On Crabgrass

 The War Against the Weeds goes on. I win some battles, but then the weather turns. Too rainy and then the rain is followed by super hot, which the weeds LOOOOVE.....

Recently, the purslane and other stuff has given way to crabgrass.  I kind of ... don't mind it? I mean, I don't like it in my flower or vegetable beds and I tell each one that I pull that they and theirs are welcome in the yard, but not in the gardens. And they are super easy to pull because of the way they spread out.  Grab the center core and pull and you can actually clear a whole bunch.

Unless... of course... you can't. 

I relied on that to get lazy when it was too hot or too wet.  "It's easy to get so I'll get it later."

Crabgrass is insidious.  Yes, there's a central core but it spreads out through everything.  And if you're not paying attention those arms set down their own roots and become their own new centers.  As it's spreading out, the central root is spreading DOWN.  It might be easy to pull it when you first see it, but if you leave it alone, it will be that much tougher, and will have spread into far more areas that you first see.  And then those become even harder.

My "crabby" advice.  Get rid of that when you see it, before it seeps into everything else.

Kinda reminds me of something else......

Early Spring activities

 You know, I thought I posted a few times last year...but they aren't here. Huh...

Anyway, spring has sprung at the Sacred Hart Suburban Animal Sanctuary and "Farm."   The phlox, Queen of the Nigth tulips, and one or two lonely daffodils bloomed and have faded, but just in time for the irises (pictured).

We have another batch of kittens born April 11ish and April 17.  We've seen three little black or dark grey ones a few days ago, but not since. Mamas Marbles and Patches are coparenting and have moved them twice but still in our yard.

We also had a litter of raccoons, which are just so stinkin' cute.  Mama Ricki still comes around for food, but I don't know where she moved them.

I'll post my 'done' list but I've spent most of my time since April-ish weeding. The first thing to come up in the spring is typically NOT anything I planted, but weeds. All those things that I need to evict from the beds.  So I spend 15 minutes a day, starting in the front and gradually move around the house. I am about halfway done now.

It is so interesting to see the diversity. There was a huge batch of chickweed, which looked like it would be easy to pull, but was not. Some plants spread out and so their roots are shallow; once you find the correct root, you can clear a whole bunch all at once. Of course some spread out and that root ISN'T that shallow.  Some have thick stems with sharp thingies but if you hold them the right way, even barehanded and pull, they come out really easily. Then others have thick steps with sharp thingies and the only right way to hold them is with gloves, and they are not going to come out easily.  (My favorites are the ones with sharp thingies ON their roots.)    Some are even super useful if you get them harvested at the right time. I did get the dandelions to make wine with. I did not get the purple dead nettle in time.  

So, what I have now is a mental library of various things growing where they're not allowed, and a repertoire of how to evict them.  I usually explain that they can have the whole yard, just stay out of the flower/vegetable beds.  

There's probably some deeper wisdom about all that. I invite you to find it :)

Here's what's happened so far. It took so much longer than it appears in writing... but also never takes as long as I think it will:

• 24 red onions planted Easter weekend (harvest around July 13)
• May 9
• red and white petunias around border of the front flower bed
• Marigolds around onions bed
• Red salvia of some kind in front bed near hummingbird feeder
• May 10
• Chadwick plant sale: bought and planted parsley, basil, marjoram, rosemary, and chamomile 
• All sorts of bird feeder maintenance
• Weeded second vegetable garden bed
• May 11 (Mother's Day)
• Made a hanging planter for mom (I didn't like any of the premade ones)
• May 12
• Jim finished second veggie garden bed for me, started on third
• planted 4 bell peppers and 4 'mystery tomatoes'.  
• planted marigolds (Need more marigolds)
• More birdfeeder stuff. All the hummingbird feeders are up (as of 5/11 I think). more regular bird feeders to get sorted, and probably need two more for the front.

Oh goodness....let's try this again! April 2023

 I have resisted even the MEAGEREST of garden journaling, even ignoring the pretty book I bought. Until this year when a friend at work suggested we journal stuff, and we would talk about it on Sundays when we worked. So... she started and I did not. Then... I just started.

So I've got handwritten journal entries.  Those have been somewhat easier as I keep the journal on the patio (a new edition, but that's another story) and write down things as they happen...INCLUDING wildlife sights and sounds.  Thus far we can count cats, several birds, raccoons, skunks, and as of a couple of nights ago, a toad sighting on the front porch where the bugs congregate around the light.  

I am not going to get distracted right now with pictures. I just want to get caught up. So we'll start with my entries for April.

4/8/2023  

• Birds I have heard, but yet seen (thanks to Merlin app) -- Northern Flicker, Bluebird
• New sunroom (the aforementioned patio) final walk through is Monday
• Getting late start but...
• Testing seed packs for viability. It says to check in 3 weeks but I may not wait that long
• Sugar snap peas
• Cilantro
• Orach
• Anna-something lettuce (my handwriting remains horrendous)
• Jericho lettuce
• Romaine lettuce
• Swiss Chard
• Buttercrunch lettuce
• Broccoli
• Spinach
• Danvers carrots
• Soil temperature is 47 degrees so still too early.
• Filled main bird feeder, ground feeder, meal worm cups and last suet cake
• FIRST BEES SEEN!!!

4/10/2023

• More clearing of future perennial vegetable plot - I had planted winter rye over the winter (duh); clearing it out was not quite as easy as advertised, at least in my beds
• Discovered the hand sickle is REALLY SHARP.
• Captured Goldfinch song on Merlin -- they are back!! filled and hung seed socks.
• Heard Bluebird again
• Other newbies heard:
• Worm-eating Warbler
• Tufted titmous
• Saw red head or downy woodpecker (couldn't get good look)

4/15/2023

• Planted 2 asparagus crowns from Jennifer. Tried to move the third one I have established into that bed, but it's pretty well in there; may need Jim's help, or just wait until after the season.

4/16/2023

• Replanted asparagus right side up (oops). I think I will make that whole bed asparagus so I will need 2-3 more (if I can't move the other one).
• Weeded front of new patio door -- lots of stuff from before popping up, so pulled roots too.
• FOUND A POTATO from last year! Yay, seed potato!

4/18/2023

• New humming bird feeder and bluebird feeder.  ALL feeders up and filled, or will be once I wash the bluebird ones.  I discovered I put the yellow bird feeder back together wrong so I will fix that when it gets half empty again.
• Got a bag-garden bed for the surprise potato

4/20/2023

• BLUEBIRD SPOTTED LAST NIGHT!
• Planted potatoes in the new bed-planter.  
• Jim is doing the platform on the side door of the patio
• LOVING the new rain barrel!!
• Lots of bees loving the flowers on the apple tree.

Next up ... MAY!!

What a year...

 Has it really been over a year? 

I had grand designs like always to update more. I thought 'with the pandemic, clearly I'll have time do this stuff."  And yet...

I did do a garden and it was okay. I didn't go anywhere so I was able to pay more attention to it.  Still, some things didn't work quite right.  I tried starting seeds and got MORE successful with it this year, but some stuff just died. I may be the ONLY person who can kill zucchini/summer squash plants.  

I did get lettuce and spinach.  The tomatoes didn't come full on until after classes started so my plans for those were scuttled and we just tried to keep up.  I was able to freeze spinach (I have pictures..maybe I'll post those); I made pickles, canned tomatoes eventually. I even canned some corn from when we bought 6 ears but only ate three.

So far, I've ordered seeds and am awaiting them. The greenhouse is ready to receive them. I need to buy more seed pods (those little things to start them).  

I found a crop rotation 'map' in a book so that will help that.  

Right now I hear birds singing in our 'fake spring' that comes between first and second winter in Ohio. The geese are moving, and I smelled evidence of one of our skunks that is now out of hibernation (or whatever they do).  My irises are starting to poke up too. 

It's been a long, dark year.  I don't know if we're out of that particular tunnel yet, but at least Mother Earth is proceeding accordingly.

When is Imbolc Not Imbolc

Photo by Christopher Rodgers on Unsplash

No, no, this is not Yet Another Post about how I'm so sorry I forgot this and I promise I'll do better. I think we both know that's not happening.

Instead I shall just plow straight through as if I've been diligently updating all along.

Today (or tomorrow) is the cross-quarter day of Imbolc. It's not linked to any astronomical events like the solstices or equinoxes, so for convenience-sake, once we invented calendars, it got placed halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.  This is my thumbnail understanding of such things.

But, as I may or may not have opined before, the pre-calendar humans would have relied upon other things to let the know what was happening.  The quickening of lambs, calves, and kids in utero, the lactation of their mothers in preparation for their birth, would have been signs to all of coming events. Like spring and lambing/calfing/kidding, and all that entails.

I know the lengthening of days would be a sign, but in pre-timepiece humanity, I contend that perhaps this is the time when you'd notice that thing. I know even with a clock it's around this time that "Hey.....it's lighter out when I wake up...." happens, which I then verify with my timepiece.

Where I live, there is a thaw around this time.  The snow/ice melts significantly and occasionally I'm able to push some bulbs or seeds into the partially thawed soil.

Or at least there use to be.  This winter has been decidedly NON winter like.  We've had some days in the 20s, but little to no snow/ice precipitation. Most days are a high 30s with a cold wind, and we'll be heading back into the 40s the next few days.

I'm concerned. Terrified really. This is becoming more common, even as some years (last year) are decidedly more 'winter like.'  And this isn't some "I LOVE WINTER" thing. I don't.  I get SAD, I have to scrape my windows and shovel my walk, neither of which are as easy as they used to be.  If it was just about me, I'd be delirious.

But it isn't just about me.  Snow is ESSENTIALLY. It can refill water reserves, and if melts slowly, it's safe in terms of flooding (if it goes faster though, or with rain too, that's a different thing).  Super cold controls all sorts of bug populations (insect and viral/bacterial). 

In a word, this is just wrong. It stabs at my heart, as I worry about how climate change is going to all play out.

Some of my colleagues at Job #2 like to joke about how, here in Ohio, we'll have beach front property and how great it will be. Never mind the land that won't exist that might have been used to raise our food.  Never mind the climate refugees, both citizen and foreign, who will also be looking for their own beachfront homes.  Never mind all that.

Well, this is a downer. I blame SAD. And that I'm missing a favorite annual event tomorrow.  So, back to the topic. 

ANYWAY...what's a suburban gardener to do when her usual sign to 'start the lettuce seeds' is not going to happen?  Well, nature finds a way. Just last week, I saw two Canada geese flying over head. And then a few other gaggles in their usual gathering spots. They're coming back for the year.  At first I said "Y'all are early!" but then I reflected....no, they are right on time. Whatever the climate is doing, the geese know when it's time to come back to wherever their "North" is.

So...just like that...Nature gives me another sign. One that doesn't depend upon snow or thaw, but one that says "Hey, Leesa, plant those seeds."  So thanks, Geese!!  Can't wait to see your little honklings!!!

What I planted

This was formerly called "Planting done" but I never got back to making the video that would go with it.  So here is what I had planted...


Front garden:

Easy Wave White Petunia
Easy Wave Red Petunia
Black Petunia

Gatekeeper

Coral rose zinnia
Dreamland mix zinnia
Zahara starlight rose zinnia
Double zahara cherry zinnia
Ironweed
Cardinal climber vine
TBD

Deck bed

Bufferfly something...

Moon Garden

Moonflower (discovered these are annuals :( )

Bridget garden

Britt marie Crawford Big Leave Ligularia

Food beds

German grape tomato
Yellow pear tomato
Black cherry tomato -- These are the ONLY ones that were productive. The rest of all the tomatoes either did not grow, did not bear very many fruit, or bore fruit that appeared to be super susceptible to the very wet-then-very hot conditions of the summer, so that they burst easily on the vine, allowing bugs, etc. to come in :(
Romas
Berkeley tie die
Cherokee purple
some other red

Patio planters
Impatiens
Lanais blue verbana
Setcreasea
3 California wonder sweet bell
nasturtium
lemon grass
geranium

Basil
Rosemary
Marjoram
Oregano
Thyme
Parsley
Cilantro

Beltainne is coming! (Also Flora and Fauna update)

I know, it says May 3 on the calendar, but you'll recall from my ridiculously infrequent postings, that I don't celebrate Beltainne until the frost-free date, when planting can happen, so we're at least two weeks away.

"Spring" as defined by warm weather has not official sprung in Central Ohio until this week, and has basically bounced right into the 80s.  "Spring"  as defined astronomically (which, let's face it, is what it anyway) has of course been here and even through snow and sub-freezing temperatures, the birds and plants have been doing their thing, although annual ant-migration inward was delayed a bit, starting a few days ago.  While I try to ignore them, if they get on ME they may get squished. Except last night we watched the Marvel movie Ant-Man, so now I'll probably feel bad about it.

Official pre-Beltainne has begun.  It has moved from the mere "musing about what to do" to getting down to the brass tacks of what to do.  The current to-do list:

• Begin the round of weeding. Somewhere, some botanist probably knows why weed tend to sprout forth before the things you actually planted did (please answer in the comments), but either way weeding must start.
• Clean out beds and planters of last years' stuff.  I did clean out the vegetable garden beds last year, and two got torn out. The planters I just left in place, mostly to attempt to hold the soil over winter.  I'm hoping to score a few more from a colleague who's elderly neighbors keep dumping them on her.
• Fix rototiller. Seamus has everything we need to fix it, so hopefully I can get him to do it, or better yet show me how to do it.
• Survey raised beds for repairs. Some of the planks are coming apart, so we may need to just re-attach them somehow.
• Re-establish new beds to replace the ones ripped out.
• Make list of herbs and plants.  It's in my head, but if I don't have it in writing before I go to various sales, I'll come home with NOTHING I actually need.
• Order dirt/mulch.

This year, I am switching it up. Because I like to can, this year is going to be tomatoes in all four beds.  Two beds of "slicers" and two beds of paste tomatoes.  Hopefully that can get us a nice stockpile, including sauces and salsas, in addition to just plain ol' canned. Next year I'm thinking all string beans, all the time, for the same reason, and then the year after that is back to adding zucchini, squash, peppers, etc.  Maybe I'll try corn again.

I have however done some spring harvesting.  Last night, with the help of a neighborhood girl, we sat in my front yard and picked dandelions, some of which are hopefully fermenting in my kitchen for dandelion wine, the rest of which will get made into dandelion bread.  I thought we had picked the front yard clean, but when I walked out this morning, it was like we hadn't even done a thing! 

That's all to update for now. The birds and squirrels are back.  The blue jays come for their morning peanuts when we whistle for them, and the squirrels don't automatically run when they hear the back door open.  I'm not sure when the juncos left, but they've been replaced by goldfinches it seems.  I haven't seen the hawks yet, so I'm not sure if they returned, but as I think about it, it might be an every other year thing.  Mr. Cardinal and Mrs. Cardinal II are back also, and still waiting to see if Waddles the Skunk is around. Stay  tuned!

Planted!

 Nearly all the things got planted the week of May 15-16.   So here's what they looked like then (I am so bad at updating this...)

This first bed is dedicated specifically to the spirits of the land.  You can see the milkweed growing on the left, and I planted goldenrod as well.  The third thing that was going in there I accidentally didn't buy and now I don't know what it was. So stay tuned. There's also a hummingbird feeder in this one but I'm about done with this design.  The humming birds don't seem to see it and it's hard to clean, so now it's all gross and mildewy inside.

Nature Spirits

 This next bed is in the other corner of the house and just by default is dedicated to the ancestors. I'm not sure what else to put in there.  That is a crap ton of sage that is blooming beautifully. There's room for something else behind it (besides the weeds I dug out) and I'm still thinking of what that might be. It gets the fullest sun of all but one bed in the garden.

Ancestors

 This is a bit of the moongarden.  If I remember right, those are some kind of primrose? They come on like gangbusters.  I think we're going to get some fairy houses to put in there, knowing full well the controversy over the nature of the Good People.  I don't think it could to give them some nice houses though, right?

Moon Garden

 First of the food beds, and it's somewhat sparsely planted right now.   One of those is the Lazy Wife beans (no strings) and the other is some sort of dwarf melon.  I have plans to add more beans (good for the soil and the peeps, too!)  but I'm also not sure how much room the melon is going to end up needing.  Up in the top left-ish corner you can see the volunteer chives from last year.

Next bed is all tomatoes all the time.  And I think one of the peppers.  Right now, something is munching on the leaves, so I applied so Neem in the hopes I wasn't too late.

(TBC...I have more pictures but I they won't post for some reason..)

Weekend? More like GREENKend....

Okay, not funny.

This is, however THE weekend of gardening. If Spring/Beltane/Summer had a "Black Friday" weekend, this would be it.

Today, I went to Chadwick Arboretum's Plant Sale and Auction.  I had heard about this, but last year was the first year I went, with the Lovely and Talented Misty. Misty is so lovely and talented, she now as a job, so I went by myself.  I arrived at OSU, kicking myself for not making a List to Be Adhered To (as to avoid overspending), and resolved to be Sensible and not get more than the cart would allow.

The carts hold quite a lot.

I meandered around. I'm never sure what to get, even if I know what I'm looking for.  I mean, I want a 'tomato' but there's 87 million varieties, and each booth has overlapping types and they're organic and stuff and....*sigh*  I let intuition guide me, usually.  They have lots of good stuff, so if you're available Saturday you should check it out.

I probably got there at 8:30 and was home by 10, with:

Flowers:  Nasturtium, Brutus Hosta ("created" there at OSU, hence the name), blue salvia, pink salvia, and goldenrod for the butterfly garden. I got something else for that garden, but it didn't have a tag, and I couldn't remember where I got it.  Sadly, that did not mean I got it for free and since at the time I didn't know what it was or where it belonged, back it went.

Herbs:  Marjoram, oregano, lavendar, basil, parsley, lemon grass, and rosemary

Vegetables:  2 zucchini, 2 pickling cucumbers, lunchbox peppers, 2 yankee bell peppers, 2 amish paste tomatoes, 2 some other slicing tomato (heirloom!), 1 black cherry tomato.

You'd think I'd be done, but tomorrow is the Gahanna Herb Show.  I'll be meeting Beth, Misty, maybe Julie and Teresa for breakfast before we descend upon it.  I really don't have much to get after today, but I liked their pole beans from last year (although I have seeds I got last year too), and I'm sure I can find something.

The seeds I sprouted are doing okay. I forgot to bring them in one night, so I'm not sure how they're going to do.  I might want to replace them with actual plantlings, but we'll see.  I do need to replace some strawberry plants. I wish I had seen that before this morning; they had some there.

I came home and had second breakfast, and then after cleaning up from that, I pulled weeds in the raised beds to get them ready.  Almost every bed has had it's spring weeding, except the moon garden, and that's almost done.  I just don't know what belongs there and what doesn't.  Seamus will have to do that, and then roto-till the beds.  I may want to turn the compost and see if I get some good stuff to roto-till in there.

Pictures forthcoming.

As I look at my big box of green-kins, I remember last year how excited I was for the summer growing season to come, and the plans I had...and then how that was completely kicked to the curb by random mystery illness....it's hard to raise that level of hope again, but such is the lingering emotional challenge of the past year.  I almost didn't do any gardening at all this year, but that would be to admit defeat and while I don't always feel like it, I follow the maxim sometimes of "Fake it, 'til you make it." So much doesn't seem real, like it happened to someone else....but not all.

So I plant.  The Earth heals.

New Neighbors

Technically we are getting them. The house to the west has sold, but we haven't met them yet. Jim thinks he saw them though. While bird-watching out the back window, he yelled to me "Hey, we got Asians."

Thus the "U.N." feel of our diverse little street persists...

But, those are not the neighbors I'm talking about.  It seems that Freya the hawk has returned, and this time she's got a mate!

No really, the windows are clean...

They've spent the last couple of days taking turns flying off, and standing guard in and around the neighbor's trees out back.  One hung out on our birch tree for a while...above the bird feeder.

What is interesting, is that the other birds sometimes don't seem to care that there is predator in their midst.  It's like they can sense that the hawks aren't hungry right now or something. I imagine that will be a fatal mistake at some point.

Today's activity included what was probably mating.  One of them was in a tree in between houses on a street to the southwest (behind) of us.  The other one flew over. I expected the other one to fly back to where the nest is, but, nope...It was too far away to see clearly, but I've seen other birds "doin' it" and "it" looked just like that.  And for about as long too, which is to say "not very."  Birds don't waste time.   No, I didn't get pictures of that. Perverts.

I went back to my breakfast, and trying to figure out how to get Comedy Central via Roku, since they are in some dispute with Vue.  After I ate, I looked out back just to check things out.  Mr. Cardinal and Mrs. Cardinal II were visiting the feeder together (aww..).  I sort of said out loud, "Watch out, we have two hawks around" when they both flew down to below the juniper bush (or yew...I can't remember which is which).  Suddenly, from across "The Asians" yard, I see Hawk flying low in that direction!  I wait...I yell "I think we have our first casualty" to Jim, who is busy doing dishes and doesn't hear me.  Finaly, Mrs. Cardinal II pops to the birch tree, her crest standing straight up with indignantly.  (Trust me, she was indignant.)  I wait further, and change vangage point because I can see Hawk sitting on the fence, but most of them is blocked by the bush. I can barely see their talons, but see no bright red feathers.  Then Mr. Cardinal flies over to the bird feeder.

I'm not sure how Hawk could have missed either of them, but then it might be because Hawk was on the hunt for different prey...sticks and twigs from the neighor's trees that fall in our yard.  Mrs. Cardinal II looked on indignantly still, while Mr. Cardinal ate, the only logical thing to do after narrowly escaping being eaten himself.  Hawk tried various sticks, all of which were too big (that's when I snapped the blurry pictures). Finally, they get one that is to their liking and fly off with it.

Add caption

Then I had to go to work.

The adventure continues...

Yes I'm using the singular "they" until I can tell Mr. and Mrs. Hawk apart.  And to get myself used to it in general.

Baby steps towards spring...and a tragedy

Editor's Note:  I forgot to "publish" this.  So it's horribly out of date.  But I also think it's because I wanted to add some pictures...so those have been added.  There's new wildlife activity, but that deserves it's own post.

I don't feel like winter is done. Not because of the date on the calendar, or because we usually have an April snowstorm, but be cause of the weird February.  Usually, no matter what the precipitation, sometime around the end of January and beginning of February, there's a day or two where the mercury rises to the 40s or maybe 50s and we get the 'mid winter thaw.'  It is usually a true thaw, enough so that I can often get a few cold-weather seeds planted, more in the spirit of "let's see what happens" than anything else.

This year was different.  "Climate change" continues to be a real thing, and we had week in the high 60s and into the low 70s. While that was nice in its own way, I kept having the feeling that it was...just wrong.  It just felt wrong, at like a soul level.  Only way to explain it.  It had me so discombobulated that I didn't do my land's recognition of Imbolc because...well, how do you know when Imbolc is when the usual markers you use have shifted? So the corn dolly is still unadorned, although perhaps we will take care of that at Equinox.

Shortly before that, we did have a tragedy of sorts.  I had mentioned earlier that one of the juncos hit the back patio window, and I rescued him.  Dizzies and Lizzies continue to flit around the yard, and we bought decals for the windows, but not before Mrs. Cardinal hit it.   I came home from work and Jim told me something had happened, and described the bird he found on the deck.  He put her in the garden bed we have dedicated to butterflies.  She was such a pretty shade of peach with a bright salmon beak.  We were going to bury her, but opted against it.  Jim went out to check on her the next day and she was gone, probably taken back into the circle of the life of the world.  We would see Mr. Cardinal occasionally in the yard, and I hoped he would find another Mrs.  We also hoped they hadn't nested yet, since at that point it had been in the 40s for an abnormally long time, but a friend said it was too soon.

A week later we saw her.  A new Mrs. Cardinal. She was darker, more beige than Mrs. Cardinal I, but still had a beautiful bright salmon beak.  It wasn't long before we saw Mr. and Mrs. in the yard together.  Grieving is a quick process in the bird world.

The continuation of the cardinal population secured, other birds seemed to be enjoying themselves.  We keep trying to identify birds, but some just won't sit still long enough for us.  We think that we've had a blackbird. We may or may not have had a longspur, and a few white-breasted nuthatches.  There another bird that looks like a blackbird, but is kind of yellow or tan speckled underneath the black feathers.  The Peterson Field Guide is only so helpful.  I need an ornithologist to come spend a few days.  (Pictures from allaboutbirds.com)

The Lapland Longspur

Finally, I got around to sowing some cold-resistant seeds indoors.  I have a large seeding greenhouse that is 6 by 12 spots of seeds.  It was warm enough again today (because climate change) that I put the potting soil in while out on the deck, and the brought inside for the sowing.  Now, as long as Spooky and Stormy leave it alone, I hope to get lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, spinach, and nasturtium sprouting soon.

New Year

I look at the date of my last post... June 2.  The last half-or-so of June was tied up with Festivals and I was going to update things....but.....

I was hospitalized on July 11 for what has turned out to be Acute Disseminating Encephalomyelitis.  (We think.)  It has been a long process of treatment, then in-patient rehab, then home rehab, then outpatient rehab.  I've had to relearn how to talk, walk, write...basically everything.

And that's all I want to dwell on that.  I'm back to about 90-95 percent from where I started and so now, in addition to heading back to work, I turn my mind towards the things I love to do, and one of those is the garden.

While I was incapacitated, I had great friends who looked after my land, harvesting things, weeding, and just generally upkeeping stuff.  I can't thank them enough.  They helped me put the land to sleep in the fall, too.  Since then, we've been enjoying the wildlife that seems to have just decided our yard is home.  Our census is below, with our guesses as to how to tell critters apart:

• Three grey squirrels, Punky (the Hawk-Harasser), Itchy and Scratchy.  Itchy and Scratchy are smaller and usually together.  
• Fireball, the white squirrel. I thought he was long gone, but then I saw him on December 28.
• Four blue jays. Jim has named them (Jay, Jerry, Jackie, and Ruth?).  Every time I think they've moved on for the year, the next day I hear them squawking and begging for peanuts.
• Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal
• Mr. and Mrs. Purple Finch (We are more creative with the names some times rather than others.)
• Little brown birds of undetermined species (LBBOUS). Too many to name (although less than usual in the winter).
• Three crows.  They show up about once every two weeks. Huginn and Muninn and...I can't remember the third name. I'm told it was 'Jim' because that's funny.   Either way, the last time they came around though there were only two.
• Freyja the hawk (rarely seen after the "nest incident.")
• Dizzy and Lizzy the grey juncos, a.k.a snowbirds.  Dizzy was a male snowbird that hit the glass patio door running from Freyja.  He was stunned, so I picked him up and put him under the yew bush for some shelter from the wind and Freyja.  He was gone later.  We have so many that all the males are Dizzy and the females are Lizzy.  It's just easier that way.
• One of the neighborhood feral cats from Stormy's family.  Her size and long hair, but dark grey or black.

Jim tosses about a cup of peanuts out every morning; some out to the yard (away from the vegetable garden!) and some placed on the deck railings.  The bird feeder is pretty active, and doesn't get empty quickly despite being raided by the squirrels.  The snowbirds and LBBOUS finally found the suet feeder in the maple tree. 

As you can maybe guess, there's often a lot of activity, and they never sit still for pictures. Today, we are finally getting some snow, and while that makes me want to stay indoors and sleep, the critters are having a good ol' time.  Freyja the hawk was on the back fence with her head tucked down low against the wind. Either that, or we have to add an owl to our inventory. I couldn't get a good look even with binoculars.

The Dizzys and Lizzys are flitting about the deck, and Mr. Cardinal also made an appearance.  They all seem to be happier about the snow than we hairless apes. Actually, this hairless ape is not so sad about it either.  Snow melts and goes down into the water table (hopefully), and is a Good Thing for gardens.

Before the weather turned, Jim raked leaves (usually my job, but...)  and all five of the garden beds got a nice blanket to keep down weeds (we'll see) and keep the soil warmer over the winter.  The snow is laying upon that, and will help break down the leaves so we can till them under in the spring.

Which means, it's time to look for seeds.  Last year I got interested in seed catalogues, but it was too late.  This year, I have some my friend Misty gave me, and I'll look to those and decide what to try.  I' managed to save seeds from our bell and banana peppers last year.  I even managed to can the banana peppers, even though I had to use a walker for most of the time.  I need to get to Dill's Green House for seed starting supplies and maybe some hand tools.

I don't do resolutions, but I'm going to try to be better at keeping this up.  Feel free to share to other people if you think they'll be interested, and comment down below.  Happy New Year!

aaaaand....DONE!

Finally!

I had been trying to wait until we had our first fire so we could use the ashes in the Three Sister's Garden, however that was just taking way too long.  So this morning while Jim watered the rest, I raked the dirt where the squirrels and robins had been all in it, and then planted eight kernels of Peaches and Cream sweet corn.  I put a stake near each one so we'd know where they were.  With that everything is done.

As of now, then, everything that was on that list is planted except the moonflowers and calendula.  It looks thusly:

To the very far left are the strawberries, which I have fertilizer and dirt for.  They've already started to produce...over achievers!  To their right I have sweet banana peppers (Jim's request) and green bell peppers, and a whole lot of space.  Not sure what to do with all that, but something will go there.  The middle bed has six remaining of eight pickling cucumbers, and then two zucchini plants.  It very well may also have some space remaining, even though I know how much both of those plants branch out.  On the right side is the tomatoes, where I have two Prudens beefsteaks, two Amish Pastes, and one Black Cherry...because who doesn't want black cherry tomatoes!  I also put the garlic and chives in that one.

That leaves the new bed, which is the Three Sister's bed.  Hopefully, Elsie the Owl will keep the squirrels and birds away from the corn kernels which will hopefully sprout.  The suggestion we got here I just realized I totally did not follow, planting in rows rather than in a circle.  I think I thought each kernal got it's own mound.  Oops.  But, the timing of the things I plan on following so there's that....

Next, I decided to do something with the corn dollies I had made last year and the year before.  I hadn't burned the oldest one yet, so decided they should both go out.  I picked some of the flowers in the yard, and added them, and each one got affixed to a post, one in the Three Sister's garden, and the other in the tomato bed.

I already got a start on this year's with some corn we had on Memorial Day.  Even if we don't get any ears in the ones we planted, maybe we will at least get some stalks so we can make them from our own yard.

And, just for fun, here's a picture of the Butterfly Garden:

The milkweed from last year seems to have taken off (and indeed, can be found in various other places in my yard).  I also planted the tangerine sage there, but all the pretty red blooms fell off, so hopefully more will come back.  I also put the dill there, since some caterpillars like that.

Most of the annual herbs went into containers on the patio, but I decided to try the perennials in the yard.  In the flower garden around the deck I put the chamomile, lavender, and one variety of sage., and then in the matching Garden-To-Be-Named-Later in the other corner, I put the common sage.

I still have more to do, but it's very nice. We have lots of birds at the feeder, and two squirrels (at least).  The birds sing all day and pretty soon the 17-year cicadas will bust out.  It feels very much like being out in the country, even though we are basically in the land of suburban sprawl.  It's actually fairly peaceful, and I can't wait until the deck is done and I can sit there and just observe all the life out there.

Changes and Stuff

So, as you can see, I have changed the name of the blog back to it's original.  We are every so slowly adjusting to our new normal, but I believe there isn't a day that goes by that we aren't laughing or crying (or sometimes both) over something that reminds us of Janet.

This week everyone and their brother appears to have their plant sales.  I went to Chadwick Arboretum's's plant sale/fundraiser on Friday at 8am, meeting my friend, Misty, and her adorable son, Liam.  We went to Tee-Jaye's afterward.  Then I got up early this morning and met another friend, Beth, at Creekside Cafe in Gahanna, and went to the Gahanna Herb Day after that.  Want to see a list of what I bought?

There's a plethora of stuff on there...herbs, flowers, heirloom veggies. I went without a list, and still really didn't either forget anything OR get any extra stuff I didn't intend to get.

(As an aside, I am totally going to hire Misty and Beth to be my gardeners when I win the Powerball!)

The book that's in is a "gardening journal" I bought in 2010.  It's a blank book, that isn't actually completely blank.  But  I think that's like page two.  As you can see, I am also jotting down where things go, and not everything has a home yet.  So, I sketched out the backyard so we can start thinking about it, thusly...

Good thing we didn't waste money on art school!
Totally not to any kind of logical scale.

That is as you stand on the deck looking out towards the back.  I have a good sense of where the annual herbs should go, in pots on the deck.  Everything else is up in the air, as I'm thinking of moving perennial herbs to the flower bed around the deck...my HOPE is they can be sort of shaded by the flowers that are there while they get established, and over the winter, and then been fairly self-sufficient after that.  The perennials don't seem to do really well over the winter in the containers.

It was threatening rain, so I didn't do much more before work.  I pulled some thyme that overwintered to start drying some more.  I love the way my hands smell after I do that!  Tomorrow morning I will  be all about the weeding and getting of the things ready.  Monday, Jim doesn't work, so that will likely be when the heavier work is getting done.  He's going to make me at least one new bed, maybe two to replace the pallets (to the right of the oak, and then above that one).

I have filled the hummingbird feeders, and one of the plants is a hummingbird attractant, so we shall wait.  I also have a way longer tale to tell you about our epic battle between a hawk and some squirrels, but that will have to wait for another time.

I Did One Thing Right This Summer...

... But I will get to that in the minute.

We had three mornings in a row of me having to scrape my windows, and one was right after a hard frost.  And thus, summer has come to an end.  The Celts called it Samhain (SOW-ayn, roughly, translates to "summer's end") and as many know it's calendered on November 1.  Mother Nature, however, has her own calendar, so Samhain came to my back 40 feet this past weekend.  So Sunday, after yoga, I set about the task of closing the garden for the season.

On Saturday, with foreknowledge of the coming hard frost, I gathered the last of the late tomatoes, green or not, from their vines.  Sunday was cool, in the upper 40s but with a coat, earmuffs and the occasional hot flash I was perfectly fine.  I pulled the broccoli I had allowed to bolt, the leftover vines of the tomatoes and peppers, the Brussel sprouts that got worms so never sprouted, and put those all into the yard waste bin.  I decided at first to leave the weeds and such in the beds over the winter, to at least hold the soil in case of high winds. I turned my attention then to my compost bin.

Now, I had started to turn it at one point but was thwarted by bees... I just noticed I didn't blog about that!  Long story short:

Dry compost leads to bumble bees. They are cute, fuzzy, slow, and not aggressive...they were annoyed and buzzing, but I decided to leave them alone.  Rain was coming, so I left the last layer open in hopes they'd move out.

Rain happened and the bumblebees did indeed move out.  Sadly, they had sublet their space to some yellow jackets I think.  I don't know they were smaller, faster, definitely not as cute, and were way more aggressive.  I only got stung once, but that was quite enough of dealing with compost for the season.  (Other than occasionally putting stuff in it, but it had gotten full so even that had stopped).


Okay, back to this past weekend.  I figured the frost had taken care of any stinging things, so decided to at least move things so the bin was together.  I got to the middle of the larger part and things were starting to look good.  Like dirt, rather than paper, eggshells, miscellaneous vegetables. Slightly encouraged I kept going until I got to the last level and lo and behold there it was.  Brown, crumbly, ...COMPOST!  I had done it!  SOMETHING this summer had gone right.

Immediately, I decided to pull weeds and rake straw out of beds and start spreading.  I got two of the three beds done that way before I ran out, so it wasn't MUCH, but it was there.  I got done with that and put the bin back together, feeling fairly pleased with myself.  My plan now is to put raked leaves over those beds to protect them (the rest into the compost bin) and when I turn compost in the spring, see what I can add, especially to bed number three.

Also, our apple tree continues to give us proper size apples.  We now need to learn how to manage them so they don't get diseased.

Harvest time is a time of reflection, and there's certainly been a lot of that in a lot of areas.  As far as the back 40 goes, "Hands off gardening" has to come to an end.  If I had noticed the parasites on the Brussel sprouts, if I had done a few other things, the yield may have been less frustrating.  So next year, my hope is to be a bit more involved rather than JUST letting nature take its course.

I'm considering renaming the blog, too.  I named it thusly because it was my hope that getting Janet involved would help, but Alzheimer's has it's own idea, and it's own timeline, and there's nothing that one can do to change that.  But we'll see...I will let that incubate over the winter.

Happy Samhain!

And there we have it.

On June 11, I had started a new post entitled "Managing the Inevitable."  In it, I updated Janet's recent and abrupt change and decline in Alzheimer's symptoms. She had become combative, would refuse food and medicine (but could usually be cajoled into them).  She was packing her stuff in a very haphazard disorganized fashion because her nephew (she believed) was coming to take her to her sister's.

We got emergency nursing home placement.  She got sick.  She went to the ER, then ICU.  She recovered some.  We placed her in our first choice nursing home.  The first night she fell trying to get out of bed.  That afternoon she was gone.  June 29, 2015.  I hadn't yet adjusted to her being across town, but at least then I could check in and see her.  Now I can't even do that.

And that's nothing compared to my husband and his sister's pain.

I mentioned before, Alzheimer's is more than just memory loss.  It attacks all parts of the brain; even those parts that are responsible for things like being hungry and breathing and the like.

But...if I am at least grateful for two things.

1.She had a good visit with her son and daughter and granddaughter the day before.  She knew who they were.

2.  She did not decline further.  She will not be in that line of people at the nursing home, staring off into space, not knowing where they are, who they are.  Alzheimer's didn't beat her after all.

The last few weeks...months, really... have been a blur.  But life requires we move on, as it keeps happening regardless.  I see events happening that I may have once been invited to, but care-giving-related invitation declines have seen me fall off many 'must invite' lists.  I need to get back to social life.

AND, back to my garden, which actually has been happening in the midst of all the other.  I could read back to see what I've already talked about, but instead I'll just state where we are.  Today Jim and I staked the tomatoes and peppers.  The tomatoes had outgrown the little thingies I had, so we got proper stakes for them.  The rain has left them loaded with green fruit, so hopefully the dry and heat of this coming week will start the ripening process.  there are blossoms on the peppers, too.  I normally don't stake them, but rain keeps beating them down.

The zucchini and squash are doing .... so-so.  I've gotten two zucchinis and one squash off two plants of each.  It looks the rain just smashed the plants completely, so we'll see what the dry spell does.

I think I am going to have to give up on broccoli.  I never get the big bunches I see in stores, and it bolts really quickly.  The Brussel sprouts are starting to form though.  They seem to take forever, though, so I may want to rethink them both in favor of something that produces well and doesn't take so long.

I did finally plant beans and they have sprouted up nicely.  Allegedly there is no trellising required for these (but we shall keep an eye on that).

Strawberries and raspberries are sort of mediocre this year, but the apple tree is LOADED.  We don't spray so they aren't "pretty" but they are definitely bigger this year than last, and more plentiful.  One of these years we will look at the 'organic apple growing' sites and figure out what we're doing.  Jim also finally planted our grape vine, so hopefully it's not too late for the plant to survive, even if we don't get grapes this year.

Right now the bumper crop is cucumbers, which are following the 'three years to success' model that almost everything else has.  Of course, I was growing them for Janet, who LOVED them.  I see relish in my future.

Also in addition to the tomato stakes on our trip to Lowe's, we got birdseed.  I need to fill the birdfeeder (edit: done) and refill the hummingbird feeders.  Janet was insistent about those.

Herbs are drying in the window, but I need to get those taken down and stored so I can hang more.

The cicadas are singing, signifying for me the beginning of Lughnasadh, and now the hope for having things to can and preserve.  While my hope is only for hobby's sake, it's a small snippet of how people must have felt this time of year.  I know my garden this year isn't going to do much (survival on apples, tomatoes, and cucumbers would not be pleasant!) so already we are planning for next year.  The last remaining pallets will be replaced with actual raised beds, and maybe one more.  I'm also not using straw as a mulch again.  It may keep weeds down, but those that do land get hopelessly tangled with the straw.  But, those are all things for future posts.

Spring Sprang

A while back actually, and I'm woefully behind.

Alzheimer's a terrible, terrible disease.  I know all lingering lengthy diseases are, and most people know that.  Although they'll say "yeah, my mom forgets a lot too."  Or worse, make a joke about how their forgetfulness is early-onset.  Um...no.  No, it's not.  And it isn't funny.  It's more than just forgetfulness.  It's the complete personality transference that takes place from, let's say, a sweet, funny, kind woman to ... well, someone who isn't that.  And who realizes that it's happening, and can't do anything about it.

The latest memory that keeps recirculating is about her father and hummingbird feeders.  She said he would string them along a line from the back of their house out to "that tree."  They have to have multiple feeders because they are "mean little things."  She's not wrong.  They are very territorial.  In February then, I took her to Anderson's and she picked out two more hummingbird feeders.  We put them up this weekend...well, I did.  I showed her a few times where they are and heard the story again and again.  Two are in the flower garden around the deck, and one is hanging in the birch tree.

Planting progresses as we try and time things with the weather.  I bought a grapevine, dill, and parsley from the botany class at school.  We got broccoli and brussel sprouts and onions, and then...well, you know, kinda waited.  Meanwhile life continued.  Then this past weekend "Holy crap, we have to plant that stuff!"

I did try the whole "use water jugs as mini greenhouses" as went around Facebook a while back. While I did get a late start I can now definitively say that it did not work.  Or maybe it did. I'll just keep them together until I don't I guess, just to see if they ever take root.  It could have just been old seeds, I suppose.  I planted broccoli, onions, and tomatoes.  I wrote on the jug, but then rain, snow, and sun have successfully removed the labels so I have no idea what is in what.

We now have the onions in one of the whiskey half-barrels. Dill and parsley are in one pot and going to be transferred to the pollinator garden once we have that earth turned.  Lettuce and spinach seeds are in and hopefully growing under ground because they aren't sprouting yet.  (I planted them a couple of weeks ago).  The strawberries are full of pink blooms and already some little berries are visible.  The apple tree has teeny little apples on it even!  I planted the Brussel sprouts and broccoli yesterday.  This year I got straw (from mom and dad's Thanksgiving yard decorations), and have used that for mulch.  I will add that to the other beds too, and then the rest goes in the compost.

Last Harvest

I always think to myself, "Self, you should blog."  But there's just not much to blog about with the ol' back 40 feet.

(I should really measure that out some day.)

Today, though I did things.  The nights are getting cooler, and we've come perilously close to our first frost, but not quite yet.  Folklore in Ireland and Scotland says that you need to get all the crops in before the first frost; anything left after that belongs to some spirit or another (it seems to vary by region) and good grief you don't want to take it from them!  That way lies bad stuff.

When I got home, then, I got dinner started (turkey meatloaf...yum), and headed outside.  First task was to take down the beans from the poles.  There were some beans that had grown since the last picking, so those all went in a bowl.  Some may be okay for eating...but the rest I think I shall save for seed.  In all likelihood I have more than I need, so if anyone is interested in trading, or just having some bean seeds.  They tasted good and vined with very little assistance.  If you've been following you know of my very "hands off" (read: lazy) approach to gardening, so the fact they were so easy is a definitely plus.  I suppose I should see if I can find what variety they were.  I may still have the seed pouch, but I wouldn't be so confident about that.

Next I hit the sunflowers.  I managed to get three large heads and one medium sized head that are FULL of seeds.  I can't wait to grab those all and roast them for Jim.

Finally, it was time to grab the rest of the brussel sprouts. I pulled all the stalks and cut the leaves off into the compost.  (That's where the bean stalks went too.)  The stalks are sitting on the porch on the table next to the sunflower heads so I can get the sprouts off of them tomorrow, hopefully.  Then the remaining stalks will go into the compost as well.

Now I have a full compost bin, but it is full of greens.  I need Jim to rip up the many cardboard boxes in the garage and put those in there.

I left the tomatoes and bell peppers in.  I want to pull the green tomatoes off and then see what happens.  And, the strawberries have some late berries that will be a nice dessert at some point.  I guess that could have been tonight, but time was up.

To review...my second harvest since this experiment began was...lackluster.  I  did get six pints of zucchini canned, and I have a boatload of strawberries in the freezer to be jam.  But I got nowhere near the tomatoes and bell peppers of last year.  Similarly, while I did well, with rosemary, the remaining herbs were not so great.  I am not entirely sure what I did differently, so I will just chalk it up to the fickleness of Mother Nature.  This does mean the home made Yule baskets may be a bit light in the food department, but I think that's okay.  The point is to give of myself and what I have, and if that's a whole lot of zucchini bread and strawberry jam (not a bad combination, actually), then that's what it is.

I am already thinking ahead to next year, of course.  I certainly want to get with Misty about the grapes, and then talk to Jim about, yes, another bed.  I've learned that with some things you can't wait -- if they bolt or get beyond ripe, then you've wasted that garden space, and gotten no food out of it.

The wheel has turned, and the signs of autumn are everywhere.  I would like to get some straw (I don't know why...I just do) to cover all the beds with a nice blanket (that will also decompose), so they can be ready to go for spring.

Have a great autumn!

First Harvest!

Well, it has actually been happening for a while now, but the zucchini is putting out fruit like you wouldn't believe and they are BIG.  It's like I'll check in the morning, and there are little or no zucchini, and then later I'll look and holy COW!  I anticipate a lot of zucchini bread in my future.

The raspberries have finally started to come in, but this looks like it will be a low harvest year for those.  Strawberries have stopped, but then there was new foliage and new blooms, so perhaps a second harvest on those.  One of the neighborhood kids LOVES strawberries and has occasionally asked to help me pick them, although I haven't seen him since I got back from Starwood.  He is very interested in strawberry jam, however.  We have also gotten about half a serving of green beans.  And there may finally be sprouts on the brussels.

It is time to take in the last of the lettuce, I think and maybe throw some more seeds out to 'see what happens.'  The tomatoes and peppers are getting a slow start, but I anticipate that will fix itself.  Two of the cucumber plants look like they'll not make it and the bean seeds I planted later only yielded two plants that are just kinda...there.  I do still have a pretty bean pyramid structure ready for them, in case they take off.

Tonight, therefore, we'll be celebrating our first harvest, commonly referred to among druidy parts as Lughnasadh.  The calendar says that is on Aug 1, but in keeping with my plan discussed elsewhere of going with the energy of the land, we're doing it today.  I had hoped to time it with the tomatoes or the sunflowers but as those both got in later than anticipated, that may put it after the Equinox! As part of that, we'll be sacrificing last year's Corn Dolly to the fire, and blessing the new one I just finished making.  Here is last year's:

The shawl she has on was one of my first crochet attempts last year.  She's made of corn husks not from corn I grew (because I don't...yet) but from the area.  Ohio is corn country (some call it maize) and so that's what I use.  Because it's for our land, I augmented it with a piece of bean stalk, and some flowers and herbs we're growing.

Here is next year's.  She is unadorned, as of yet.

Hopefully this will bring on the harvest of many things

Janet had a visit with a social worker to get her on a program whereby they will take her to "adult day care" five days a week and maybe get some other assistance.  It's a temporary fix, however, as she continues to decline.  Today was a good day though.  We went to Goodwill so she could drop of clothes, because "Someone else might get some use out of them."  Then to Walgreen's so she could get some Gas X and finally, Tim Hortons.  Coffee and a doughnut has become our thing while running errands.

I sat outside for a bit after dinner, eating my new favorite dessert of cherries and almonds, listening to the birds.  We appear to have a late nest of robins, as a mother (I'm guessing) and juvenile were bipping around the yard.  They need to get on that eating of bugs they are allegedly so good at.

I had hoped she would participate some in the evening festivities, mainly distributing fairies and placing Elsie.  I purchased the fairies when we bought the house and hoped to decorate the yard with them.  Finally the yard feels like a place worth decorating.

I also found a place for Elsie the Owl.  Elsie had been sitting by the backdoor, looking like an extra cat out of the corner of an eye.  Elsie's head also had the eerie habit of spinning around for no damn good reason.  Sure, maybe it was slightly nudged by someone as they walked by, but it just wouldn't stop.   The first time it did that, Jim said, "Oh, that thing needs to GO."  Agreed, and now she's outside where hopefully she can freak out whatever is eating the flowers.

Regardless, Janet didn't feel good, which she blamed on having to take too much insulin (really it's because her glucose is too high, but whatever.  Picking battles.)  Jim came home and ate, we had a fire, we made offerings and got omens.  The wheel keeps turning.

Bolting for Solstice

From Wikipedia:

Bolting is when agricultural and horticultural crops prematurely produce a flowering stem (or stems) before the crop is harvested, in a natural attempt to produce seeds and hence reproduce. These flowering stems are usually vigorous extensions of existing leaf-bearing stems, and in order to produce them, a plant diverts resources away from producing the edible parts such as leaves or roots, resulting in a poor quality harvest from the grower's point of view. Plants that have produced flowering stems in this way are said to have bolted.



From me: 

Bolting is when I realize I am not getting fresh broccoli this season.

This past few weeks I have learned about bolting.  Both my spinach and my broccoli did so.  I managed to salvage enough spinach leaves to get barely two servings for Janet and I.  Despite warnings that the leaves would be tough, they were fine.  I credit the healing power of bacon grease.  Bacon fixes all things.  That and a little lemon juice, then crumble the bacon used to get the grease from, ta da! Delish.

I am not so lucky with the broccoli.  I cut everything off in the empty hope that maybe it will sprout anew.  
My head lettuce also liquified from the insides out.

For those keeping score that's a yield of 2 servings of spinach out of six plants, no broccoli out of six and no head lettuce out of six. 

Ah well. 

The strawberries however were going like gangbusters, until yesterday.  We finally have raspberries on the plants, and tiny little apples.  I didn't think we'd get any apples, as I thought the frost killed all the blossoms.  

This past weekend we finally finished planting everything we have to plant.  After I pulled the spinach and slimy lettuce, there was room to plant the tomatoes and bell peppers.  I bought a yellow squash and a zucchini so I will at least get three of one or the other.  (For those who didn't watch the video, I lost track of which plant was what, so I have no idea whether I've already planted two zucchinis or two squashes).  The beans are looking good so I put up the twine scaffolding I had last year.  Janet came out and turned over the onion leaves so they would bulb.  

The herb pots have expanded.  In the big one I put basil, oregano, and parsley, and then the smaller ones have rosemary, lavender, and a LOT of sweet woodruff.  I got one plant from a friend and then bought what ended up being six more at Dill's. They are small enough that I can bring them inside over the winter, but I do want to get another large planter.  While I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all the woodruff, there was one benefit.  When it rained a little bit ago and I went outside, the scent was AMAZING.

Really, the only thing left is finding some cucumbers we can make pickles out of, and then maybe some more beans.  We have one more pallet and some dirt, so we shall be good.

Last night we opened the deck in style with an impromptu cookout.  Three friends came over spur of the moment.  Janet made lemonade, showing me how to do it, and she ate with us.  The lights are on the canopy, torches were filled and lit, and it was basically THE perfect evening.  The only thing that would have been better would have been the fire lit, but I need to fix up the firepit.  That is the plan for this evening. Maybe once that is all done we'll take another video tour so you can see how stuff has changed.

In other news, Janet bought an owl.  Not a real one, one of the garden ones used to deter pests.  She said "Owls are good people," and since it's both her money and something with which I totally agree, I didn't argue.  She named it Elsie after her best friend.  Elsie was also an asshole, I hear.  Right now the owl is sitting inside as we decide what to do with her.  She continues to freak us out, as she looks like a cat...or...something....

We have reached the point in this odyssey where outside assistance with her is necessary.  We have someone coming for an assessment in July.  While it will be nice for help, this is just an unpleasant reminder that things are not going to get better.  Ever.  And that is heartbreaking.

But....The garden still grows, and I still get stories, and help, and occasionally little gems of wisdom. When she told me about the owl she tried to keep as a pet, I showed her my shelf of owl figurines, and that made her smile. 

Solstice is in a few days and I will be at festival.  Hopefully everyone will take care of the garden while I'm gone.  May the blessings of the shining sun be upon you and yours!