What a beautiful and productive day! The sun was shining and warming the earth: The sort of day that just begs one to get out and enjoy. This morning my daughter and I went to a MOMS Club meeting, an enjoyable and needed break. She played with her friends while I got to chat with mine, and ooh and ahh over my friend Jen’s new baby girl. She is adorable and how appropriate to welcome spring with a beautiful new life.
This afternoon Josh and our nephew, Jacob, moved some old equipment that had been “parked” on the side of the garden we want to expand. Our daughter helped me build three new portable compost bins, and Josh finished them while I started dinner. Now we can get all those leaf piles out of the yard.
I’ll have to look around and see where I can find a source for more ‘green’ fuel for the compost until we start mowing the lawn though. Most of our compostable kitchen waste goes to the little biddies in the henhouse – they need and deserve the fresh greens and peelings. Not to mention they love it.
It seems like we have gotten a few necessary things done this week. Started on Saturday - and finished on Sunday - planting 100 strawberry plants. They’ll need a year to really get settled, but then we’ll have plenty of strawberries. We ordered these from Raintree Nursery and they were all nice, healthy plants. Our order from Johnny’s Seeds arrived yesterday. Hoping we’ll have lots of corn and at least truckload of beautiful pumpkins come October – that is a hint for anyone looking for a pick your own experience that is a little (or a lot) closer to Bellingham this year.
One disappointment this week though. We’re going to have to start over with our green cabbage starts. They got much too leggy trying to find adequate sunlight before we installed a grow light and aren’t able to support themselves. One of the drawbacks of having piggy little house cats that like to eat fresh greens every chance they get is not being able to place our seed flats in front of just any window.
Everything else is doing really well however. I can hardly wait until they’re big enough to plant out in the garden. I’m glad for the sunny days, especially since rain was predicted. Also very happy for the longer days and moving into the growing season. Out in the garden today I discovered some little red lettuces pushing up where we let some go to seed last year. It is a pleasant surprise to know we are a just a week or two away from some fresh salad from our own garden.
Everywhere spring is popping out. Daffodils are beginning to bloom, trees are getting new green buds, and I can hear the over abundance of local frogs serenading each other from early evening until late at night. Tonight they are especially noticeable as today was our first real ‘leave the windows and doors open’ sort of day and the front door is still hanging open in the cooling evening air.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Little Green Spears
I love seeing the little harbingers of spring popping up every year – the little green spears that start poking through the ground in late winter. It means once again spring is on its way and the weather will soon be warmer. The little corner bed that I cleaned and wasn’t able to completely replant last fall is giving forth never the less. The Snowdrops I planted have come up, as well as dozens of mystery daffodils. I must have collected over 100 bulbs last fall yet here they are still poking through, the sunny yellow buds beginning to form.
Yesterday I was surprised and pleased to see Forsythia, flowering cherry, Crocus, and other spots of spring color showing along streets that were still bare and brown less than a week ago. Typical of spring to jump out and shout “Surprise!” when you don’t catch it sneaking up on you.
Today is supposed to be strawberry planting day. We’ll see. At the moment it is pouring down rain. Planting in the mud is not my favorite thing. I’m not sure the space is big enough either. It seemed rather big last fall when we placed black plastic mulch to get rid of the grass, but now I’m not so sure how well one-hundred strawberry plants will fit. The mulch did make rototilling the soil quite easy though according to Josh.
It will be on to the garden after that. Fence posts need to be pulled on the east and south sides of the garden so we can expand our space. It won’t be a huge increase as we’re just adding about eight hundred to one thousand square feet. Then the fence will go back up, with sections being replaced by wood posts and woven wire fencing as we can. This seems the only fool proof way to keep the livestock out of the garden year round. It wouldn’t seem such a big deal in the winter if it wasn’t for the horses thinking it is such a good place to roll around. Winter is hard on the electric wire tape, and it always ends up destroyed by spring.
I ordered seeds yesterday too – lettuces, corn, carrots, and of course the lovely ‘racer’ jack-o-lantern pumpkins we grew last year. Okra, bell peppers, cabbages and pickling cucumbers are already sown in little peat pots in the house, and I’ll be adding tomato seeds today. Seed potatoes are in at the local farmer’s co-op. We’ll be growing the same varieties as last year, Yukon Gold, Lasota Reds, and Norkota – a variety I found comparable to russets, but tastier and they stored really well. I’m considering adding some sort of fingerling this year, but haven’t decided yet. Little seed packets waiting on warmer weather include peas, beans, summer squash, kohlrabi, slicing cucumbers, giant pumpkins, sunflowers, beets, radishes, winter squash – and that’s all I can remember right now. I’m looking forward to having a great garden this year.
Yesterday I was surprised and pleased to see Forsythia, flowering cherry, Crocus, and other spots of spring color showing along streets that were still bare and brown less than a week ago. Typical of spring to jump out and shout “Surprise!” when you don’t catch it sneaking up on you.
Today is supposed to be strawberry planting day. We’ll see. At the moment it is pouring down rain. Planting in the mud is not my favorite thing. I’m not sure the space is big enough either. It seemed rather big last fall when we placed black plastic mulch to get rid of the grass, but now I’m not so sure how well one-hundred strawberry plants will fit. The mulch did make rototilling the soil quite easy though according to Josh.
It will be on to the garden after that. Fence posts need to be pulled on the east and south sides of the garden so we can expand our space. It won’t be a huge increase as we’re just adding about eight hundred to one thousand square feet. Then the fence will go back up, with sections being replaced by wood posts and woven wire fencing as we can. This seems the only fool proof way to keep the livestock out of the garden year round. It wouldn’t seem such a big deal in the winter if it wasn’t for the horses thinking it is such a good place to roll around. Winter is hard on the electric wire tape, and it always ends up destroyed by spring.
I ordered seeds yesterday too – lettuces, corn, carrots, and of course the lovely ‘racer’ jack-o-lantern pumpkins we grew last year. Okra, bell peppers, cabbages and pickling cucumbers are already sown in little peat pots in the house, and I’ll be adding tomato seeds today. Seed potatoes are in at the local farmer’s co-op. We’ll be growing the same varieties as last year, Yukon Gold, Lasota Reds, and Norkota – a variety I found comparable to russets, but tastier and they stored really well. I’m considering adding some sort of fingerling this year, but haven’t decided yet. Little seed packets waiting on warmer weather include peas, beans, summer squash, kohlrabi, slicing cucumbers, giant pumpkins, sunflowers, beets, radishes, winter squash – and that’s all I can remember right now. I’m looking forward to having a great garden this year.
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