Slowly picking up steam

Q:What do you call an IT professional with a really shoddy weblog?

A: Kory

Previously at least.

I have laid out the framework for a new and improved site that makes use of more capable web tools. Hopefully the end will be a site that contains some good static content (descriptions of finished projects, plant databases, etc.) along with dynamic stuff that I can easily update (hopefully from my phone) as the need arises (the regular blog stuff).

In other news, I just finished most of my seed/tree orders (including but not limited to some russian comfrey plants and a sambucus nigra black elder.)

I hate resolutions

because nobody (nobody I know at least) ends up keeping them.

so rather than resolve to do anything,

I'll lay out my to do list for the year

1.) sunroom Nary a hole has been dug nor post been laid, but I'm exhausted already. After going back and forth with the zoning board, we are shaving a foot off the front and pressing forward. No date yet from the builder, but they expect all their ducks will be in a row by the end of the month. Should leave plenty of time to get the seedlings going.

2.) trees, a veritably orchard will overtake the front lawn, but first, the old emaciated monster needs to come down. I've been begrudgingly picking up its dropping branches for 3 years now, I just needed a reason.

3.) third bed, I need to expand the garden, and I've no where else to dig but a spot in the perennial area, where the sunflowers sat last year. I'm planning out the layout and rotation schedule, and will post that soon.

4.) And even if I don't actually build the house portion of it, I'll be redoing the wooden boarder of the two main garden beds to fit the floorplan of a hoophouse I would like to put there eventually.


So far the seed catalog count is up to six. I've got my tomato order back (I'll be growing a different strain of brandywine than last year, a Cherokee purple, an a fistful of Amish paste in the hopes of making my own sauce. We're planning our trip to the nursery in early May for the trees. But I've still got a lot of ordering to do for this year.

Full Circle

Well we're back to where we started on this one: windowsills. The first winter resident moves in. Hyssop...or soapwort, they both have the same leaf shape and until it gets biggerI won't be able to tell if it has an upright habit (hyssop) or prostrate (soapwort) I really should label when I start two similar looking plants shouldn't I. I've got some more st. johns wort, feverfew, and I forget what else that can come to work. Starting perennials in winter worked fantastically well for me last year, I believe I had a close to 100% survival rate in the ground. No waiting for them to catch up to the weeds. As soon as the soil was decent, they were in and already dominating the scene.

As much as I love vegetable gardening (and I still say landscaping with your stomach is the way to go) There is something intrinsically beautiful and mysterious about setting up a miniature ecosystem of sorts that renews itself each year without human intervention. Odd how that as winter comes and producing food becomes impossible (this year at least) My thoughts tend to drift on the elements of my grand plan which have little to do with eating. I still have plenty of space to fill in the "sanctuary"and I dream of the day when I will have to do for the rest of the flora what I did for the sage this year...that is trim and tie and otherwise make room for its neighbors.

This may be entirely too crunchy for the room but there is a certain visceral joy after spending 8 hours under florescent lights that one gets with just a few moments in nature or a reasonable facsimile thereof. Be it the smell of the creeping thyme and lavender, or the occasional nibble of basil or lemon balm. I will miss that during the winter, but spending time improving the experience will make it worthwhile.

more waiting

If you can't tell, its snowing again. I know our last frost free date is not for two months, I know I cant start planting seed until march 19th, but it doesn't make shoveling any less annoying.

What really grinds my gears is the stretches of 40 degree weather in between, this winter we've had more green...well brownish green, than white. Seems to me that a cold frame could be pretty productive, so long as it can survive the dips down to 0 degreesF for the occasional day or two.