Posts

And Just Like That: Summer

Image
  Bam! Strawberries! We have this tendency to go on vacation over the summer solstice. While we were gone, the garden burst into life. Just about every year, this is right when the strawberries are ready for harvest. This was no different, except that we were able to harvest right before we left instead of missing it. We only have one 4x8 bed of strawberries, so we don't get too many. But those that we do get are delicious. While we were on our road trip in our new van to Pictured Rocks National Park on Lake Superior and in Charlevoix, Michigan, running the marathon there, the garden was busy growing. Pound sign Van Life is fantastic. My whole life I have wedged my camping gear into small cars because they make sense. You only go camping rarely, and it isn't worth sacrificing gas mileage in a daily driver for a couple of weeks a year. K. and I looked longingly at fancy travel vans - Mercedes Sprinters that cost $200K. Do-it-yourself Fords that would sit in the driveway 50 weeks...
Post a Comment
Read more

In the Ground

Image
  There's a time for talking (writing), and a time for doing. It's been a time for doing over the past couple of weeks.  On Memorial Day we had some help from our friends from Dreamacres . It was a huge lift for getting the peppers and tomatoes into the ground.  As of today, we have in the ground and hopefully growing: Cucumbers (x6) Zucchini (x6) Acorn squash (an undetermined number - some have been replanted because of a failure to germinate) Roma tomatoes Wisconsin Chief tomatoes Tiny Tim tomatoes Lettuce Spinach Rocket Beets Sunflowers Nasturtiums Marigolds Sunflowers Pole beans Bush beans Sugar snap peas Yakteen squash (a favorite in Palestine, in solidarity against ongoing the Israeli genocide there) Strawberries (lots of little green ones) Raspberries (many, many raspberries) Nothing is very tall. I guess I always get nervous this time of year. It will surely ripen.
Post a Comment
Read more

O.K.: Full on Spring, Almost Summer, and Rebel Raspberries Run Rampant

Image
The Apple Blossoms are Out Memory has not been my friend this spring. Things were rolling along at a leisurely pace, then BAM! Spring hit hard. We've had a couple of weeks with temperatures hitting the 80's. The grass - especially the dandelions - is doing quite well. Most of the spaces that I filled in with seed are doing alright. Mercifully, the watering permit for setting those in expired on Monday, meaning that I don't have to devote 3 hrs. a day to watering them morning and night.  Zucchini, beets, arugula, kale, marigolds, nasturtiums, tromboncino squash, spinach, bush beans, snow peas, climbing beans, carrots, and pumpkins are all in the ground. Squirrels have been a nuisance - digging things up. Tomatoes & peppers from the greenhouse are in the "hardening off" phase.  The strawberries are blossoming, and the raspberries are in serious need of control. They are marching up the hill from the garden. I have a cunning plan that involves wire and giving up ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Potting Up: Still Not Quite Spring Yet

Image
  We are right on the cusp of spring. The grass has turned markedly greener. The trees are budding out. But we are dealing with a 7 (high wind) on the Beaufort scale this afternoon, and the sky is grey. So I did some work inside. Six of the best Wisconsin tomatoes seeded 3/14 outgrew their pots. I potted them up. Yesterday I dropped row covers over some of the beds and planted beets, arugula, and carrots.  There are points where it just doesn't seem possible that these tiny seeds will come to anything. Such is the feeling this afternoon. For the record, splitting wood for the fireplace has, at the end of April, become more a chore than a joy. Tomorrow, we are supposed to get to near 80 with humidity. And we are also supposed to get violent storms. We will have to see how the seeds under the row covers hold up. It will be an interesting test to see whether the row cover is permeable (as I hope it is) to rain as well as light.
Post a Comment
Read more

If We Only Had a Wheelbarrow, That Would Be Something

Image
  Now we are getting somewhere! Cold frame activated. I don't know that it is making much of a difference yet. The soil and air temperatures were the same inside & outside, but it was cloudy today when I took the measurements, and I only put it up yesterday, so you can't expect the soil temperature to change much yet. I'm going to try to speed the zucchini along after I let it sit for a week with a black contractor bag at the bottom and covered. This after tonight, when I will uncover it to receive the 1.5" of rain we are supposed to get. Weirdly - this bed is producing garlic. I planted garlic in it two years ago, and behold, even after a season & having a bag of raised bed soil & compost piled into it, bam, garlic coming up. I planted snow peas in the bed with the new trellis. Next weekend we will do more cold weather crops. While I try to like it, I'm really not a fan of the spring. Here it is, 4/20, and it is still cold enough outside to warrant a f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spring: Not Quite Yet

Image
As T.S. Elliot famously said, "April is the cruelest month., breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain." Again, "sort of spring." We've had a few warm days, but most still begin with starting the fireplace. There's a routine now. Wake. Drink coffee. Come downstairs and shovel out most of the ashes from the fireplace. Start a fresh fire from the remaining coals. Start the process of watering the plants in the greenhouse while the fire takes. Fire up the old Oral B...and go on with the day. Friday of last week, we cooked ourselves. When it is in the '50's, it's a little too warm for a fire, but a little too cold not to have something warming the house a bit. It was great that the house was 78 degrees upstairs, but not so great when we tried to get to sleep. There is a certain desperation to the garden this year. Last year, we were content to grow some "halo" crops and sort of back...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunlight Confusion (tm) - the New Trend Taking America by Storm

Image
  Greenhouses Invade Tom's Office Yes friends, the new gardening trend of the year is Sunlight Confusion (tm).  Just as athletes benefit from doing different exercises and thus inducing "muscle confusion," gardeners are taking this lesson to heart for their seedlings. In the bad old days, a gardener would only be allowed to place their seedlings in one place. There they would remain for the duration. If the pot was placed at the back of the greenhouse, furthest from the window, the seedling would grow up leggy and weak, like Eugene (that guy who always gets atomic wedgies), and endure humiliations galore from its seedling peers. No longer! With Sunlight Confusion (tm), gardeners can move the pots around. If a plant is at the back of the greenhouse today, it can be at the front tomorrow. Is the plant placed under the sad ol' grow lights? Don't fret! Tomorrow, it can be placed in the bright light of the T5 fluorescents. Remember to send $.95 to Steepmeadow every tim...
Post a Comment
Read more