Garden:
Every year in April, shortly after just starting to set lots of fruit, my snow peas succumb to powdery mildew. I use drip irrigation and there hasn’t been any rain, but I still have this problem each year. So, I will be taking out my peas this week and planting something else in their place.
1. Collect peas for planting next year
2. Take out pea plants
3. Plant Aremenian cucumbers
4. Replant red noodle beans (bugs ate almost every plant that came up!)
5. Replant zucchini (my plants did well and then suddenly died)
6. Transplant artichoke plants into the garden
7. Trim, weed, and take out plants that are done in the center circle in the backyard.
8. Spray roses again for thrips and aphids
9. Finish thinning fruit trees
Sewing:
1. Cut out and sew dress for Ivory
2. Cut out and sew several headbands for Ivory
3. Cut out and sew summer pajamas for Ivory
Shopping and Errands:
1. Photograph and list at least 10 items for sale on Facebook garage sale pages early in the week
2. Buy ham at Vons
3. Return books to library and pick up requested book
4. Vote on Tuesday
5. Trip to Smith’s for the case lot sale, toothpaste, potatoes, pasta and strawberries
6. Shop at the community garage sale on Saturday
7. Order sandals for Wren from Amazon
Canning:
1. Can strawberry jam
Organization:
1. Spend one hour organizing the pantry (10 minutes a day)
Blog Goals:
1. Write and photograph 2 blog posts this week
Spiritual Goals
1. Read scriptures each morning
2. Attend the temple
My goals for this week:
Spiritual
ABF/Church
Daily Bible Reading
Physical
Daily Exercise DVD
Healthy Breakfast and Snack
Water
Quilt: Block #18
Reading
Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith
H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
Cooking
Pot Roast
Tuna Salad
Chicken-Rice Bake
Roast Beef Hash
Strawberry Shortcake
Home
Buy towels & washcloths for master bathroom
Clean out one section of master closet
Personal
Birding trip to Brazos Bend State Park
Order summer clothes from LLBean
Hope you achieve all your goals, this week. I’ve a problem with powdery mildew on my rose bushes, this year – again, with barely any rain. Need to look into how to deal with it. Have a good week.
For powdery mildew, I usually use dormant/summer oil (it’s an organic spray made from cottonseed meal). It’s too windy for me to spray the peas before they are gone (they’ll die in a couple of days from it) but I have had great success with it on roses and on my hedges. I got mine from Gardens Alive for free with a $25 off $25 order coupon. For new customers in early spring, if you request a catalog, they’ll send one to you, and it has that coupon on front. Later in the year it has $25 off a $50 order.
This weeks goals (aside from just getting back on track- amazing how illness can throw one off their routine entirely)
-organize pantry area in both kitchen and in basement
-organize boys clothes. We’ve been given a bunch of hand-me-downs recently and they need to be sorted by size and season
-bake some bread, muffins, and granola
-plan a date night with my husband and work on getting a babysitter (aka grandma!)
-plan some activities for the kids to do for upcoming April vacation from school
I have been looking online for a hiking stick for my daughter. One of the brand names is Brazos. I didn’t know it is an actual place. I did not order one from there because they were very expensive. She will be getting a no-name one since she is just a ‘hike for fun every once in a while’ person.
It’s spring break this week, so we are taking it easy with our list. We are making some red pepper jelly and some easy crockpot meals.
My goals for the week:
Make sure I get enough sleep
finish taxes-Just competed
purchase cases of veggies for .38/each
stock up on ham
have another lamb leg cut-great price
plan meals with pantry supplies
go to the library
pick up to do at home stuff from boss
try to exercise now that I’m feeling a little better
enjoy spring!
This week I am baking hot dog buns, making biscotti for my husband’s lunch, packing away the Easter things, and stalking Earth Day Deals. We bought enough cleaning supplies to last six months the last time. I have to order a birthday gift, and get the high chair and baby gear ready for Craig’s List.
I am also in zone 9, it sounds like you got hit with vine boring beetle. Google it and see what you think. The only solution I’ve found is to grow different varieties — tatume and trombocino are two that work for me.
Just saw you addressed that on Facebook. I figured you already knew about borers but wouldn’t hurt to mention it! What a bummer 🙁 I hate losing plants!
My goals for this week are:
1. Enlarge the blackberry bed. I already have the Lodgestones for the bed wall. I just need to pick up grounds for gardeners from Starbucks & haul some old manure from the stable, & DO it.
2. Dig out the mint bed. It was hit with overspray when I killed a rogue elm sapling. There are plenty of starts in places where they don’t belong, like the black berry bed & the barked area, so once I dig out the dead area, I can move those babies over to restart the bed.
3. Pot the strawberries from the struggling end of the strawberry bed, then hit the weeds & grass with RoundUp. I have tried weeding them all out, multiple times per season over the last 3 years, but it has not worked, so I am removing the berry plants & potting them up in containers, then killing off everything else. After it is sprayed & sits for a week to kill everything, then I will add 6-8 inches of grounds mixed with old manure to refill the bed, & replant the strawberries in that.
4. Cut more wipes from a piece of flannel I found in the closet, & begin hemming them.
5. Buy new shirts for my husband, with my husband. We plan to do this for Family Night on Monday.
Can I ask how big your home is? I was wondering with 7 children how you find a place to sew and do all the amazing things you do. I guess I need to be more organized. I have a sewing room, but the room always seems to be a dumping ground for things when NO ONE knows where to put them. I have the smallest bedroom in our home as a sewing room. WE do not have a linen closet at all in this house. My husband built me some shelves that line one wall of the room. I use that as my linen closet for the whole house. Towels, sheets, blankets etc. It takes up a good deal of the room. Also that is where our big family freezer is. I do use the top of my freezer as my cutting table. So that comes in handy there, but it does not leave much space for 2 sewing machines. I have a serger and sewing machine. I was just wondering where you cut and sew your beautiful dresses and things for your home.
Brandy, thank you so much for taking the time to respond with such useful information. I am off to request the catalog.
Hey Roxie! I’m not Brandy, but I wanted to give you some linen storage ideas that I use. Our living room t.v. in on top of a large dresser. It belonged to a great g’ma so it’s old. I think it was called a Highboy? Anyway, it has some amazingly huge drawers in it. Those drawers are filled with every kitchen linen, doily, tablecloth, etc. that we own. I separate them by seasons so I can easily find my turkey towels when I want them. My coffee table is my old hope chest, which was my g’ma’s. That is full of other linens. I also have an old steamer trunk that was my mom’s and that is full of all our blankets. All 3 are in our teensy 12 x 12 living room. My rule is that all solid furniture must serve multiple purposes….like your freezer! We do have a linen closet, but it is used as a bathroom pantry, full of sale toothpaste, tp, meds, etc. We have no medicine chests!!
I hope that helps! BTW, our surplus canned food is all stored under the guest room bed!
Debby
Round up is extremely toxic to the soil and ground water. Straight vinegar will kill most weeds. And if you do use Round Up, be aware that it can work its way up in the soil, so planting edibles on top of it is not advised, no matter what Monsanto says.
I love seeing your goals, they motivate me to do more with my week!
For this week my goals are:
Finish sewing dolls for my daughter’s friend’s birthday
Finish building my raised planter beds
Get spinach and onions planted
Make 10 freezer meals
Get 7 extra items for my Etsy store made
Sign up for a craft fair
Mabel, straight vinegar will indeed kill many weeds, but not this particular grass. Your assumption that I know nothing about RoundUp is incorrect.
Celia- Where did you find the best deals on the cleaning supplies last year? TIA