So, I'm seeing something in the garden, and it's time to figure out how to do it better. I might not be able to put it in place until next year, but I should try some things now.
For about 3 weeks now, my lettuce plants are still just the dicotyledons they started out as -- the nourishment they can get from the seed itself. The seeds I sowed a week or two after the first planting have caught up.
I need to make cold frames for my half barrels. It'll probably end up being a square cover on a round barrel, but there's not much else for it.
The cloches I see in the store are made of glass: I don't trust the neighbor cats and small dogs enough to use them. So a fiberglass something, or a proper window from the remodeling surplus/scrounge warehouse, would be the best start. Something that covers the whole barrel, can be vented, and stored safely during the summer.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Hail, rain, and a little lightning is slowing the development of my first little seedlings, but at least they made it through the storms unbruised. I'm looking forward to this weekend when there should be enough sun to mow the lawn and pull more dandelions -- if the weather is good enough, I'll tackle the front "orchard", weeding and mulching.
I have a pear tree, an apple tree, and a pie cherry tree in the front yard, where the best sun and the least security (from neighborhood dogs) is. The patch of not-lawn was the grave of the grounded out stump of black locust, a tree we removed when it gracefully dropped a limb toward our house on the hottest day in recorded history. It was either till and re-do a lawn or take advantage of the soil as it was. Lots of flowers and herbs have also found their way here, my least formal bed, and squirrels keep assisting me in the planting of filberts: I'm going to take their requests more seriously this year, and allow some of the better-placed volunteers to stay on. This year will also see the addition of more strawberries around the border, and I'll do a better job harvesting calendula and preparing it for tea. Maybe the peonies, planted recently in honor of hubby's gradma's garden, will give us a proper show this summer. (ooh, that reminds me -- I still need a cutting of my gradma's Michaelmas daisy.)
The front yard also serves as my pumpkin patch (to the delight of young neighbors), and this year will see the addition of a swath of sunflowers somewhere in the front. This year's pumpkin, Winter Luxury, is part of my plan to devise a proper pasta sauce made from pumpkin. I hear Sage is the right herb to accompany pumpkin when it isn't a pie, and gruyere cheese, and I think roasted filberts will make a showing (in anticipation of my own harvest in a few years.) There should probably be something more, right? Maybe some ground chicken when I'm not in the mood for a vegetarian sauce. . . I guess I'll also toss in whatever is fresh in the garden if I make it during the summer. Like zucchini or something.
I have a pear tree, an apple tree, and a pie cherry tree in the front yard, where the best sun and the least security (from neighborhood dogs) is. The patch of not-lawn was the grave of the grounded out stump of black locust, a tree we removed when it gracefully dropped a limb toward our house on the hottest day in recorded history. It was either till and re-do a lawn or take advantage of the soil as it was. Lots of flowers and herbs have also found their way here, my least formal bed, and squirrels keep assisting me in the planting of filberts: I'm going to take their requests more seriously this year, and allow some of the better-placed volunteers to stay on. This year will also see the addition of more strawberries around the border, and I'll do a better job harvesting calendula and preparing it for tea. Maybe the peonies, planted recently in honor of hubby's gradma's garden, will give us a proper show this summer. (ooh, that reminds me -- I still need a cutting of my gradma's Michaelmas daisy.)
The front yard also serves as my pumpkin patch (to the delight of young neighbors), and this year will see the addition of a swath of sunflowers somewhere in the front. This year's pumpkin, Winter Luxury, is part of my plan to devise a proper pasta sauce made from pumpkin. I hear Sage is the right herb to accompany pumpkin when it isn't a pie, and gruyere cheese, and I think roasted filberts will make a showing (in anticipation of my own harvest in a few years.) There should probably be something more, right? Maybe some ground chicken when I'm not in the mood for a vegetarian sauce. . . I guess I'll also toss in whatever is fresh in the garden if I make it during the summer. Like zucchini or something.
Monday, March 29, 2010
pretty Saturday; blustery Sunday
The weather this weekend was quite reversed from what would have been convenient, but part of the point of living in the real world is that things aren't convenient, and we get to make do. Planted another barrel with radishes and lettuce, and thinned out the radish seedlings from 2 weeks ago. I tossed those thinnings into a barrel I haven't planted yet. While it was unceremonious, a few of them might take root and give me something to nibble on before I turn the whole thing under to plant tomatoes there in another 6 weeks or so.
I discovered the wonders of Power Point as a garden record tool. Because I have half-barrels, I set up one slide with the appropriate number of circles in approximately the same arrangement as my garden. I set it up with what was left in the garden at the end of winter (too much dead stuff, not enough green manure). Then I copied the whole slide over to the next slide, and wrote in the changes I made in the first week I worked out there. Each week or two when I get out to the veggie garden I'll be able to copy the slide and record my changes. I even put together a color coding system to track germination, growth, harvesting, and fallow periods. This will be pretty fun.
I discovered the wonders of Power Point as a garden record tool. Because I have half-barrels, I set up one slide with the appropriate number of circles in approximately the same arrangement as my garden. I set it up with what was left in the garden at the end of winter (too much dead stuff, not enough green manure). Then I copied the whole slide over to the next slide, and wrote in the changes I made in the first week I worked out there. Each week or two when I get out to the veggie garden I'll be able to copy the slide and record my changes. I even put together a color coding system to track germination, growth, harvesting, and fallow periods. This will be pretty fun.
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