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!!

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..)

Welcome to My Garden!

Hello there!

The purpose of this blog is two fold.  First, I want to document the things I do in my garden, what works, what didn't, when I plant things, when I harvest them, that sort of thing.  Second, I have about a million questions that I've been posting on Facebook and figured I could post them here too.

Also, I like blogging.

I should probably talk a little bit about myself and my garden and yard.  I live in the southeaster suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, and so I have a bit of yard in which to plant stuff. The question has been for a while "What stuff?" and it's been an ongoing process in the five-six years we have lived there. We have done a few things, but it's just been in the last year or so that a firm plan has developed.

I had planned to start this blog when I started this year's garden, however, much like this year's garden, I'm getting kind of a late start.  This introductory post will thus serve also as a summary to date of what's been done.

The yard itself faces south, and is about 1600-1800 square feet.  It slopes a bit downward, especially in the southwestern corner.  That is the location of our future pond.  So far I have:

• One 4' x 6' bed of onions and potatoes (6) planted in early May
• One 4' x 6' bed of tomatoes (3) and peppers (3) just planted this week
• Raspberry bushes planted I think our second year there
• One dwarf Fuji apple tree that produces teeny-tiny apples and I believe has been mislabeled, planted our second year
• A pot on the deck with basil, oregano, thyme, sweet woodruff, lavender, rosemary, and parsley, planted around May 15.

Future plans include:

• A third 4' x 6' bed for beans, zucchini, squash, broccoli or whatever else
• Two pots for radishes and carrots
• 4 pallets to turn in to lettuce and spinach tepee kind of things 
• One pallet for strawberries
• Space for a grape arbor

Current "challenges"

• Ants, ants, ANTS everywhere.  The entire subdivision is built on what might be the world's largest ant colony.  I will be picking up diatomaceous earth as soon as my local place gets some in.
• Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars have eaten my parsley
• The usual...time, money, etc.

We do also have plans for more decorative flower beds and such, but we have decided that food gardens are first.  While I am hoping to get a great deal of our food during the summer and into the fall (I have successfully canned tomatoes in the past), I think it will be a while on our learning curve before we can rely on that. As we are only a family of three adults (me, my spouse, and his mother), it might be barely enough.  Eventually I would love to live out on many acres so I can have goats and chickens.  We can have three chickens however once we get all the other things set up, I don't know that we will have room for them.  We cannot have goats in the city limits. 

I digress.  I would love to be fairly sustainable, and maybe we will get that way, but I'm not going to obsess over it.  We also have had rabbits off and on, and while I don't really want them to have all my crops, I'm not going to obsess about that either.  Kroger and Giant Eagle are right down the street, so we aren't going to starve.

The point of all this, really, is to get more in touch with the rhythm of the land that has allowed me to live on it for a time.  My husband and I are pagans, Druids, specifically; paying attention to the land and the cycles of the seasons is more than a hobby for us.  Being in touch with the Earth is our sacrament, and there's nothing I like better than digging my hands into the beds when I plant (no gloves), or sitting on my back deck or around our fire ring, with a glass of wine or horn of mead, with my spouse and my dog, and just feeling the energies.

That's what this little experiment is really all about.  I hope you join us for the ride and enjoy!

(Also big props to my friends Kim, Irisa, and Val for name suggestions.  One of Val's won!)