Glass Straws?

For those of you who are big fans of straws, I just learned about a company who makes glass straws that you can carry with you. Kind of an interesting idea, from a conservation and anti-plastic standpoint.

One of my favorite bloggers is hosting a giveaway now, in case you want to check it out. And let me know in the comments if you do!

Gardening Update

left to right: basil, tomato, parsley, dill

If I had read my blog feed yesterday before potting my tomato plant, I would have seen this excellent post on how to plant the best tomato plants, and I wouldn't be back out there re-potting it this morning while Zeke napped. I didn't do ALL the stuff in the blog post, but I did plant the stem down farther, throw a banana peel in there, and put the plastic container around it to keep worms away. It already had composted manure and some organic fish fertilizer in it. While I was at it, I also replanted my basil in a better pot, and added the aquaglobes for watering that I got super-cheap on woot.com.

I'm particularly hopeful about getting some tomatoes this year, because growing my own is pretty much my only hope for pain-free tomatoes. You see, I suspect that my intolerance to nightshade veggies stem from a sensitivity to the alkaloids they contain. If that's the case, then I wouldn't have a problem with tomatoes that had ripened on the vine for three days. But pretty much the only way to get three-day vine ripened tomatoes is to grow 'em yourself. So when I saw these tips for great tomatoes, I figured I should put them to good use. At least, the ones that were fairly easy to execute. Here's hoping for a tasty harvest!

Oh yeah, and I made a little bird feeder with a couple pine cones, peanut butter, and millet (upper right, it's a bit dark in the photo). I thought it would be neat for Zeke to see the birds up closer. If this works well we might buy a bird feeder eventually.

Plants!

As spring came along, I was pretty jealous of all my friends with space and time to plant a garden. I figured next year I'd try my hand at some container gardening again, but I just didn't have the time to go looking for organic plants (forget about trying to grow things from seed, I just don't have the skills!)

So imagine my excitement that I have 6 plants this year, and all I've paid for is the dirt! Friends from church have passed along some extra plants they had growing, so now I have parsley, dill, basil, rosemary, and a sweetie tomato plant. And my awesome sister-in-law got me started with a sweet potato plant. I'm so excited to have some fresh herbs more immediately, and hopeful about the tomato and sweet potatoes to come.