To The Surbiton Manor Born

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 ...

  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.

  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...

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...

  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...

  The Mighty Trellis There be signs o' the green outside. 50 degrees today. (Though we are looking at 5" of snow on Wednesday.) Ye first robins showed up. 'Tis March. A grueling and bitter month. Crocuses seem to be popping, though: And if I am not mistaken, tulips! Hope they hold out through the snow. The tomatoes are now in the greenhouse as well. Two varieties this year: Seed Savers "Wisconsin Chief" and Survival Seeds, "Tiny Tim" cherry tomatoes. We've had good luck with the former in the past. The photo at the top is our mighty new trellis, which, when the ground unfreezes, will be placed over two separate beds, bridging them and getting the peas/beans on one side and the pumpkins on the other. Pumpkins have had a tendency to go crazy, like the Crinoid in Dr. Who (for those who remember a blog post from a couple of years ago when they overran our deck. With the democracy being gutted as I type, it will be more important than ever to generate as...