Farmville

A non-gardener would think us completely crazy; today Joe and I emptied the back of my car, rounded up every available bucket, pail and rubbermaid container we could find and drove 45 minutes north to a horse farm in Boxford. Our quest? Horse manure!  Just look at this beautiful stuff:

I expected to need to roll the windows down on the ride home but the stuff is so well composted there wasn't any odor of dung; just a sweet, earthy smell of dirt. No need to Fabreze the car!

The raised beds are filled with peat moss, compost, soil, vermiculite. I added fresh compost from our bins this spring, but I really wanted some horse poo to amend the soil. After several false starts on Craig's List, I found a place that would give it away- free!  What's not to love?

The green lettuce is growing well, but for some reason the red lettuce is way behind, though the seeds were started at the same time. Hopefully with the newly added manure the red ones will take off and catch up with their green neighbors.

The broccoli is finally starting to increase in size and the carrot seeds have sprouted. Once they get a little bit bigger they'll need to be thinned out.

The garlic seems to be doing well; it's very difficult for me not to dig down to check on it.    A practice in patience......

A new bed added this spring. This year it has potatoes, which are still underground. This was the real reason I wanted to horse manure- to hill around the potatoes as they grow so they'll produce more tubers. The 4 containers have what's left of the manure, saved just for this purpose. 

This may be a yearly trek if there is a big difference in the amount of produce we get from the garden. And if the plants are half as happy as I am about the manure we'll be just fine. 

Survival of the Fittest

Even though there was a 4 day heat wave this past week the garden looks remarkably unaffected. The flower beds only get watered with whatever mother nature provides but the containers and vegetables are watered just about daily with saved water from the rain barrels. The containers on the porch are doing especially well.

Petunias and sweet potato vine:

Goldenrod, hosta flower and red day lilies on the south side of the house.
Pale yellow day lily. It's taken this plant several years to finally bloom and it's been worth the wait.
Peach-colored fancy day lily.
Deep red day lily planted by the previous owner of our house. Love the unusual red color.

Purple coneflowers. The bees and goldfinches love these.
Queen Anne's lace. My grandmother used to pick this and once showed me how, if the stem is placed in water colored with food coloring, the flower would turn that color.
Orange and yellow day lily from my friend Cynthia.
Back garden along the fence: Black-eyed Susans, gayfeather, phlox and bee balm.

The garden has evolved quite a bit over the past 20 years. If a plant doesn't do well under the conditions provided I don't force it. New additions are watered for the first year and then left to survive pretty much on their own. This way, I know whatever is there is tough enough to weather a hot, dry year without any pampering, which cuts down on the amount of water we use. This is the 2nd year I haven't needed to turn on the hoses!

Anticipation

A patient person I'm not.

Well, actually it's strange; sometimes I can be very patient - for example with certain situations or people I'm able to keep my feelings in check and wait for a situation to play out. I quilt and knit, both endeavors which require some degree of patience. I can sit and wait for an hour in a doctor's waiting room with barely a grumble. Yet, when it comes to growing vegetables I'm sorely tempted to peek beneath the soil to see how things are getting along.

Oh, I know that's the worst thing you can do when something is growing. This isn't a rational impatience! Plants need to be left on their own, undisturbed, to do their own thing and produce their fruit. Intellectually, I know this is true. But somehow I have the most difficult time resisting the urge to dig around - just a little bit - to see if there truly are any bulbs or tubers forming.

Clearly, this is something I need to work on, so the next logical step is for me to formulate a coping mechanism. (After all, that's how I am able to sit in a doctor's waiting room for nearly an hour - I have a plan for how to deal with that situation and bring a book or some knitting!)

I decided today, as I was itching to tug on a set of onion leaves, that I'd dig up one of the potato plants to satisfy my curiosity. Hopefully that will tide me over until the underground crops are ready to be harvested. The potato had flowered (which is when the tubers have started to form) so I knew there had to be something under all that soil. I tugged and the plants came out with little difficulty.

Not having much experience with potatoes I didn't know whether this was a good or bad sign. Maybe there are no potatoes growing, which is why the plant came up with so little protest? Or perhaps they are ready for harvesting and that is why the plant was easy to remove? Only one way to find out: don the gloves and start digging.

Way, way down below the soil level my fingers touched something smooth and round: a potato! From one square foot I removed a total of 6 small Yukon Gold potatoes. So exciting! We're going to eat them this evening with our pulled pork sandwiches.

Now that my curiosity has been satisfied I can leave the rest of the underground vegetables alone to grow and hopefully produce more crops. I need to trust that mother nature will do her thing, but I still can't seem to get over the fact that it seems like magic when I pull something out of our garden to put on the dinner table.

Garden - Week of May 16

The garden changes dramatically from week to week, it seems impossibly lush after all the rain we've had. If this is an indication of how the summer will go, the eggplants and peppers are not going to be very happy campers, but everything else will flourish.

Solomon Seal - you'd never believe how sweet these tiny flowers smell. The entire side of the house has this sweet, delicate fragrance. It took me a while to figure out where it was coming from.

Bleeding Heart and epimedium leaves.

Camassia bulbs.

Pink Lilacs.

Side kitchen steps.

Time Keeps on Slipping

It's funny how the mind plays tricks on us and from one year to the next our memories of things can get distorted; we often remember things how we wanted them to be, instead of how they truly were.

I could have sworn that the birds had

already moved into the birdhouse by this time last year, but looking back through April of 2010's blog posts, I can see that it was not the case. I'm relieved; I was disappointed to think that the nesting spot might go unoccupied this year; it was such a pleasure to see the activity and know that the house was put to good use.The same is true for my vegetable seedlings. I was thinking that I had started them earlier last year and that there was much more growth by now. Again, not so! On a post from April 7 2010 I could see that the seeds had germinated but only had one set of leaves. Currently, there are several sets on most of the little plants that are growing in the flats on the porch.

Hello, Dahlia!

Now if I could just keep the cats out of the pots in which I've started the dahlia tubers. Millie seems to think they are wonderful litter boxes!

"Chitting" potatoes to allow for earlier growth.

After this long winter I must be in more of a rush than usual to have spring arrive with all the delights it brings with it; I need to be more patient and not worry that we are behind. Things will evolve as they always do! Many of the shrubs in the yard have a greenish halo around them, the leaves are preparing to burst on to the scene at the first stretch of warm weather. The lilacs have loads of buds on them and the peonies are stretching their necks out of the soil. Even the clematis are starting to grow.

And now I've documented the goings on in the garden so that next year, when I worry that we are far behind or ahead of where we've been in previous years, I can reassure myself that indeed we are right on schedule: exactly

where we should be.

Say Hello to My Little Friend

Yesterday was finally warm enough to get outside and do the last of the spring raking and cleanup. Often in spring it's warmer away from the coast but a sea breeze will keep us on the 40s, while areas further inland enjoy 60 degrees. Not only does the wind make us much more chilly, it makes trying to corral the leaves and stuff them into bags nearly impossible.

Seven compostable bags of leaves later, the gardens are cleared and new spring growth is revealed. My spring 'daily rounds' are now possible- preferably with a hot cup of tea- to check on which plants are coming up and which ones have decided to call it quits.

While Joe was out at the DIY store picking up more leaf bags I heard a rustling in the leaves behind the rhododendron. When I approached I saw some movement and discovered that we have a wonderful addition to the yard- a small garden snake! An auspicious sign, snakes are great in the garden for eating insects, as well as being a sign of a healthy eco-system. I couldn't be happier to see this little guy!

Getting a photo of him/her proved to be difficult, as snakes do tend to be fairly shy. Other years I've seen them from time to time, slithering into a crevice in the cement by the back basement door under the porch or sadly hanging from Charlotte's jaw. This one seemed to just want to bask in the early spring sunshine. He'd pick a nice spot, then as soon as I'd approach with the camera, he'd go behind a log or under the leaves. After a while if I kept very still he'd re-emerge and find another suitable spot.

My patience eventually paid off and I got a couple good pictures of him. I do hope to be seeing more of our visitor, even if it's just the end of his tail as he makes his way to a new hiding place. Now, what to name him?

Garden Update July 1

This is the first time I've tried growing dahlias. These are smaller than the 'dinner plate' variety, about 6" in diameter and they are lovely! I'll definitely be planting these again next year.

The tomatoes are growing several inches a day now with plenty of buds. Mmmm, there's nothing like a garden-fresh tomato!

I ate the first few green beans yesterday, there weren't enough for a meal, so I figured I'd just sample to make sure they were ok. And they were.

The peppers and eggplant are enjoying the heat we've had this past week and the sugar snap peas, cukes and zucchini are all beginning to take off. We might even have a strawberry or two if the birds don't beat us to it!

Garden Notes

Yesterday morning I got up early and enjoyed my first cup of coffee outdoors. The sun was just coming up and everything looked so fresh and green. Ms. Wren was busy making many trips back and forth feeding those demanding babies of hers. I was able to get some photos, one of which came out clear enough to post.

The garden is growing well, especially now that there is some deer fencing surrounding it, which makes it impossible for Gomer to get in and use it as a litter box. I'm all for organic fertilizer, but draw the line at horse and cow manure. No cats allowed!

Nesting Behavior

The first time I heard that term was while I was expecting W and thought I perfectly summed up the urge I had to get the house in order. The anticipation, restlessness, need to have everything ready. What a cool phenomenon! A behavior that humans and animals all share at some point; something that connects us all as sentient beings living together on this planet.

For the past week or so I've been watching true nesting behavior in action - a pair of house wrens (thanks, Audubon guide to North American birds) is setting up their house in our bird box. Prior to their moving in I saw a few birds checking it out, chickadees popped in and out a few times and decided it was an unsuitable space. No matter, the wrens thought it was perfect and proceeded to make many trips with twigs, bits of grass and other plant matter.

I had no idea how long it took to build a nest, always assuming it took a day or so. Judging by the number of visits with nesting materials in their beaks I'm now thinking it must take closer to a week to complete. I'd love to be privy to the process going on in the box but wouldn't dare disturb them. Watching from the porch or picnic table will have to do. The wrens chatter at us when we're out there but don't seem to be too disturbed by our presence, thankfully.

Across the yard from the birds, the gardens are marked and ready for planting. The potatoes are already in and growing nicely; over the past weekend I planted onion, carrot, beet and bush bean seeds directly in their places. The strings mark out square feet to designate where each crop will be planted. Eventually I'm hoping to have Joe make me some wooden grids, but for now the strings work perfectly. Last weekend we were able to put up the trellises on the northern ends of the beds, which the vining crops will on.

If all goes according to plan, we'll have a crop of baby birds as well as some nice veggies later on in the season.

Seedlings

All the seeds have sprouted except for the peppers (though I think today may be their day) and the tagetes marigolds whose seeds were a few years old. Lesson #1: don't be cheap, buy new seeds each year.

So far I have planted: luffa sponge gourds, super sweet 100 hybrid red cherry tomatoes, sun gold orange cherry tomatoes, big boy tomatoes, red peppers, summer sun yellow peppers, black beauty eggplants, basil and petite mix marigolds. The remaining seeds can go directly in the ground in another month: the zucchini, beans and lettuces. The potatoes will be planted at that time, also. I need to figure out what plants are going to go where in the raised beds but I've got time for that.

Potential

My stiff muscles today can attest to the amount of work done outdoors over the weekend. We had unusually warm temps for this time of year, perfect for getting a jump-start on the garden chores. Joe made these wonderful raised beds for me on Saturday; Sunday morning before my parents and brother came he filled them with all 16 bags of soil and manure. Ready for planting!

Before the beds could be put in, we removed several decades-old forsythia bushes, an 8' tree of unknown species and the compost piles needed to be moved. The recycled white fence was placed perpendicular to the existing stockade to hide the bins. The composters were emptied out, turned, then moved about 3' to the right. The uncomposted material were put back in with some leaves and soil. The finished compost went right into the garden beds and around the peonies. That stuff is the best.

A neighbor had rented a lawn aerator and was kind enough to bring it down and let us borrow it. Earlier in the week I had put down corn gluten to prevent crabgrass and other annual weeds in addition to giving the grass a boost. It has been about 10 years since I started using only organic amendments to the soil and in the past couple years it has started to pay off with a noticeable reduction in crabgrass. Organic isn't an overnight fix, but with patience and consistency it works well.

I've planted up a couple seed flats for the plants that require an early indoor start and the potatoes are ready to be put in the soil as soon as it is warm enough. I don't expect miracles this year, but figure I'll do a lot of learning as I go along. I'm excited about this new adventure and will be keeping track of the progress with photos and notes so I can refer back in future years.

Upload the Toad

The title of this post was going to be something

to like "Frog Blog", which had a great ring to it, but Joe thoughtfully informed me that the subject of my photos is a toad, not a frog. Well, as luck would have it, there is an internet-y word that rhymes with toad as well. So there!

We've had a dreary week with lots of barely-raining days, drizzle and just plain clouds. I don't know for sure if toads like this kind of weather, but I can imagine that they might. Their warty skin would stay cool and damp if they are out and about on a day like this.

I noticed this little fellow as I was leaving the house one morning; at first I thought it was a clump of dirt (aaah, camoflage!) on the bottom front step. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was a little frog.... oops, toad.

Seeing wildlife, even something as ordinary as a common amphibian, always makes me happy. I shouted into the house for Wilson to hand me my camera. I wanted to try to get this little guy's picture before he hopped off and went about his business.

I'm glad to know he's living in my garden. I hope it's a sign of my organic yard being a hospitable environment. I'm going to sound crazy, but I worry about the birds and other creatures that wander onto the property of those who have the little yellow "caution- pesticide application" flags on ther lawns. Birds, snakes and frogs are all great for the garden- they're nature's pest control- and I am lucky to have them in my yard, protecting my veggies and flowers.