Monday, March 7, 2011

Harvest Monday - 7 March 2011

I've found when I eat, I have a tendency to eat the same things over and over. This week pizza was on the menu.

You were really hoping for a finished photo weren't you? Well I didn't get a photo of any of the pizzas made this week. Weirdly one day I took a photo of the ingredients used from the garden. Tomato sauce, frozen basil, garlic. But no end photos. Sometimes I wonder about myself. My stock of tomato sauce is holding up well. I think it will make it until next August. But not if I keep making pizzas for lunch every day.

I seem to have gotten out of soup mode since the weather has been warming up. The garden is really melting out now. The weather is forecasted to be in the 40Fs all week, so I expect the last of the snow to be gone by the end of the week. Then the ground just has to thaw. I need to get some plastic on it to warm it up on sunny days. It won't be too long until gardening season is back.

I did spend money this week. I bought 8'x1" bamboo and 4'x5/8" bamboo for stakes and poles. I'm not talking a few poles. I bought 100 of the first and 75 of the second. That is a lot of bamboo. I did a calculation for how many poles I would need to make my trellises. I need a lot to make them. I have three sets of bean trellies all the way across a bed for 22 poles each. That is 66. Plus I want to make a couple other structures here and there. They sell them in 50 packages so 100 it was. The 4' ones will be braces for my structures and also stakes. Again I'm buying for the long haul. It ought to last a while. I have extras when one dies. The bamboo itself was cheap, but the shipping basically doubled the price (which was $130). I'm talking overly long packages and 100lbs of weight all the way from the other coast. I thought about doing it in pipes, but I really like bamboo better. I love the look of bamboo. I love that it is easy to cut or drill. It is lighter than wood. So bamboo it is. I'll be adding it to my tally later when I get the final invoice on Wednesday when they arrive.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

21 comments:

  1. I love bamboo too. I bought some of the 7'x3/4" several years ago and I'm still using it. It's so nice to work with, and good for so many things around the garden.

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  2. I keep several sticks of bamboo around because it is so useful in constructing various things in the garden. I don't have the large numbers you have! Glad your snow is finally melting and I hope it is not too much longer before the soil is ready to be worked.

    We did a homemade pizza for dinner week before last and it really hit the spot.

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  3. Yummy pizza! The bamboo looks so much nicer. Have fun with your building projects.

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  4. I can't wait to see the bamboo trellises once they're made; they're sure to be attractive :)

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  5. Pizza sounds great...and I have some fresh basil... :)

    Looking forward to seeing your trellises....I need some bamboo poles, too...would you share where you bought them?

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  6. Still trying to figure out what to do about trellis' without calling attention to the neighbor with a vengence. Grrr... Got to figure it out soon, too!

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  7. villager, I have a small bit of 7' but most of it I left at my last house since the beans were growing up it.

    Grower Jim, nope it is good

    kitsapFG, I used to have about thirty in my last garden. But left at the last house mostly. I think I'll like the length and the sturdiness of these even more though.

    The Mom, I love the look of bamboo too. I want to make an arch (well square arch) over part of the path for some runner beans to grow up. I think that would be pretty - and still productive.

    foodgardenkitchen, I'm contemplating how to build them now. I may permanently attach some of them together. They have to fold down though to store. They need to go into the basement in the fall.

    Deb, yes, but I haven't gotten them yet, so don't know the quality. I'll tell you after they get here on Wed which is when UPS says they will come. I don't want to send out a bad source. I've never used them before.

    Barbie, Well my neighbor sees my garden easily enough. Marie loves that I have a garden. I guess what was here before was pretty messy, but then she can't really see well. I haven't a clue what her son thinks (who has the unit below her). He is a radically different person. I'm guessing he doesn't quite get it. But he is very nice.

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  8. Bamboo trellis would look very nice in your garden, I'm for anything that looks natural.

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  9. I can't wait to see the bamboo trellis in your garden! I think it was a good choice.

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  10. I feel terrible you had to PAY for bamboo...it grows every where here! I just head out to the nearest slough and cut as much as I need! Wish you lived closer I would have shared some of my secret stash!

    We just started harvesting the Brussels Sprouts: check it out:

    http://cortinacreek.blogspot.com/2011/03/harvest-monday-quatre-mar-7-2011.html

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  11. There are so many ways to make pizza that I don't think I could ever get sick of it either.

    That is a lot of bamboo poles. I can't wait to see what you will build with them.

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  12. We scrounged bamboo from garden neighbors. Sadly, I developed horrible food allergies last summer, and can no longer eat any nightshades. No more tomatoes -- and just when I finally got my own garden! The universe is cruel.

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  13. Sounds like you're in pretty good shape for some warm weather.

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  14. Oh, bamboo - I'm envious! I used bamboo a lot when we lived in CA - just go out behind our fence and cut however much I needed. Here in Florida, it decays too fast to buy. I'm eying one spot of the back yard and wondering if I could get a bamboo patch growing. I dare our self-designated neighborhood gestapo to say anything about my trellis in the back. Oh! I saw the coolest bamboo fence at Epcot! Now, how do they keep it intact? I would love to have that around my garden. In the mean time I have my lavender PVC pipe fence.

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  15. Mac, me too.

    Robin, I hope so. I just hope they all last a while. We are planting bamboo on our side yard but it will take some years to grow large enough. And I hope it does get large enough, it might not.

    Lynda, yeah me too. While there aren't a lot of hardy bamboos that will live here, there are some. I'll be planting some this year. I hope it survives and grows big enough to use.

    GrafixMuse, I love all the different pizzas that can be made. Though my daughter's favorite is without tomato sauce.

    Lisa and Robb, oh that is really too bad. I devote a third of my garden to the nightshades. I would be sad if I couldn't eat them again.

    Veggie Pak, we are.

    tervy, I always hear about these neighborhood or city rules. In this area we don't have them. I've never heard of a town in New England enforcing any landscaping rule. Yes if you live in a planned community of some kind, but in our area there has been so little buildable land that there aren't very many of those. Though there are a few.

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  16. I really like the way you label your jars.:) Wow, that's a lot of bamboo, I bet it will look great in your garden as trellises and can't wait to see it covered in summer's green.

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  17. Mr H, I do that for about half the jars. The other ones I'm too lazy to do. So the tomato sauce all has pretty lids, but the applesauce doesn't. Though this year I'm going to try to do them all. I got a round circle cutter for my labels. It should be much easier now that I don't have to use scissors to cut them all out.

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  18. I'm thinking of growing a patch of bamboo (clumping, not running!) for future stake/trellis projects. Of course, I don't think I'll need as many or as large as you are using. :) Bon chance!

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  19. I'm jealous about your lack of snow soon. We *usually* start to see the signs that snow will melt soon but tonight we're expecting 20cm so I am aiming my sights long. Nice looking ingrendients!

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  20. Hello, I am excited to find a Harvest meme on your blog. I posted this earlier today and am now off to peek into the gardens of other vegetable growers!

    :) Tracey

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