Re-Growing Vegetables, Late June

Regrowing romaine, week 3

The little experiment on resprouting vegetables from scraps is continuing to interest me. The lettuce I started regrowing indoors in soil has continued to thrive. The one I started in water went bad and had to be thrown out. The one I put in soil in a shaded spot outdoors a week or so ago has begun to sprout.

Thunderstorm Aftermath

After last night's storm, there was a lot of minor clean-up to do.  It takes a long time to pick up all the sticks and bits of debris left behind.  I did get the tree limbs all cut up and into the trash bin so they can be hauled away. Fortunately, none of them were very large, and it all fits in.

While driving around town today, I saw lots of tree damage, and electrical crews working from cherry-pickers to fix stuff.  There were a couple of traffic lights still out this evening, which slowed rush hour traffic. 

Thursday Thunderstorm

Earlier this evening strong thunderstorms moved into the area.  We had 70 mile per hour winds, with gusts reported to nearly 90.  Lots of tree limbs are down, and around town four tents set up for selling fireworks were blown over.  The last I heard, about 20,000 folks are without power now.  It went out briefly at my house, but is back on now.  When things calmed down, I went outside and moved broken limbs out to the front curb.  Tomorrow evening I'll get them broken down to haul away.

New Rain Barrel

After the City Council recently discussed setting up a rebate on purchases of rain barrels, I started looking around at local stores to see which ones sell them. There aren't a lot of options around here, but on Sunday I did spot a few at one home improvement store. The one I liked best is the same style as the ones I have in the front yard, but in a darker color. They only had a couple of them left. In years past, once they sell their stock of rain barrels in early summer, they don't get any more in until the next year.  Plus, once the rebates are actively available, there will probably be at least a local minor rush on buying rain barrels. They'd already reduced the price on it, so that did it.  I decided to go ahead and get one while I still could.

Chiggers

I was trimming back bushes over the weekend, and by bedtime last night was beginning to itch in multiple places. I have had very few biting insects in my yard so far this year, and hadn't put on insect repellent before starting. Big mistake! Now I have about a dozen chigger bites to deal with.

Actually, chiggers are not insects, but the larval stage of a mite. They lurk in tall grasses and weeds, and wait for a person or animal to brush against them. They are so small that you can't see them with the naked eye, or feel them walking on you.

Sunflowers

First sunflower of the year

The sunflower is the official state flower of Kansas.  It certainly is a good choice for a tall border here, as it thrives in our hot, humid summer weather.  I have a row of sunflowers planted across the middle area of the back fence, between the coneflowers and the asparagus.

Regrowing Veggies, update

Regrowing lettuce

Earlier I wrote about regrowing vegetables from kitchen scraps. Here is what the romaine lettuce looks like after another week.

As you can see, the new little leaves have grown quite a bit over the last week, and are a nice dark green.