Playing Catch up

Wow...were to start, things went well at work.

On the stead, 100% of the potatoes have pushed through, I found the bed much easier to work this year, though not as nice as the one thats 4 years old. I can reach into that with my bare hand and get to my wrist with little effort, and come up with a fistfull of worms and chunks of various bits of stuff alive and dead.

I made my first "50 foot" salad last weekend. Arugula, butterhead, and oakleaf lettuce. Very good, nice and tender. On memorial day I grabbed some more arugula, picked up a couple pears and a block of parmisan cheese and made this.


On Monday I transplanted some cukes, nasturtiums, and melons into empty spots in the lettuce patch. Looks like the arugula is done for the season. And something has chewed on 5 of the six broccoli almost to the point of defoliation, but thankfully I found good leaves growing back, so I think they'll be ok. But I found that some of these were ready which made my day. Have you ever seen such gorgeous radishes?


I started corn, black eyed peas and shelling beans.

I noticed something a little disconcerting with the female kiwi vine. Black on the edges of some of the new growth, as shown here.

A search has not turned up any plausible results. I had several shoots coming off last years's growth, so I trimmed this one, and have not seen any others succumb to its fate, but I would like to know what is happening, because it killed a male vine last year. (the replacement however is doing just fine.)

I just realized the other pictures are on other cameras, so I'll save for other posts, but I will leave you with this parting shot, the first and likely last real picture of yours truly that will show up here.



Oh did I mention we had 5 yards of stone delivered for the walkway, and 6 yards of much for the ...um mulching? I did a lot of shoveling. And no my hand is not missing, It was a chilly evening.

In the ground

Well yesterday evening, the spinach, lettuce, peas, broccoli, radishes and beets went in the ground. And of course there was a light frost this morning, but nothing seemed to be really bothered by it. This evening I'm starting the tomato plants for my dad's house, planting some podding radishes and flax outdoors, cutting the potatoes into smaller chunks, and approaching my wife about a spot I think would be perfect for another garden bed. Its worth a shot right?

Out and about in the yard I noticed lemon balm, bee balm, chives, mint, and wormwood poking up out of the ground. The buds on the ornamental cherry are swelling, the lilacs are getting ready to leaf out. I've got about 4 1-year-old blackberry primocanes that are budding and 3 coming up out of the ground. The berry yield will still be small but much better than the 7 berries I got last year.

Go Time!

This morning was frost free. The first one in our backyard. I'm sure there will be more, but intermittent is ok, I've been fine with the occasional frost, peas broccoli, lettuce, spinach, radishes can take it. This afternoon they're going in. I also noticed I have pea shoots peaking out of the soil where I planted them on st. patty's day. I will be interested to see if the month early planting helped or if the cold temps kept them back. Time will tell.



Oh and my potatoes came from Irish Eyes Garden Seed. I have some cutting to do as I got a bunch of lunkers...no big deal. Not surprising since Purple vikings are notorious for their prodigious proportions.

ho humm

We've had a spat of bitter cold nights (mid teens) that slowed down any progress I might have made outside.

Inside however.


lettuce is up and running, broccoli, beets, spinach, are poking through in greater numbers now, and two of the leeks have come up.

in the flower side, the cosmos are out in force, a couple petunias have sprouted their tiny leaves, the hollyhock is up and some of the globe amaranth are starting to show. Notice the pots are still empty, tree company refuses to ship yet.

I planted a flat of nantes carrots last night, I have terrible luck getting them to grow in situ, the only carrots that have grown with any degree of success were transplanted so, against my promise to myself that I would not do it again this year...

I can fit 4 flats on the table in the front window, I thought that would be sufficient, but by my calculations I probably will need another 4, but where to put them?

Dirt under my nails

something weird happened. On st. Patrick's day (when the weather normally is so cold I question my desire to go to the parade) it was 68 degrees downtown. Beautiful and sunny.

So I took the plunge and planted peas. If my math is right, they are in early enough to come out in mid may, which is corn planting time. Thats the challenge this year, can I grow a spring crop before a successful corn crop. Last year was a failure, but this time the conditions might be right. I'm really wishing I started the rest of the spring crops earlier too, since most of the forecasts have it being mid 40's for at least a week. The spot with peas previously had sunflowers, which did a great job of breaking up the hard soil.

It looks like rain, but if it holds off I might plant a few podding radishes in another warm corner elsewhere, who knows they might take off!

I started cleaning up the winter dieback in the perennial area, I'm already seeing the garlic chives pushing their way up, and the wormwood is starting back up again. In spots that were mulched by fallen leaves (or under a dense mat of its own growth) the creeping thyme is flourishing. In fact, not as much had died back as I had hoped. It was getting pretty rampant near the pathways in some areas.

Anywho, thats about it, still no sight of any seedlings but its early yet.

Hope and Faith

Wow, just when I was really feeling grouchy and cynical...

Yesterday while work continued digging the new beds, I noticed something. Buds, buds everywhere, but first a little background. Last year, against what prior experience would say is wise, we planted 5 new trees. Prior to that, we have attempted trees, and met with repeated failure. I don't know if it was poor quality stock (possibly) or poor site preparation (probably). But the bottom line is they don't last long for us. After transplanting last year things were not looking good for this batch either. The 4 lilacs had dropped quite a few leaves before the season was out, I'd say we were left with about 30% remaining...not good. The ornamental cherry did not fare much better. I was not expecting a return in the spring.

I was wrong. The lilacs are bursting with buds everywhere, and the cherry appears to have lost some of its longer branches, but is fairly vigorous on the shorter ones. But they survived!

If that was not enough, I found a bud on one of the grape cuttings, in spite of my anxiety about the process, it is working.

And to top it off, our son (well not legally ours yet but it matters little) just turned one yesterday. There's another one who beat the odds. Born at 27 weeks, a mere 2.2lbs, now a healthy growing 17 pounder crawling all over God's green earth and sprouting teeth.

So I guess I got exactly the lesson I needed yesterday, funny how things work out like that.

weekend progress

I managed to get the garden area staked out and got a real treat. I haven't seen a chickadee in ages, almost 10 years to be exact. But yesterday, I saw four of them, in addition to our resident pair of cardinals, at the feeder, the hedge and points in between.

and even though I know they're fine, I put the grape cuttings in potting soil anyway. Sometimes anxiety gets the best of me.