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 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!

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.

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.

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!

Video tour!

Hopefully!  I'm experimenting with this.  I thought, instead of taking a bunch of pictures...why not video?  So let's see if this works:

I did harvest the broccoli.  The stuff that had NOT gone to seed is about worth MAYBE one salad topping's worth of broccoli, but if I'm right (which I am probably not) there will be more coming.

Spring has sprung! No, this time we mean it!

When we last left our intrepid gardening heroine, she had started some seeds in some pots, being somewhat impatient for the season to start.  A few days ago, this is what those pots look like.

On the left we have two spindly zucchini plants and then a pot of evening primrose that Jim got me because I wanted flowers, dammit.  I need to deadhead them in this picture.  (And...I still do).  In the right tray up top are two very healthy looking cucumber plants, and two yellow squash below those.  The loan pot of dirty has four spinach seeds with only one tiny plant having germinated and made it through the soil.  It hasn't really done much of anything else, so I am thinking those spinach seeds are a bust.

I just checked on the lettuce seeds I sowed during one of the thaws, and there are tiny little sprouts coming up.  I assume they are lettuce plants and not weeds, since they're in a row.  They're all very close together too, which means either I will need to weed them, or I will just let them fight out, and see who survives.  Kind of like Lettuce Highlander.

This past weekend the weather finally broke, and we think for good.  It's still very windy.  On Saturday I asked Janet to go with me to Dills Greenhouse and look for plants.  She said yes, and it ended up being somewhat cold and rainy, of course. Still we muddled through and came home with vegetables!  I got broccoli, brussel sprouts, lettuce, and spinach small plants, and then also some onion starts and a potato start.  Janet insists I did the potatoes wrong last year, and give that we only got about six of them, she's probably right. She has vowed to help me this year.  I also got a small bag of birdseed, then Janet bought me coffee and a doughnut at Tim Horton's on the way home.

Sunday afternoon was planting time.  It felt SO GOOD to get my hands in the dirt, and, predictably, I made a huge mess of myself.  I have probably mentioned before I cook and garden the same way: I get stuff everywhere.  At the end of it though, this is what I got.

(I tried to do a side by side thing with the pictures but it wouldn't let me....)

So, above, we have brussel sprouts and broccoli.  I think the broccoli is on the left.  But I am not sure.  I assume it will become fairly obvious.  Below is spinach (across the top there) and lettuce (along the bottom).

It was at this point that I learned two things.  The first I learned through various people.  While all of the things I planted are indeed "cold weather crops," they are not necessarily frost resistent, and I would still have to watch when we get the inevitable frost.  Apparently they are happy in cold weather but still not resistant unless they are in seed form.  Oh well. They don't look that big in the pictures, however, they were way too big to be hanging out inside in their seed pots until May 15.  

Fortunately Jim was going to be home which mean Jim was going to shopping with Janet at some point.  I asked him to grab me some cheap fitted sheets, queen or king size.  (They would have been going to Odd Lots or the Dollar Store.)  Janet said that wasn't necessary; she had some old sheets I could use.  She insisted on washing them first.  We explained they are just going to be going outside in the garden, but when I got home the next day, there they were.  Washed.  She's adorable.

The other thing I learned was that I had completely misread how many beds I have.  I have one more deepish bed, and still need to plant the things in the pots, the onions and potatoes I had just bought, and then the ubiquitous tomatoes and peppers.  I do have three more pallets, but they're only about three inches deep, if that (and one has my Lettuce Death Match contestants in it).  Although I was able to raise two tomato plants in pallets last year, so maybe they can go there.  Or maybe Jim will build me another bed.

I did this morning thing of a solution for the onions.  My companion planting chart says they will do well with any of the plants I have in there now, so I think I will place them in between the rows.  Maybe I'll grab some more, as twelve onions will NOT last this family long.  

All we are waiting for now is May.  My friend Teresa and I are going to exchange some plants/seeds soon and then everything can go about the business of growing.  Tomorrow is supposed to be very nice so after work I think I will do some major raking of the kindling the neighbors trees have dropped into the yard.

Stories and pots

Today, I finally got around to planting things with the soil I got from Beth a few weeks ago.  I planted two seeds each of zucchini, squash, and cucumber, and then four seeds of spinach.

The hope, obviously, is they will sprout and I can plant them in the garden when the time comes.  Since that's a good two months away, at least, they should be ready to go, I hope.

The spinach of course can maybe go out earlier, and the jury is still out on the lettuce seeds I planted during one of the thaws.

Lots of hope in that there introduction.  But that is the point of the season.  We hope things will grow that we plant.  We hope we are able to do all the things we've dreamed about doing this winter.  Heck, the way this winter has gone, we just hope it does end, and these few days above 40 degrees aren't just teasers.

But inside needs to be attended to as well.  Jim and I are participating in something called "40 Bags in 40 Days."  It's a Lent-inspired thing, where instead of giving up chocolate or Facebook, people are encouraged to fill one trashbag per day.  We could certainly use the decluttering, that's for sure.  We are starting indoors, the basement and the loft.  So far, despite get a late start, we've filled seven trashbags.  After we are done in here, it will hopefully be more securely warm enough to work in the backyard.  Under the deck and in the shed definitely need attention, and then there's the infamous garage.

The other day, Janet was talking about growing up.  If they didn't raise their own vegetables, she said, they would have starved.  We talked a bit about how people don't do that anymore.  I told her we're trying, and every year we get a little bit better.  She talked about the garden she used to have when she and Jim's dad were first married, and how her dad and mom knew all sorts of stuff.  I could tell she was melancholy; she said "We had a good life." I told her she did.  I haven't quite gotten the whole story memorized yet, but I'm getting there.  She tends to forget she's told me all that before, but it's not like I mind hearing it again.

We talked about what we wanted to plant and how to maybe get the potatoes to turn out better.  She once again said she'd help me, and that she liked to do that stuff.  I reflected back on her amazing ability to be scarce when I was going to go out and do something and smiled to myself, but I still told her that I would really like that.  It's not a lie, after all.

Hope.  Hope that she'll still be able to to help (as she wants) when the spring comes.  Hope that her disease has somehow been misdiagnosed and she's doing just fine, after all.  Hope that we have zucchini and squash to sit down to on a warm summer evening on the deck, with homemade pickles from our cucumbers.

It's all about the hope.

Spring around the corner

It doesn't seem like it though.  I just shoveled the driveway for the third time (total of four, Jim did one).

However, my friend Beth posted a picture of her hand lifting dirt out of a bag to be placed into seed pots, and it looked good.  Really, really good.  A few facebook messages later and I was on my way to her house after work in order to pick up her extra.  We talked gardening for a bit, and she gave me some hints and tips.  She saved her own seeds last year, and I think I might give it a try this year.  We'll be exchanging seedlings if they're successful and we have too many, and also the fruits of our labor (literally!).  This is how you do it people.  We only survive if we cooperate!

As I drove home in the snow, I felt better.  I was practically giddy when I got home.  I had dirt and I wasn't afraid to use it!  After shoveling snow and some coffee, I have liberated some clay pots from the deck, and they are now sitting on the dining room table, melting a bit.  Once it gets melted, I plan to dump it outside, and then get started.  There's a corner of the dining room where a TV tray (or two) can be set up and they can sit there.  It's a bit cool, but they can also get a lot of sunshine there.

Despite my hatred of shoveling, I have come to love winter.  Truly proper winter, with snow.  Not the endless bare and dry and bleak, or worse, ice upon ice.  Winter is hues of blue to me: The bright blue of a frigid clear sky; the deep blue of cloudless night with icy stars; the barely-there blue of piles of snow, which deepens as the sun sets, and fades as it rises.

Once inside, the smell of the jambalaya that had been simmering in the crock pot all morning (with my own tomatoes!), but I dutifully went to get the pots from under the table outside.  Some of them were frozen together and some had snow and ice inside that was not going to just come right out. They are currently thawing on the dining room table, as I said.  I am thinking of starting cucumbers, zucchini, and squash.  I will have to see what packets of seeds are still left.

I thought I'd also share pictures of the Back Forty Feet:

Ironically, this was taken I think two days after my declaration of an early Imbolc.  Mother Nature has a wonderful sense of humor.  I had planned to get close-ups, but changed my mind.  There are actually five beds in the shot.  There's a long pallet that's the left-most rectangle, which has strawberries which, last I could see, still had green leaves on them.  Directly next to that (I guess at kind of a downward angle) is a regular square pallet.  Last year it had two tomato plants and some muskmelon, that was gifted to me.  The muskmelon blossomed but no fruit.  The tomatoes did well.  This year it has my lettuce seeds.  Another gardener friend was doubtful that they'd sprout, since they were only covered with dirt, and now snow.  But, I figure they managed to survive growing kind of like that for millennia before we came along, so we'll just wait and see.

Above those (toward the back of the yard) are the three built beds. The farthest one in the back was the first one. Last year it had potatoes and onions, and then lettuce after that.  The lower left one was tomatoes and bell peppers and the one to the right had beans, zucchini, squash, and failed cucumbers.  They grew and vined and blossomed, but no fruit.

In the back corner are the raspberries.  Yes, you can also see the compost bin I still haven't quite figured out, and then the wheelbarrow that "someone" left out.  It has the remains of our topsoil from last year in it.  You can also see our fire pit and altar/bench/table (it serves many purposes).

This be the small herb portion on the deck.  Dead basil, and possibly not-so-dead rosemary and lavender. The two smaller pots are the ones I got to put parsley and dill in for the caterpillers I found.  Next year, we have plans for a butterfly garden, and the parsley and dill will go in there..

Not seen on your tour here:  apple tree that I was told wouldn't produce apples, but happily does, and the totally out of control mint plant.

Now I am eating the aforementioned jambalaya (which could be spicier), the spouse is home, the electric fireplace is on and I'm getting ready for the next week at school.  More snow is being called for