Autumn Harvest GTS 10-26-08

Green Thumb Sunday
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday; visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

There was supposed to be a hard frost about a week ago so I decided to work at putting the garden to bed. I picked all the tomatoes, and now have two paper bags of green tomatoes ripening in the basement.









The bag on the right has 'saladette' tomatoes. They are slightly larger than grape tomatoes, taste good, and produce prolifically. I was amazed at how much the plant had grown over the summer. The variety is Juliet. I will be looking for this plant next summer.

The sweet peppers were pretty much done, so I picked all the fruit. The hot peppers were still growing pretty well, so I picked the ripe ones and covered the plants with a grow tunnel.






All three varieties of hot pepper are pictured to the right. The long one on the left and the curled up one are Sweet Cayenne peppers. They are the mildest of the three, and I will try to grow them again next year. The middle bottom is a Santiago Hybrid. They are the hottest, and I'm the only one who enjoys them in my food in large quantities. The pepper on the far right is a Hot Portugal. It is also very hot, and the plant did not grow very well. The plant only produced one pepper - I don't know if it was too shaded by other plants, or if it just got a poor start. These were the peppers from my Ferry-Morse mini greenhouse kit.

Happy GTS~
Sarah

Helpful Links

You may or may not find these links interesting. I've been going through the email I ignored while knitting hats, and found these links.

Thymes: This site sells bath, body, and home, products. I've looked at some of the ingredient lists, and although the products are not 100% natural, they are much better than some other things I've seen. For some reason the I can't view the ingredient lists right now -I think it's a site bug. I may give some of their stuff a try, and will blog about it if I do.

Call 811: If you are going to be doing any digging in your yard, call 811. Their website says that your underground utility lines will be marked for free. 'Nuff said.

Mother Earth News: This is a search engine specifically for finding mail-order garden resources. I haven't been very successful with it, but maybe you will enter the magic search term that finds exactly what you want.

Great Big Plants: I did not have the opportunity to try this on my gardens this year, but I was very pleased witht the way it perked up the houseplants. I did use it on my seedlings, and was very pleased with the results. I would recomend this to anyone looking for an organic fertilizer, or anyone just looking for a fertilizer.

I hope that some of these links will help with your gardening adventures.
~Sarah

GTS 10-12-08

Green Thumb Sunday
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday; visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

I thought I'd share one of the few plants that really took off this year. This is my Mom's Black Eyed Susan Vine. Mine didn't do so well, although I got a couple of blooms. Either it hated my trellis, or it got too much sun. Anyway, these pictures were taken 9-7 and 9-14.
~Sarah

Oak Island Lighthouse Pictures

* Warning: This is a picture heavy post*
I have finally gotten around to looking at my Oak Island Lighthouse pictures. The fine print on the sign says "The National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, donated this land to the Town of Caswell Beach for public recreation use through the Federal Lands to Parks Program.

Some trivia:

• The Oak Island Lighthouse is the second-newest lighthouse on the East Coast, and the last lighthouse built in North Carolina
  
• Instead of stairs, this lighthouse has ship's ladders.
• The lighthouse is made entirely of concrete. Concrete was poured continuously for seven days to ensure that there would not be any weak joints.
• The colors of the lighthouse were mixed into the cement; it will never need painting.
• The tower is designed not to sway in 100 mph wind.

We went on Saturday, and were taken up the first set of ladders. My sister and I were able to sign up for a tour that was going all the way to the top on Monday.

Then we walked down the boardwalk that led to the beach - it gives a great view of the lighthouse, and you can see Old Baldy - just barely.

Old Baldy

The lighthouse has a total of 131 steps, with landings every so often for people to rest on. Although I'd been
exercising for a few weeks before the trip, I was out of breath by the time we got to the top. It was very windy on top, as you might expect, being 150-some-odd feet above the water. We were on the lower balcony in the picture to the left.

This is the view that greeted us when we first stepped outside. The ocean is on the left and to the right is part of the International Waterway.



 When I looked down, I noticed some gardens, and took a few pictures. (See this post is garden-related - a little)

I like the way this one is shaped - it makes a gorgeous setting for sitting and talking, or even a dinner. I also liked how the purple plants offset the Yucca in the center.

This was at the entrance to a driveway. It's not overly flashy, but it definately makes a statement.

Since purple is my favorite color, I had to photograph this one!

This picture looks down at the boardwalk in front of the lighthouse. The compass rose in the center could not be seen from the ground.

Me and my sis getting new hairdos from the wind.

Before going back down, I got to take a picture of the light. It runs 24/7, so I was able to see the lights turning and flashing.

This picture is looking straight down into an elevator shaft that is used to move supplies (but not people) up and down the lighthouse.

I got most of the facts about the lighthouse from its official site, here, and from a brochure about the lighthouse.

~Sarah