Archive for February, 2010

Pardon me while I open the Department of Shameless Promotion. Did you know that Grocery Gardening is on not one…not two…but THREE Amazon best seller lists? The reviews (not all of them from my friends) have also been positive. (My mother is so proud!)

If you don’t yet have a copy of this book I wrote with my gardening friends Jean Ann Van Krevelen, Amanda Thomsen and Teresa O’Connor, here’s your chance to get one for FREE.

Leave me a comment to this post on or before Friday, March 5, and you’ll be entered into the drawing. When you leave your comment, please answer one of these questions:

- How, if at all, do you read other comments on blog posts? Do you read them before responding? Never read them? Something else?

- After commenting, do you subscribe to the follow-up comments on that post?

- Do you return to a blog post after commenting to see what other people have had to say?

Your responses will be most helpful in helping me to deal with the comments all the very kind people leave here at Bumblebee. I always read every comment and love them. I go through phases when I respond. Then I think “No one is looking at my responses” so I stop. But then I feel guilty and start responding again. So, help me out, okay? It’ll give me more time for grocery gardening!

Got Grocery Gardening?

UPDATE

Dawn at Owl Hollow News is the winner of the Grocery Gardening drawing. Congratulations, Dawn!

Robin

My lawn is a wreck.

I went outside to re-fill the bird feeders—AGAIN. The parts of my lawn that don’t look like the frozen tundra resemble a swamp. With every step I take my foot sinks down at least an inch. Walking to the feeders I can see my path in the mud.

I also see that we lost one small ornamental tree by the driveway as well as one of my rose trellises, which succumbed to the weight of the snow.

Spring better hurry up and get here. I have a lot of work to do.

Robin

Robin
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If you open my refrigerator door, you will see lots of fresh vegetables, skim milk, a large jar of yeast—and about 10 dozen eggs.

See, my 12 hens have not taken the winter season for a holiday. They keep laying and laying and laying.

The weekly menu on our refrigerator reads something like this: red pepper quiche, goat cheese and spinach soufflé, broccoli quiche. Dessert is crème brûlée.

Now, I am finally doing something about all these eggs besides just eating them!

I ordered 250 egg cartons—in a bright pink that, it turns out, somewhat resembles the rather lurid color of Pepto Bismol. I applied for and received my egg distributor certificate from the State of Maryland. This week I’ll check in with the county health department about local regulations.

All of this so I can give the eggs away!

I only have 12 laying hens (only!), so it isn’t practical to think I can sell them. My plan is to identify church and community groups that can take about four or five dozen eggs off my hands each week.

So, you see, my hens and I have a joint volunteer project!

So that’s what you do with too much of a good thing!

Robin
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Right Now at Bumblebee

July 24th, 2010

It was nearly 100 degrees while I was working outside today. I have a sliver of wood in my big toe, poison ivy and am covered in bug bites. Sometimes I think I need an easier hobby.

Robin

June 24th, 2010

Holy moly, it’s hot. I was just outside providing drought assistance to the suffering greenery. Now excuse me while I cower here in the air conditioning for a bit before making dinner.

It has been such a busy work week. I have been chained to the desk. I can’t wait until the weekend. I have tomatoes to stake, flowers to plant, garlic to harvest, strawberries to keep in control, some clipping and pruning and, who can forget, weeding!

My friend Helen Yoest, from Gardening With Confidence, will be here in about 10 days. I plan to pick her brain and get advice about some real problem areas here. I was hoping for more time to prepare for an esteemed guest, but that’s just not to be. She’ll have to take me as I am.

I hope you’re all keeping cool.

Robin

June 17th, 2010

You can’t pick up the newspaper or turn on the television without hearing more about the Gulf Coast oil disaster.

The wildlife population will be devastated for years, perhaps decades, to come. You can help with the conservation, monitoring and aid to the birds by donating to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This is the top school and science center for birds in the U.S. and sponsor of many, many programs, including citizen scientist-type programs. If you cannot afford to donate, it’s a great place to just be informed or to get involved through volunteer activities you can do in your own back yard.

Robin

May 26th, 2010

Tonight I am grateful for the internets.

Over dinner we were talking about blast-from-the-past music and then blast-from-the-past comedy. Harry and I explained how we would play stacks of 45s on the turntable to my 19-year-old son. And I remembered my parents’ Dick Newhart album and “Driving Instructor.”  And while we were talking about old comedy, who can forget, George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words?” Ah, the things I am teaching my 19-year-old son! Yes, I taught him about seven dirty words!

I am also grateful that the chickens had walkabout time without destroying my garden this afternoon.

And I am grateful for that arms and shoulders P90X workout, although I will be sore again tomorrow.

Live the dream,

Robin

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