Container Gardening Hits and Misses

Each year I have garden hits and misses. But even things that don't do well teach me something. This year I added more pots on the deck to increase my "acreage." My hits were:

• Snow Peas
• Scarlet Runner Beans
• Bush Beans
• Acorn Squash
• Marketmore Cucumbers
  
• Banana Peppers
• Alaska Gold Potatoes
  
• Norland Red Potatoes
  
• Bell Peppers
• Rhubarb
  
• Roma Tomatoes
• Patio Tomatoes
• Early Girl Tomatoes
  

My misses were:

• Zucchini (smaller)
• Eggplant (died)
  
• Burpless Cukes (died)
  
• English Cukes (died)
• Pumpkin (no sets)
  

I learned not to give up on cucumbers. After two types died, the third was a success. I'm going to try eggplant again next year just to make sure and I'll augment the soil or rotate crops to get my zucchini back up to par.

Do you do container vegetable gardening? What are some of your hits and misses? - Margy

"New" Cabin Deck Update

I had to go down to my former school district to help out with a few consulting projects. Wayne said he had to stay behind to mow the lawn. Now, I don't think I'm dumb enough to buy that excuse, but he did use his "time alone" wisely.

I've already shared how we painted our cabin's cedar deck with wood stain. We still needed to do our shed and bridge to shore. But rather than make everything beige, we decided to accent it with redwood.

We still have a bit to go, but this is a great start. Nice work Wayne! Lookin' good. -- Margy

Pumped

On Monday, I shared how our good friend John got his air compressor running. Here's why. Last summer we hired a scuba diver to help John put fifteen 55-gallon plastic barrels under our float cabin. We've added extra weight (translated stuff) to the float over the years. The plastic barrels filled with air make the cedar log float more buoyant.

This year we needed to add barrels to our floating woodshed and my garden float. Both had logs completely submerged. The bottom of our firewood pile was soaking wet and my garden soil couldn't drain. Plus, the longer the cedar logs stay submerged, the quicker they become waterlogged. While Wayne and John were making it happen, I filmed the steps. Take a look.

Now the float logs are well above the lake's surface, and there's still enough warm fall sunshine to dry the tops. With the barrels underneath and the drying logs on top, everything will stay high and dry. Thanks John and your trusty compressor. We're really pumped! - Margy

Mr. Fix-It Man

Float cabins sometimes need a little help with the float part. Cedar is well known for its buoyancy and resistance to water-logging, but even 40-foot logs will sink over time. In the "old days," they used to shove a dry log underneath to raise a float back up. Now, plastic 55-gallon barrels and 275-gallon plastic totes are used to give that added boost.

Watch later this week for a post about the whole process. But before we could begin, we needed a compressor to fill our barrels with air. That's where Mr. Fix-It Man comes in. Of course, that's our good friend John. If it needs to be done, he can do it. And coaxing an ancient compressor he found in the bush back to life was right up his alley.

Here's a short video of Mr. Fix-it Man, er John, in action.

If only we could learn a tenth of what he knows! -- Margy

Cabin Baking: Last of the Season Berry Pie

Berry season is drawing to a close. I've been freezing my meager strawberry pickings. Wayne hates this in our small cabin freezer, but I assure him the inconvenience will pay off. I had about two cups of wild blackberries and a few stalks of rhubarb. I had all the makings for an end-of-season berry pie.

I followed the Fannie Farmer recipe for a double crust 8-inch pie. I love to use Crisco. It doesn't need refrigeration and makes the flakiest crust.

8-Inch Double Pie Crust

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
5-6 tablespoons cold water

Mix flour and salt. Cut the shortening in until it's crumbly. Add cold water slowly until the dough forms a ball. I refrigerate my dough before rolling. It makes it so much easier.

The rest was easy. I put the blackberries on the bottom and sprinkled them with a liberal coating of sugar and a tablespoon of flour. Next came diced rhubarb and my strawberries. Another liberal coating of sugar and a tablespoon of flour. Top with a few bits of butter before covering with the top crust.

Bake for 10 minutes at 425 then 30-40 minutes at 350 until the crust is golden brown. Now here comes the hard part, waiting for the pie to cool and the juices to thicken. We couldn't wait - seems like we never can. -- Margy

"New" Cabin Deck

Our float cabin was built by our good friend John in 1998 from the cedar log float up. We knew the logs were reused, but didn't know the whole story until Wayne and John had their overnight quad adventure. It was a helicopter landing pad when Salisbury did shake block logging.

Our cabin deck is twelve years old and starting to show its age. Liquidation World had wood stain available at $9.99 a gallon so we decided to paint our deck to see if we can get a few more years of service out of it.

We used a brush to paint the edges, knots and deep cracks. Then each section got two coats of stain. The stain dried in four hours, but we had to wait 24 to put on the second coat and then another 24 to put all of our stuff back. We picked beige to make it light and bright. I liked the natural colour, but it was too late to use a clear stain. Maybe next time when the deck is new.

After a week, we have what looks like a new deck. We aren't sure how much longer our $150 investment will last, but it was worth a try. Have you ever put stain on a deck? Did it help preserve the wood? Did you think it was worth the effort? -- Margy

Sky Down Under

Sometimes we get a day of absolute calm on the lake.

If you take a picture of the reflections, it can be hard to tell them from the real thing.

I just love days like this. -- Margy