Thunderstorms, weeding, and planting

So, at last, an update. I seem to be an intermittent blogger these days, my apologies to those of you who check in regularly: you must be saying "now, why don't she write?" - but obviously the usual excuses of "busy" followed by "too tired to write at the end of the day" apply. You know how it goes - I imagine most of you are in the same boat, (and surely this spring, 'boat' is an accurate metaphor).

Much of my energies this spring went into fence building and repair, as seen in my previous post. I had a number of projects come up in the past month that derailed me from getting to the garden plot while it was still light out, and I admit I'm just not quite dedicated enough to wear a headlamp, so what can I say? I did have some success with seedling starters at home this year, much to the dismay of my ever-mischievous cat who was really disappointed that one of the windows was blocked by a large, large new set of wire shelves that housed my little green babies.

One of the things that was driven home while I nursed the seedlings along was that although in spring it provides great sunlight, once the trees surrounding my building leaf-in it becomes shady there. I supplemented the light with those little fairy-lights, and they don't seem to mind the substitution, although I think I should add more lights.

Successes: some of the heirloom tomato seeds I started have thrived, as have the bok choi (白菜) and even the hot peppers. For reasons that remain mysterious to me, and probably have to do with the soil in the container I grew them, my beans didn't thrive - they grew right up and then suddenly keeled over and died. I'll just direct plant them this week and see what happens. I do love beans in the summer.

I feel like I cheated a little, but I bought starter flats this year, which I don't normally do. I had an urge though, and there you are. I used starters to plant a couple other varieties of heirloom tomatoes (some 'black cherry' and another beefsteak variety), some green bell peppers, red cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, zucchini, and I also bought some herbs to intersperse and add to my herb garden: tricolor sage, pineapple mint, and English thyme.



Another trick I've started to employ is that - since I have such an abundance of mint that springs up everywhere (as members of the mint family are wont to do) and honestly I don't drink mojitos THAT often (!!!), I decided that I'm going to simply remove the mint heartlessly when it intrudes, and use it to mulch around my tomatoes, etc. etc. - see what that does for the various plants.

There are still two "beds" that want weeding and opening up, so there's work ahead, and I have designs on the corner that used to house my would-be cold frame, and I think it needs to turn into a rock garden, with both herbs and flowers. Plus, I have to finish my new gate, so I think there will be hammering noises coming from my plot soon enough.

That's the news from plot 78B... see you around the garden!

Mountain lions, mold, and snow storms

At last, an update. It's been far too long, I know, but this summer's monsoon and plague of mold on our tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants - along with everything else - was just too discouraging. Then, I had a lengthy business trip that took me out of state during a critical period at the garden when I would otherwise have tried planting for an optimistic fall crop. Such is life.

I'm working on setting up some window boxes for a potential winter crop, using the little white fairy lights - if, that is, my feline buddy allows it. As always - we'll see. Speaking of whom, we had an adventure last week that thoroughly messed up my holiday-card writing, among other things. As my cousin put it, it was a mountain lion attack. Sort of.

the story...
Yes, that's him. Drugged to the gills in that photo, by the way. But I'm getting ahead of myself. See the windowsill behind him? He was up there, with a (now moved to the floor) strawberry pot. He got into a hissing, poofy-tailed snit about a neighbor cat wandering by outdoors, and did the usual feline flip-out. I ignored him. A few minutes pass while I'm still sitting below the window, reading & knitting. Given that I had my back against that wall there, I didn't see what set off the next chain of events, but I think he was still hopping around, hissing at the leaves twitching in the gusty wind.

Normally, I ignore him when he gets twitchy.

He must have bumped into that clay pot, thought it was something attacking him, and whipped around to "attack" it - at any rate both of them tumbled out of the window, and onto me. In the process, he sunk his teeth & claws into my right hand & arm, probably trying to stop his fall, but clearly he had no idea what he was doing. He then retreated under the computer desk, hissing and yowling as if I had bitten him. In the mean time, I had to head to the ER: the punctures from his teeth were pretty deep (they hit tendons). Happily, I am fine, and after a week of antibiotics and a splint on my arm to protect further injury to my tendons/give them a chance to rest, I am newly appreciative of being able to use both hands. I don't do well as an obligate lefty, or so I learned.

George, on the other hand, is still healing from his part of the adventure: apparently he managed to break/twist one of his claws and part of another on the way down. At first, I thought the blood was mine, and he wouldn't let me near him for the rest of the day, and I was in no position to argue. Later, it was clear that it wasn't only my blood on his paw. To the vet we went, and what a pair we were. It shows how injured he was that he was even willing to walk into his pet-carrier without a fight. Surgery and drugs for him, a splint for me. Good times! We're both on the mend now, and I'm looking forward to planting and digging in the spring. I hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday season, and staying warm in spite of the snow. Just remember, the old farmer's almanack always used to call snow "poor man's fertilizer" - so hopefully our gardens will be a little less stressed out this spring. Expect some photo-posts once I get the little seedlings started in my windowboxes.

Now, I'm going to go listen to some carols ~

Overheard while weeding...

So, I arrived in the cooler, later part of the day to do some much-needed weeding now that we aren't living with rain all the time (although a t-storm was supposedly imminent, and I did have several things to plant)... guess what I overheard while weeding? Being gardeners you'll appreciate this one.

So, we're at more than capacity at our community garden. Opening day we had 130 plots free, and volunteer clearing efforts on that day freed up an additional 5 plots that hadn't been in use in decades. (Woot! Woot! especially to those wielding heavy tools to clear; I was just cutting & pulling the smaller stuff.) Happy increases aside, that still apparently left 15 wait-list folks wanting. Hopefully we'll be able to accommodate a few more folks as plots get cleared out. I'm just glad people are jumping in and gardening.

So, there had been a much-neglected plot next to ours, and it was just a rock bed. Hardpan and rocks. In the interim while I was away, apparently a woman had adopted said plot, and I may say, had done a miraculous clearing job - possibly working solo, too, according to the Duchess. At least that's how it's appeared. We could just have missed the appearance of helpers. At any rate a herculean clearing job in order to make the plot workable, set up raised beds, and a fence, and (!) a gate with a nice lock (always advisable - gardeners aren't the only ones who visit the plots. Sad, but true.) At any rate, an astounding amount of work considering; when I arrived today I could see several beds well-established and they were working a couple more, with husband and kids at work too. Now, this is the funny part: so I'm busy weeding, and appropos of nothing, a piping 5 or 6 year old voice, in exasperated tones, declaims "Mummy! Do you even realize how much work this is???"

...wait for it...there's more...

Proving herself the truly patient soul this woman must be, she actually responded kindly - "Mmm, yes, dear, I certainly do." What an understatement. My back hurts in sympathy just thinking about all the digging and rock cultivating.

I really tried to stifle my guffaw, for mom's sake, but all I could think was how truly exhausting it must be sometimes to be mom.

Then again, I was the odd child who actually enjoyed weeding because it meant i could pick a snack while I worked. No, seriously. Odd, I know. I've said other memorably ridiculous things that I still have to live down. My personal favorite has to be a toss-up between "I can't eat that, it's DEAD!" and "He hit me back first!!!"

Nonetheless, it provided my evening chuckle, and that's all I needed. Just sharing.

And on that note, it's time for me to do the post-garden tick-check, and hit the shower. Photos to follow later...

You know you have spring fever when...

...when garden and seed catalogs and planning out your plot aren't enough to distract you. You swing by the garden plot and traipse through the pock-marked and ice-ridden paths all the way to the back of the community gardens JUST TO LOOK at your own plot. Not, mind you, to accomplish any purpose; nor even to photograph it to document the change of seasons. Nope, just to look. Little wooden work-table, check. Miscellanea safely ensconced, check. Random scraps of wood and the spare wooden chairs that the Duchess salvaged last season, check. Raspberry canes need further trimming in spite of my late season pruning, check. Then, I turned around and...returned to my car.

Yeah, it's bad. And for the record, I'm a native of this region, and never required a groundhog to tell me "whether or not" on February 2nd we'd have 8 more weeks of winter. There is no doubt. We WILL have 8+ more weeks of winter, and possibly a surprise snowstorm in May, thank you very much, just enough to keep you on your toes.

*sigh*

Where are my easter eggs?