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[smick]

I think I volunteered way back when. That offer is still open, FWIW.

Me, I go home today. My lovely wife is terribly ill right now. Hopefully she will get plenty of rest today.

I've been traveling a lot to Reno, NV, so I'm in and out of the airport a lot.   I've been keepin' my head on a swivel when I'm on the C concourse. 

[theinevitable]

What in the hell is wrong with America?

Tomorrow is my scary non-interview meeting with a man who knows how a job seems and behaves. I spent all day eating delicious food with friends/trying to iron my shirt.

[Nabubrush]

I've been traveling a lot to Reno, NV, so I'm in and out of the airport a lot.   I've been keepin' my head on a swivel when I'm on the C concourse. 

Thursdays going north, fridays going south - but I almost never go out of C anymore. I have to grab the puddle-jumper to Seattle, and it leaves out of A.

[Doc]

Today, I'm going to receive some computer parts, and software. I'm going to put together a box for the first time in around 8 years and install windows and everything is working (so far, apparently). This is deeply confusing and completely contrary to my previous computer assembling and windows installing experiences.

[smick]

Thursdays going north, fridays going south - but I almost never go out of C anymore. I have to grab the puddle-jumper to Seattle, and it leaves out of A.

Ah, for me there's a daily 6:45a flight to Reno.  That planes daily route has it turning around and coming right back to Portland.  It's almost like commuting.

[Nabubrush]

Ah, for me there's a daily 6:45a flight to Reno.  That planes daily route has it turning around and coming right back to Portland.  It's almost like commuting.

There's one for me like that (way too early) one leaving at like 6 pm (a bit too late) and one at 1 am (no). I should probably just switch to the 6 pm one, but then I wouldn't get to see as much of mom, and I'm starting to feel that particular clock run out, so I'm pretty happy I do get to see her so regularly.

[jay-ell]

Today I'm gonna impulse-buy a book about growing vegetables and flowers together in container gardens because it has the word "easy" in the title. I think I'm gonna try this whole "growing small amounts of food" thing again.

Slowly.  

Also, I got some small pots, a bag of potting mix, and some parsley seeds. I managed to only kill off 3/4 of the basil I started last fall (and I got proper pots with better drainage to transplant what's left of the basil into). I'm gonna work with the parsley for a few weeks and see how that goes, but if I do OK with them, I'll go to the farmer's market and get some seedlings and start an outdoor pot on my deck for the summer.

I am interested in my kids, particularly my daughter (since she loves to cook), learning that food doesn't actually come from the grocery store.

[Nabubrush]

I know it's stepping up the game considerably, but tomatoes and basil grow really well together (adjacent to each other).

[AugustWest]

Doncha have a yard?  Why restrict yourself to pots?  Dig in the dirt!

[Nabubrush]

There's a guy at work who, when I am amidst things, shall we say, will shout out "stick with it!"

I don't care for that.

[jay-ell]

Doncha have a yard?  Why restrict yourself to pots?  Dig in the dirt!

I have bad soil, very few sunny spots (lots and lots of trees), and two kids who cannot be trusted not to tramp on things. Plus, Wombat told me last year that container gardens are easier than they look, and I want to start small.

I don't want to invest a whole weekend in building a raised bed (which is a must, given my yard situation) and find out that I can't grow anything, or that I hate doing it. If the containers do OK this summer, I will probably build a raised bed in the fall and plant some lettuce (which I read does well around here during our long, wet, warm-but-not-hot autumn). That is a vegetable we would definitely use.

For summer, I'm thinking an everbearing breed of strawberries, since I don't much care for tomatoes. The goals are to have some home-grown food to eat each week without having so much that we can't use it all ourselves, and to show the kids how basic agricultural food production works. Has anyone grown strawberries in a container (or anywhere)? Are the home-grown varieties really that much tastier than the store-bought ones?

Eventually, I would like to grow sweet potatoes, carrots, lettuce, green beans, strawberries, blueberries, and a variety of herbs. Those are all things we eat regularly, and as long as I keep the amount I plant to a reasonable amount, we shouldn't have much waste, if any.

But maybe I hate gardening? I definitely have issues with spending too much time outside when it's really hot. At least if it's 95F and I have to weed the strawberries this summer, if it's in a container I can load it on a dolly, bring it into my air-conditioned laundry room, and do it there. And if I have to do that, then I have no business planting things in the ground. None whatsoever.

[Nabubrush]

Strawberries in a garden is a win. I don't know of anyone growing blueberries thusly, but in Alaska they're all over outside, so it's just easier to go out there to harvest them, barring occasional encounters with bears.

[Choop]

careful ash or it'll turn into the taco argument all over again

[AugustWest]

Blueberries need acid soil and don't like too much heat.  You may be too far south, I think we are pretty borderline here in zone 6.

Green beans are pretty easy.  Pole beans could be fun for the kiddos, especially if you make teepees for your pole beans.

Lettuce (along with other leafy stuff like spinach, turnip greens, kale, etc) is hella easy.  Almost time to get lettuce, spinach and pea seeds in the ground.

Root crops, especially carrots, require a light, sandy soil.  Our soil here is way too clay-ey.  We would have to build raised beds if we wanted to grow carrots.

What about cucumbers?  They're easy, and if you have a fence row they'll climb right up the fence.  

Or pumpkins?  Fun for the kids!

[jay-ell]

Blueberries grow here, but only in early spring and for a short season. I think I've missed the window on planting them already -- they're available at the farmer's market in May. We're zone 7a.

Green beans are supposed to be easy, and they're my favorite veggie, hands down, raw or cooked. They like heat, right? That shouldn't be a problem here.

Lettuce sounds easy, too. I forgot to add spinach to the list of things I ultimately want to grow. Can you grow leafy stuff from seedlings? I don't think I want to grow from seeds if I don't have to. That seems like a lot of work.

Carrots are exactly why I would build raised beds. The nice thing about them (and sweet potatoes) is that they grown well almost year-round here.

I'm not a big fan of cucumbers. I don't hate them; they're just not my favorite and not quite as versatile as the other veggies. I'd rather spend my time on something I like.

Pumpkins have to go in the ground, but if the container garden goes well and I decide to lay a few beds, I would consider them. Also, watermelons -- though the book I got has some small-variety icebox watermelons in large containers and they grew to about 3 pounds each. That's as much watermelon as we need, so I considered doing a few watermelon plants this summer. But I think the strawberries are a better choice for several reasons -- more yield, more useful, less work.