Another 3D Photo

Due to popular demand here's another pumpkin sprout in the third
dimension! It might be easier to view the 3D photo on this page, rather than clicking it to make it bigger. Bigger images are harder to combine.

Growin'!

I continue to be amazed at how big, and quickly, the pumpkins are
growing! What you see below all started only 8 days ago when I planted
the seeds. Wow.

So far I have five sprouts out of the eight I planted, and clearly two
are dominating the others. At this point they are already touching the
lid so it's time to start thinking about transplanting these into
larger pots. I plan on keeping these transplants in doors for at least
the next week and then will start the process of transitioning them
outside.

Thanks for the watering and hardening off tips, mom.

3D Pumpkin Sprouts

Here's a quick mid day progress report on the pumpkin sprouts: they are growing. Fast! Check out the photo fir the full effect. Any tips on if/when to remove the greenhouse cover during indoor growing? These sprouts will be touching the cover soon!

Pumpkins Are Sprouting!

Finally sitting down at the end of a nice, warm weekend to catch up on some posting. Starting with the most exciting news, the giant pumpkins are already showing life! Check out the photo below: the baby leaves are pushing through the dirt and I'm amazed at how big the sprout is coming out. I placed a quarter next to it for scale. It's huge! You can also see some growth in the cup adjacent, but this first plant is clearly eager to start growing!

Last night we couldn't wait for the newly installed landscape lighting to click on. But once they did, wow! We're so happy with how the lights accent the house and plants, and I'm especially pleased with the three lights running along the side of the house. Here's a photo of the lights at dusk just after they turned on for the first time.

In news undocumented by photography, I planted some bamboo in the backyard near the back fence. All you gardeners out there probably shuddered at the mention of planting such an invasive species. Well, at the urging of friends and Leighann, I did my due diligence and first put in a bamboo barrier. And let me tell you, it was back breaking. The barrier is a thick plastic sheet that I joined into a circle that's 4' in diameter and is 30" tall. Which meant that I had to dig a circle trench 4' in diameter and 30" deep in the dirt. Wow. I used a post hole digger because it's much more accurate that using a shovel, but imagine digging 360 degrees of posts along a 13' circumference. That's a long of post holes. 

I finished the digging this evening and dropped the barrier into the round trench and filled the excess dirt back into to hold the barrier in place. The bamboo is in, contained and ready to proliferate.

Good to hear that the 3D photos are working for you. I'll continue to take more of those in the future so you can get the full effect of our endeavors. Thanks for all the comments readers, it's great to hear your thoughts, insights and experiences. 

3D Gnome

I'm testing out an iPhone application that builds a stereo photo from
two pictures taken with the phone's camera. What do you think?

Let There Be Light

More than a year ago my friend Chris gave me a low-voltage landscape
lighting kit for Christmas. The box had been sitting in my basement
until yesterday when I finally realized that having some nice soft
light around the front yard would look great. Actually, I've known all
along that it would look great, it's just been finding the time.

The installation is very simple, here's the quick and dirty play by
play. Assemble lights. Drill small hole in exterior house siding to
access the basement. Run electrical wire through hole into basement
and connect to transformer. Run cable outside. Put lights in ground.
Clip lights into electrical wire. Turn on.

The transformer in the basement has a timer which is set to switch on
this evening around 9:00. I have yet to see these lights at night, I
can't wait for dusk. I'll post another photo of the lights in action.

Creepy Crawlies!

We arrived home from dinner a few minutes ago to find this creepy bug
on our front door jam. Yikes! This definitely falls outside of
relevant garden blog posting, but since it was outside (thank god) and
it's quite impressive, I'm sharing.

Anyone know what it is??