March 31, 2008 (Monday)
It is cold and rainy. I was outside earlier, realigning the markers for the new garden, and it sounded like it was sleeting. I wanted to spread my garden bedding, but it turned very grey and started to sprinkle. I figured I'd spend my time inside thinking about how best to deal with the garden materials. I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere with that, so I found myself staring out the window at the rain coming down. As I was looking at the new little fans on my irises, I remembered that yesterday I saw a Hyacinth coming up. Yay! I thought they'd all died and gone away. They never come up at the same time, so I wonder if there will be others. I really should buy some more of those. Because of its proximity to the sidewalk, I just know that the dog is going to behead the one that I do have. I can see the Allium leaves from the window now. My Kazanlik Rose still looks green in the canes, and maybe Moonstone does, too. Chrysler Imperial does not. I can't wait to see if All Ablaze likes its new location. I haven't really paid attention to the other two roses (American Beauty and White Dawn). When I was out in the old rhubarb patch yesterday, I think I counted 9 survivors. That's a higher count than the last time I checked. I wandered out to the old sq ft garden over the weekend and didn't see anything except dead leaves where I forgot and left my Gladioli. I wonder if any of them will have survived; maybe those leaves helped them through the winter. I looked at my berry patch from afar while I was out there. Wasn't really in the mood for any bad news at the time. It was bad enough noticing from that vantage point that I had forgotten to mulch my strawberries. Interestingly, I didn't mulch the leeks and yet they look like they might have survived the winter anyway. I sure hope so. That would be really cool. If they did, I will let them all set seed so that I can start a mongo patch of leeks in the next go around. ... I can't believe it's after 2 PM already. Where did the day go? |
April 1, 2008 (Tuesday) April Fool's Day
It is 58 degrees this morning, 52 in the coop. Not bad, but it is windy, wet, and grey. ........ I forgot to mention that when I was checking the lawn over the weekend, I noticed that one of the new Daffs in the lawn has a bud on it, deep down within the leaves. They are on their way. Hooray! I'd just like to know why the bulbs in the lawn are ahead of the rest of the ones around here. It seems like they get less sun, so it seems odd. Maybe I need to feed my other bulbs after they flower this year. ~~~~~~~~ Last night, I set a mouse trap by the refrigerator. I tried setting one in the living room, but after tripping it 8 times and getting a cramp in the hand that does the job of keeping my other hand from getting smashed in the trap, I took a break. When the cramp went away, I tried to set the trap again and one of my trap-setting fingers got grazed in a hit and run when I tripped the trap again. That effectively rendered my finger unconscious, so I decided I'd had enough of that and wasn't going to set that trap. So, fast forwarding ahead, I decided to check the trap by the refrigerator this morning. It was gone, so I sent my husband an email to find out if he'd done something with the trap. Of course he hadn't, so I grabbed the flashlight and went hunting: under the fridge, beside the fridge, behind the fridge, around the oven, around the trash bag, and ICK!! Found it under the kitchen table, stiff mouse, trap, and all. I do not know how that poor mouse made it that far. It got crunched (i.e., flattened) along the neck or shoulders, from what I could tell. I don't know how it could have lived long enough to get as far as the table. That was too yucky and there wasn't any way I was going to try to pry that mouse off, so that trap has been deemed not a keeper for reuse. Uck. ~~~~~~~~ On a better - but still disgusting - note, over the weekend I was finishing up a bowl of knock-off Grape Nuts and found a moth in it. Yuck. I hope I didn't eat any grubs. Aside from tasting awful, nothing like regular Grape Nuts, that was enough to make me never buy that product again. Sometimes it's better to just stick with the original. Just to be safe, a box of the real Grape Nuts now resides in the refrigerator. ~~~~~~~~ I have lots of tomato sprouts this morning. I have sprouts of all except Gregori's Altai. I potted up one each of Sun Gold and Yellow Currant into cell plugs. All of the others are too small still to bother moving. I did a little rearranging of my tomato plans over the weekend and cut back on some of what I intended to grow. Now I just need to decide what to do with the extra sprouts, if anything. I hate to waste them. I had a Winter Honeysuckle sprout this morning. That was hugely exciting. I sat on the floor in the plant room to transplant things from plastic egg cartons and baggies and when I stood up, I almost blacked out. It was bad enough that I leaned against the plant stand for a while, waiting for the darkness to subside, and almost fell asleep standing up. I think maybe today I will take a nap, right after I check the mail and start some more seeds. *snort* ........ It is really raining now. I started seeds of Wild Bleeding Hearts, Sand Verbena, and Nicotiana Sylvestris. Next will be Skullcap, Grassy Bells, Geum 'Mrs. Bradshaw', Love-Lies-Bleeding, and White Tufted Evening Primrose. But first, to the mailbox, Batman! ........ Happy, happy, joy, joy, a purple crocus! It won't open today, but it's still a beautiful sight. The English Bluebells are coming up. I thought they died from the drought. Some of them have heaved, so I'm going to have to work on that if it ever stops raining. The Orange Daylilies are 2 to 3 inches high. Ah, it's looking good around here. Oh, and my substitute seeds came! Woohoo! ........ Okay, I finished starting that second batch of seeds. I have 10 types of seeds that I haven't sown outside like I was supposed to have done by now. I have Delphiniums, Eggplant, and Peppers to start inside on Friday, so depending on the weather and how long it takes to get those started, maybe I'll get those other seeds planted outside finally. Let's see... aside from those things that I am behind on, that brings me up to item 108 on a list of 196 types of seeds to plant this year. Wow, that sounds great! I'm over halfway there. I'm actually getting somewhere!
Crocus
Sunrise Yesterday |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 - 12:46 pm: |   |
I know what you mean. Years & years ago, I was 3/4 of the way through a bowl of Raisin Bran when I found a bug...then another...I was obviously not paying much attention to what I was eating, or just thought it was a spec of a raisin. I must have been reading while eating of something. It took years & years before I even thought of eating Raisin Bran again. Now that I think of it, I don't know as if I have ever had it since--if I did, I think it was the generic brand :-0 |
Ick. I knew there was a reason why I never liked Raisin Bran. LOL! |
April 1, 2008 (Tuesday)
(continued from before)
I think I may have solved the mystery of the missing 'Meadow Pastels' Iceland Poppies. I was supposed to have sown the seeds outdoors by now, according to my original plan, but I never found the seeds. I just finished looking around and thought maybe they were in my "GIVE AWAY" bag, but they weren't. I noticed that my data entry said they were from Johnny's Selected Seeds and... ding, ding, ding! That sounded familiar. I think those must be the poppies that I winter sowed last year in the front square bed. If they survived the drought, and the winter, and bloom this spring, then that should answer that question, I hope. I was beginning to think that I had either given them away already, had thrown them away, or had planted them this spring and just didn't remember doing it.
April 2, 2008 (Wednesday)
I cannot connect to the Internet this morning. At 2.4 kbps, nothing works. Must have been our wonderful storm last night. Shouldn't this have happened yesterday, on April Fool's Day? The power did go out around 7 PM last night and stayed off for about 2 hours, so I guess we did get at least one AFD joke right on time. My son and I had fun sitting around gabbing in the candlelight. I snitched one of the solar sidewalk lanterns from the front path and put it in the bathroom. My husband's meeting was cancelled, so he will be making that up tonight. It was so windy last night and is windy again this morning. I can't do much outside when it is this windy. This connection thing is really irritating because I wanted to check out lumber prices at Lowe's and download some more word games for my son to play. I'm considering changing my sq ft garden quadrants into four sets of two 5 ft x 12 ft beds so that I can use row covers and trellises more easily. Too bad, because I really like the looks of the wacky layout better. Maybe I'll save that design, or something similar, for a cut flower garden. ~~~~~~~~ I checked the phone connection box to see if something happened. Of course the lid snapped off when I checked. I can't imagine why that happened. Everything looked okay inside, except for having dead bugs, a bit of debris, and rust inside. I dusted it out a little bit, taped the thing shut, and now I'm up to a whopping 19.2 kbps now. At least I was able to check the Lowe's site for lumber. ~~~~~~~~ I ordered my lumber, half of what I wanted. My new veggie garden will be half the size I wanted, but at least the beds will be twice as deep. To make up for that, I will be growing more than twice as many pumpkins as I had originally planned. |
| Valia Posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 - 06:20 pm: | |
Reminds me of the translation of the last line of La Cucaracha ... "another raisin in the pie." Yuk! |
Ewwww!! Hahaha! |
April 3, 2008 (Thursday)
I guess I will spread some seeds and flip the compost pile today. Maybe I'll flip both piles, depending on how cold it feels outside. I will use the compost piles for the pumpkins. I'm going to use rainwater for all of the pumpkins this year. The veggie garden will get well water this year, but I think I'm going to need another pool for rainwater in case the well can't deal with the garden. Every little nitpicky detail has been taken care of now, so that's the end of that.
Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! I am so much happier than I was a little over half an hour ago. I disconnected from the Internet to see if Lowe's had called and/or to wait for them to call. I was shocked to have a voicemail saying that the lumber would be delivered between 9 and 1. I wanted to dance for joy, but I was skeptical, so I got ready to wait and wait and wait for visitors. I just started to wait when the Lowe's truck pulled up in the driveway. Hooray!!! Now, I just have to wait for the angle ties to arrive (I'm sure that'll be next week - LOL!) and buy some screws (which will be this weekend). I am so excited!! I had my doubts that I was going to see lumber before next week's planting dates arrived. Do a little dance!
While I was outside, I noticed that a couple of the Perennial Pea vines have started to come up already.
Also while I was outside, the info packet guy arrived and we got to talking. He offered me a 55 gallon plastic drum. That'll be great for watering flowers and/or pumpkins. He also thinks that tomorrow will be rain and not snow, or at least that is what he has been telling himself. *snort* I hope he's right. I like that sort of outlook.
I sowed seeds for Common Betony and Crimson Clover in the new hummingbird garden. The Teasel and Common Mullein went in the southern extension of the weed garden. The Anise and Horehound went southeast of the old rhubarb patch. Then I flipped the compost pile in the south field. After that, I gathered up two piles of solar mulch that stayed out all winter long and put them in the garage along with my two biggest T-posts. I'll use those posts to trellis the tomatoes in the new veggie garden. It's going to be a pain to take down the old trellis, but that's one of the next things on my list to do.
While I was over by the old sq ft garden gathering up posts and solar mulch, I decided to check the berry patch. Not too bad! I didn't get close up to the blueberry bushes, but at least I could see that they were still there. The four gooseberry bushes that survived the summer have buds on them, as do the blackberries and new rhubarb. It was shocking to see that all five rhubarb have sprouts. I thought for sure that three were dead, more like all five. Some of the strawberries have leaves and the cranberries have beautiful purple-red leaves now. I hope that means they survived. I don't remember if I saw buds on the currants and raspberries. I kind of think that maybe the currants had some, of the ones that didn't die last year. Whew! I'm just glad to see survivors of any kind over there. I promise to be much more attentive to them all this year.
Now to examine the plant room for new sprouts. I think I forgot to check the daylily bag yesterday when I was potting up some more tomato seedlings. Eek. ........ No daylily sprouts, but I potted up a couple more tomato seedlings. I think I keep forgetting to mention that one of my Heliotrope cuttings is flowering. I really need to pot the Heliotrope cuttings, Fuchsia cuttings, and Honeysuckle cuttings. I should root the Trumpet Vine cuttings I get when I pinch back the ones I grew from seed. I'll look them up to see if I should even pinch them in the first place. ........ Seems like I should/could pinch them since non-blooming ones can be cut back to encourage blooming. It's not like they're going to bloom for several years anyway, so I'll see if I can at least make them bushy in the meantime. ... The Love-Lies-Bleeding has sprouted up like crazy. Didn't I just start that? ... Yes, I started that two days ago. That was much faster and better than last year. |
April 4, 2008 (Friday) Dream Land
Today I will start seeds for Delphiniums, Eggplant, and Peppers. I took the two trellises down from the old sq ft garden late yesterday afternoon. They are actually wire fence, but I had them nailed up on untreated 4x4's for use as tomato trellises. I moved them to the new garden area. I've been considering harrowing under the old sq ft garden, but it sure looks nice there... no weeds, yet. It would be very tempting to use it as a big nursery bed. I'm not sure I'll actually move the berry patch this year, so it wouldn't be necessary to get rid of the old sq ft garden just yet since it's right beside the berry patch, and since the idea behind ditching both plots was to make it easier to tend the whole field with the tractor. I really need to think about that today.
On a different and totally un-gardening-related note...
Several nights ago, I had a dream that started out in English, but ended in French. I don't remember what it was about, just that it switched languages.
Then about three days ago, I dreamed that Lisa and I were shopping for Christmas ornaments together. We had found all sorts of very retro ornaments, some of which had wonderfully retro names. I remember one of her boxes was labelled something-or-other "Shrinky Dinks", even though it had nothing to do with Shrinky Dinks. Although I had picked out a couple of boxes of ornaments for myself, I don't remember any of the ornaments at all, except for the last box that Lisa picked up. It was half a dozen 1970's "gold"-colored, fiberglass-cannister, electric ice cream makers (LOL!) with white motor housings on top (just like an ice cream maker my parents used to have). They each had little jelly candies glued all over the motor housings, the little mounded jelly candies that come in different colors and are covered with giant sugar crystals.
In case you haven't noticed, I am having much better dreams these days, maybe because talking about my bad dreams has finally helped me get them back under control.
NOW FOR THE WARNING: Read the rest of today's journal entry at your own risk and only if you like reading "bodice rippers". You know the type of book I mean... the steamy novels with muscular men on the covers...
Anyway, last night I dreamed in Russian. I walked into a grandiose building and was greeted by someone who looked like a butler. He led me into an enormous gilded room. I must have been early -- to a ball or party, I guessed -- because there was only one other person in the entire room, a very proper-looking man, standing straight and tall in a pure white, crisply starched shirt and pants that seemed to be the deepest Heavenly blue of the night sky. From the fit and cut of his clothes, I could tell that he was a military man, although he wasn't wearing any medals. The butler left me standing alone at my end of the room. It looked as though I was in one of the chambers off the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, Antoinette's bed chambers perhaps, except that the room was devoid of furniture. The paintings and mouldings on the walls were exquisite, as was the marble floor. I could hear people talking in hushed voices in an adjacent room. It seemed as though I should know this person standing before me, but I racked my brains for previous dreams and couldn't think of who he was. I knew that I was supposed to walk up to him and continue from where we had left off before, so I did, although I had no idea where things would go from there. I was wearing a very dark, possibly black, evening gown. It was floor-length and very elegant, with glistening beads and fine lace. I walked all the way across the huge room without a sound, trying to not crumble under the pressure of being the only other person in the room. I stopped a little less than a foot away from the man and began to talk about meaningless things, with a smile on my face. He murmured in agreement now and then, and uttered other unintelligible sounds while looking about the room, never once looking at me. After a few moments of mindless banter, I stepped a little closer, tilted my head up, and continued my conversation in a whisper. He continued to murmur, still looking around the room, but only inches away from my face. I stood and gazed at him, studying his hair (which, incidentally, I identified as being Putin's hair color this morning after I awoke) and his sparkling grey eyes. I moved just a little closer, spoke a little more quietly, barely audible, and his lips almost brushed mine as he nodded and looked about the room. He was so close that I could feel the heat emanating from his body. I started to speak again, but kissed him instead. A voluptuous, wet kiss right on the lips. As if that wasn't shocking enough, it surprised me even more when he returned the kiss... in like manner. He held my head in the palms of his hands and kissed me. It felt so good and we kissed for so long, until I blurted out, "I love you." Where in the world did that come from? What in the world was I thinking? But he said, "I love you." I was so shocked that I stopped kissing him and just stood there in amazement. He continued to kiss me. I was dazed, but he didn't stop. After a few more moments of kissing me while I stood there like a statue, he stopped for just a brief moment and said, "I was going to ask, you marry me." What? He had spoken in broken English and I wasn't sure what he had said. Did he just ask me to marry him? Or was he saying that he had intended to ask me to marry him, but had changed his mind? Or maybe he was going to ask later? I was stunned. Just what exactly did he mean? I continued to just stand there and he went on kissing me. I asked, "Are you asking me?" He continued to kiss me and I guess we'll never know the answer because then the dream switched and I was standing in a giant swimming pool at an apartment complex. It had just started to rain a freezing rain and the pool water was frigid. I was with another friend and we were both wearing blue bikinis. I had a cat riding on my hip. The cat didn't seem to mind the pool water, but it definitely disliked the freezing rain pouring down. Everyone else had already cleared the pool and crowds of people were congregating under the eaves and balconies of the apartments. We started to climb up the pool steps and the cat began to really clutch and claw at my bikini bottoms. I was freezing and having a hard time keeping my bikini pulled up with the bedraggled wet cat weighing them down. I felt like all eyes were on me, either because there was a cat on me or because my bikini was falling off. I got out of the pool and headed for my apartment building, clutching the top hem of my bikini bottoms, the cat dangling from my bikini the whole while, and telling myself that everyone was really just watching the rain come down, probably unaware that I was even there. That was the end of the dream.
I don't know what the Russian dream meant, but I think the swimming pool dream was pretty clear: It had to be my mind's version of taking a very cold shower, and a reaffirmation that I do know how to keep my pants on around people I don't know, lest I was worried about where that Russian dream was headed. Pfft! HAHA! |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Friday, April 04, 2008 - 09:28 am: | |
You have got to be kidding me!! 1/2 dozen of them? Did we get to make & eat some ice cream? I hope it was choc chip cookiedough! lol
I have been having some really crazy dreams myself lately. None of them worth boring you about, but believe me, they were some of the weirdest dreams I think I've ever had.
Now, after having said that, I just ready about your latest dream. None of the dreams I have had lately are as crazy as that one! I was cracking up getting a visual of a darned cat hanging on to you & everyone just staring at you. lol |
No, they were just little Christmas ornaments to hang on a tree. LOL!! But I did eat some Edy's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream last night. For dinner. With some cherry blintzes, hot from the oven. Does that count? LOL!! |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Friday, April 04, 2008 - 02:43 pm: | |
Yes, we can count that! That flavor sounds good; I've never tried it (probably b/c I only buy the Edy's light. I have to or else I'd weigh double what I weigh now since I eat so much ice cream. I was glad to finally get a new refrigerator b/c without one, I was going to DQ all of the time)! |
April 5, 2008 (Saturday)
My angle braces apparently shipped this morning. I hope they get here next week. I put my cabbage family tray outside this morning. It is about 46 degrees, very overcast, and somewhat drizzly. Now as long as the tray doesn't get trashed by the dog. I need to pick up some manure, pulverized lime, vermiculite, liquid organic fertilizer, maybe some straw, and some screws today, but if it keeps raining, I'll do it tomorrow.
Yaaaaaay! Yay, yay, yaaaaay! My angle braces came today. WOOHOO! I stopped to check the mail on the way to the tractor store and was soooo excited to find them in the mailbox. I cannot express how happy and relieved that makes me feel.
At the tractor store, I bought some powdered organic fertilizer, some screws, two bags of chicken food, a box of 5 Emberglow Crocosmia (woohoo!), and a box of 15 mixed Ranunculus (woohoo!). Then we stopped for lunch. When we got home, my husband helped me put the first veggie bed together. I started working on the third corner of it when I realized I'd only bought enough screws to make one bed. Duh. I don't know what I was thinking when I did that. Luckily, I was already planning to go to the hardware store for the manure and lime, so I picked up a whole bunch more screws while I was there. I helped the workers load the 14 bags of manure into the truck, then my husband and I unloaded it and carried it over to where the new beds will be located. Forty-pound bags of manure that have been rained on weigh a whole lot more than forty pounds each. I unloaded the 50 pound bag of lime, then after a tour of the spring flowers one more time, I unloaded both 50 pound bags of chicken food. After going to bed after midnight and waking up around 6:30 this morning, I am pooped.
I know exactly where I will put the Crocosmia and Ranunculus... right where I grew the heirloom Dahlias last year. I wasn't going to buy any flowers, but I saw those and they are something that I have always wanted. It has been a couple of decades since I've grown Ranunculus, so I was thrilled to find them. I picked up the boxes of flowers, thought about it, then put them all back on the shelf and went to pick up the screws while my husband and son played in the toy department. When I came back, I eyeballed the bulbs again and decided this time I was going to put them in the cart and wasn't going to change my mind. :-)
One other thrilling thing today is that some of the new purple Crocuses have opened in the lawn. Wow, are they pretty! They are such a beautiful shade of purple. I am surprised how small they are, though. They hardly show up against the grass. I think that if the grass were green already, I wouldn't have noticed them at all. I have checked all of the roses and it looks like only Chrysler Imperial is brown (figures, since it's my favorite) and all the rest have green canes. American Beauty even has leaf buds. I have four or five Canterbury Bells that survived the winter. I think that's about all that I planted out there last year. My luck, they'll all be pink. Haha! The Alliums seem to have really multiplied since I bought them. They'll probably be ready for some dividing this year or next.
So, tomorrow will be the building of the three remaining veggie beds, levelling of the beds, filling of the beds, mixing of the beds... ugh. Makes me want to go to bed.
New Purple Crocus in the Lawn
Striped Crocus
Patch of Crocus |
| Seil Posted on Saturday, April 05, 2008 - 07:51 pm: | |
The crocuses(?) are sooo pretty, DJ, especially those striped ones.
Good for you! I'm glad you got your bulbs! Make sure to post some pic when they bloom. |
Thank you, Seil.  I just saw your purple crocus in the Bulbs Forum. Our Crocs could be twins! Such a lovely color for a Croc. |
| Stormdancer Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 09:09 am: | |
Dang girl!!! you sound like me now!! Here I thought I was one of the "few" females in the world that doesn't think much about tossing around bags like that. On the plus side, it helps keep me in shape!! |
LOL! I know what you mean, but somebody's gotta do it. LOL! I did momentarily consider loading the bags into the wheelbarrow so that I could roll them over to where I wanted them, but luckily (depending on how you look at it) it occurred to me that the wheelbarrow might have poison ivy juice all over it. *sigh* I need my own wheelbarrow.  |
April 6, 2008 (Sunday)
And go to bed I did. I think I went to bed at 6:30 last night, then got up and tucked in the chickens about a quarter after seven, then went back to bed. Up at 6:30 this morning and still dead tired. I should have taken that nap last week like I wanted to do, but never did.
It is grey and 44 degrees this morning. I don't think the temperature will change much today, nor the clouds. I have Nicotiana sylvestris sprouts this morning. Yippee! No new tomato sprouts, so I will start some tomato seeds directly in the cell plugs today. I have lots and lots of Daylily sprouts. I think I'm going to have to put them in a tray to save space when I pot them up.
We built the beds. Things went much better when I wasn't getting any help. Oh, well, what's done is done. It's a crumby day, too grey and windy, and no sun, so the levelling of the beds will have to wait for tomorrow or the next day. I am going to be dead by the time planting starts.
April 7, 2008 (Monday)
It is another grey day and only 40 degrees. Yesterday was so cold it almost felt like winter, and then it drizzled or rained in the evening. Hopefully today will be a better day. I need to get at least two beds finished before Friday.
I have put my tray o' cabbage family outside this morning. I hope I don't forget them. ~~~~~~~~ Hmm. My broc and cabbage chart says they don't go out until one week from Friday. I wonder why I was thinking it was this Friday? The cauliflower is supposed to be two weeks from Friday. I wonder how much difference it'll make if I put them all out this Friday? Maybe I'll just hold them in their plugs for a while yet, if they don't start getting too big.
I don't know what time I started, but it is a quarter 'til noon and I just finished levelling all of the beds. I didn't bother to level them with each other, just each one to its own self. It looks pretty good. Hopefully it'll look at least as good once they are all filled. I'd like to get that done today, but we don't seem to have any sunscreen and the sun is shining now.
Uuuuggghhh!!! I could just die! I had broken up the soil in the bottom of the first veggie bed, then spread some manure on it and worked it in, then spread some more material and worked that in, and was in the processing of opening the next bag when I heard a truck on the road. Somehow I just knew it was heading for my driveway. Ugh, sure enough, it was my April delivery of trees and vines from Fedco. While I am glad that I no longer have to wonder when they will arrive, I am also dead tired from planting the two Dutchman's Pipe Vines and the two Crabapple trees (Winter Gold and John Wyman), and I still have two Tamarack Trees left to plant. The Crabs ended up going somewhere other than where I planned. I had wanted them on the west side of the stone wall closest to the house, but it was very hard digging all along there, not to mention too shady at the south end of the wall, and too close to the old Maple Tree at the North end. I decided I wasn't going to repeat the same mistake I had made when I planted the Clems too close to the Maple, so the first Crab (the Wyman) ended up going in the nook where the two stone walls meet, over by the beginning of the path to the chicken coop. The other one has been planted at the northeast end of the old Rhubarb patch. I figure if I don't like them where they are, I can move them later, but at least in the meantime they will have had some good one-on-one TLC. I think I'll do the same with the Tamaracks. I was going to put them in the barnyard by the line of Spruce, but I think I will keep them close by until they get big enough that nothing will want to eat them. Whew, now where would that be? As for the Dutchmen, they are lined up on the east side of the house on either side of the water faucet. I hope the All Ablaze Rose doesn't mind being so close to them. I need to get out and plant those two Tamaracks, but I'm not sure I'll be able to finish the veggie bed today. My back is KILLING me. Oh, and as I was walking off to get some more homemade compost or something for the second Crab, I noticed that the Arbor Day trees are ready for new homes. Uuuuuggghhh!!!
I managed to plant both Tamaracks and finished the first veggie bed. I wanted to do the next veggie bed, but I figured I wouldn't be able to deal with breaking up the bottom dirt. I realized that was actually a very good decision when I stumbled and tripped my way up the chicken coop stoop to put my tools in there (so that I wouldn't have to carry them so far the next time I work out there) and could barely step up into the coop.
I saw a pretty fleur on Bogey. That was a nice end to a long day.
Finished the First Veggie Bed
A Flower for Bogey
(Scilla bifolia) |
| Stormdancer Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 01:33 pm: | |
EEEWWW...don't need that any time of year...have you ever tried a product called "Technu"? That stuff is awesome!! One of our light company workers gave me a bottle one summer when I was covered with blisters from an encounter with the weedeater and of all things...Virginia Creeper...I'm extremely allergic to it as are all of the kids...mine and my current husband's. The stuff was so bad on me that instead of dabbing the calamine lotion, I was just painting it on my legs!! The Technu cleared it up when everything else had failed...I was broke out for over a month. Been keeping it on hand ever since. One of the boys does tree work and is forever coming in contact with it. |
April 8, 2008 (Tuesday)
The spring peepers were nice and loud last night when I went out to tuck the chickens in. That's the first night this spring that I've heard them so clearly. We first heard them the night of April 1st when my husband came home early from a meeting. It was hard for me to tell that it was the peepers because they sounded about the same as the ringing in my ears. (Why do I type "peppers" every time I mean to type "peepers"?)
I checked the hummingbird migration map this morning and saw that one has been spotted in Rhode Island already, so I have decided to put the feeder out now rather than later. I put it in its new spot over by the chicken coop.
It's 11:30 AM and I have finished the second veggie bed. Ugh! I am going to try to fill one more today, but first we're going to have a picnic... if I can find a sunny, windless spot.
Second Veggie Bed
The third bed is filled now. It took 1 hr 50 min to complete. No wonder it seems like it takes forever. Only one more to go, but I will save that for tomorrow.
Third Veggie Bed
Crocuses in the Lawn
Crocuses in the Front Yard
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