10 minutes to 2 hours

When your commute changes from 10 minutes one direction to 2 hours one direction, you re-arrange your priorities.  Your laundry gets done on the weekends, your husband cooks and cleans, and you try to get as much sleep as possible.  As for blogging…

Well, as you can tell, it’s last on the totem pole.

I wish I could say that it was going to get better, but with the new internet policies at the new job, I’m afraid that my virtual life will be lacking until I can make a time machine… and there’s so much to talk about too!

Happy Independence Weekend!

I’m at the beach this weekend and will be away from the internet until I get home. 

Go USA!

PUG Lessons: Urban Container Vegetable Gardening 101

Before I even started gardening seriously, I had google every website to figure out what to do with my limited, dirtless space.  But I didn’t ever google “vegetable container gardening” until after this year’s experiments in urban container gardening and even then, I was overwhelmed by the detail involved.  Vegetable gardening isn’t completely easy, but it shouldn’t be too hard either! 

So i thought to myself, what would I have looked for if I were trying to start an urban container garden for vegetables?  Especially if I were a beginner gardener, what would I need?  So this post is a “what would I have done differently if I knew then what I know now.”

If I were to start all over again, I think I would have started with just two large containers.  My favorite containers in the garden are these fiberglass half-whiskey barrel containers from Lowes.  Each of them take 1 cubic feet of dirt, which is perfect because the Sta-Green Moisture Max container mix divides equally into both containers.  I use this particular brand because it retains moisture really well, it’s light enough for me to haul around, and when it rains the crystals really work.  The key here is that you purchase CONTAINER SOIL, no matter which brand you use.  It’s a lot more expensive, but all of the other soil is too dense to put in a pot and you’ll end up giving your plants root rot. 

Depending on where your containers will be kept, you can seal or unseal your planters, meaning you can either let them drain out of you can keep the holes in.  This goes against everything you read, but I have a reason for it:  if your container is on a sunny, covered balcony, protected from rain, and you don’t water it regularly, you want it to retain its moisture.  By not having holes, you can insure that the water is taken up by your container mix and is released to your root system over time.  And because the drainage is minimal, you won’t stain your balcony.  This is, of course the reason why you need excellent container mix. 

I would have purchased two tomato cages and planted the following in one planter:

• 1 patio tomato plant in the center. 
• 4 Lettuce plants around the borders.
• 4 Small basil seedlings in between the lettuce.  (Chives and oregano can be added too.)
• 4 Pole bean plants close the edge of the tomato cage.   Beans should be planted directly from seed.

And in the other one planter (although the first is a lot more resilient):

• 1 cherry tomato plant in the center.
• 4 swiss chard plants around the borders. 
• 4 beet plants in between the lettuce.
• 4 Pole bean plants close the edge of the tomato cage.   Beans should be planted directly from seed.

All of the plants I would have tried to find seedlings for in April or seed started in the winter (Jan/Feb) except for the pole beans.  I would not transfer anything outside until the middle of May, depending on the zone you’re in.   If you start anything later than that, just make sure you pick healthy plants.  The beans germinate quickly, so you can plant them when you transfer the rest of your plants.  They just need to be reseeded every two weeks for continuous beans, meaning you need to remove the old plants and plant new ones once they stop flowering.

And that’s how I would start an urban vegetable container garden. 

Summer 2008: Old Navy vs Gap vs Banana Republic

Oh Gap Inc.!  I can purchase anything I want from you now with one simple checkout!  And because I’ve got one of your cards, I can get lots of rewards and free shipping.  But there is a problem here in my wardrobe:

I can’t buy your stuff this season. 

Let me explain:  it’s not that I don’t want to.  Your sizes are great for someone 5′9″ and a long torso.  But this season is terrible.

Old Navy:  It’s ok that you’re targeting college students.  But I can’t buy anything there because all of it is not appropriate for work or looks cheap.  I tried… but it really doesn’t help that the dresses are either too short or to casual.  And I’d love to purchase tailored shirts from you, but they’re either too short, too long, or have annoying cap sleaves.

Gap:  It’s target is for the mid-20’s casual look.  There’s nothing classy about it, it all looks too flirty and too revealing for work.  The hems are closer to the knee, but the fabric is still too flimsy or the style too casual for a business casual work environment.  (Remember, it needs to hit at the knee or below it to be appropriate!)  There are some peices that work for work, but they almost seem out of place in the Gap collection.

Banana Republic:  It’s not the cost of the clothing.  It’s that everything is dry clean only.  Seriously?  Do you think I have time to go to the cleaners or want to dry clean anything in this pro-organic, slow-food green world?  And dry cleaning adds up! 

So that’s why I won’t be buying anything from you Gap.  I want to, but it’s just not working out.

As I walked in…

I realized that this was the last  time I would be coming into work at 3am.  It didn’t console me.

The End of an Era

In about a week, I’m about to start a new job.  Actually, I’m about to start a new career.  I’m leaving the world of science to enter the world of law, which sounds like a huge leap, but really it’s a step in the right direction for me.

I’ve been really frustrated with science for some time now.  The glossy sheen of geekiness has disappeared with the reality of long, unpredictable hours, unaccountable failures, and the lack of financial stability and gain in the field.  I want a job where I don’t have to worry about layoffs every other year.  I want a job where if I am working overtime, at least it’s at 8 pm instead of 3 am.  I want a job where I get overtime or bonuses.  I want my performance to determine my pay instead of my degree.  I want to have the ability to work at home and not be chained to the lab.  I want a job where I can wear peep-toe shoes to work!  I want to be able to wear lipgloss and makeup and skirts!

The last bit should explain the majority of my blogging, because I’m not really fashion obsessed.  I’m just tired of a decade of crappy jeans, t-shirts, and eyeglasses.  (Not my Pradas or Chanels, but my safety glasses!)  And I’m ready for a different life, a life that’s filled with stress of paperwork and deadlines instead of Class V cytotoxins and Tyvex suiting (1).

So it’s an end of an era for me and the end is rushing forward so fast.  I thought this week would drag on, but it hasn’t.  It has felt like everything is moving so fast around me and I’m in slow motion, trying to decipher what I need to do for next chapter in my life.  And there’s a lot to do, but right now, I’m just happy to be going in a different direction and learning something new.

1.  If you have ever worked in a clean room/sterile envelope with Tyvex/ventilators or ever gowned up, you know what I’m talking about.  

Summer 2008: New York and Company

I have a confession to make:  I don’t shop at NYCO.

I had a bad experience there.  I purchased a shirt there in 2003.  It shrank after I washed it once and because of my long torso, the button down shirt hit at my bellybutton.  So I never purchased anything there again.  I want to shop there too:  the prices are extremely reasonable and the looks are classic.  However, when you have one bad purchase, you tend not to ever go back to that merchant. 

But in my quest to lead a 50% skirt, 50% pant lifestyle this summer, I found myself at the NYCO website.  The skirts were affordable, especially on sale, and the cuts were all at knee level.  Of course I end up falling in love with the more casual caftans which don’t match the skirts at all:

The quest continues… why do I love prints so much?

Weekend Update: Busy, Frustrated, and Covered with Paint.

I’ve postponed my rainbarrel project, a trip to PA, and a couple’s weekend to get a few things done before my new job starts.  So far, the weekends have been packed with home improvement projects but there is a light at the end of June…

• June 14:  Repaired the water damage to my skylight/ceiling.  It looks great, but because of the location of the skylight and the intrinsic difficulty of painting on a ceiling two stories above a set of stairs, we ruined the paint on the walls around it.  No biggie, those walls are easy to paint.  It’s just a pain and it really wasn’t that preventable.
• June 15:  Went to mom’s to clean out the house.  Spent 6 hours clearing out the upstairs clutter and three car loads of trash AND clothing donations later, it’s done. 
• June 20:  Shopping with my sister.  Ok, not so stressful, but terribly exhausting.  I did manage to get two work outfits:  one from H&M and another from Calvin Klein.  Nowhere NEAR the 5-7 I need… but I still have this weekend in Duck.
• June 21:  Cleaned out the first floor, the basement, and the garage of mom’s.  Filled up an entire garage with crap and had it hauled away.  Mom took care of the grime in the kitchen, sis did the garage and the basement, I did some little jobs here and there and the caulking of the bathroom.  I needed to replace the mailbox, but I didn’t get around to it.  *sigh* 
• June 28:  Bridesmaid duties with Sara and her birthday too!   I also need to get back to the house to do some last minute detail work.
• June 29:  Open House for mom.  I need to get to the house early set up and make sure everything is sparkingly and dust free.  Down to VA to say goodbye to Kate and Kelly.
• July 2-6th:  At the beach for a well-deserved reprieve.

 

The Business Casual Quest

I have just under three weeks to go before the new job.  And only one weekend to do real shopping.  Actually, just this Saturday.  So I’m heading off to the outlet malls, but not without some reasonable criteria:

1. No dry clean only clothing.
2. No cotton t-shirts, polos, camis or tank tops.
3. At knee or below knee A-line skirts. 
4. Easy to wear, sleeved knit tops that hit at the hip or slightly below the hip.
5. A versatile cardigan/shrug.
6. Only things that can make a complete outfit together or with something I have already that needs to be a complete outfit.
7. Preferably not-black clothing.  (I have a cat.)

I’m looking for 5-7 new outfits, but probably only need 2-3 right now.  (I need a lot because all of my commute is walking/public transportation and the phrase “The great unwashed” comes to mind at the end of the day.)  Wish me luck!

 

PUG Lessons: Know What to Grow

This is my first installment of  my Garden Learnings, which I’ll be calling PUG: Pigtown Urban Gardening.  I was thinking about doing BUG, but Baltimore Urban Gardening is a non-profit organization I highly respect.  So PUG it is.

This year I learned a very important lesson for my wallet and for my garden:  know what you want to grow. 

For a couple of years I have toyed with a poisonous/medicinal plants garden, but it became apparent this year that there is no real JOY in growing those things – especially after planting stinging nettle and borage and learning their painful defenses.  A couple of hundred dollars later, this lesson has made me realize that I really don’t need to purchase every “cool” plant that I find.   (Actually, most of my random purchases came from the National Arboretum Plant sale, which is a wonderful place to purchase plants and help the Arboretum.)  From now on,  I will be avoiding things that decorative and purchasing things that are delicious to eat. 

So far this year, I’ve grown with strawberries, basil, zucchini, tomatoes, bush beans, lettuce, brussel sprouts, and okra.  I’m not certain how the okra will do, but the tomatoes and zucchini are gorgeous and I should be seeing my first harvest sometime in July.   And all of this growth has allowed me to to figure out my space a little better and know what I want to do next year.  Especially with intercropping and with seed starting.

But this year was an expansion of the previous two years in determining what I wanted out of the outdoor space we had.  The front space would be occupied by evergreens, sweet potato vines, and coleus, and the back space would be vegetable gardening.  So far, the front is completely sustainable on its own, but the back is lacking design inspiration and organization.  I had filled the containers with all of the random goodies I had purchased but without knowing what I really wanted, it was a hodgepodge of herbs and vegetables.  It’s not a disaster, but it’s definitely a learning and will hopefully keep my budget in check for next year.

So what is the lesson:  know what you want to grow before you go to the gardening center.  And don’t buy anything outside of your plans.   (I know this is easier said than done!)