Tuesday, 8 Nov 2005

Seed Crazy

Earlier this summer I was bitten by the container gardening bug. I pored over the online catalogs of Park, Johnny’s, and Burpee, and ordered a dozen packets of edible plant seeds that were designed for container gardens. I even picked up a dwarf Cavendish banana tree, a petite negra fig tree, and a mini blueberry bush.

At the moment I have all three of those plants plus two cherry tomatoes, two regular vine tomatoes, four bell peppers, three chile peppers, and two eggplants growing out on my balcony. I have spinach, basil, oregano, cayenne pepper, strawberries, and a few other odds and ends starting in my bio-dome seed tray on the living room windowsill, too. Because everything is in containers, my veggie garden requires more care and attention than my two cats, who only need to be watered every few days thanks to the self-feeders I bought a few years ago instead of every day, without fail.

My theoretical garden at the new house won’t be much bigger than my balcony. I think the plot of available dirt near the garage is only 8′x10′ in size.

So, what possessed me to bid on a lot of 25 mixed heirloom seed packets last month?

As of last night I am the proud new owner of 29 packets of brand new veggie and herb seeds from Roguelands Seed Company, who were kind enough to ship out a second batch of seeds with a few extras after I emailed them last week about my missing order. (Gotta love the USPS!)

It’s absolutely mad considering how many plants I already have going to even think about planting more, but…I really want to plant more. My grab bag of seeds includes such wonders as the long Oriental eggplant, two yellow watermelons, two pink tomatoes, a purple tomato, a white tomato, a giant red beefsteak tomato, four different kinds of squash, several types of herbs, three sweet peppers, two hot peppers including the super hot Caribbean red, carrots, three varieties of lettuce, corn, and two other fancy eggplants. I may have to look into some alternative methods of small space gardening soon, because I am determined to never pay for another bland, store-bought tomato again.

:prop:

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Nutrition: Training Day Menu
(SGX nutrition details omitted by request of trainer)

1: 3×1 spinach omelette with pumpkin raisin muffin and one slice Wheat n’ Fiber WW bread
2: 4 oz. Cajun turkey breast, 1 c. mixed broccoli and carrots, 1/3 c. oatmeal, 1 T. raisins, 1 T. wheat bran, 1 t. brown sugar
3: 4 oz. Cajun turkey breast, 1 apple
4: SGX snack
5: 1 scoop dextrose, 1 scoop ATW chocolate, 1 t. GNC Creastack PWO shake
6: SGX PWO meal

Daily Supplements: multivitamin with iron, calcium 500 + D, 1 T. flaxseed oil or natural peanut butter

Water: 16 cups minimum

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Workout:
8:00 AM YF Cardio (45 minutes)
8:00 PM Lower body workout (45-50 minutes)

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The Awful Truth:
1. Have been playing too much Golden Sun 1 and 2 instead of cooking my meals for the week. :tongue:

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Brownie Points:
1. Sent in FSA claim for dental cleaning.
2. Balanced accounts in Money.
3. Catalogued my seed collection in Excel. May convert to HandBase format if really motivated.
4. Cooked turkey breast.
5. Baked batch of pumpkin raisin bread.

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Short-term Goals:
1. Update HandBase workout module.
2. Read two chapters from NASM book.
3. Create new profile in Dietpower.
4. Bake new batch of carrot/pumpkin raisin bread.
5. Look up turkey breast recipes.
6. Sign up for Bally membership.