For those who tend gardens it's time to buy that ticket on the crazy train! All aboard and fasten your seat belt as the wheel barrow is leaving the compost pile!
Have had a pretty nice week, a bit of a roller coaster on the thermometer but then it's April. The fashionable gardener is dressing in layers of clothing and boots, blowing the dust off your fashionista sunglasses and snapping the thermal rubber coated gloves on your wrists.
The garden blueprint has been in place for weeks; erased, plotted again and then declared done. Until you step in the garden and the whole plan goes to hell in a hand basket. But cold weather crops are going in, snow or no snow, just get them in the ground.
I had a reporter call from our hometown newspaper to talk about compost...... and I wasn't at a city council meeting! Real honest to goodness compost! I heard myself say: Sure c'mon out anytime. I hung up and an hour later he emailed; how about 2 p.m. today. Whoa! I was already outside all morning and was looking a bit blustery or let's just call it ...... witchy! You know that hair plastered to the side of your face look, on Ernest Hemmingway it would have been called 'ruddy'. On me... blasted is good way to describe a windy raw morning in the garden. And for all those who think gardeners parade around in a floppy hat, pink rose gloves from Smith and Hawken, paisley print wellies, sipping lemonade with a corgi tottering along....... wake up! I also seem to grunt a lot when moving heavy objects these days.
So anyway this very young kid arrived on time and I gave him the tour. Not too much see this time of the year except the compost pile, a couple rows of garlic, a row of dead blackberry bushes and a bunch of rowdy chickens. I enjoyed it immensely!
For those interested in the tour click on the link below:
Here are few other happenings around the yard:
Plastic is off the low tunnel. The kale is still delicious and tender.
The swiss chard is completely edible and sweet. The romaine has
bounced back very nicely and the last few carrots are sweet and tender.
To be expanded next year!
Lettuce plugs of black seeded simpson are ready to go.
Rhubarb is looking very spring-ish.
The back gardens have been composted, cleaned and planted.
Raspberries have been transplanted too. Blueberries came through winter without a hitch.
Horseradish is breaking the ground too. Planted in the back garden this year;
radishes, daikon radish, peas, beets, broccoli, bok choi, chard, spinach, lettuce and kale.
Still space remains for potatoes, beans, gooseberry bushes and a second lettuce planting.
The compost pile is getting turned and black gold spread liberally.
The ornamental grasses that were cut last fall are ready to be used as sheet mulch.
I planted river birches a couple years ago and they were great!
Last year they started dying from the top down and I notice a small black beetle.
The bark weeped and in places sloughed off the tree. Whatever it was progressed rapidly, in two years to all trees. I could not watch it anymore and took them down. These trees I loved will heat the house next winter....
Onions are planted, new strawberry roots are planted (40), more asparagus too. A row of onions accidentally got planted next to a row of peas as they are not good neighbors I dug the onions back out and stuck them next to the shallots. Carrots went next to the peas, they will make lovely neighbors. Nasturtiums seeds are tucked in the holes of the cement blocks in the back garden. I still need to start marigolds in flats indoors.
I have not had time to get to the studio this week. And as last posted my brilliant idea to sell all my booth and trailer is but a memory. I found out I need oral surgery tomorrow and can hardly wait to get the bill. For a split second I questioned my sanity to get off the road. In my heart of hearts I know I made the right decision and I also know the universe is quite abundant so I am chalking this up to a test. My knee jerk reaction is to sign up for a couple a shows because that is what I would have done last year. This year I'm not, so maybe I will blow the dust off my wheel and get busy making pots! As soon as I plant one more row of peas and spread a bit more compost and clean out the flower beds and make a couple new beds on the south side and plant the hazelnuts as soon as they get here and replace the dead blackberry bushes and plant three more blueberry bushes and plant the gooseberry bushes I ordered yesterday and and and.......
It's all so very exciting ........ the peepers were out this week too! I love the peepers!
You can feel the earth waking, the electricity in the ground. The birds have changed too. The gold finches are sporting their Easter clothes! The red wing blackbirds have arrived at the feeder and I saw a blue bird on my last walk. It's the cycle and I just love it.
well except the oral surgery.........
