Ducks ALIVE in 2025!

[flowerbug]

i would certainly love any kind of lettuce that can survive our conditions and also not end up being bitter. then those that did survive often had to be pretty bitter to avoid critter predation.

add to that our heavy clay soils and then droughts have made me give up on finding any lettuces that Mom will tolerate. she does not like any leaf lettuces i've tried and even romaine wasn't good for her.

then the issues of raiding groundhogs, chipmunks, etc. made most efforts moot anyways as we'd never get a harvest.

my attempts at getting even buckwheat going ended up luring raccoons and other animals into the gardens over and/or through the fences and they searched out any seeds that were sprouting and removed them.

i'm surprised i can even manage to get direct sown beans and peas to grow but perhaps they lose enough of their scent to not attract the chipmunks (which will otherwise eat my edamame plantings if they can find them). i'm hoping they never learn to read (both peas and chipmunks), but perhaps a school for both could improve their miscreantist activities...

 

[ducks4you]

We'll see IF I have the energy, but I am considering growing lettuce this Spring on the north side of my house to see if it does better there in the shade than in full sun.
I am starting lettuce inside this week, and I will report back on my results.
On Mid American Gardener Chuck Voight suggested NOT to use heat mats when starting onions and other alliums, so I have made a note of that. Less electricity in my basement setup.
Good/bad pumpkin news. I must have left one of the big pumpkins on my enclosed front porch Too long. I put it in the basement pantry, bc the previous winter my pumpkin harvest lasted for months there, cool and dry, but this one has started to rot and will need to go out soon to maybe make more beige pumpkins, like the other ones that were added to the used stall bedding from the recent cleanup--I threw them in the bucket of the tractor as DH drove by.
DD's are on a cruise, and I have to feed their (cats) "chonks" every day. The pumpkins I gave them for Thanksgiving are in excellent shape and I took them home yesterday and They are downstairs in a cardboard box. Pretty soon I intend to bake them down and make another pie.
I am Really looking forward to planting actual pie pumpkins (and I have viable seed for those) and these will grow in my big garden bed (~12' x 30something, although it's been a long time since I measured it!)
I still don't have a good way of cooking the pulp down and storing it. It doesn't pressure can well, and I'm not sure about freezing it.
If anybody here has any ideas, I am open to them.