Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 12 Entries. Sunday, January 1 View Page Happy New Year, so looking forward to 2012 and being able to grow. Pumpkins are a March worry, earlier in the year I start my flowers and veggies for my own and for the P&T Grower club handout, and. I will be starting tomatoes long before I file a pumpkin seed. This is some of the hoard and almost all of these are going to see dirt this year in someone's patch. Thank you, generous growers, club raffles and silent auctions; for where these came from! [I will actually be starting geraniums and kale and sedum first, in a few weeks, but they don't excite me like competition seeds!] May everyone grow PB's this year! Sunday, January 29 View Page How To Recycle 2 liter curvy soda bottles into starter cloches for your little cuttings and delicate seedlings. Take a 2 liter bottle like this, rinse out and keep lid, leave label on for the moment. Sunday, January 29 View Page See the ridge a little below the label? Cut on that point. I use a sharp single edge razor blade, most carefully! You slip-not only can the blade cut you but the plastic too. Take your time, cut a little at a time and turn the bottle. Else start a hole with a single edged... easiest if lid is on tight then sort of carefully stab it. Leave the label on as it helps you with sighting where you are. Just trust me on that one. Sunday, January 29 View Page In middle of cutting. Take your time. Cut all the way around. Sunday, January 29 View Page Take scissors and cut UP the curve. It is much easier, trust me here too. Even it out just where the ridge ends and the start of the flat area where the label is, make it neat and even. You will like it better the evener you are. Sunday, January 29 View Page Bottom, there are some ovals in the design. I aim for cutting the top off of each oval, and again, go for even. You need to cut this far down to make the bottom edge diameter smaller than the top you just trimmed. Sunday, January 29 View Page Bottom all trimmed up. Sunday, January 29 View Page Now slice the label about an inch from where it's glued on, pull both pieces back and pull it off. Don't have to get every crumb of it off. Sunday, January 29 View Page Fit top over bottom. Top should slide right over the bottom piece. Sunday, January 29 View Page Top over bottom. Put the cap back on. I didn't, but do do it. Sunday, January 29 View Page 20 oz cup. Suggest 12 oz cup or 3" pot (round or square). It is a container to keep the humidity up around your just stuck (clonex'ed) cutting. Lift the top part once or twice a day for a moment to allow air exchange. If you are doing softwood or hardwood cuttings, cloning tomatoes, etc, these are great. Make sure your pot inside has drainage, and don't leave it sit in water inside this. (another hint from the ecogreen recycling CHEAP gardener here) Wednesday, December 26 View Page 2012, has been quite a year. My health had issues starting in late fall 2009, and I ended up with a massive h. pylorus infection that almost did me in, I did end up with severe malnutrition and 16 months of a diet to try to heal that enough so I could stand treatment for 4 digit cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. This fall we couldn't wait anymore and I did manage with doctor mandated veganism to drop from 1018 at the start of the first diet and check end of July at 529 to get to 214 by early October. Then the gall bladder checked in and permanently checked out. Club wise, we lost three growers this year. Shirley Powers, our treekin grower, in June, of unknown causes. Aug 19, Delane Schwindt, a mainstay supporter of our group and his daughter Makenzie one of our junior growers, lost his fight with esophogeal cancer. Louise Smith, wife of our county record holder and grower extraordinare, November 9th. My SBH lost his mother March 9th and her funeral was on her 90th birthday... I just received the call this morning, my father who was diagnosed with (terminal) lung cancer in mid October, died of a massive heart attack in the hospital, it was sudden and he'd been taken in late Christmas Day. Despite it all, we have gotten a new (to us)kuboda tractor, towable backhoe, and been doing stump digging on the new patch. I also built a prototype greenhouse 12x16 rigid all season; and hope to start 2013 on a much better note personally and clubwise. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and more PB's in 2013.