Cucumbers!

I am so sick and tired of guns. Every time I turn on the news there is something about guns - someone being killed - usually kids. Here is an interesting little fact - each year more preschoolers are killed by guns than police officers in the line of duty. Today I started a bucket course and I did not know when I signed up for a WWI classs that I would end up watching videos made by some gun whacko (think Palin) who was suspicously passionate about explaining the mass killing abilities of machine guns. Ugh. Overall though it is a good course and it is a good reason to get out of the house and spend some time with more creatures with two legs. I think my dogs have gotten sick of my trying to talk their ears off while they are napping.

This is a site about gardening and feeding people tho, so let's stick with that subject. I started a small terra cotta container of arugula today. I have a pretty bad back so the more I can shove into containers the easier it will be on me come harvest time. Arugula also grows fast so we should be able to get a salad out of it and then reuse the container.

Two years ago at a farmers market I purchased round cucumbers. That's right - ROUND cucumbers. I tried to find a picture online but I do not recall them being yellow, which is what most of the pictures online are - yellow. Well, I saved the seeds from that round cucumber and dried them on a paper plate. I put them in a glass jar and labeled them but I have never tried to grow them until today. It has been a couple of years and to be honest I do not even know how long the seeds stay good under perfect conditions much less being moved around in and out of cold, wet, and dry conditions. So we are going to hope for the best.

I also put some zinnia seeds into a 6 pack (2 into each) and we will see how those turn out. Last time I tried to grow them (last year) it took a long time for them to germinate and when they finally began to grow they became very lanky. They were also chewed to bits by irwigs. At the last house we experienced a very wet summer - very wet - and there was nothing we could do to control the irwigs. Speaking of flowers - the lupine only had about a 50% germination rate but those that did germinate are doing really well. They have their second set of leaves and I will start fertilizing with fish emulsion next week. The Mrs. Pickler Pioneer cucumbers are starting to come up already after just a few days.

At the last minute we grabbed some of the potted flowers before leaving the last house and in one of the pots is a Crane's Bill Hardy Geranium that is coming up. I brought it in last week during the 60 degree weather and put it under the growing lights and it is coming up pretty strong. A euonymous that I did the same with is not doing as well as the geranium - I am pretty sure it is toast.

That's it for today. The high tomorrow is 33 degrees but Mr. Man tells me that I will be able to sign up for three more sociology courses tomorrow and that is very exciting. Something to keep me busy while he is working and I am waiting for the warmer weather to come around.

Oh - and at the class today I met a very nice man from town who informed me that there is a lecture on prairie burning over at Grinnell College tomorrow. I am hoping to learn more about proper burning for the land. Eventually I would like to replace all of the grass with natural prairie grasses that do not need to be mowed. A girl can dream.