Finally! done with the leaves!

This weekend I got some much needed and appreciated help from my garden flunkie. He chipped up the last pile of leaves in the back garden and also in the front. While he was doing that nasty chore, I was free to do some other much needed tasks.

• I got the shade bed 90% weeded and about 1/2 of it mulched.
• I got all the chipped up leaves transferred to the '10 bin (compost bin for this years' leaves)
• the last-or, shall I say, current-batch of sticks bundled up for recycle.
  
• got the last logs of wood moved from pruning/culling trees over the raised beds.
• cleaned out the leaves from the sidewalk bed.
  
• planted the physocarpus shrubs along the driveway.
• planted the last bag of bulbs in the ribbon bed alongside the sidewalk
• gathered up all the plastic containers for recycle day.
• got the grass mowed on the 2nd level-looks really nice except for the pigpath that the gurls have carved into it!
• stopped our rickety, temporary outdoor kitchen counter from wobbling.
  
• replaced the door stop on the sliding glass door in the hot tub room.
• cut back the russian sage, the grasses, and caryopteris in the front.
  

Lastly, I tidied up the area to the right of the raised beds. I had already re-located the metal lawn edging to curve around to the rear of the beds, so I planted three boxwood 'Green Velvet' and trimmed out the edging with the red daylilies. I also re-planted all the bits and pieces of perennials that were waiting for a permanent home after I had gotten them out of the way of the raised bed install. Now all I need is some mulc and it should look fairly decent over there.

Since I was in rehab mode for this area, I decided to pull out the ivy from the steps and re-plant the treds with dwarf mondo grass. Hopefully this plant will fill out better and faster than the ivy-which was quite dissappointing, I must say.

And, the best work of the whole weekend? A New Gas Grill!
We were too impatient to wait for the store to put it together, so, after a solid two hours of assembly, we are happy to announce that we can actually cook on this thing!

I will post some images later, when I have more time. Also, check out my new blog page : Image of my Father"

Another Sunny Day

I so enjoy looking out my windows to see the daffodils in bloom. Every room in the house affords a great splash of yellow and green. Even though it is only in the low 40's (F), the sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home, as the song goes. No matter what task or chore is ahead of me, The sun never ceases to make things better.

Spring and Fall always seems like a time to stop and reflect on life; and how precious it all is. It is both melancholy and reassuring at the same time; the death of winter on top of the birth of spring. I guess it is all about balance; of remembering what is lost, and being grateful for what is.

I came across the following quote that really resonated with me:

"From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity."
--Edvard Munch

So, every flower I smell, each gust of wind, and each ray of sunshine on my face must be from the good side of Eternity.

Ok, enough of being maudlin; time to rake some leaves!

Rainy Day Baking

Woke up to rain today-and an aching back and legs. The cause of my pain and suffering?

Leaves

Yes, leaves-the bane of my existence. The good news is that two weekly attacks on the little nasty buggers has reduced their numbers to just one pile. I can now enjoy looking at all the daffodils coming into bloom without grimacing at the piles of brown marring the whole picture.



The battle is not without causualties, though. My upper back and ankles took some direct hits, but nothing that my old friend NSAID can't cure. I just hobbled out of bed this morning and steamed my pathetic, middle aged self until I could reach down and actually touch my toes instead of wishing I could wash them.

My sore throat and stuffy nose is also a direct result from breathing in those nasty little beast's dying body bits. So, I decided to whine to my good friend and fellow co-worker LindaWithaY to play hooky from work. That is, of course, if SHE hadn't already called dibs; luckily for me, she had not (she'd rather have Easter off).



So, having only to hobble around my house instead of the greenhouse, I decided to ignore the desire to sit and watch TV all day and do some doggy baking.

I decided to make salmon treats, since I needed to use up the package I had in the freezer. Also in the freezer was a package of gluten-free baking mix-perfect for pups who may have wheat allergies.

As I didn't want DH to confuse salmon cookies with dog treats (he likes to sample the goods behind my back), I got out the cookie cutters. I chose two shapes; a bone and a fish.

Get it? Fish + bone = fishbones!
(I just crack myself up, sometimes)


I made three batches, so I should have some for a few weeks. These are the Very Good Gurl cookies, so they are just for pups on their best behavior. They are dairy, soy, and wheat free, so hopefully they will be good for Fi and her cousin, Brittany.

The garden is coming to life, once again. In the front garden, the Cornus mas tree is almost in full bloom. It has bright yellow flowers that one could mistaken for a forsythia, which also blooms near the same time. There are dark purple-black buds on the purple redbud tree, and most of the perennials are in various stages of poking through with some green leaves.

I have almost finished with the first round of clean-up in the back garden and then it is on to the front. I have taken a few stabs at it already. I did a bit of tidy-up on the sidewalk beds and put in some pansy and dianthus around the mailbox, but that's really just scratching the surface.

I am glad to report that I am holding fast to my Winter Solstice resolution of tackling one small job a day and one large job a week and giving myself credit for getting a task done-regardless of how big or small.


Some days, though, it's tough to look at the list as 1/2 full instead of overfilled.

Yes We....uhhh....Me Can

It's that time of year when I start to feel overwhelmed with all the tasks to be done.

The leftover leaves mock me and so, being the zen master of procrastination, I just look away and find some other job to do.

I did get the three raised vegetable beds finished, which I am quite pleased about. (I'll post some pics later). I filled them first with some leaf mold, then followed that with some composted wood chips, and topped it all off with some fresh garden soil.

Many, Many thanks to my parents for helping me construct the beds. We even made a vertical potato growing bin, which I am dying to get some 'taters into.

I quickly discovered that I need some fencing. It seems that someone has been digging big holes in my brand new beds. Gee, I wonder who would do such a thing???? I'll tell you who; it's that 3 foot long mole that I call a dog, is who.

After sniffing about, digging is her favorite hobby. That girl can DIG. She has already sniffed out, dug up and ATE three of the seed potatoes that I planted. That's 50% of my crop, right there. Darn varmits.


While the raised bed job was quite an accomplishment, there are so many spring jobs that still need attending to;

• I have some major pruning and whacking and weeding to do in the front.
• Gotta cut down all the ornamental grasses.
  
• tidy up the patio
• move the tree hydrangea to a new (say it: healthier) location.
• chop out the fence;
• get the fountain up and running.
• attend to the back border.
• fertilize the bulbs.
• mulch the rose bed.
• mulch the hill bed.
• I have to get some evergreen screens in between our house and the house next door that's up for sale.

And, I'm still lost on what to do with the area that my bedroom window looks out onto. It has to be something I can run over with a vehicle (gate is on this side), and something that can tolerate seasonal water runoff. All I have now is ditch lilies, which look fine, but there is large season of ugly to contend with. I am seriously thinking of some type of mint, or some other thing that is quick to get started in spring. It travels, I know, I know. But it has to be a contender with all the weed seeds that get washed into the rocks.

Oh, well, as I weed, I will pontificate further on it.

Seeds are up!

Well, not all of them, but the Swiss chard, the kale and the turnip greens are. The nasturtiums are big, tough, dry seeds, so I had to file the seed coat down and then soak them, so they will be the slowest to come up in this batch.

As I was figuring out my germination calender I discovered I was a month behind on onions! Oh, well, I will tackle them tomorrow and hope for the best this fall. I was really hoping for some bigger bulbs than last year, but even small, they are more fun to eat than what I can buy.

Of course, they are calling for more snow flurries on Wedesday. This is really getting irksome. I don't care how little it snows or how much-I WANT WARMTH! Okay... rant over.

Fiona just loved the snow, so at least someone in this household can appreciate all of Nature. She loves to root around in it, sniffing for who-knows-what.

Finally! A garden-themed post.

Since it was a balmy 39 degrees yesterday AND sunny, I decided it was time to do something-anything-in the garden. Granted I have started some cold weather crops in the house and also at the greenhouse, but that wasn't cutting it. So, I took my peas, the inoculant, a shovel, and a trowel out to the veggie bed and got to work.

I sowed three types of peas;
Burpeeana Early,
Dark Seeded Simpson; and
Dwarf Gray Sugar.

I flanked the 'Early' and 'Simpson' peas around the garlic rows, figuring the pea should be over by the time I'm ready to dig the garlic. I placed the dwarf type along the fence, since I will be ripping them out before I plant any pole beans later, in much warmer weather!

Since my garden shed is on hold for a bit, I plan on using the sunny space to put in a few raised beds for tomatoes and peppers. That's the biggest problem with lack of sun; I am always trying to figure out a way to rotate crops.

I was less than thrilled to wake up this morning and find snow on the ground. Doesn't Mother Nature know that I want to get started with spring? Gee whiz, the nerve of some people. I guess I'll find out just how cold hardy those peas are, huh?

"That don't befront me", as George T. would say. Just as long as I get my peas before summer!

Seed order coming soon!

I finally got off my duff and placed my order with Pinetree seeds. Hopefully all my items are in stock and I get all I wanted.

I plan to sow my brassica family seeds tomorrow at the greenhouse. Ah, the perks of working for a greenhouse are without measure when it's 20 degrees F outside!

I also have some lettuce crops to start. I have some plain-Jane types, but I am looking forward to the Asian mix from PT. I am really going to try to grow a bit more of my own food than just my usual tomato/pepper lineup. My biggest experiment will be when I try some fall sowing of vegetables to try and store in my makeshift root cellar. I don't plan on having a lot of one crop, but am going to try a few of this-and-that just to see. I think it will be fun. I plan to take notes so that I can share my results with my Ohio Valley friends that might be interested.

Kentucky weather in our area can be tricky; it gets freaky-hot and humid in the summer and one never knows how the fall and winter will go. It can be mild or (like this year) really, really cold in the winter. It can be really dry or super wet. That can play havoc with trying to regulate a root cellar. I am still trying to figure out just how I can open and close the vent in the root cellar without having to go down there every night and day! I just know that some other farmer got sick and tired of hoofing down his/her set of slippery cellar steps to shut/open that blasted vent and invented an automated one. Maybe I'll invent one and make a bazillion dollars one day!

My arms are tired from scooping snow, let me tell you. I did have fun making designs in the light snowfall we got before this last seven inches. It was just enough to use a broom to scribe "I hate snow!" all along the tarmac, accentuated by stars, musical notes, and a nice scrolled border. Too bad that I did it too early in the day for anyone to see it before the sun came out and promptly melted it away. Sidewalk art is such a fleeting joy....

Amy and Fiona, on the other hand, are having a blast in this white stuff.

The above image is fuzzy, but Fi has a snowball in her mouth. As long as it doesn't disintegrate on impact, she can find her 'ball' in any pile of snow it gets pitched in. Amy can only hold her snowball for a short time before she has to spit it out and get feeling back in her tongue. Both of them have great fun at 'cold fetch' until one of them squashes the ball.

Here they are playing together while DH is shoveling a path to the gate.
(Didn't have my good camera, so the video is little rough)

Both gurls love to cuddle up when the weather is chilly. We keep the thermostat down pretty low and they figured out pretty quickly that laying on a human is like their own personal electric blanket. They don't get away with that with this human, but the other human in the house is known to be the weakest link and they haul their dog butts up there on a nightly basis.

Fiona looking smug upon attaining
LapDog status.

There is yet another batch of snow coming on Sunday (be still my beating heart). Hopefully that is the last of it for the season. I am ready for some warmer weather, even if it's just the 30s and 40s.