Don't make her spank you with a keyboard

"Western Gold" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Today I’ve decided to share with you, dear reader, a post made by Maggie Stiefvater. She’s the chocolate chip cookie fueled artist that I mentioned in a previous post. If you were around to read that post you’ll know that she’s one heck of a busy person and she’s also a full-time professional artist. She didn’t come by this as happenstance but rather by employing some good old- fashioned hard work and by giving herself daily reality checks. Good things don’t happen to people that sit around on their hineys waiting for a big break to come a knockin’...they go out and find it themselves.
On Friday she posted a Top Ten list of life lessons from the viewpoint of an artist at the beginning of her career (she’s only been doing this as a career for a few years folks...and is making a living at it). They’re not pretty lessons but necessary ones to learn and accept nonetheless. For all you folks out there wanting to become a professional artist, take a deep breath, and head over to her post here to learn what other artists that sell their work never told you.



After reading that, and I hope you read it thoroughly, I’d like to point out that these lessons can be applied to anyone that is taking the entrepreneurial jump. Something else I’d like to add to Maggie’s Top Ten is that you really and truly need to believe your own hype. Although I’m far from mastering it (but getting better with practice) I think that in order to really be successful you need to be able to toot your own horn...and often. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen artists get overlooked because they didn’t convey confidence in their work to the folks that were looking at it. The artist whose work does sell frequently does so because they’re great at selling themselves and their “artist persona”. It’s not arrogant, it’s not being cocky and it’s certainly not unwarranted. You should always have confidence and faith in your work because if you don’t then why should anyone else?

So go ahead, give yourself that pat on the back and for goodness sakes quit reading this blog and get back to doing your art!

But I Thought It Was A Poodle

"Golden Smile" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Today I was going to talk about the increasing laziness of North American society but instead I found something much funnier to talk about.

It would seem that some folks over in Japan are not getting their money’s worth when it comes to buying a dog over the internet (not a good idea anyway by any stretch of the imagination). Perhaps, dear reader, you’re familiar with the ongoing, and highly irrational, trend of using dogs as accessories. Feeling hot and spicy? A Chihuahua will complete your look nicely. Feeling proud and prissy? Why not get yourself a tea cup poodle to let the world know that you’re high-maintenance? Want to show off some skin? Heck, you can’t go wrong with a Mexican hairless.
Over in Japan the uber- stylish crowd were told there was a new poodle cross breed that was the new ‘must-have’ pooch to complete your look. Thousands of people bought into it and filled out their online form to get their hands on this dog, lest they fall behind the trends.
The scam unravelled when an un-named Japanese actress got her “dog” and noticed that not only was it not eating it’s dog food but it also wasn’t barking, and anyone that’s ever owned any poodle smaller than a standard knows that one of their favourite past-times is barking. Some crack investigation was done only to reveal that this new dog breed wasn’t a dog at all, but rather an extremely well coiffed lamb. I kid you not. No word yet on whether these folks have gotten their money back.

For more head-scratching news, surely by now anyone that keeps up with Hollywood tom-foolery knows that Hugh Grant was arrested for attacking a paparazzi while he was out jogging. Where it gets a little weird is that apparently in the midst of this attack Mr. Grant hurled a container of baked beans at the unsuspecting photographer. I can just imagine the police broadcast that was put out to go and apprehend good ol’ Hugh: “Suspect is armed and possibly flatulent.”
While attacking people is frowned upon and why he even bothered going after this paparazzi in the first place is pretty vague, there was another question that popped into my head: Who goes jogging with a side of baked beans?

That, dear reader, concludes this week, back on Monday!

Potato, How do I plant thee, let me count the ways...

In case you haven't guessed, dear reader, today's post is about planting potatoes. With the tempertaures being what they are and with the promise of rain/ showers over the next few days it's the perfect time to get it done.

There are a few options when it comes to potatoes. Like the onions, you can buy sets of potatoes that have the required number of "eyes" (the little off-white knobbly things) and are a ready size for planting. They come in many varieties such as Norland, White, Purple, Yukon Gold, Blue (while it's exotic it's my personal policy to never eat anything blue), Irish Cobblers, Russet and so on. Why, there's a rainbow of potatoes types to choose from...if that's your thing. For myself I've chosen to plant Yukon Golds not just because they're tasty but also because they can grow to a monsterous size making them ideal for hurling at people that irritate you.
In the interest of keeping up my miserly ways I should note that I don't buy potato sets but instead buy a bag of potatoes at the grocery store and let them sit until they start sprouting. Much like the bag of dirt, I simply can't justify paying a lot of money for something I know I can get for a lot less money and still have the same quality. It requires a bit more work and, if you'd like to save a few bucks, I'll show you how I go about doing this business of planting potatoes.

When you get a bag of potatoes from the grocery store you're invariably going to have some that are larger than others. Good slicing is the name of the game when this happens and I'll show you what I mean. Below you'll see one of those potatoes that is a wee bit too big for planting whole:

You can also see the eyes. Now, a good rule of thumb, or eye in this case, is that the potato that you plant should have at least 2-3 eyes. This fellow certainly has more, so, we must slice him and divide up those eyes as you can see below:


Look! I made two planting potatoes from one...it's like magic!! Actually, not really, but I like to pretend it is.
Anyway, you can do this with any potato that has a lot of eyes on it. In some cases, with those monsterous potatoes that I spoke of earlier, you may even be able to divide it up into 3 or more planting potatoes. In the end you'll wind up with a pile of potatoes...like this:


After you've done all your cutting and dividing, place the potatoes on a sheet of paper towel in a dry location and let them dry out a bit. This is so they don't run the risk of developing mould after you plant them in case you soil is really wet or there's a lot of rain in the immediate forecast. No point in planting something that's just going to rot in the ground anyway. Let the potatoes dry for at least 2 hours before planting.

When you're finally ready to plant them there's a few options you have: trench planting, a mulch mound or deep planting. Trench planting involves digging a shallow (4-6 inch), you guessed it, trench and placing the potatoes in them and then covering them with about 2 inches of soil. Mulch mounds involve placing the potatoes on top of a pile of decomposed leaves and then mulching with a 1-1 1/2 ft. layer of straw or hay. Deep planting, the option I went with, simply involves digging a deep hole, putting the potato in and covering it with about 2 inches of soil. No matter what method you use you'll need to hill up the soil or mulch as the plant grows to keep the tubers (potatoes) protected and give stability to the plant itself.

I've never tried the other two planting methods so I'm not really sure how good the yields are. What I can tell you is that withthe deepplanting method, providing you're taking care of your garden and the plants are healthy, you can expect one of those little potato pieces to produce another 3- 8 potatoes per plant. A pretty good return on your investment, even if I do say so myself!

So that's the info I have to pass along today. Tomorrow it's back to art and silliness, two of my most favorite things.

In Need of Guidance

"Finding the Mark" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Wednesday already? I always thought that when people said ‘as you get older the years go by faster’ that they were either lying or completely off their rocker, if ya’ know what I mean. Alas, I was wrong and they were not.

So today is another short post. I had a busy day of working on art, planting veggies and supervising the horses getting their ‘pedicures’ as I like to call it. They were good...for the most part, but they don’t seem to enjoy the whole pedicure process as much as humans. Maybe it has something to do with it involving a knife and what looks like a giant nail file. Not really my idea of a good time either, but when you slip them some Scotch mints for their trouble it’s funny how quickly all is forgiven.

So tonight, dear reader, the question is this: After a day of hard work, how does one indulge oneself? By watching mind-numbing television, of course! Alas, within that seemingly simple and obvious answer now lies another question: Do I watch my beloved America’s Next Top Model or do I watch an episode of American Idol that tonight will actually be featuring musicians with talent...oh, and Celine Dion. Such a dilemma, whatever will I do?

No Rest For The Wicked

"Crazed and Confused" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Greetings, dear reader. I do apologize for my absence yesterday but there was much to be completed and, as usual, not enough hours in the day to get everything done. Today’s post is going to be a mish-mash of art news and gardening because my suspicions were correct and Spring is falling upon us as fast as a cat out of a tub of water.


First is the art news. Late last Friday afternoon I received the call to let me know that one of my works, “Rising In The East”, had been accepted into the Quinte Arts Council’s Expressions Visual Art Show and Sale. This was the show I didn’t get into last year so I was quite pleased that I’ll be featured in it this year. One of my goals for this year is to do more local shows and events, and this particular show is a well recognized one in the area so it’s another step to getting my name out there locally.
Also on the art front I wanted to let any of my local and Southern Ontario based (or anyone else that happens to be in the area!), horsey collectors and readers know that the Uxbridge Horseman’s Association Equine Expo is coming up and that I’ll have a booth there. It’s going to be held May 12th at the gorgeous Elgin Park in Uxbridge. For more details you can contact me directly or visit the UHA website here. I’ll remind you again the week of the Expo as it promises to be a great event!


Okay, so as for the gardening what can I say but “so much to do and so little time.” I’ll still be doing another gardening post on Thursday because there’s just too much info to cram all into this post. So let’s begin, shall we?

First is that the weather has warmed up the soil enough so that planting can begin. Yesterday and today I planted my peas, parsnips, onions and potatoes. The peas and parsnips were done from seed and it’s worth noting that if you have old seeds left over from previous years don’t be so hasty to throw them out and get new ones. Err...with the exception being parsnip seeds because they generally don’t keep from one year to the next. Most seeds have a “shelf life” that can be up to 6 years! In fact, peas have a shelf life of about 3 years but the ones I’m using are new because I usually go through about two packages of pea seeds per year...really makes me think about buying in bulk. Keep in mind that the seeds will probably only be useable if you’ve stored them in a cool dry place but if you’ve stored them in a box next to your furnace I wouldn’t hold your breath about them being good for this year.
The shelf-life of some seeds you may want to consider holding onto, should you buy a seed package and don’t use them all, are:
1 Year- onion
2 Years- corn and peppers
3 Years- beans, broccoli, carrot, pea and spinach
4 Years- beet, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant and squash
5 Years- cucumber and radish
6 Years- lettuce


So, as for my peas what I’ve done is taken them out and soaked them in water overnight. This is to soften the shell and to make sure that the pea has some water stored in it for planting. Some people and gardening books recommend soaking the pea seeds in innoculant, which basically does the same as water but what it also gives the seeds is an extra boost of nitrogen which can increase the yields of the plants. I’m just growing my peas for freezing to be used in soups and stews for the winter so I’m not concerned about increasing the yield. If you’re growing them for fresh eating as well as freezing be sure to soak them in an innoculant to get the most from your crop.

Next is the onions. For onions I’ve gone and purchased onion sets which is basically a bag of pre-started onions. You can generally get them in basic varieties such as red, white, yellow, green and Spanish onions. Some places may carry more exotic types but for myself I’ve gone with the Spanish onions because I like their flavour (not too strong) and they usually grow quite large, think softball sized or larger. I’ve tried many time to grow onions from seed and, quite frankly, it’s just easier to buy the sets and be done with it. Below is a picture of some of the little onions from the set.



As you can see they come in a variety of sizes with most of them being the size of the middle onion. The size of them at this point doesn’t really determine how they’re going to come out when they’re done growing.
When planting onion sets you don’t need to dig a giant hole and put them in and then cover them with dirt. Simply decide where you’d like to plant them and place them on top of the soil about 3-4 inches apart from one another (in a row or block, whatever works for you) and then push them into the soil about 1 inch deep, cover them with a bit of soil if you need to and then water them.


After the onions is the parsnips. You can see from above that parsnip seed is very small and light and blows away very easily...which must be why I chose to plant it on a windy day. What can I say, I do love a challenge. The easiest way to plant these seed is to make sure your soil is good and loose and then take the end of a rake, hockey stick, etc. and make a shallow trench (about ½ inch) for the seed to go in. Space the seeds about 2-3 inches apart and then cover them with a bit of soil and then water them. It’s really that simple!

Something to note is that you don’t want to pack down the soil after covering the seeds. Let it settle naturally on top of whatever it is you’ve planted since you don’t want to make it difficult for the plant to break through the soil. Also, be sure to water them at least once a day. If the area you live in tends to get very hot and dry then it’s best to water both in the morning and evening. Try to avoid mid-day watering as the plants can develop sun-scald. If you have a big garden, or happen to be forgetful like myself, you can mark of where you’ve planted things with some twine, string, sticks or anything else that works.

That’s it for today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring...

What Do You Smell Like?

"Ringo"- 8x10, Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes, Private Commission
Copyright Rita Woodburne

To find out more about having a commission done head here.

So I was in deep thought again, dear reader, and that can only lead to strange things. My particular subject of pondering was scent...and dogs. Having worked with and around dogs for many years I’ve become very tuned into their odd little quirks and their communication processes. I’m certainly not touting to be an animal communicator or anything of that nature but let’s just say I feel much more kindred to four legged creatures, such as dogs, horses and cats, as opposed to the two legged variety...kangaroos aside.

As I was walking with my critters through the trails on our property I noticed they were all abuzz with the smells of Spring. I can’t tell you the number of squirrels they ran after and didn’t catch. There were also several rabbits I saw bounding away behind stone fences and into the trees. Notice I said ‘I saw’...the dogs didn’t, though. As we got closer to the rabbit’s escape route their noses went up and then straight down to the ground and with that, the mad dash was on. Fortunately for the rabbit, it was long gone but they seemed to have fun trying to track it anyway.
Then there are the other things that they like to stop and smell. A small pile of turned over dirt, presumably where some squirrel or chipmunk has buried a stash of acorns or perhaps the neighbours tulip bulbs. Or how about when they stop and sniff a tree trunk or shrub...checking their pee-mail, perhaps?

All of this made me wonder, what do we smell like to dogs? Obviously we all have our own distinct scent, or using dogs for man-trailing would be rather pointless. What I was wondering is what our specific scent is to a dog. Can they smell the grilled cheese sandwich I had for lunch a few hours ago? What about the 3 month old dried paint that’s on my sweatshirt? Is that “tainting” my scent? After I groom my horse, do I smell like him, therefore confusing the dogs even further into thinking that I'm some sort of shape- shifter? Do they ever think humans are stinky?

So, what do you smell like?

Where's My Periodic Table?

Remember what I woke up to last Thursday? Well, this is what I woke up to today. Weather in Canada, dear reader, is delightfully unpredictable...especially during transition seasons such as Spring.

So today’s gardening post is going to mainly be about bed preparation because, if my suspicions are correct, Spring will arrive fast and furious and due to the weather we’re about a week behind where we should be. As a result, bed preparation is behind as well as seeding so I’m going to have to work a little extra on the ol' garden this week-end to get things ready.

The first thing I’ll address is, you guessed it, bed preparation. My main veggie garden measures 46ft. x 12 ft and I try and use a rotating bed system to help reduce the risk of disease transfer and the potential development of little damaging creepy-crawlies. I say that I “try” to use a rotating bed system because of the veggies I like to grow. Sometimes planting same family crops can’t be avoided but I do my best, and on occasion I don’t really worry about it because some plants are more susceptible to disease than others.
With the rotating system in mind perhaps you’d like to know what the main families are? They break down like this:
Root Crops- includes beet, onions, parsnips, potato, turnip, leek, carrot, etc.
Cabbage Family Crops- includes cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, radish, etc.
Other Crops- includes tomato, pepper, corn, eggplant, pea, spinach, squash, lettuce, cucumber, etc.

Now that last one is pretty broad, don’t you think? It is, but each of these categories can be broken down further and some plants are companions to one another. A good rule of thumb is to keep cabbage family and root family crops separated from one another and having the other family in between the two. At the bottom of this post I’ll have a much more detailed veggie family list since that may also help you determine what plants you want to grow and where you’ll be able to plant them.

Selecting which veggies you want to grow is really the first step to bed preparation. Once you’ve decided what you’d like to plant you’ll need to find out if the veggies have any special requirements such as soil nutrients, if they need a certain pH and if they’ll only grow at certain temperatures. Nutrients, the two biggies being phosphorous and nitrogen, can be adjusted by adding amendments such as wood ashes, pine needles, leaves, bone meal, fish emulsion, etc. depending on what your soil is lacking. That said, nothing beats a good well rotted manure and/ or compost. These additives are best added as early in the season if possible or if you were really on the ball you added them back in autumn last year.
As far as pH levels go (do you feel like you’re back in high-school science class yet?) You can buy a pH meter and test it yourself or you can get samples from several areas of your garden and take them into a feed store or municipal office and have them test it if they have that service available. pH levels will be altered with the addition of the above fertilizers. A good veggie soil should have a pH between 6.5 - 7.5.
If you need to pre-warm your soil you can buy a black plastic mulch at almost any gardening store and I believe they can also be purchased at hardware stores as well. It’s a mulch so you can place it over the soil, marking off where you’ll be planting, put some soil in between the rows and then just let the mulch do it’s magic.

Planting seeds can begin when the daytime air temperatures are consistently at or above 15 Celsius (60 Fahrenheit). In fact, veggies such as peas, lettuce, potatoes, carrots and potatoes prefer the cooler weather and in the case of peas, the development of the plants will slow or stop altogether if the temperatures get much above 22 Celsius (70 Fahrenheit). These plants will tolerate light frosts (some veggies actually have improved flavour after a light frost) but nothing too severe which is why it’s important not to go planting crazy after only one or two warm days. When it comes to gardening patience pays off in a big way.


A little tidbit that can be applied to both veggie and flower gardens is that tidying up the beds goes a long way to developing healthy plants. As you can see from above I have flower debris left over from last year in this part of one of my flower beds. Not only that but I have flowers that are trying to poke through this mess. Below I’ve cleaned it up and the flowers are happy now because they can grow unhindered. It's okay to leave some debris behind just in case the temps do drop a bit too low then the leftovers from last year can provide some insulation.


In my veggie garden it’s already clean, I picked out weeds just this morning, but I do have some pansies in the flower bed next to the veggie garden. It would seem that some renegade pansy seeds broke away from the fray and decided to plunk themselves right in the veggie garden. That’s not where they belong. That said, I’ll let them grow there for the time being so they can get a bit bigger and then the first or second week of May (depending on the weather) I’ll transplant them to one of the flower beds, where they belong. These are the grown up pansies that kicked the young ones out of the house... they must've been free-loading.


I’ll leave you to digest all that info, dear reader. If the weather is warm enough where you are it would be a good time to get your soil in order. Make sure it’s rich in nutrients, and be sure to turn the soil over either by hand or with a roto-tiller, as this will aerate the soil and kill any little creepies that would threaten your plants. Below is a more specific veggie family list:

Beet Family- beets, chard, spinach
Cabbage Family- broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard, kale, kohlrabi, radish, turnip
Carrot Family- carrot, celery, chervil, cilantro, dill, parsley, parsnip
Grass Family- corn
Lettuce Family- artichoke, chicory, endive, lettuce
Lily Family- chives, garlic, leek, onion
Pea Family- beam , cowpea, pea, peanut
Squash Family- cucumber, melon, pumpkin, squash
Tomato Family- eggplant, pepper, potato, tomato

Can It Be True?

"Macro Dandelion #2"- 4x6" coloured pencil on Strathmore
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Today is the day, dear reader, that Winter left Southern Ontario for good. Small blips aside, the warmer weather and sunshine is here and soon, in true Canadian fashion, we'll be complaining about blackflies, mosquitoes and that "...it's not the heat, it's the humidity."


So this morning I was listening to the 'Impossible Trivia' game and once again it struck me that the trouble our species is capable of getting into will never cease to amaze me. The question for today was: "There are 12,000 accidents per year in North America involving these..."
There were many answers that ranged from the plausible such as stoves, farm equipment, bicycles and pools to the not so obvious answers that included trees, bears and microwaves.
The answer to this pressing question was, in fact, revolving doors. This is still somewhat beyond my comprehension but in thinking about it I realized that the only place in that I had recently seen, or used this mind-bogglingly complex human invention, was at the hospital. How ironic.

As a final thought, what was a bit more disturbing during this particular edition of Impossible Trivia was one woman who called up and offered up the answer of "photocopiers". I'm still trying to imagine how such an accident would unfold...

Phoning For The Truth

"The Wanderer"- 11x14" coloured pencil on Pastelbord, Work In Progress

No, no, I didn’t drop off the face of the earth. It seems that many folks in my area were without phone service for about 3 days which prompted the Other Half to utter this little truism: “Sometimes, country living isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” Folks that currently or have lived in the country, you know what I mean. For those of you that may have just recently moved to the country-side, and were previously city or suburban dwellers, consider yourself warned.

Loss of our phone service has happened before. Ironically, it usually goes out immediately after we’ve had power restored after a power outage. So once the power is back on you can watch movies on your television, you just can’t call up someone and invite them over to watch the movie with you. These blips in service usually only last about half an hour to an hour which is irritating but at the same time tolerable. I should’ve known we were in for trouble when the phones went dead but the power hadn’t been out prior to that...a sure sign of the apocalypse.

On Sunday afternoon after the phones had been out for about 24 hours I took the Other Half’s cell phone and decided to call Bell (oh, that’s right Bell, we’re making this public) and find out what was going on. A customer service rep was kind enough to let me know that he knew nothing. I bit my tongue because, having worked in customer service before, I know how nasty people can get. I always remind myself that whatever the incident is, it’s not the customer service reps fault that it’s happening, no matter how much of a diddle-head they come across as. I asked if a technician could be sent out because the whole street was without phone service and also, since I’m self-employed and work from home, having a phone for people to contact me is kinda important to the whole running a business thing. He said that a technician would be dispatched tomorrow. I was fine up to this point when he then proceeded to tell me that he noticed that I don’t have the service protection program so in the event that repairs need to be done, blah, blah, blah. I politely but curtly told him that I wasn’t interested because I currently don’t have service and would appreciate it if that could be remedied...and then I hung up.

So then on Monday I spent the day checking the phones periodically because I wanted to make sure that the good people at Bell were going to keep their word. That and I could only fathom the amount of messages I had piling up in my personal and business e-mail in-boxes. Some of which I’m sure included attachments and, only having access to dial-up in the country, I knew it would take the better part of a day just to receive those messages.
At about 3:00 I decided that I’d better call Bell again to find out what was going on, if anything. I was again greeted by another customer service rep who I was polite with...for about 2 minutes. After I asked if there was anything being done about the problem or if he knew how long it would take to get the situation resolved he responded with what was an outright lie. I’ll spare you the details but it was at this point that I went into Exorcist mode because if there’s one thing I can’t stand (other than telemarketers and people who are perpetually late) it’s being told that a job was done when it clearly wasn’t. After he told me what had, or rather hadn’t been done, I believe my head spun around, I spewed out pea soup and then verbally tore this guy a new one.
I was asked if I could be put on hold.
Within 30 seconds he came back and told me another tale and that the power should be restored sometime before 10 pm on Tuesday.

Really?

I chewed him out some more, only because he essentially confirmed that he was lying before, and then I hung up. I’d been doing that a lot. Then, wouldn’t you know it, at about 6:30 Monday night the phones came back to life. At best I can only assume that my temper tantrum helped speed up the process of getting a repair person off their duff and outside to actually fix the problem.

So that’s my tale of country living, phone-loss woe. I’m hoping it doesn’t happen again, but I’m not holding my breath. We’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow, with another gardening update on Thursday, and thanks for lending a cyber ear to my ranting dear reader. Toodles!

A Day For Growing Things

So this is what I woke up to this morning, dear reader. To quote Marlon Brando from his role in Apocalypse Now: "The horror." I also thought that it would be a suitable day to start my gardening portion since I can't actually do anything in the garden.

Before I get to the exciting business of separating and transplanting I'll share with you what my veggie garden will be consisting of this year:
- tomatoes (beefsteak and plum variety, maybe cherry)
- peas
- summer squash (zucchini and patty pan)
- potatoes
- parsnips
- sweet corn
- beets
- cucumber
- pumpkins
- carrots
- onions

As you can tell, I do love my root vegetables. Hopefully this summer we'll be able to get our cold cellar properly sealed so I'll have a place to store all these little earthy treats. I may also grow beans but I'm still contemplating that one.

Today I'll be sharing with you the joys of transplanting seedlings. I started my tomatoes about 2 weeks ago in peat pots with a potting soil (Miracle-Gro, to be exact) and all of my seedlings are housed in one of those plastic windowsill- style green house things that you can buy at Wal-Mart or hardware stores for about $5-$15 depending on how big you want it. I use Miracle-Gro potting soil because it 's one of the least expensive soils, I can't justify paying a lot of money for a bag of dirt, and it has vermiculite in it. Without getting too complicated, vermiculite is simply an organic substance added to potting soils to help retain water in the soil so that you don't have to water as frequently. There's your potting soil lesson for today.
As for tomatoes, they're in the same gardening family as peppers, eggplant and the like and are warm weather lovers. Tomatoes are both tempermental and hardy. I say this because they can tolerate a fair bit of rough handling and require little maintenance, making them ideal for beginning vegetable gardeners, but they are quite sensitive to the weather and soil conditions. We'll talk about weather and soil preparation in another post, though.

So we start off with little tomato seedlings (in this case they're beefsteak tomatoes) that have been growing now for about 2 weeks:


They look spindly, and they are. When I first started gardening I would've looked at these little guys, shaken my head and thrown them out thinking they weren't up to par. I know better now and these seedlings are quite fine. You may also notice that there's some mould forming on the pots. That I don't like, but it happens from time to time and since these guys are going to be transplanted to new homes I'm not overly concerned about it.
If you do have mould forming there's a product you can buy called "No Damp Off" and all it is is dried, shredded peat moss. It absorbs any extra dampness you may be getting on your plants and makes a super mulch.


This photo is just for size purposes and so you can see how erratically these plants are growing. Not only do they need a new home, they need to be shortened. The plants will be separated now and will each go into their own peat pots and I'll be shortening them so their stems can get stronger and their roots can develop more.
The first step to transplanting is to get the pots ready for the plants. Peat pots come attached but I like to break them apart so I can move them around more easily. The pots I'm using are the small ones (2") and before I move the plants to the new pots I put about 1/4" of potting soil into the new pots and lightly mist the soil with water. You can see the prepped pots below:


The seedlings must be removed from the old pots and transferred to the new ones. This is where tomatoes prove that they're an ideal "beginner" vegetable. Normally transplanting is a delicate process and requires you not only to be gentle in handling the young plant but also to make sure that the root system remains as intact as possible. With tomatoes...not so much. As long as you're careful in handling the plant and get most of the roots, you're good to go. In my case, because the plants are spindly there's not much in the way of roots:


Looks pretty sorry, eh? Don't worry, by mid-summer this tiny little plant will be toppling over with tomatoes.
This plant will now go into one of the prepped pots and what I will do is place it in and cover the roots with soil and then "fold" the stem over slightly, cover with more soil, do another "fold", cover that with more soil and keep doing that until I only have a teeny bit of the stem showing and the leaves. All of the plants are transplanted in the same manner. Below is what they look like after all is said and done:



what I should also note about transplanting is that you should wait until the seedling has at least the first set of "true leaves". True leaves are the leaves that appear after the first two leaves come up. These tomatoes have their first set of true leaves making them big enough to transplant. This isn't a hard and fast rule but to keep the plant as strong as possible it's best to just follow it.

Now the plants will get misted with water and will go back under the plastic dome. Depending on how fast they grow they may get transplanted again to larger peat pots but if it's not necessary then they'll stay in these ones until it's time to plant.

That, dear reader, is how you transplant seedlings. Some folks will add a root growth formula or some other form of fertilizer but I prefer not to do that because I don't want to speed the growth of anything at this point. If transplanting seems too daunting I suggest starting the seeds in the largest peat pot you can find. If you do this just remember that you'll need to plant deep in the pot and leave lots of room to top up the soil as the plant grows taller.

That's gardening for this week. What will happen next week? Who knows, depends on the weather...

I Hope I'm Working Monday Through Sunday

"In The Moment"- 8x10, coloured pencil on Colourfix.
Please contact artist if interested in purchasing.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Hello dear reader. I was going to do my gardening post today but I have top secret information I must share with you...we can attend to gardening matters tomorrow.

I should preface this post by mentioning an odd thing that happens between myself and folks I know and folks I've just met. Apparently people meet me and think to themselves: "Hey, now here's someone I can tell my deepest secrets to." This phenomenon has caused me to be privy to some very touching stories, much needed venting, unexpected bonding with others and rather humerous anecdotes.
Although I've become used to people sharing rather private information with me (all of which will remain private) I still find it interesting when someone whom I've known for a whole of 20 seconds decides to share top secret information with me. It's on that note that my tale begins...

It started in the grocery store yesterday when I walked in to pick up some ice cream and Tostitos (not to eat together, unless it had been Neopolitan ice cream). I picked up my little basket and decided to peruse the produce section to find some over-priced fruit to put on my ice cream. While I was perusing the cantaloupes and blueberries I noticed a rather handsome looking fellow. I looked at him, thought to myself: "He's hot" and then I went back to looking for my fruit.
Now before you hyper-monogamous people attack me with a chastity belt let me point out that the Other Half and I aren't married (not that it matters anyway) and also that it's simply in human nature to look at another human being and if they happen to be good looking to think so. Humans are not dissimilar to art, when it's attractive you look, when it's ugly you make a face and wonder what went wrong.
At any rate, I went and got my ice cream and Tostitos and proceeded to the check-out and wouldn't you know it, the attractive fellow was just finishing checking out. I placed my things on the conveyor belt thingy and started rummaging through my bag for my wallet. As I got to the cashier she was giggling and another cashier came up to her and said something at which point she laughed out loud. I began to wonder if I had something on my face or in my hair.
She looked at me, still laughing, and I smiled and then she said "I'm very sorry." I said "Okey dokey" and looked at her quizzically. It was at this point that the Top Secret info was divulged to me.
She told me that the cashiers at this store had a code for when hot guys are going through the check-out, you know, so they can all look. In her case she was the one ringing the fellow through so she turned to the gal at the other register and said: "I'm working Monday through Thursday." At this point the other cashier looked up and had her visual perk for the day. As the guy is leaving, she proceeded to tell me, the other cashier will watch as he leaves and to confirm that the *ahem* back is as nice as the front she'll say "I'm working Friday through Sunday." Apparently the cashier that came up to her as I was being rung through informed her that she was indeed working "Friday through Sunday". In her giddiness she said that she was surprised she was sharing this with a customer. All I could say, between laughing, was "I'm used to it."

To be honest I was not only extremely amused by this but surprised that a communication system had been set up to alert the cashiers of attractive customers. The complex microcosm community that is the grocery store will never cease to amaze me.

Prints!

"Windy"- 5x7" Limited Edition prints now available.
Please contact artist to purchase.

Just a quick post today, dear reader. Over the holiday week-end I fell behind on many chores that were just begging to be done. It's hard to get into "Spring Cleaning" mode when it's snowing outside. Where's that sun and warm weather that was tempting us not so long ago?

Anyhoo, I wanted to let you readers be the first to know that I now have prints available of some of my artwork, one of them being "Windy" as seen above. It's exciting because now my art will be more widely available which will advance my plans of World Domination...err...I mean to decorate people's home. Yeah...that's it. By the end of next week I should have the info updated on my website as to which pieces will be available to purchase as a print.

If you'll be so kind as to excuse me now, I have some windows that need to be cleaned.

Making Mashed Potatoes And Other High-Risk Activities

"In The Moment" 8x10, coloured pencil on Colourfix- Work In Progress

Copyright Rita Woodburne

It occurred to me the other day that life is fraught with danger, and quite often that danger comes to us at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected places. After all, it's said that many serious accidents occur in and around the home. This became apparent the other night while I was making dinner which consisted of a roast chicken, salad and mashed potatoes. By that menu one could assume that the salad doesn't pose a threat and that the mashed potatoes are relatively benign as well. Surely a roast chicken poses the most danger. Why there's the potential to consume a cooked chicken bone, or maybe contract salmonella? What about the potential to injure yourself while cutting the chicken? Surely the dangers of getting splattered with hot liquid while basting haven't eluded you either? Yes, it's the chicken that is clearly the most dangerous, right? In this case it wasn't so.
After preparing and placing the chicken in the oven I began the mundane task of peeling potatoes. While I was doing this the Other Half came into the kitchen to keep me company and we began chatting. Normally our conversations are, by all accounts, pretty uneventful. However, from time to time they can get pretty animated as well depending on factors such as the weather, how the day went overall and whether there's a full moon or not. This conversation turned out to be an animated one as we discussed the horses (who were acting pretty silly as a result of Spring's arrival) and then about watching UFC on Spike TV. As I gradually became more interested in the conversation and less in the task at hand my co-ordination failed me and the unthinkable happened...I missed the potato and got my finger instead. I stopped mid-sentence and all the Other Half could say was: "Did you just do what I think you did?"
Me: (staring in disbelief) "Um...yup."
Him: "I don't think we should eat those potatoes."

Fortunately it was my middle-finger that I sliced so I held it up to him...you know, to show him the damage.

I managed to regain my composure and tend to my wound before finishing dinner, and you'll be happy to know that I didn't require hospitalization or amputation and that we did wind up eating the potatoes. They were tasty.

What I have I learned from this? I now know that a vegetable peeler, when used improperly, can result in injury. I've also learned that dinner conversation should be reserved for after the dinner has been prepared.

Happy Easter!

Art...and how it affects your vegetables

"That Look"- 8x10, coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes.
Please contact artist if interested in purchasing.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Glad you're back, dear reader. Despite the chilly weather here in Ontario that seems to have befallen us again (and after such an awesome week-end), it's time to start thinking about planting. Next to art, vegetable gardening is one of my passions because when I'm not doing art I try to make sure that I'm eating...or at least preparing something to eat.
With that in mind you can look foward to one day a week for my blog to contain gardening content, more specifically organic vegetable gardening content. Please don't ask me to talk about flowers, the trade-off for my excessively green thumb with vegetables was that I wound up with an almost black thumb when it comes to flowers. Tragic, I know, but at least I can grow those flowers that are beneficials for my veggies.

So to get this ball rolling I should note a few things:
- I live in a 5b zone bordering on 5a (I can hear non-gardening people scratching their heads already) so my planting times will obviously be for this zone. If you live in a 4a or 9b I can't tell you specifically when you need to plant your onions.
- When pests/ diseases arrive I will always try a non-toxic (organic) solution first.
- I start almost all of my veggies from seed (untreated organic when available). I try to avoid pre-grown plants because I don't know what they've done to them or where they've been... much like a suspicious co-worker that always arrives late and stinks of rum.
- In reference to the first point, all of my fertilization tricks and pest/ disease remedies work regardless of zone.

Planning a good garden is much like planning a good work of art. There's surface preparation, pre-planning of what goes where, composition and fitting elements together that work well. You thought I was kidding about art affecting veggies, didn't you?

Get your seeds out, peat pots and potting soil ready because starting next week I'll get right into all the growing goodness!

Just A Quick One...

A brief hello, dear reader, as I've been "arting" like a madwoman today and I don't want to interrupt my creativity.
What I can share with you is that courtesy of my brother's help (actually, to be honest he did most of the work) my new, updated website is up and running and I insist that you go have a gander at it. Right this very minute...you can do so by clicking here.

Be back soon!