Spring Fever

 

 Blink!

 

I'm always surprised by how quickly things green up; all it takes is a few warm spells and a lot of sun.  I've been keeping busy raking, cutting back, and planting cool weather crops. Sugar snap peas, lettuce, mesclun, arugula, and radish have been sown in the hillside garden.  The cinder block bed has been filled with sweet onions, cipollini onions, and shallots.  I tried using a planting aid I've seen on Gardeners' World; Monty Don uses long planks to walk on when he plants in raised beds.  The planks help distribute his weight, so the soil doesn't get as compacted as if he were walking on it.  I think my planks were a little too short, but I noticed when my mother's dog walked through the bed (!!), she sank about an inch deeper into the soil than what the boards had compressed holding my enormous bulk.  I guess it works!  

They don't look like much now, but by the end of summer we should be swimming in oniony stuff.  I'm excited to see how the cipollinis do, this is a new crop for me.

In the big planter by the house I've transplanted the leeks I grew from seed. 

I'm pretty happy with this experiment; I used seeds collected from my leek plants that I let flower, not sure if they would germinate.  Well, they definitely did!  I still have about 20 or so older leek plants in the hillside garden and I'm thinking of letting a few go to seed again this year.  The flowers are so pretty, and the bonus of having fresh seed for next year's plants is too good to pass up.

2024 leeks in flower

 

Between the newly planted rows of leeks I've sown some carrot seeds.  Normally I wait until August to sow them so I get a harvest around Thanksgiving, but I'm thinking two sowings this season might be a good idea considering how expensive groceries are getting.

Inside the house my seedlings are doing ok.  I've had some damping off issues on top of the aphid attacks, but I think what survived is nearly ready for the polytunnel - time to start hardening off these puppies.  The dahlias are doing great, so I'm really excited about those.

 

I'm thinking of putting them in the empty pots around the wildflower meadow.  Speaking of which, I'm really frustrated with that project.  It looked really great the first year, but it's so hard to keep the weeds out.  Just about every icky plant that thrives in "recently excavated areas" has set down roots.  I spend more time pulling up weedy invasives than planting my beloved perennials.  I am going to try to work on that area a little more this year.  It's on the list, but there's an order to everything.  First I need to get that downed pine tree cut up and moved off the mule track, then I can get a truckload of material in to make another dry lot that actually has shade.  Then I can move the mules so I can get the second half of the French drain in around the barn.  While the equipment is here, I can get the composted manure moved to the mound to prepare for the corn, and have a bed dug and boulders set to start the alpine garden.  Once that's done, I can start the cat fencing and Calypso will finally get to go outside again.  Then I will have plenty of time to work on configuring the meadow.  Yes, there's a plan, it's just taking longer and fraught with more obstacles than I ever planned for.  Oh well, no rest for the wicked.  Happy spring!

Mooshie in the daffodils

 

Battle of the Microscopic Plant Killers

 Ugh.  I've been infested with white flies and what I believe are scale insects.  How does this happen?

The scale insects hitched a ride home with my baby bay leaf tree.  Sure, it was purchased at a reputable nursery, but that doesn't mean these places don't suffer from the same pests we do at home.  For the last year and a half I've been giving the bay tree bi-monthly rubbing alcohol wipe downs.  This has slowed the damage of the scale insects, but not stopped it.  Worse, they seem to have spread to other plants.  My celery plant is now covered with them.

 Yuck!  I cut the worst infested leaves and stems and soaked the plants with an insecticidal spray soap.  If you ever need to do that, pure Castile soap is fine; Dr. Bronner's sells liquid soap in varying sizes.  

Some of these pests are difficult to notice, but many of them secrete "honeydew", a sticky byproduct of their feasting.  Thankfully, that's easy to spot; it almost looks like water sprayed on the leaves.

 

I did the same treatment for the white flies.  These little turds look like minuscule grains of rice, and can usually be found underneath plant leaves.  I, however, found them in massive quantities on top of the soil in my seedlings.  Ew.  I've never seen anything like that, and I can't figure out where they came from.  The only thing I can think of is they were in the potting soil, much like the fungus gnats that hatch constantly.  Again, top shelf potting soil, which is disappointing.  I've read that to be certain there are no creepy crawlies in the soil, your best bet is to bake it in your oven before using.  To me, that sounds like something the companies producing the soil could probably do on a large scale so that each bag is pest free, but that unfortunately isn't going to happen.  So to war with flies I go. 

These are my over wintered Gerbera daisies.  They were really getting hammered on, so my first order of business was to prune them.  I used the same method one would use on ornamental shrubs or trees; take out the dead or diseased bits first, then remove any sections that are crossing/rubbing against each other, and open up the center for better air flow.

 

The plant on the left is pre-trimming, the plant on the right is post-trim. Once they were pruned, I sprayed the tops and undersides of the remaining leaves and the soil for good measure.  Kill 'em all.

 Outside, winter keeps trying to creep back in.  We'll have a few warm, classic spring days then BAM!  Snow, sleet, and freezing rain.  I'm not going to complain too loudly, because despite the snow and rain the last few months, we're still in a moderate drought.  

I just got my wheeled string trimmer back from the repair dude, so I can't wait for decent enough weather to start using it again.  I have the forest garden area to finish, and the bittersweet has already started coming back in spades along the unfinished fence line.  I did manage to turn and spread the manure I've been hauling to the bank garden.  I really want to get the back yard fenced in so I can let Calypso outside.  After about a week of not really being herself without Bizzy, she's started acting like the crazy cat she is again.  The last four or five months, Bizzy pretty much just slept all the time.  Before that, she and Calypso used to have their nightly Cat Olympics throughout the house, racing around and knocking things over, meowing at each other loudly and making skidding noises as they tried to race across the vinyl flooring.  Calypso has started doing that again, but alone it's not as much fun.  I don't think I'm ready to adopt another cat, but I know Calypso loves being outdoors.  I used to have to drag her back into the house when we lived at our last place.  So that's another goal for this summer.  I think that would make her very happy.

I'm starting to get antsy for planting season.  My leeks that I started from seed are about 10" tall, and I may plant them out under a cloche next week.  A lot of my seedlings need planting on into bigger pots, so that's another chore I can do to assuage the yearning.  If the weather gods ever smile upon us and stop sending sleet and snow our way, I can get the new cover on the little poly tunnel.  I've been getting extra chiropractic adjustments and keeping up with my acupuncture sessions, so hopefully my back will hold up better this year.  I've been getting my steps in, but I'm only averaging about 12,000+/- per day.  Hopefully when the weather breaks I'll be putting that number to shame!  

In the meantime, here are some of my favorite photos from the winter season.  Mostly birds because honestly, it's easy to photograph them from the window instead of actually venturing out into the weather.

 

the hardest thing

 I wanted to write a blog post about my heart cat, Bizarro Kitty (Bizzy).  Everytime I try to start it, I begin crying all over again.  Just when I think I'm ok with her passing, something else triggers a memory followed by a flood of sadness.  I know it won't always be this way, but right now, it just hurts.  I'll let the photos do the talking.  From an emaciated stray cat to a fierce barn cat to the Grande Dame of the House, she led an adventure filled life.  She's with Macy, her canine bestie, and Calypso and I are working through our loss.  It's never an easy thing.  To the 'Anonymous Person' who paid her final expenses, words are not enough to express my thanks.  I know you understood the bond I had with this little cat.  To the people who have reached out to express sympathy, send flowers, or call to check on me...thank you.  It's wonderful to know that so many share the joys and heartbreaks of our animal companions.

 2007 ~ 2025

 

 

 

First day home, 2007

with Macy ~ they were inseparable

tolerating Calypso, when she was new

"No one can truly understand the bond we form with the cats we love until they experience the loss of one."

Updates

Two updates.

1. The fence laid down over the garden doesn't keep one of the cats from using it as a toilet, she just does her thing and walks away without attempting to bury it.  Clearly this is one feline who has zero effs to give.

2. After two days, the solar fountain stopped working.  The company is sending a replacement fountain, so we'll see how the next unit fares.

Prepwork and Scheming

The spring cleaning and prep-work for the gardens continues.  More raking, and more musing as to where I'm going to put what.  I want to move things around a little this year as far as vegetables in the container gardens, but the late spring and weather conditions put me behind a little.  I suddenly realized that I still hadn't planted my peas, and May was upon us!  Peas like cool weather and I usually plant them as soon as the pots are cleared of snow in April.  In a panic, I planted them in the same containers the other day just to get them in the ground.  So much for shaking it up.

The little bed where I normally plant tomatoes is going to be dedicated to bush beans and radish.  Unfortunately this bed attracts the cats, even though I've built them an outdoor litter box.  Maybe it's because they're confined to a small yard, but I've found nothing yet that will deter them from using my gardens as toilets.  Last year I tried hundreds of plastic forks planted in the dirt around my plants, and the cats just dug them up and made room to do their business.  I've seen plastic mats with spikes on them that you can cut to size for your garden, but I would rather use something I have on hand.  For the half moon garden I'm trying laying down short wire decorative fence.

I figure it should leave openings enough to deter digging but allow plants to grow.  Time will tell.  As it is, I had to dig the top layer of soil off and replace it with fresh dirt.  It didn't go to waste, though.  I'm trying some hugelkultur gardening!

Hugelkultur (translation - hill culture) is a type of gardening that involves mounding materials to form a hill shape, and planting into that.  Generally you start with logs and/or branches, then layer materials like leaves, sod, and compost over that, and finish with soil.  The idea behind this type of gardening is that you're putting the power of compost to work over a greater period of time.  The logs and branches take a longer time to break down and tend to hold moisture, making watering sometimes unnecessary unless there's a drought.  The rest of the materials provide nutrients as they break down, as well as heat that's created during that decaying process.

Over the winter I had a bunch of pine branches come down on the mule shed, so instead of hauling them to the burn pile, I piled them up where they sat.  I added some leaves I had raked off the back yard, then tossed on some mulch hay that I had used as insulation against the house foundation, and tossed the nasty garden soil into the mix.  Once Reputa the Beauta (my trusty garden tractor) is out of her winter storage mode, I'll haul down some composted mule manure to add to the pile.  Then a layer of dirt, and finally...I don't know yet.  Again, what to plant where?  Should I try veggies?  Flowers?  I've seen hugelkultur gardens with a mix of things, so maybe that's a possibility.  We'll see!  I still have a long way to go prepping and protecting before I start planting.

To protect the new raised bed, I'm thinking of using some old fencing I made from grade stakes.  I'm hoping laying them down across the soil will deter the cats.  I'm thinking the tomatoes will go in this garden.

 

It's been heartening to see the daffodils popping up around the property, and everything is greening up nicely.

The black flies are out en force, unfortunately.  I've put the bug curtains on the mule shed and they don't come out of there until the dark of night, when the black flies disappear.  They are so thick right now that any outdoor chores are miserable.

One non-gardening chore that needed doing was having the septic pumped, so I dug up the tank cover before the septic company came.  The cats were immediately drawn to it, as it's cement and holds the heat of the sun and the heat generated from the tank itself.  They spent a good part of the evening writhing around on it.  Ew.

 

My goal for this weekend is to swap out my stock tank water garden for a more permanent water feature.  I've purchased some pond lining fabric to replace the plastic tank and a small solar fountain to provide aeration.  Depending on the size of the fabric, I may make the pond a little larger and deeper than the stock tank.  I'm excited to get started, and will document the upgrade in my next post.