Still in the thick of things

Well as can probably be guessed by my extended absence, my work life has eaten my blogging time. But as I have a spare moment right now, I'll try to hit the highlights.

1.)First pound harvested! radishes put me just over the top of 1 pound composed of radishes, lettuce and arugula.

2.) the peas and most of the broccoli are beyond hope. Something ate them, and this time it wasnt the dog. I suspect its the neighborhood cats. They seem to have mowed it to appropriate height. So in went seeds for zucchini, delicata, and waltham squash, as well as french melons, nothing germinated yet.

3.) The situation in the bed out front seems to be improving, though I definitely lost a couple tomato plants, the survivors seem to be bouncing back.

Our daughter had to compose a persuasive paragraph for school on any subject...and completly unprompted she chose:

Gardens vs. Grocery Stores

I think people should have a garden instead of driving to the grocery store. If people make gardens in their backyard they can get their fruits and vegetables from their backyard.
You can buy packets of seeds for 10 cents which would be less expensive than buying produce. Gardens can keep people on a healthy diet. If you have a garden you wouldn't pollute the air as much because you wouldn't put gas in the air. People wouldn't have to pay money for gas. Plants take in carbon dioxide. Gardens look beautiful. When people come over they would be surprised by how much effort you put into it. My dad is growing his garden.

Some of the things I think you should have in your garden are tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, corn, zucchini, and blueberries.

Needless to say I was beaming when I found out.

In other news, The area behind the bench I have dedicated to native species has borne fruit, or rather its inhabitants have been fruitful. More specifically, baby spiders, thousands of them. Go forth my pretties and feast on beetles and cabbage moths.


Speaking of the area behind the bench, I have a lone, but alive nonetheless ginseng plant coming up.



And speaking of the bench, I give you the view from the bench a.k.a. my favorite spot in the yard, overlooking my second favorite spot in the yard.


This picture was taken about ten days ago, since then the fennel (between the wormood and valerian) is taller than the fence, The valerian has exceeded six feet, the pond has cleared slightly from the lilly pads out competing the algae, and the wormwood threatens to take over the universe.

t-15 days

I put together a test presentation to see where I was at with time, I am supposed to be around 45 minutes. I ran and hour and a half...so I will need to cull quite a bit of material or talk faster...which is not a good idea for me.

In other news, our daughter brought home 2 shrub willow cuttings. It seems someone from SUNY ESF paid a visit to her school to talk about some of the projects they are doing, and handed out cuttings from their biomass project. You can read more about it here. I was a little put off by the dependence on herbicide early in the life cycle, but the need seems to disappear in subsequent years. I guess a little upfront for a perennial crop is better than constant application each year. I think I have good spot, and I am curious to see how these grow. I intend to put them in as a visual break in front of the area our dogs roam. That might obscure vision to the street and cut down some of the barking. I'd like to encourage a lot of vegetative growth, and as luck would have it, the spot happens to be adjacent to the compost pile. No doubt these will be able to recapture some of the nutrient runoff. Funny how things work out sometimes.

winter again

and the seedlings are getting bigger. This will be the second year of starting perennials waaay early indoors and letting them essentially become potbound by the time the soil is right for transplanting. I had fantastic results last year with this technique, once in the ground they all seemed to just explode and fill in the area early, eliminating the need to weed around them. In fact, some transplants got downright huge the first season. The wormwood ended up as big around as a beach ball as did the valerian and fennel.

But I still need more. Right now there are about 20 different species of plants that inhabit the area by the pond. Per my motto of "throw diversity at the problem" that simply wont do. I need more variety to attract more insects, birds, etc who hopefully on their way to this spot, will stop over in the garden and eat a few pests or pollinate a few flowers.

Here is what is in there right now

wormwood (standard and sweet annie), asiatic lillies, north american water lilly, calla lilly, valerian, fennel, roman chamomile, echinacea, feverfew, lavender, rosemary, common sage, creeping thyme, wild ginger, ginseng, garlic chive, Lamb's ear, mint, lemon balm, bee balm, borage, st. John's wort, hyssop, valerian, and a pair of pawpaw trees.

I've started sorrel, soapwort and skullcap, I'd appreciate suggestions of perennials or easily self sowing annuals to add to this. Even better, if anyone wants to trade some seed I have leftovers of pretty much everything on the list that should still be good, most is only a year old and has
been kept dry and dark.

I'm particularly interested if any of your suggestions can be made into tea, chamomile is nice, but I am kind of tiring of it, which is fine because I'm starting to run low.

Still growing

Well I have largely neglected the garden in my recent weeks but I am happy to say that while things have slowed, they have not stopped. Falling leaves have largely laid a mulch that keeps everything but the plants that had a head start down. Despite a couple mild freezes, the peas are doing well, and 2 of the four broccoli appear to be thriving. I've even got a couple beets going.

I threw a couple wheelbarrow loads of compost on the north bed (that held the early crops, squash and failed corn.) and when I pulled up the stubby corn stalks I realized that they had in fact produced ears, pathetic (an unpollinated) as they were.



In other news, we are officially signing with the contractor to do the Greenhouse...er I mean sunroom...really I mean sunroom, why would I say greenhouse...tonight. We discussed potential furniture and layout for it. From the looks of things We will be putting 3-4 trees (depending on the length of whatever wicker loveseat goes in). a 6 foot and 5 foot shelf at window level for seed trays, and given that they sit at 30 inches, enough room to hang 1 or two shelves below that assuming I put lights on them. Not to mention that the wall which is the current outside wall of the house will be wide open for things like hanging baskets.

Really I meant to say sunroom...

Oh by the way, I got my shipment of wild ginger and ginseng roots from Garden Medicinals (3 each) And put them in the ground by the pawpaw trees. All three species require shade (the pawpaw during its early years) and behind the bench was a perfect spot. All three have the same native range of areas which touch the Appalachian mtns. IF these take off next spring (and I'm sure they will) they will be joined by black cohosh. I had a great deal of trouble getting cohosh seed to germinate, so I'm going with rhizomes. While not technically a guild I suppose, I am very optimistic that the area will do well. The soil in that area seems quite like a forest floor, and the combination of sun and shade angles provided by the fence and bench appear to be the perfect environment to allow just a trickle of light to the shade lovers and give full sun exposure to the sunbathers. Flanking this group to the west side in full sun in a rather large stand of purple coneflower (echinacea). While I know little of the use of the plants I have put down in this spot (other than eating ginger and pawpaw outright) It would be nice to know that should I have the time to learn how, its there if I want it. I'll be watching this area in coming years for different bugs and birds, I'm hoping that as the diversity of plants goes up in the area, animal diversity will follow. Like I said, I've been feeling optimistic as of late for some reason.