Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Toon Tuesday Nonsense

Utter nonsense, rather like the state of the world.


Monday, March 30, 2020

Garden Bed of Yore: Small Raised Bed


My sister came over one day and put the bricks around this bed to make it all tidy.  It does look nice here!.  The little tree is an apple tree.  Zestar?  It seemed like a good spot, and after a couple of years there, it yielded two apples. 

As soon as I saw them I should have picked them.  I thought just another day and two and it will be nice and ripe.

The next day, the very next day, it had a bite out of it.  A rather big bite.  Why did I not toss that and pick the other?  I dunno. 

The next day, the other apple was gone.

Then, we got a shed and the very first winter a rabbit family made a home under it.  They ravaged the trunk of the little tree, and I took it down the next spring.

Everything else survived, you'll be happy to know, and I moved them last fall to accommodate the deck we thought we'd get that would wrap around the corner of the house to this area.  

Maybe I'll plant some things back in the area.  Maybe I'll get another little apple tree.

Here's a humorous thing.  My husband did the twirly arm thing the whole time the garden was in place thinking that water was going to back up into the house because the bricks would hold in water.


Sunday, March 29, 2020

Sunday Dreaming: Inspirations

From All America Selections, a list of pollinator attracting plants for your garden:

https://all-americaselections.org/your-vegetable-garden-needs-pollinator-friendly-flowers/




I'm trying the celery, but there are a few plants you can sprout and plant in your garden from your kitchen.  It's a good time to try them out!

https://gardeningsoul.com/12-vegetables-you-can-grow-from-scraps/





Another pretty use for a clay pot.




My basil last season suffered from some unseasonable cool nights.   I planted it in the ground and it sort of withered away.  Back into pots this season!

https://savvygardening.com/types-of-basil/







I haven't picked a rose to grow yet this season.  Isn't this lovely?





There was actually SNOW on the ground this morning so I didn't get my potatoes started.  Very discouraging!

https://savvygardening.com/7-steps-to-grow-potatoes-in-small-spaces/





Saturday, March 28, 2020

First Lightning

The predictions of slush did not play out today, but there were heavy rains with lightning and thunder.



This should wash away the last bits of snow, and help unfreeze the ground.

I moved quite a few shelves out of my shed yesterday, and hope tomorrow to turn on the outside water.

The plan today was to start quite a few new seeds, but that didn’t work out. There’s always tomorrow.

My current seedlings are doing well, with those first sets of true leaves making them look like real plants.

Friday, March 27, 2020

Today In The Garden

Since I try to post the evening before, it's really yesterday in the garden.  Time travel abounds.

I unpacked my Stokes order today.  This mini-greenhouse will be so handy in short order.   I didn't take it out of it's individual box yet since the workbench in the garage and my garden shed are still in winter storage chaos mode.  I didn't want to lose any parts.



I'll love this too.  There's a big sticker on the box that says don't open with any sharp object.  But it has a lot of tape.  How am I going to get that off?   I'll have to think about what I can set it on to give it a base that isn't bare earth, which is still cold to semi-frozen.



I got this one for my seedlings.  The long spout and gentle rain-head work very nicely for seedlings.


Good thing I got my order in, because Stokes posted this:






Southern Exposure reported being overwhelmed also earlier this week and had temporarily stopped accepting orders, but they're back up and running.  Hard days!


I'm moving my raised beds around in the vegetable garden to try to maximize the sunshine each bed gets to make for happy vegetables and herbs.  Problematically, I put so many perennials into this area last fall from another bed I removed (in case we got a new deck which we need but aren't getting this year after all, blah blah blah).   I'm going to be moving a lot of plants around this spring!    Some people move their plants around all the time like they're rearranging furniture, but not me.  If it's alive and in the ground, there it stays.  



So this wierdo thing.  I thought it was some broken rubber toy, it felt rubbery.  But no, it's my faithful Victoria Rhubarb making it's way up through the frozen ground on the south side of the garden.



We got all of the potting soil I should need, and a small portable heater for my seed babies to try to warm this room up for them.  It needed to be warmed up for a couple of hours before it's first use, so I set it on the workbench in the garage while I was unboxing and tidying in the garage.  It also needs to be directly plugged into a wall outlet, no extension cords or power strips.  That will be a challenge in this room.  I'm going to have to crawl under my drawing table to plug it in.  I'm wary of this sort of appliance so I'm going to make sure it's safely placed.  It has a fan mechanism which is something seedlings love, some nice air movement.  We shall see.







We visited a small nursery and picked up six strawberry plants and a few herb plants.  I asked about blueberries and raspberries, thinking to have some nice jelly production later this summer, and she said likely it would be after May 1 if those are available.   I'm good now for strawberries and my three blueberries incoming from Jungs.

We had to stop at an extra   place for more hardware cloth.  Good thing I didn't pinkie swear to my spouse that I wouldn't dart off into an aisle, because they had seed potatoes (Yukon Gold and fingerlings), also onion sets, red, white and yellow.  Thrill of the hunt!  We can now veg our way through the summer.

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Time Travel To June Garden 2019 Part 2

Welcome back.  These pictures from last year are soothing me considerably!







































































































Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Time Travel to June Garden 2019 Part 1


So we've a Shelter in Place type order beginning Friday.  In order to get a lively and usable garden this season, and feed us nice fresh veggies from the garden, I'll need to slink out tomorrow to get enough potting soil to grow herbs and vegetables in pots.  It's a conundrum since the supplies at the Big Box stores are still half frozen from winter, so I just need to have what I need pronto.

Here's last June's carefree garden to inspire me to get growing, as they say.   Part 1 today, part 2 tomorrow :)