Water, water everywhere...

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we really received that predefined one-inch-per-week of rain throughout the growing season instead of getting too much in May, not enough in August?  Fortunately, the weather forecast changes daily, this time from day-after-day of predicted rain to a break in the clouds tomorrow.  One problem with mowing high is the lawn looks long a couple of days after cutting, and the almost-constant showers are not helping any.

(Another problem with mowing high is finding dog poop - it is well hidden - so I patrol both before mowing and after, to find what I have missed.)

Yesterday, before the storms hit, I managed to stroll the nabe with Baby N, stopping to chat with one of the few neighbors who gardens.  Their vegetable patch (and yard and house) always look perfect; I have to remind myself not to compare their property with mine because they are both retired.  Anyway, the conversation naturally turned to rain and gardening.  They practice what I think of as "traditional" gardening - rototill in the spring, plant in rows.  Consequently, they have not been able to get the early veggies planted yet.  My unmolested raised beds, on the other hand, have onions, potatoes, peas, and lettuces going strong.  While my garden is not as pretty, it is productive.

The tomato plants I ordered from Seed Savers arrived last Wednesday, so Thursday I dug up the bed where I plan to plant the Amish Paste.  However, this time I marked the bed with string before I dug.  Since my raised beds are not planked in, they tend to bleed into the paths, making them appear smaller than they really are.  So, not only is there room for the Amish Paste, but for the Hungarian Heart and German Pink as well.  (My tomato patch sounds so international!)

I recently read in some gardening forum one man's solution to Canada thistle: smother crops.  He plants buckwheat in the summer and winter rye in the fall, and their dense growth chokes out the thistle.  Now that all the tomatoes will fit into one bed, I have a free bed to try this on.  There is also an area I am prepping for raspberries, so I can do the same there.  Each time I use RoundUP or WeedBGon, I suffer the guilts.

If it weren't so rainy out, I would provide you with a few pics of what is blooming right now.  You will just have to take my word about the bleeding heart, columbine, creeping phlox, lily of the valley, lilac, and spring phlox.  Or take a look at my May blog entries from years past.

That's too bad, but SCORE!

Our local Borders is closing.  Even though they fell out of favor with me a while ago, I am still sorry to see them go.  BUT the remaining stock has been progressively on sale, and a couple of days ago I purchased three hardcover cookbooks for 50-60% off:  The Complete Tassajara Cookbook by Edward Espe Brown, The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones, and The Essential New York Times Cook Book by Amanda Hesser.

The latter has received most of my attention so far.  I'm anxious to try these rhubarb recipes first:  Rhubarb Bellini, Rhubarb-Strawberry Mousse, and Straight-Up Rhubarb Pie.  Most recipes have some commentary, but what can one say about Swedish Ginger Cookies made with BACON FAT?!?  And the Club Sandwich is as follows:  "Go to the club.  Drink six toasts.  Eat a slice of meat.  Drink six more toasts."  All I need is a club.

After I purchased the above books, I was perusing my own shelf of cookbooks and was surprised at some of them, as I don't recall buying them or ever cooking from them.  Must remedy that, but I am not sure how, without giving up my day job.

What's next?

My business trip this past week was bracketed by mowing.  Although I was gone only a few days, I expected things to look different upon my return.  While the rhododendrun and the forsythia are fading and the redbud and flowering crab are coming on strong, not much else changed.  Temps were cool, there wasn't much rain, so stasis prevailed.

The plants I started indoors are ready to be transplanted.  I could have started them a week or two later than I did, and it is obvious that using old seed frequently results in poor germination, but in general, I am satisfied.  I purchased some plants online and they have not arrived yet.  Just as well, as the tomatoes and peppers don't do well when the temp dips below 50 at night.  My transplants are being hardened off on the patio, where they were also watered thoroughly by yesterday's rain.  Today should be drier, but I have grandma-duty, so won't get out into the yard until late in the day.  Hopefully, it will be a good time to spray the thistle some more.

Besides attacking thistle with RoundUp, my one other non-organic weed control this year is using WeedBGon on the dandelions, which are running rampant.  I am also mowing at the highest setting on my Toro, which is supposed to help discourage lawn weeds.  I plan to test the soil in the front yard, to see if there are any amendments I could add that would also discourage weeds.  And I am leaving the mulched clippings on the lawn this year, for added nutrients.  I don't have much lawn left, but I would like it to look reasonably nice.  I don't try to wipe out al the dandelions, as song birds like the White-Throated Sparrow eat the seeds.  I saw some of these birds just yesterday.  Too bad they don't eat all the dandelion seeds.

Rainy days and Mondays

The rhododendron popped for easter, which was a lovely day, unlike today.  My goal this week is to get the lawn mowed at some point, if it ever stops raining.

I have tried to capture the now-gold goldfinches but they don't stay in one place very long.

They look like daffodils in flight.

Hope your weekend was finer than frog hair!

More happy

Finally, a break in the rain, so again I took the afternoon off to get a little gardening done.  Both the strawberries and the onions are now planted.  Yay!  And three pounds of onion sets is about 1.5 pounds too many, so I plan to share the extra with my kids.  Onions for all!

It was also a perfect day for spraying weeds - sunny but cool, with very little breeze.  I try to garden as organically as I can manage, using mulch and hoe and my bare hands to keep the weeds under control, but the Canada thistle does me in.  It is one weed that I consider RoundUp-worthy.  My goal is to eliminate it from my yard.

The cool weather has preserved the daffodils and forsythia - they are still going strong - and delayed everything else.  I was hoping the rhubarb would be ready for an Easter pie, but no such luck.  The rhododendron is about to pop, though, and I will probably have to mow next week.  Winter does give way to spring, eventually.

Me so happy

Ordinarily, I try to cram all my fun activities into evenings and weekends, which can be frustrating when the weather doesn't cooperate.  But this week I took advantage of the sunshine by taking a couple of afternoons off and spending them in my backyard.  The result:  I will not fret during the next rainy patchy, slated to start today and last for days.  I did not accomplish everything there was to do, but enough that I feel like I got a jump start on the season.

Wednesday afternoon my SO came over and we wrestled some hardware cloth into what I hope will be a vole-proof potato cage.  I did not come up with this idea myself, but saw it in a Growers Supply catalog, one of those I receive in the mail even though I have never ordered from them.  Basically, we scraped all the dirt off one garden bed, laid down hardware cloth for the bottom, wrapped sides around the bed, overlapping everything, fastened where fastening seemed necessary, then threw in enough dirt to hold the thing in place.

Thursday I added seed potatoes and shoveled the rest of the dirt back in, worked in a little blood meal, then covered it all with a thin layer of straw.  Grow, little taters, grow!

I worked up the pea bed on Wednesday and the onion bed on Thursday.  It is gratifying to see that my hardpan clay is becoming more friable as the years pass.

While I turned the top six inches or so and broke up the clods with a hoe, I wondered what my neighbors think of all the manual labor I put into my garden.  The thing is, I spend most of my days sitting in front of a computer.  If I didn't garden manually, I would have to join a gym.  And start seeing a shrink.  Playing in the dirt goes a long way to maintaining my mental and physical well-being.

I marvel at the periwinkle raised beds and persimmon window boxes highlighted in gardening catalogs, and wish my garden looked prettier.  But the prices are prohibitive.  My solution is to at least try to make my beds straight-ish.  Since I don't till, I also plan to relocate some lilies to the ends of each one.  Let nature provide the beauty.

The pea fence has seen better days, but it still functions (with a little help).  I actually planted the snow peas and lettuce yesterday, too.

I also dug up the strawberry bed yesterday, too, but no strawberries or onions were planted.  That's okay - gotta save something for the next dry spell.

Inside, I noticed that the blossoms on my little pepper plants are starting to form fruit, without any pollination assistance on my part.

Fun!

The forsythia are blooming - now what?

Yesterday I planted Eversweet everbearing strawberries into a coconut fiber tower.  My vision is fresh berries on my ice cream all summer long, right from the patio.

Hopefully, I will get the Allstar June-bearing strawberries into the garden soon.  And the potatoes and onions and peas.  And brassicas, if any of the local nurseries start offering more than one variety of cabbage and broccoli.  I did break down and buy some wave petunias and a spike for one of my planters, even though it is way too early to plant them.  I just could not help myself!

That is not a very good photo, is it?  That nice green leafy plant in front is the Meyer lemon from Stark Bros.  In the pot left and back is the Wenks pepper I dug from the garden last fall.  It has not been looking too perky lately, so today I repotted it.

 As you can see in that photo, we are experiencing some sunshine, which is supposed to last through tomorrow.  So I am taking tomorrow afternoon off, just to work in the yard before the next round of rain.  Not that the ducks mind the rain.

When I walked the nabe a few days ago, it seemed like every place where there was a few inches of standing water, there was a pair of ducks.

I finally captured a halfway decent photo of a robin, even though they have been hanging around the yard for weeks.

I wonder if this is the same one who did this to my picture window:

He is still at it today.  Maybe I should get one of those hawk decals to scare him away.

Since my forsythia bloom later than my neighbors', it looks a little anemic right now.  But I can't complain about the daffs.

Squirrel feeders and a PHD

These guys keep me amused while I work at home in the West Wing.  Better than TV!

I've seen at least three different ones in the yard at the same time.  Occasionally they dash away, in fear of a hawk or meter reader.

As for rabbits, the only ones I've spotted have been outside the fence looking in.  The neighbor girl blames me for the dirth of rabbits this winter - she likes to watch them out their patio door - even though I never killed or relocated any.  I just removed them from my backyard. 

Last night my PHD (Personal Hole Digger) came by to help me plant three American redbud trees.  I opted for inexpensive mail order ones, which look like four-foot sticks, but the root systems were very hearty.  His reward was a bouquet of daffodils, to brighten the gray days we have been having lately.

Today it has been raining most of the day, so my gardening will probably be limited to filling a small strawberry patio tower with potting soil and plants, and repotting a Meyer lemon tree.  I've tried growing trees in pots before, with very little no success.  That does not stop me from trying again.

Oh, and the garlic is up.  Yay!

He's ba-a-a-ack!

This morning, while sitting in the West Wing, I kept hearing this noise.  I thought it was birds in the guttering, but it went on and on.  Finally, I went to investigate.  The stupid robin was at it again, attacking his reflection in my picture window.  I can't help but think it is the same one, but who knows?

Finny is a fanatic about (among many things) soil testing.  I bought a soil test kit a while back, but had never used it.  Since there is no time like the present, yesterday I tested my garden soil.  I took eight samples, although I expected them to be rather uniform, and I was right - they were uniform: uniformly LOW in nitrogen.  My soil test kit is not very fancy, but there was no mistaking the readings:  good levels of P and K, bad levels of N.  And the soil is more alkaline than it should be, something I attribute to the well water that supplies my outdoor faucets.  But the nitrogen surprised me.  I though my compost would provide that, but apparently I'm wrong.  So I will be amending my garden soil, with  manure and/or blood meal.  And to lower the pH, coffee grounds, pine needles, and sphagnum peat.  Finny, my zucchini thank you.

Margaret raised the subject of phenology recently.  Basically, phenology is planting according to nature's calendar instead of the one on the wall.  This can be tricky, depending on where you live and what varieties you grow.  For example, if I plant potatoes when the forsythia bloom, does it matter that my forsythia blooms later than my neighbor's?  Anyway, I decided to try to keep track of when flowers and shrubs bloom in my yard, to see if I can track them to when I plant vegetables in the garden.  My only concern is a late frost, something even Mother Nature can't predict.

Speaking of potatoes, they, along with the onions, arrived the other day.  And the underground utility guy came and marked my back yard yesterday.  I chatted with him about just how deep the utilities are buried.  He said the natural gas lines are three feet down, but the others - electricity, telephone, cable - are usually 6-9 inches down, maybe 12.  That is good to know, as my SO is coming over tonight, to help me dig holes for three redbud trees.

And so it begins.

Unusual sightings, a soup-making orgy, and live plants!

This morning I could see something odd reflected in my bathroom mirror.  The sliver of outdoors I can see that way showed a blob on the street.  I peeked out the window at said blob and decided it must be a black cat I saw down by the pond the other day.  Then it moved, or rather, waddled across the way and disappeared behind my neighbor's pines.  It was a raccoon.  I've seen them in the nabe on occasion, but not in a long while, like years.  I'm a little surprised they have not been spotted in my backyard, raiding the bird feeders.

A couple of squirrels are bird feeder regulars these days.  Their winter stores must be exhausted, and/or they are gathering goodies to take back to the rest of the family.  Around here, squirrels get "frisky" in February and the gestational period is around 44 days, so yes, the daddy squirrels are probably hunting and foraging for the mama squirrels and their broods.

But what I find odd is the squirrels have been drinking out of the bird bath.  I have never witnessed that before.  Unfortunately, no pics, so no evidence.  You will have to trust me on this one.

We are getting April showers now, so I have been channeling my gardening frustrations into using up the last the the frozen veggies by making soup, which is then returned to the freezer for later consumption.  I've lost track of which ones are which on some of these pics, but all recipes are from Love Soup.

Maybe White Bean and Garlic Soup with Greens?  (I still have LOTS of garlic from last summer.)

I think this is Green Lentil with Cumin and Lemon.

Definitely Beet Soup with Ginger!

This is part of Cannellini and Golden Tomato soup, the golden tomato part, obviously.  I used yellow cherry tomatoes I had frozen last summer.  The peels come off easily, but dealing with over 2.5 pounds of them was still a chore.

I could not find dried cannellini beans at the Co-op, so I substituted navy beans, which did not work well.  Too watery.  Now I'm not sure what to do with the leftovers.  Maybe if I cook rice in the broth?

And since this woman does not live by soup alone:

Now I must go tend to those live plants that just arrived via UPS from Stark Bros.

It won't be long now!

Today I bought some hardware cloth at Menards.  The 24" x 25' rolls were on sale, at about half price, but not the 36" or 48" rolls.  So while I would have preferred to get the 48" roll, I bought several 24" ones, enough to vole-proof my potato bed.

It has been a while since I have seen a rabbit in my backyard, but I did find a big tuft of bunny fur.  Maybe the hawk got him?  I sealed off the one gate where bunny egress was still possible, and am now rethinking the need to enclose the veggie garden in rabbit fencing.  Knock on wood!

My order from Lee Valley arrived already - an oriole feeder and a floating row cover for the brassicas.  The latter has no supports.  I think you just lay it over the plants and cover the edges with dirt.  I will probably enclose the plants in hoops of chicken wire initially - just in case that rabbit is fooling me - so the plants should be okay with the row cover.  I think.  Gardening is always an experiment.

My orders from Stark Bros and Pinetree are also on their way.  Already?  I'm not prepared!  And it's supposed to rain all weekend!  Gardening is also a gamble.

Too pooped to pop

I decided to take a vacation day today, making this a three-day weekend, and I had way too much fun.  Well, my kind of fun, which involved a lot of soup making and bread baking.  I took photos of the soups, but I'm too tired to download them.  Take my word for it:  they were beautiful (especially the beet ginger) and they were delicious.

The day was mostly sunny, but looks can be deceiving because it was cold outside.  Not as windy, though, and still above freezing, so I spent some quality time with my compost pile.  My composting method is known (at least, by me) as slow composting.  I pile stuff into one side of the double compost bin while digging compost out of the other.  When the compost is all dug, I shift what is in the first bin into the second.  This happens about once or twice a year, so the piles don't reach optimal cooking temperature to kill weed seeds.  Today I decided to experiment with another method of cooking compost, and I place the finished compost into plastic garbage bags and laid them in the sun.  Theoretically, this should kill weed seeds.  I will be combining this compost with peat to fill containers, so if it is still full of weed seeds, it should become apparent.

I filled four bags, but still had some compost left over, so I spread a little on the rhubarb patch, covering the barely emerged plants, then threw the rest on the garlic bed.  Then I had a walkabout, checking the flowers, shrubs, and trees for signs of life.  Buds are swelling, and in a few cases, leaves are starting to emerge.  It won't be long now!

Still too cold to garden...

... so I made a few more purchases online:  a row cover for brassicas and an oriole feeder from Lee Valley (free shipping ends Mar. 28!), and from Stark Bros., three redbuds (on sale!), a Meyer lemon, some June-bearing strawberry plants, plus a strawberry planter kit that comes with some everbearing strawberry plants.

Last night I watched "Food Inc."  Yikes!  I avoid processed foods, so am not consuming corn this and corn that to a large degree, and I try to buy organic and/or local whenever I can.  But most people believe the "food-like products" in the grocery store are at least safe and healthy enough, or they are constrained by circumstances to buying what is cheap and convenient, or they just don't think about it.  I did not realize that corn subsidies (which keep our food cheap) put farmers in other countries out of business.  So Mexican farmers cross the border illegally, looking for work, and third world nations can't feed themselves which results in food riots and starvation.  Most of what we eat comes through the hands of a few mega-corporations, and they wield a lot of power in DC.  But we the people can do something about it, as evidenced by WalMart promoting organics and Coke offering a version without HFCS - because that is what their customers want.  Sometimes I get a little miffed about spending more for organic/local food, but now I see that cheap food is expensive in the long run.  If nothing else, buying organic/local is an investment in my health.  End of sermon.

Now I am going to go make some soup and watch my marigold sprouts grow.

The last and the first

I was down to the last two onions from last years garden.

I harvested the first thing of 2011:  mint.

Both went into a batch of light vegetable broth, recipe from Love Soup.

Mmmmmm!

It's raining, it's pouring - no, wait, it's hailing - no, wait

Many places lay claim to the motto, "If you don't like the weather here, just wait a while."  Today, it's here.  The day started gray but dry, then sprinkles, then rain, then thunder and lightening (poor dog), then hail.  The sun made a brief appearance, and now it is just gray again.  This weekend, it may snow.  Fun times.

Last night I needed to dig in some dirt, so I planted the marigold seeds inside.  I originally started planting marigolds in the vegetable garden because they are reputed to repel pests of one sort or another.  I don't know if that is true, but including them has become habit.  The garden just would not look right without them.

The grass is just barely starting to turn green.  I, for one, cannot wait for the other colors of spring.

The guilts

Yesterday I was in the West Wing checking my email when I noticed a sparrow that was having difficulty drinking at the bird bath because the water was so low.  Okay, okay, I'll get you some more water.  Once outside, I discovered it was indeed a lovely day.  Okay, okay, I'll spend some time outside in the yard.  I was feeling lazy, though, so all I did was move the last of the woodpile closer to the house and cut down errant mulberries and other unwanteds.

Inside, when I tried to turn on the lights over the now-sprouted zinnias and calendulas, the GFC kept tripping.  I am not electricity-savvy, so I have no idea why it the circuit worked fine for several days, but now would not.  Originally, I had placed my freezer in this spot in the mudroom, but the recalcitrant GFC convinced me to move it elsewhere.  Placing the wire shelving with the grow lights seemed like a good idea, but not if the lights won't stay lit.  So that too was relocated.  What I really want to put there is a cupboard for coats and cleaning stuff, but I haven't found one I like yet.

I am also contemplating how best to fence in the vegetable garden.  Last year it looked like a graveyard for chicken wire, but said chicken wire did not keep the voles out of the potatoes.  My SO and I cruised Home Depot and Lowes last night, looking for ideas.  I also purchased some basil and marigold seeds, a new hose to replace one that has become brittle and leaky, a bale of peat so I can mix my own potting soil, some primer for painting my Adirondack chairs and new exterior doors, a downspout extender, etc.  Somehow I managed to blow $80 without even trying.  Still, gardening and yard work are cheaper than therapy!

FINALLY!

Yesterday was one of the nicest days we have had in a long time.  I spent an hour outside after work, mostly cutting down the ornamental grasses and picking up the last of the winter dog poop.  Green things are popping up all over the place:  daffodils, hyacinth, daylilies, iris.  Today is supposed to be warmer but windier.  Hopefully, more yard cleanup will ensue.

Last fall I dug up a pepper plant and brought it inside.  The peppers that were still on it hung there all winter until I ate the last of them.  Now the plant is blooming.  Not sure if I need to hand pollinate it to get fruit.  The rosemary is blooming as well.

Regarding ErinFromIowa's comments about calendula, judging from the number of cabbage butterflies I saw last summer in my yard, I must already be providing them a healthy breeding and feeding environment.  My "meadow" is not that far from the vegetable garden, and the butterflies just float across.  If I decide to grow any brassicas, I will have to enclose them somehow.

It just occurred to me that last year I did not see any tomato worms or hornworms, so maybe their parents prefer the meadow to my vegetable plants?  Or the birds eat them?  If I were retired, I would sit in the garden all day long and observe what goes on.

Robins!

Even though I know that I can take a walk in the woods on a winter day and see robins, spotting them in my backyard is much more satisfying.  They have not been amenable to being photographed, nor have the redwing blackbirds and blue jays.  But the sparrows are.

Yesterday I started some seeds for cilantro, basil, parsley, zinnia, and calendula.  The last in that list is defined as a "hardy seeding annual" which I assume means once it is planted, it will keep coming up year after year.  Sounds like a good candidate for the meadow.

And that is as close to gardening as I have come so far in 2011.

They're BA-A-ACK!

Starlings and grackles but no redwing blackbirds.  Yet.

 

The snow is back as well.

A little freezing rain on the bird feeder poles allowed the squirrel to feast at the source instead of beneath.

Must be March

If I were more diligent about posting in this blog, you would have seen this last week:

Today, most of the snow is gone, revealing this:

Daffs!  Can spring be far behind?