years past, we'd always manage to go to the Boat Show on Super-Sunday. The place was like a mausoleum and we had no difficulty getting salesmen to talk to us, at least!!!

Anyway, I decided to putter around the yard today. And, if it turned out I needed to buy more materials, TODAY would be the day to hit Home Depot, right?!!

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So I started out by having a simply delicious lunch of Beef Tongue Sammich!!!

After it set in the fridge overnight, it was a lot easier to handle. And Santa-Rog bought me a Rival Deli-Slicer for Christmas! I sliced the meat Ultra-Super-Duper Thin, salted it a bit (In retrospect, I probably should've salted the water yesterday b/c the bouillon really wasn't sufficient! - "Oh, well!").

I grabbed A slice of white-bread (Can't do carbs, remember?) and smeared a teeny bit of Miracle Whip on it, then piled on the meat! Folded it over and... DAAAAAAMMMNNNN!!! That's Good Stuff! Kind of a Super-Meaty Mini-Sandwich!

It was definitely as good as I remembered it! Flavor-wise, I guess the closest thing I could compare it to would be Liverwurst (only "different" - and MUCH Better!). But it's more about the texture - Think super-tender, almost "creamy" textured filet mignon! You practically don't even have to chew it!

Yep - That's definitely some GOOD Stuff!

Now I'm debating whether to slice the whole thing or not. The thing about having the deli-slicer is: Meats are *much* better when they're freshly sliced. But disassembling and cleaning the thing is kind of a PITA.

But the biggest factor, actually, is the fact that - well - Beef Tongue LOOKS like Beef Tongue! It's rather off-putting when you open the fridge and see a big ol' cow tongue in a baggie!

"Okay, ENOUGH about the Cow-Tongue already!!!"

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Soooooo... I had a lengthy laundry-list of Things To Do, today. Of course, I also knew there was no way in hell I was gonna get 'em all done!

First off, I wanted to start amending the soil in my raised veggie bed - so I pulled some dead plants out of several pots, and dumped the dirt into the bed. I also plan to scoop up some leaves from along the "wind-tunnel" (side of the house where ALL the neighborhood tree-leaves end up!) I want to dump them into the raised bed, then toss a bag of steer manure on top of that. Annnnnnd I need to turn my compost pile - any "good" compost will also be added to the bed. Then let it "rest" for a few weeks so the fresh stuff'll start to break down and fortify the soil...

Well, pretty much, I only managed to dump a few pots of dirt - and I still have the rest of the chores to tackle, yet!!!

Actually, higher on the list of priorities: I recently purchased a "Mystery" mix of Plumeria Cuttings off of eBay. They've been sitting, in a box, on the floor by my desk, for the past week and they REALLY need to get plunked into pots - otherwise they'll NEVER grow! I figure, there's about 20 of 'em and I want to start them in one-gallon pots. I ransacked the yard and found half-a-dozen or so pots, but didn't have nearly enough.

I also had about 20 1-gallon pots of Stella D'Oro Daylilies (Home Depot had 'em on special for *very* cheap last fall!). They never got planted - and the lilies died, right? (I kinda forgot to water 'em - Oooops!) In the meantime, I've ordered NEW S-D Daylily bulbs and figured I'll plant THEM instead (when they arrive). Planting bulbs is a whole helluva lot easier than trying to dig gallon-sized holes in our cement-hard clay soil!

So I figured I'd pull-out the dead stuff and re-use the pots AND dirt to pot-up some of the cuttings. I dragged the wheelbarrow to the back fence and started yanking the dead plants out of the pots. But when I dug a little deeper... Green shoots??? Holy sh*t! They're still alive!!! (I honestly don't believe it! I abused the HELL out of those poor plants!). I checked another... And another... And another... They're all gonna come back!

Obviously that's a VERY good choice of plant for that part of the yard (far back fence, that gets almost NO attention! And very little water!). And with the new bulbs on order - well, I'm gonna have Stella D'Oro Daylilies coming out of my ears!!!

But now I'm faced with a dilemma: I have more plants-to-plant than pots-to-plant-em-in! Of course, logic would dictate that, maybe, I could dig some holes and actually PLANT the lilies (Ha!). Unfortunately, we've not had enough rain lately and I'd need a friggin' jackhammer (or three Eager Weenie Dogs!) to penetrate the soil back there. So they're just gonna have to wait 'til we get a good rainstorm - THEN I'll plant 'em!

I figured I'd just pot up as many Plumies as I could, using whatever I could find. I have several bags of potting mix (originally intended for my new Self-Contained planters - but that can wait!). So I used that to pot-up most of the cuttings. I did "get smart" and moved the pots into the greenhouse BEFORE I watered 'em! Then I planted the cuttings, dragged the hose out to the GH and gave 'em a good drink of water. Fingers are crossed that they'll take root!

(Oooh! And while I was in the greenhouse, I harvested 4 tomatoes! Yes! FRESH TOMATOES in FEBRUARY! "Nah-nee-nah-nee-Nah-Nah!!!" I found some cold-hardy varieties late last year, and I've kept 'em in the greenhouse. Not exactly the tastiest 'maters in the world, but still!!!)

I also found a large pot full of soil (one of last year's tomato experiments). I planted 4 cuttings in that, and moved it into the house, by the back door (I'm out of space in the greenhouse - at least for large pots). Now I've got appx 5 cuttings left - but no place to put 'em. :::sigh:::

I may clean-out another large pot (or two) tomorrow and plant 'em in there. Unfortunately, I have no space in the GH, nor in the house, so they'll have to "fend for themselves" - though I might put some row-cover material over them to protect 'em from the 30* temps we're still getting at night...

Honestly, if all 20 Plumies survive, I'll ultimately have a problem on my hands because they really aren't hardy enough for our climate. And the Plumerias I've already got are getting too big to fit through the greenhouse door!

Ahh! Such PROBLEMS!

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Anyhooooo... While I didn't accomplish "as much" as I might've liked, I feel like I did get a fair amount of work done in the yard. At least it's getting to the point where I can see "What HAS been done," rather than fret 100% about "What NEEDS to be done!"

It's getting there.............