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.

Dandelions are DANDY

I actually have lots to update, but it requires pictures.  Suffice it to say the back 40 yards or so looks like one might actually be able to get a meal out of there.  Or at least side dishes.  Pictures forthcoming.

I need to write this part down before I forget.  I got a recipe off the Interwebs for dandelion jelly.  Now, my yard has a FINE crop of dandelions in it, so I decided to start ripping their little heads off, for to make some jelly.  I sat in the side yard, pulled however many I could reach and didn't look too new or too old. I also tried to get ones that didn't have ants all over them, but that soon proved impossible.  Our entire subdivision is built on an anthill.  Once I cleared all that I could reach, I'd scootch down a bit and clear another space. I made pretty good progress, but I had no idea how much I had.  I needed two cups of petals, which estimated it at four cups of leaves.  Eventually I got bored in the side yard and moved to the front.

Janet came out and saw me and gave me that look she does.  It's the look Jim and I get when we're doing something that she doesn't recognize as sane.  Like when I explained to her why there were bones sunbleaching on the deck, and egg shells in a plastic container waiting to be crushed.  (Doesn't everyone do that?)  So I explained I was going to make dandelion jelly.  That seemed to sort of be okay with her, and she proceeded to tell me about her dad making dandelion wine.  And he'd hide it all over the place because her mom (who called it "idiot juice") didn't like that he drank it.  And she broke every bottle she could find.  And she and her sister found some and drank it and it sat them on their ass, it did.

Then my friend, Misty, came over.  Misty is a cool horticulturalist who I've added to my list of "why won't this work in my garden!" calls.  Anyway, she stopped by and proceeded to pick dandelion heads and so did Janet.

At this point, I envisioned my neighbors looking out the window, at the weirdo hippies on the curb, peering through their curtain.  "NOW what are they doing?"

We discussed harvesting the leaves of that and the two kinds of plantain I have growing in my yard, but I didn't feel like doing that.  Janet, with a new person to talk to, told of her father and his dandelion wine, and her mother and the idiot juice, and that it would sit you on your ass.  It was the first time Misty heard it all.  For me it was the zillionth.  No matter, it gets Janet remembering, and that's the important part.

We went around back and Misty gave me composting advice.  She actually got me REALLY excited about composting.  In fact, we are rearranging our entire kitchen waste disposal system.  The big trash can is going to become recycling.  The little can (it's probably about a half-gallon in size) is going to be composting scraps.  That leaves one of those free grocery bags you get at Giant Eagle for anything not compostable or recyclable, which I believe is not that much in a given week, but would need to be taken out daily.

Anyway, we raked and small talked and composted, the three of us.  It was a perfectly lovely afternoon.  It's not been exactly smooth sailing in Alzheimer's land the past few days, but that day was about perfect.

I've not made the jelly or the wine yet. (Misty said she had a recipe for the wine which I'm still waiting for *hint hint* :) ) We ended up with about six quarters of dandelion heads, all in the freezer awaiting their fate, and I think that's way more than I need.  Hopefully, the freezer doesn't wilt them too much (but will kill any stray ants), but if it does, I have another crop ready to be harvested.

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

Update on Mom-in-Law and more Winter Garden Dreaming

I suppose, as I am sitting here bemoaning the briefest January thaw ever and wondering how hard Mother Nature is laughing at me about my last 'woohoo Imbolc' post, I should do an update on Janet.

(It also occurs to me, I should have pseudonymed her at some point, but it's too late now...)

She's actually still doing fairly well, all things considered.  She knows her name, knows our names, takes care of breakfast, lunch, and dinner as needed.  She does her laundry, she cleans her room and bathroom.  She can still bathe and basically take care of herself.  We did get her a chair for the shower and a hand held shower head to make it easier on her.  There were a couple of other minor adjustments to living arrangements that I can't remember right now.

She does look to us a bit more for validation.  She will ask to verify the date and day of the week, and nine times out of ten, she is right.  She gets numbers more and more confused in her speech, and possibly in her mind as well.  There have been some near misses involving money.  She misplaces things, and typically I find them for her, usually very quickly.  They just aren't in the first place she looks so she gets mad at herself and just stops looking.  She blames it on her age.  Of course, she laughed the other day when it took me twenty minutes to find my coffee cup.

J:  "Oh, you do that too?"
L:  "Yes...at least three times a day."
J:  "Well, I don't feel so bad, then."

We've taken over helping her to pay her bills, largely because she has cataracts and a hard time seeing.  Those are getting taken care of in March.  The larger issue though is at night, she has gotten very confused over her evening insulin shot.  It's been the same number of units for, well, ever.  However lately we have to help her set the number on the insulin pen, and even one day had to explain to her how the pen is used.  She hasn't had this problem (she says) for her post-meal shots, though.  It's very concerning, as we can't be there during the day to monitor it or help her out if she gets confused.

It would be hard for someone with cataracts to see the numbers on, so we are hopeful that the cataract surgeries will fix it.  If it doesn't, it is shocking how quickly it came on.  One day everything was fine, the next it wasn't.  It makes me wonder what will be next, and if we'll be home to help, or even recognize it when it does.

BUT, we had good holidays I think.  We splurged and bought an upright freezer for the garage.  Janet paid half (at her insistence).  It's large and beautiful and we can see everything in it.  The crappy old chest freezer is dead in the garage.  It had a good life.

Already I am thinking about all the things I can put in it this harvest.  Last year I didn't care too much about yield for freezing because where would we put it?  Now, however, we can put it in the big gloriousness in my garage.

AND...gentle reader, if you have made it this far, I am the proud owner of a PRESSURE CANNER! Thanks to mom and dad for Giftmas.  I'm ever more excited for spring to get here so that planting can happen, then growing, then harvesting and preserving!

In sum: Everyone's hanging in and waiting for spring.

An Early Imbolc

Well, this little experiment didn't go so well.

I mean the blogging part.  The garden was pretty good.  When all was said and done we got 16 pints of tomatos canned and in the pantry.  We had enough to make salsa as gifts for the holidays.  In addition to salsa, there was apple mint jelly and raspberry jelly.  I have some herbs frozen and dried.  I also have some green peppers frozen.  I think we might have about 6 smallish onions left in the basement,

Much of the winter so far I spent with Seamus focusing on other things, but occasionally returning to what we'll be doing out back.  Pond, grape arbor, another bed or two... all are things in the future.  And chickens!

Today though, is Imbolc.  I think.  I know what you're saying. Imbolc isn't until February 1!  Well, some of you. Others are saying "What is Imbolc?"  Let me get to that first.

Imbolc is spelled in many ways and gets translated a few ways as well.  One popular one is "in the belly," and refers to when the sheep would begin lactating before their lambs were born.  You thus had one way of judging how big a flock you were going to have and you could also get some much needed fresh protein from the milk.  Don't think we haven't had fun with a religion that celebrates sheep lactation.

Another association with Imbolc is that this is when the ground thaws and you can begin working the soil.  It's going to freeze again, so hold those tomatoes.

Okay, that's the really quick-and-dirty "What is Imbolc."  Now to bring everything back together, in Ohio we typically have a midwinter thaw and it usually falls at the end of January or beginning of February.  Really close to the calendar Imbolc.  I have decided that in my "listen to my land" philosophy that whenever that happens, that day is Imbolc.

It's been really warm the past few days, in the high 40s and even low 50s fairly consistently.  A very welcome change from the polar vortex last week.  I went for a run today, even, outside. It was the first time I've ever run in temperatures below 60 degrees, but it was so sunny and I had been cooped up in a windowless office for about six hours.  As I ran, I came to the conclusion that today, indeed, was Imbolc.  When I got home, I wasn't yet ready to be indoors, so I put on some longer pants and my wellies and hit the back yard.  Gus came too, so he got some much needed running around time.  I brought a packet of lettuce seeds with me, found the garden rake, and chose one of the smaller pallets.  I pulled out the old tomato and muskmelon vines (we got no muskmelons) and cleared away some of the neighbor's willow leaves.  The soil was damp and cold and sticky.  I broke it up with the rake and then with little to no planning, sprinkled seeds in the eight open areas of the pallet, covering them up.

They may not grow.  But if they do, we'll get some wonderful lettuce in the spring.  Today was the reminder that the new growing season is not that far away.