Clean Up, Rain and Christmas in April

Today was a clean up day. All those loose ends that we put off doing other chores were finally attempted today. Not all were completed. But a good portion of them were crossed off the “honey do” list.

The rain drops visited us late this afternoon and it is nice and steady this evening. We really needed it. Due to it being so dry, the forest fire level had been set at extremely high for quite some time.  Joe is burning brush this evening and the ashes will get spread in the “lasagna” walkways.  I completed layering rows 1 and 2 this afternoon.

More seeds arrived by mail. When that happens, it feels like Christmas . The starting trays were rewashed. It will still be raining for a few days so the seeds will probably get planted tomorrow.  I’m so excited to have found some heirloom tomato seeds.  My paternal grandmother was originally from Europe and always grew these amazing Russian tomatoes. They were huge, juicy but not drippy, and the sweetest tomatoes you ever tasted. I will be planting the variety called Marianna’s Peace in anticipation of the same success she had. Thank you TomatoFest.com!!  If you get the chance please check out their web page. They have over 600 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. They also have some great varieties that grow well indoors. I’m certainly going to be ordering some of them and attempt to grow them all winter long.

One thing I’m addressing this year is pollination. With the decrease in the bee population, pollination has been an issue for many gardeners. We need those babies in order to have our plants set fruit. I toyed with the idea of keeping bees. But opted for a little easier method this year. I’m planting some extra flowering plants to attract them.  I already have lupine, shasta daisies, and black-eyed susans. I’ll be adding some new england asters, coneflower, marigolds and zinnias. I still have plenty of room around the garden for them. And they will make a nice addition to my cut flowers for home and for our executive tenants.

I finally sat down this evening to finish working on my planting plan. I began by making a list of everything I have as seedlings. HOLY MOLY!  When a friend of mine said she had become carried away with starting her seedlings, I chuckled.  Wait until she reads my list. She can slap me for my snickers. But I think all of us who love to garden are guilty of this. We can always share those extra plants with a community or senior center garden. They would certainly appreciate it.

Herbs – sweet basil, italian cooking basil, cilantro, dill, parsley (Italian flat leaf), horseradish (family heirloom), thyme (French), oregano (italian), garlic,

Greens – swiss chard (white giant), collards (georgia), spinach (bloomsdale long standing), lettuce (simpson, ruby, tall utah)

Brussel sprouts (early king), eggplant (early long italian), snap peas (sugar ann), broccoli (calabrese), cauliflower (snowball), garden bean (kentucky wonder), turnip (golden globe), beet (ruby queen), cuke (national pickling), pumpkin (casper, big max), watermelon (fordhook hybrid), fennel (hinojo), onion (sweet sets, white bunching), summer squashes (gourmet mix), pepper (Italian fryers), asparagus (Martha Washington) potatoes (Yukon gold, red), squash (acorn, butternut, spaghetti), carrot (touchon), radish (fire and ice)

Fruits – rhubarb (family heirloom), raspberries (family heirloom) blueberries (early, mid, late)

Flowers – sunflower (summer cutting garden mix), shasta daisy, cosmos, zinnia (cut and come again, dwarf), marigold, coneflower (mix)

Tomatoes – kellogg’s breakfast, plum lemon, tiny tim, white queen, marianna’s peace, neves Azorean red, yellow pear, roma, sweet snack hybrid, sun sugar

Granted that the fruits and perennials are already established. The only planning I'll be doing this evening is the rotation planting of the vegetables. Grabbing the graph paper now.

Planning Your Garden

It is this time of year that most gardeners have their seeds started. The early birds here in the north country may have their soil ready for planting. Others already have their cooler weather crops in.

We have our beds ready quite early for the north country and it is time for us to map out where everything is going. I keep an accurate record each year of where things are planted so I don't repeat plant. Crop rotation is one of the key things to do in order to cut down on disease and depletion of soil nutrients. I have found two great writings that aid in rotation and planning. The first is a pdf file from the Washington State Department of Ecology. It is a "rotation for dummies" type of article full of charts and solid reference material. www.co.thurston.wa.us/health/ehcsg/pdf/CSG_VegeGarden_sglpg.pdf

The other is an on-going blog site from another north country garden across the border in Vermont. I had the pleasure of hosting the owner of Sweet Grass Farm for a writing sabbatical. She writes for High Mowing Organic Seeds, one of those great blogs that is like opening a personal home garden magazine. You may want to bookmark the link for the step-by-step approach on garden planning. http://www.highmowingseeds.com/blog/garden-planning-a-step-by-step-approach . I am so grateful for the high quality seeds that they develop, test and make available.

REMEMBER ~~ Your garden will only be as good as your soil, the plan, and the seeds you use. All of this preparation is worth its weight in fresh veges!

Thank You From The Bottom Of My Pants

I'm always looking for new and interesting ideas for planting. I ran across this one on Pinterest this morning and had to chuckle. It reminded me of when my three daughters were young and wanted to learn to speak spanish. They would tease and say "Grassy Ass". Thank you girls!

Hope it makes you smile too!

Spring Warm Up

I have to yell to the mountain tops that I love my husband. He shares my passion for gardening and getting dirty. He spent two days getting the 18 garden beds that were in the "lasagna" areas prepared for the spring. Then he put a black poly down on three of the beds along with hoops that will be covered with a clear greenhouse poly to create mini hoop tunnels to get a jump on our warmer weather crops growing season. This week saw the planting of peas, spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, early bunching onions and cauliflower

For those of you not familiar with lasagna gardening or new to my blog, it is the best organic way to grow. I use no additional nutrients for my soil with the exception of an occasional boost for those crops needing it during setting fruit. It is super easy and garners no special tools. I rotate the walkways and planting beds each year. In the walkways being used that year, I continually add layers of brown and green. Layer 1 should be corrugated cardboard or newspaper. Layer 2 should be organic "browns" - ex: fall leaves, shredded newspaper, peat, and pine needles. Layer 3 should be organic "greens" - ex vegetables scraps, garden trimmings, and grass clippings (we do not treat our lawns). Layer 4 should be "browns". Layer 5 should be "greens". Final layer should be compost or manure.

Trust me when I say that when you plant in that walkway next year, it is like planting in black gold. It is the best garden dirt you will ever work with. It is full of nutrients that are just waiting to hold the roots of your tender seedlings and see them all the way through the harvesting of their fruit.

So go grab a piece of dirt and some sun screen. Have fun!

Today I received this email from the CEO of Burpee. It was written so well and I'm sure expresses the feelings of most of us "home gardeners" that I had to share. Thank you Mr. Ball and have a wonderful spring!

"Easter in the Garden": Essay by Burpee CEO George Ball

After all, let's remember that Easter, spring and the garden are inextricably linked, together forming a richly wrought tapestry interwoven with deep, ancient historical, symbolic and religious meanings.

Spring is the season of salvation. The dead of winter, is, metaphorically, the death of our souls; the time when plants die, and animals go into hibernation. Life is on its knees. Even our thoughts change from active to reflective. Sometimes in winter, when our light-deprived selves have exhausted our psychic pantry of serotonin, the death can seem actual rather than metaphorical. By winter’s end we haven’t just taken stock of our situation, we’ve used most of it up.

At this time of year, just as my thoughts turn to Easter, I think of gardening, and as soon as I think of gardening, I'm reminded of Easter, and then I'm back to gardening, and then back to Easter, and so forth. If my toing and froing sounds like spring fever, well, it is.

Thus, Easter, spring and the garden represent thresholds: moving from a suspended state to new beginnings. In Easter, we transition from sinning humankind to a future of salvation; with spring, we emerge from a still, slumbering, gray season of scarcity to a season when nature takes on vibrant new colors, textures and sounds. With the garden, we experience the shift from poverty to plenty.

Now is the time we look away from the past and turn our focus to the future. Easter lets us look forward to salvation, spring to summer, the garden to what we must do to sustain ourselves. The passage from Phillipians comes to mind, where St. Paul speaks of, " Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead."

Whether gardeners or not, religionists or not, at this time of year we all feel the renewal of life: new hope, illumination, the uplifted spirit. We revel in the longer days, the marvels awaiting us out of doors: the pageant of colors, the cantatas of birdsongs, the elixir of fragrance in the air.

Easter is not the only link between religion and the garden. The roots of religion are universally agricultural. Mankind's earliest writings were, in one sense, agricultural manuals, in another books of religious instruction, so entwined were the two concerns.

The garden is not merely a great metaphor—it is the first metaphor. From a biblical perspective, we all began in the garden. You might recall Adam, Eve and the awkward matter of the apple of temptation, humankind's original and greatest sin. Disobeying their Creator's strict instructions, Adam and Eve partook of the apple offered by their serpentine interlocutor.

God promptly exiled the couple from the paradisiacal Garden of Eden, and sentenced the pair, their descendents, and all mankind—to what? Gardening! Yes, the never-ending punishment for our greatest sin is to become a gardener. By casting out Adam and Eve, the Creator gave his children the responsibility to create their own lives. Rather than lolling about the paradisiacal garden, we've been working in our own earthly gardens ever since.

Though our worldly realm may have its cares and woes, diseases and pests, lives and deaths, we get to do it ourselves. And when reason fails us, or fate strikes a stunning blow, we don’t so much pray to God as we do talk to God. This is because it is God who asks the questions, who challenges us every year in the spring.

Original sin was the beginning of reason. The point of reason is that mortals are, in effect, never saved. One has to save oneself with God looking on—which is how he helps. And after saving yourself — just like in the airline oxygen mask instruction—you turn to help the weak and defenseless, aka your fellow human beings. Nowhere is this spirit more eloquently expressed than in the garden—home, community or public. Brother helping brother; neighbor helping neighbor — what a miracle!

As Henry David Thoreau, that American original, once observed, "Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

Happy Easter.

Spring Has Sprung

It’s Good Friday and the sun is warming the soil. We are hoping to be able to till this weekend and get those rows going north to south to maximize the sun exposure. There is one area of the garden that is still very wet because it drops off a little and I was seriously considering bringing in some additional soil and supplements for that area. There is also a scrub tree that is on the east side of the garden that we had left last year in our hurry to just get established. We will be removing that this spring. Forecast is for sunny and in the 50’s. Let’s hope it follows through. One never knows living in this area of country.

The blueberries have buds swelling and I will gather the pine needles from the front of the property to spread around them for some additional nutrients.

The seeds that were started have now begun to sprout. I have them nursing themselves inside the 3-season porch that is south facing. Help from two large grow lamps help keep them warm at night. I started several varieties of lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, brussel sprouts, squashes, dill, parsley, basil, eggplant, catnip, cauliflower and broccoli. In two weeks I will sow another crop of lettuce.

There is no greater feeling than watching those young plants stretch themselves upwards. It is like a rebirth each time one pops up. We will hold their hands and keep their feet firmly planted until they bear their fruit. Then we will save their seeds and bring them back to life again next year.

So many people are planting gardens now. I was seriously thinking of organizing an organic seed swap in my area. I’ll have to put it out on my Facebook and post up some signs. I’m so excited that a friend of mine has organized a CSA (community supported agriculture). She is including fresh eggs, fresh soap, and fresh chickens with her fruit and vegetables. I wish more people would do this. To expand the CSA movement across the country would help eliminate the need for trucking our food supply and lessen our carbon footprint.

Seeds, seeds and more seeds

Exciting time for the garden. Even though the snow is falling like crazy, March 1st is only 2 days away. Time to start our seeds to accommodate our very short growing season.

Today I will be pulling out all of the seed trays, making sure they are clean and free of disease (a very important thing to do). Looking forward to getting the fingernails dirty.