Not Really Been A Good Year

I'm not gonna try to list everything.   Some things you don't need to know, some are boring, and I'll probably forget to mention some.

The neighbors got a yappy dog.  The Mom there lets it out in the backyard as soon as the kids leave for school.  It runs around barking all day long,  It drives me crazy when I am in the backyard.  It seems convinced it should kill me.  Which is sort of funny, because if it somehow got in my yard I could strangle it with one hand.  Not that I would, but if it died of natural causes or the family moved away, I wouldn't shed a tear.  

And I suspect the Mom doesn't much love it either because as I said, she puts it out in the fenced backyard as soon a the kids leave for school.  It must be maddening to have it in the house.  I am surrounded by dogs on 3 sides.  The yappy dog on the east, a large barky dog on the south (which desperately tries to get at me through the fence), and 2 large dogs to the west (which are at least mostly indoors and don't threaten or make much noise).  But the east and south dogs make being in my backyard less pleasant than it should be.

Taxes were a misery last April.  I fill out the H&R Block software forms, then tried to "finish" them.  I kept getting a notification that I was "not on the network".  Which was ridiculous because I was all over the internet otherwise.  I wasn't going to try to call H&R Block just a few days before the filing date, so I filed for an extention and sent the Feds and State estimated additional tax payments to be safe.

The next day, I had my annual physical exam.  Everything was fine.  But 2 days later I woke up , got out of bed and fell to the floor with terrible right hip pain.  Three days later, I had an appointment with my primary care doctor.  He got me scheduled  for a hip x-ray at the radiology lab in the same building (it's not a hospital but a combined medical center).  

Guess who didn't have an x-ray technician on staff (vacant position for 4 months)?  But the center had an emergency x-ray center a block away.  They were alarmed at the results.  They said I had either bone marrow or metastatic cancer.  I went through a more detailed series of tests over the course of a month (needed a roller-walker to get around with difficulty), and was then referred to an oncologist and an MRI specialist to have more tests.  3 month waiting list...

But the pain went away after another (2nd) month.  It became obvious that the problem was a very severe groin muscle injury that healed slowly.  I felt perfectly fine again.  

But that completely ruined my gardening season.  By the time I could get around outside, I was late with my tomatoes, corn, and beans.  I had ordered ten 10 gallon buckets (so I could put them in the sunniest part of the backyard) to plant them in and bought a small trailerload of 50/50 topsoil/compost to fill them.  But by then it was June.  I never got a decent crop of anything.

Funny thing about the trailerload of soil/compost.  I have good at basic geometry.  I calculated the cubic feet for 10 cylindrical buckets.  Looked up the volume of the nursery bucketloader.  It said I needed 2 bucketloads, so I went and bought 2.

The nursery apparently has a very wrong idea about the cubic feet the bucketloader delivers.  I filled up all 10 buckets with only a 1/3 of it.  Not knowing quite what to do with the other 2/3s, I covered the trailer with a tarp waiting for inspiration.

But before my hip injury, I had ordered about 500 various Spring bulbs.  They arrived in mid November and sat in my chilly basement.  I decided to smother the grassy weeds in the front yard island with standard brown packing paper, cover it with the trailer soil to hold it down, and then plant most of the island with the daffodils by using an auger to drill holes through when the paper was wet.  

But that's a lot more work than it seems.  Even mild breezes want to blow the paper around.  So I bought 50 thin "bricks" to hold them down.  I got the island all covered with bricked paper.  Digging the trailer soil into buckets was harder than it used to be.  I have probably never quite recovered from falling off the extension ladder in 2021.

I am happy to say that I emptied the trailer of the last of the soil mix and covered the paper inn piles and raked them carefully to smooth it out.  We are supposed to get about 1.5" of rain the next 2 days, so the paper with be soft.  I will use my auger to drill 200 holes for the new daffodils.  Drilling holes with the auger is is not difficult.  Dropping bulbs in the holes is not difficult.  Raking the displaced soil back over them is not difficult.  The hard work is done.

I scraped the trailer pretty well of all soil.  The rain will clean the trailer of any leftovers.  So I will finally be done with that project.  Next is the crocuses and hyacinths.  I think I will just plant them (rather than make metal cages).  I'm just too tired these days.  I still have some crocuses and hyacinths surviving after 10 years (that the voles have never found) so I'l just hope for another 10 years.  By then I probably won't be able to do much landscaping anyway.

Moon Landing Day

55 years ago today...

My paternal grampa told me he felt so lucky with his life.  He said he experienced the first airplane flight (by news, not personally of course) and lived long enough to see humans land on the moon and return safely.  He was very impressed by that.

And that was from someone who experienced WWI, The Great Depression, and WWII...  I was only 19, so I did not properly understand the event at the time.  In my life at the time, scientific advancement was routine and success was assumed.  

Medicine was much advanced.  I suffered appendicitis at 18.  At my grampa's age, I probably would have died.  And I was vaccinated agains several serious diseases.  In college, I was using a computer data center to write code (on punch cards) in Fortran and COBOL.  I could drive the family car, which was relatively solid and safe (station wagons were the SUVs of the time).  Food was refrigerated, safe, and abundant.  We had TV and A/C.

At my age then, grampa had none of those things.  And I suppose grampa was impressed by those things too when I was 19.  But the moon landing seemed to impress him very greatly.  In spite of the negative events of his (somewhat difficult) life, he remained a fairly cheerful and positive person.  He saw the advancements more than the failings of the world.

He was an organic gardener.  "Garden" doesn't quite describe it.  It wasn't a residential garden like we are familiar with today, but neither was it a farm.  It was about 1/2 acre, which he attended to happily when he wasn't building stuff in his large workshop.  I followed in his organic gardening habits and wood-working because of him (though on a much smaller scale.

And I don't want to leave gramma out.  She cooked wonderfully (Pennsylvania Deutch style).  When we visited, I would sit on the porch with her de-stringing beans and de-silking corn, helping in the kitchen too.  When I'm not strir-frying, I'm cooking basically like she did but with a a bit less frying.  "Like", not remotely as well (I still can't make a decent dumpling)...

But I mention her because she was fascinated by "outer space".  When we landed on the moon, she told me that if we could go "out there", then some other intelligent species could come "down here".  And she trusted the advancement of intelligent species.  She said that if a spaceship landed here, she would volunteer to go aboard.

So for both of them (and for general reasons), I wanted to honor this day...

Garden

I can't do a proper garden this year.  Bad hip and too much shade now where I built raised beds years ago.   So I bought a dozen 10 gallon containers and put them in the sunniest spot in the back yard.  And then bought 50/50 topsoil/compost mix from a local nursery to fill them.  

I'm glad for my 5x8' trailer, glad for my 3x4' yard cart, glad for my lawn tractor to haul the cart, and glad for my saved collection of 5 gallon 35# cat litter buckets to fill in the cart!  I can't lift anything that heavy anymore, but I am sure glad I kept the old ones.

It took a few days (that hip thing, "grunt, ouch") but I finally got 10 containers filled.  Planted 4 heirloom Cherokee Purple and 2 Brandywine tomatoes.  It is a bit late, but they are 2' mature, so I should get something from them.  Have 2 cherry tomatoes yet to plant but they produce fast and should be OK.

The other 4 containers will have "early" bi-color corn with flat italian beans growing up the stalks.  I would have planted those yesterday, but it rained suddenly.  And I like to pre-soak corn and beans anyway.  

Not much of a garden this year compared to years past, but the important thing was that I did it.  Sometimes the "trying" is the point.

10 years ago, I had a garden that produced these beauties in one day which I started from seed myself...

And gave me these in just one day.  I ate tomatoes with every meal for days and loved it!

Now, I am reduced to store-bought seedlings in container pots.  *sigh*. But you do what you can...

Yard, Flowers

Pics of yard and flowers...

Yucca bloomed!  Doesn't happen every year.

The tomatoes are growing fast after finally getting planted a few weeks ago.

I dug this up.  It was probably lost while the house was built 37 years ago.

I spread seeds from flowerheads last Fall in the pollinator bed.  They grew like crazy.  

Apparently, they like the spot...

Cllose-up...

The daylillies are blooming...

And the hydrangeas are still blooming.

The Stokes Asters are still blooming after 20+ years.

But fewer this year.  I should divide and refresh them.

The new butterfly weed has returned again for a 3rd year.  I planted 6 once, but this one loves the spot and keeping showing up.

And there are more coming along in the yard and deck.  But they are not in full bloom yet, so I will wait to show them. 

Meanwhile, I have a Fall crop of flat italian beans emerging for Fall harvest. Need to plant snow peas, broccoli and garlic soon.

Garden/Yard And Other Stuff

Finally got outside and worked hard.  It's been a long Winter and I don't deal with "cold"  as well as I used to.  Today got to the 80s.  So I got some stuff done...

1.  I had covered parts of the fence flowerbed with cardboard.  Lifting it up, I saw that some annoying weeds were still alive.  So I gave it a shallow tilling with a mini tiller and covered it back up.  

2.  Gave the pollinator bed a similar short-mowing and then shallow tilling.  It is about 350 square feet but my seed packet was for 500 sq ft.  Spread it all.  Well, the thicker the better.  Most won't sprout anyway.

3.  The native wildflower meadow bed is larger (700 sq ft) and needs deeper tilling.  I have a larger tiller, but it doesn't want to start.  I'll have to drain the gas, spray cleaner into it, and otherwise fight with it.  I think what I need to do is cover it in black plastic for the year to smother the weeds and grass.

4.  Speaking of equipment, I have a bad habit of leaving old gasoline in them.  I'm engaged on a project to fix everything and not repeat old bad habits like that.  

5.  I have a chipper/shredder.  It easier to just pile all the tree debris into the trailer and bring it to the County recyling site.  I pull the stuff off the trailer and on Saturdays they will use a bucket-loader to fill it with 3-year-old mulch/compost.  Well, it isn't exactly either.  To course for compost and too fine for mulch; but it is good to add to my compost bin or spread on shipping paper to break down further.  I should sell the chipper/shredder.

6.  Should sell some other stuff too.  I have a lawn roller I never use.  

Not that brand, but one like it.  It's actually bad for the lawn.  But it is good for flattening mole or gopher tunnels and someone would probably want it for that.  I just stomp on the mole tunnels myself. 

Someone wants almost anything for their own reasons and their evaluation of things can be surprising.  I bought a bike to get back and forth to the car dealership with my old car and the next month theyt started offerring rides back and forth.  And besides, I well over trying to ride it.  They say "you never forget how to ride a bike.  Yes, you can.  And I sold it for more than I paid.  The buyer was thrilled.  Yeah!  Win-win.

Sold a large air-pressure pump too.  I bought a small portable one more suited to my needs.  But some guy wanted a big one.  Sold!

I have too much stuff I don't use.  Time to start selling.  I don't need the money, but there is no point in just tossing them away.  What I need more is unclutterred space in the basement and toolshed.

Anyway, I spent the day outside, and I am paying for it now.  Hand and rib muscle cramps, finger-clenches, lower back pain.  I better get this place ready for another 10 years soon or I won't be able to soon.  After 10 years, it is going to be a professional landscaper service or just let everything become "lawn".

I Had A Busy Day

I've been having a problem in bed for a couple of years.  I sleep badly and lay there too long (10-12 hours) but get maybe 6 hours actual sleep.  And I never go through a ful REM sleep cycle.  But it suddenly switched to being awake after 6 hours the past few days.  Maybe I suddenly caught up to all the years of getting up after 6 hours sleep during my 35 year career.  But I doubt it.

I'm not sure what to make of that .  Just something else to add to my list of  questions for my DR at the next annual exam.

But the consequence is that I have actually gotten up earlier the past few days, and I got a lot done.  Not the best time of year to get active outside, but anytime is better than none.  

So:

1.  Mowed the lawn.  Nothing special in that, but 2 of my neighbors spent 4 hours using a leaf-blower to collect their leaves in a pile.  I just mowed the lawn twice (took only an hour) and shredded the leaves and grass back into the lawn.  Free fertilizer!

2.  Mowed the pollinator and meadow beds down to 1".  I plan to cover them both in brown shipping paper.  Lets water soak through but prevents light.  I need to smother the grass that has invaded.  $ months may not be enough (should have done in several months ago) but it should set them back a bit.

3.  Covered the daffodil/tulip bed with black plastic.  Bulbs like to be dry over Winter, AND that should REALLY smother the weeds.  I did that last year in early Fall, but the plastic held water pools and encouraged mosquitos.  So I waited for the first freeze this time.

4.  Took apart the garden.  Tomato cages removed. stakes removed, and the old tomato vines bagged for trash (the fungal and viral diseases will spread otherwise).  The tomatoes were a complete failure this year.  I will plant them in fresh spots next year.

5.  Harvested self-sowing and native seeds.  Snipped off the seedheads and placed each in a ziplock bag to store in the basement fridge.  When the soils thaws in Spring, I will spread the saved seeds and spread 1/4"on seeds and them rake it around lightly.  That way, most will be at perfect depth for growing.

6.  Charged up the string-trimmer.  My garden pathways have some invasive vines.  Cutting them down with stunt growth.  But I've been saving cardboard boxes for a few years.  Time to use them.  Covering the  paths with cardboard should eliminate those vines.

More work to do tomorrow, but rain forecast in the morning.

7.  Repotted 3 dozen Nandina shrub seedlings.  It was surprisingly difficult.  The deep narrow cells that released marigolds before do not release Nandinas for some reason.  But I expect all will survive.  Nandinas are tough,  All are under lights, so should do fine.

Garden

The garden was started late, but is catching up with the warm weather and sunny days. 

The Black-Eyed Susans are spreading and thriving.  I encourage them, as they are native plants and adapted to the weather patterns here. 

The flat italian beans are growing well up the curved trellis.  I made the trellis curved so the beans would hang down in plain sight.  Easier to find.

I planted a Fall crop of snow peas on a short trellis of leftover concrete mesh wire.  The corks are there so I don't scratch myself on rusty wire.

The melons are slow to climb a trellis at first, but when they start, they climb fast.  I have mesh onion bags to hold the developing melons.  THere are cukes growing in another bed.  But they are self-supporting.

Two cherry tomato plants from a couple of weeks ago.  One now has a fruit ripening.  They are double the size now.  When they start producing, they don't stop until late October. Or maybe November if the frost holds off.  Climate change has SOME benefits if you are in the right place.

The tadpole tub.  It wasn't intentional, but I saw tadpoles in it one day and have been nurturing them since.  The stick is for the ones that survive to develop legs to get a way out.  I don't know if they are toads or frogs.  I hope they are toads.  Both eat some pesky insects, but toads are quiet.  A toad in the garden is better than a frog in a pond.

I sprinkle some fish-flakes on the surface every couple days.

This is the bean patch a week later.  I'm harvesting!

I like them better than regular green beans.  Earthier, nuttier flavor.  Plus, you won't find them in the grocery store.

Garden Plantings

I don't know why I am so late this year (but the ladder fall, limping around, feeling tired, staying in bed late , and bad weather when I had the time to plant) all added up.  Things kind of got beyond me a bit this year...

Anyway, I have finally felt more active lately and got some useful work done.  Yay!  Well, better late than never.  At least they have time to produce SOME harvest.

The tomato seedlings are planted.  I had laid down permeable fabric beforehand and cut Xs where the seedling would go in; then stuck markers in the ground and pulled the cut-to-fit fabric aside.  Then I gave the soil some care.  I take a good few shovelfuls of soil into a bucket and mix organic fertilizer in as I add it back.  That way, there is basically a 5 gallon bucket of well-mixed loose fertilized soil for the seedlings to go into.  The tomato roots don't spread further than that.

So then I put the fabric back on and use a bulb-planter to make a hole for the seedlings.  Tomatoes grow roots from asny buried stem, so the deeper the better.  Early roots are better than early top growth!  [An exception is grafted plants.  The graft has to be above the soil line].

So I got them all planted this week.  I can fit 6 tomotes in a framed bed and there are 2 of them.  Here is one...

A close-up of one seedling. ..

The cage is made of concrete wire mesh.  22" in diameter and 5' tall.  I made them 25 years ago and they are as sturdy as when new.

This isn't new this year.  They are broccoli and purple cauliflower plants.  I planted them last year and they didn't do much.  But they survived the Winter and I' have hopes they will sprout.  There were more broccoli, but the ones that developed heads (and then smaller side-heads) were harvested and pulled.  One neat thing I've discovered is  that the green cabbage worms don't like purple leaves.  They are too easy for predators to find.

I'm trying an idea with the pole beans.  I made a frame of concrete rebar and bent some leftover wire mesh at an angle.  The idea is that the beans will hang down from among the leaves and will be easier to find and pick.

The beans are growing fast!  One month and they are 6' high!  I read a study once that suggested delaying planting of many crops.  The idea is the cool weather slows their growth and later-planted crops often surpass the early ones in total growth and productivity.  Well, I guess I am sure testing that this year (unintentionally).

I also planted small-seeded cucumbers, cantelopes, honeydews, and watermelon along the framed bed trellises (more concrete wire mesh).  Those may seem rather heavy fruits to grow on a trellis, but I have a bunch of plastic mesh bags to support the fruits.  Vertical space IS free, after all.

And after all that, I weeded the remaining areas of the beds.  If I have been late to the Spring-plantings, I am ready for the Fall plantings in late July.  Most people ignore Fall, but it has some advantages.  Summer warmth promotes fast growth, and Fall temperatures actually improve the flavor and extend the harvesting time for some crops.  I can have a second crop of snow peas, and most root crops turn starch into sugars, much as fruits do.

As farmers do, I fear the worst, but hope for the best.  Some years are better than others.  ;)

Garden

Between one thing and another, I got SO behind on my gardening this year.  But I'm hoping to catch up.

I only got my tomato seedlings planted last week.  Granted, they were in large pots after 2 transplantings and 18" tall, but I can only hope there is time for fruits to grow and ripen.  They should.  Most take about 85-90 days and I have 120-150 days before first frost.  But this will not be one of the great tomato years for me.

I also planted corn, and that will be "iffy".  I planted pole beans and cucumbers, and I'm not sure how they will grow.  All the cucumber seeds came up.  The pole beans are about 50%.

But for once. I am on a Fall planting schedule.  That is best for some crops.  They grow faster on the Summer heat and mature in the Fall coolness.  The cole crops (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts prefer that.  Root crops are protected from early frosts, bein underground, so I may finally get carrots and beets larger than a single bite, LOL!

I need to plant more carrots, beets, radishes, celery, and lettuces

I would provide pictures, but a 1" corn plant is not very impressive.

Garden

I got the first seeds in the soil yesterday.    It was good to scratch up the dirt.  First was pre-germinated snow peas.  I soak then 24 hours and then let them sit 2 days.  I plant the obes tat send out a root.

This morning, I planted a 6' pattern of 35 spinach seeds.  I tapped out a handful and they were the exact amount.  Yay!

I also planted a sq ft each of radishes, beets, carrots, and kholrabi. 

The basement light stand is full of trays of tomatoes, peppers, cole crops, and flowers.  Most are emerging.  And I've started the dormant Venus Fly Traps in the cold garage; 4 hours of light this week and 1 more hour each week until it is warm outside.

Stared my war against the voles.  The voles eat plant roots.  And use mole tunnels o avoid predators.  So to rid the yard of voles, I have to chase the moles out.  Poor moles...  But they have to go to make the voles go.

Voles are like mice but eat plant roots.  And they love to hide.  They are the ones that eat your tulip and crocus bulbs.  They are also what the cats call "mousies" mostly.

I replanted my lettuce trays too.

Been Busy

I haven't posted here in a while.  Not that I didn't have things to mention, just didn't do it.  I've been busy...

On the outside (and some of this may not be new but I'm too lazy to check, so forgive me):

1.  Transplanted 4 specimen saplings (2 dogwoods  and 2 sourwood) in the cleared area where the wild blackberries, virginia creeper vines and wild grape vines used to rule.  The saplings will stay about 20' tall and NOT shade the garden like the trees I removed did).

2.  Straightened and re-attached bent PVC tubes (with metal pipe inside) on the garden enclosure (I built it to keep squirrels, groundhogs, rabbits, and weird birds out.  Pollinating insects get through the chicken wire just fine.

3.  Been carefully spraying individual wild blackberries and vines to kill them.  New stuff is growing now that the blackberries aren't shading them, but a string trimmer cuts them down well.  When the sapling start to grow they will cast enough shade below them to prevent new growth.

4.  I used to have a compost bin next to the older shed.  I removed it a few years ago and built another one that is better.  But there was a foot of rich soil left over on the old site.  I moved most of it to the new garden beds.

5.  Years ago, I ordered a dozen seedlings of a nice perennial flower with purple leaves.  They sent me the wrong plant.  But as it also had purple leaves I didn't realize the error.  The wrong plant is VERY INVASIVE. (lychimastria 'Firecracker' I think).    I spent 2 days pulling up all that I could.  I'll have to do that several times, but progress is progress.  And there are some volunteers a 100 yard away.

6.  I have 2 toolsheds.  One I built when I moved here 32 years ago and one I had a contractor build (larger, with a cement floor, and a garage door).  I reorganized everything in both.  Now the equipment I seldom use is packed tightly in the old one and the stuff I use often is in the new one.  And I added shelves to the old one for odd stuff that was clutterring up the basement.

7.  I spread seeds for the meadow garden bed.  Some were saved seeds from last years plants and some were new from a packet.  Supposedly, they are are surface-germinators (well, like a natural meadow WOULD be).  I will be interested in seeing if the bed flowers better this year.

8.  The hummer/butterfly/bee bed was a failure last year.  So I tilled the whole area and spread a new batch of hummer/butterfly/bee seeds.  I also have a few dozen seedlings of the same sort to plant in there.  The seedlings will give the bed a head-start.

9.  I planted 15 annual sunflower seedlings in the meadow bed today.  They were weak last year when I did the same, so this year I planted them around a cylinder of mesh wire (anchored to a stake) and clipped them all the the cylinder.  That gives them 2' of support.  Strained my back doing all that bending-over...  I had 1 left over, so I planted it right behind the mailbox.  Maybe my mailperson will enjoy seeing it.

10.  I've been interested in grafted heirloom tomatoes for several years.  My efforts have always failed.  So this year, I bought 3 grafted tomatoes.  With shipping and taxes, $12 each.  OUCH.  But I really need to know if the effort is worth it.   I planted 2 today.  I have 6 graft attempts I did myself, but I won't know if they worked for a week.  At least THIS time, they are still alive after a week.  And I have 6 more home-grown ungrafted heirloom seedlings as back-up...

11.  I'm fighting some invasive plants.  I get poison ivy coming in from 3 neighbors.  They don't care about it because they don't go into the corners of their yards.  And there has been a vine from deliberate plantings of a 4th yard (2 residents ago).  I finally figured out it is Vinca Major.  It is almost impossible to kill.  My veggie garden is organic.  But I'll use napalm on the Vinca and poison ivy if I have to.  By "napalm" I mean Roundup.  I hate the herbicide, but the vines have taken over half my fence flowerbed.  I'm desperate.

12.  The daffodil/tulip/hyacinth bed is fading, so I gave them a good dose of organic fertilizer suited for bulbs.  That should help them improve for next year.  When the leaves turn brown I will cover the whole bed with landscape fabric to smother the weeds.  Next February, I will remove it.  I tried using regular black plastic last year but all it did was collect rainwater in low spots and Asian Tiger Mosquitos developed there.  So I was constantly going around and poking holes in the plastic to drain rainfall.  The landscape fabric is permeable, so it won't hold puddles.

13.  I planted corn in a bed under the roof edge.  It doesn't get much natural rain, so I'll have to water it regularly all Summer.  But it is rich soil and safe from wind, so the bi-color corn will like it.  I plant a block of 9 corns (3x3, fewer gets poor kernal development) and the bed is 4 blocks long, so I'll plant a new block every 2 weeks for continued harvest.

14.  I pruned my front yard saucer magnolia tree.  For some reason, the backyard one grows just fine with minimal pruning in Winter, but the front yard one grows oddly with lots of suckers and internal shoots.  By the time I was done, half the tree was gone, but it looked a lot better.  With careful future pruning, it should get more balanced.

15.  When I originally cleared the backyard back in the 90s, I discovered that I had a wild rose growing there.  It has small white flowers and a nice scent, and I think it is a 'Hawthorn Rose'.  Unfortunately, it looks just like a wild blackberry, and was overgrown with them among its canes.  I was sad to mow it down with the new DR Brushcutter I bought last year.  But I HAD to get rid of the wild blackberries.

Now, the main area in the backyard is cleared of wild blackberries, but there are some that spread to odd spots and I have to dig them out.

So when I saw white flowers suddenly blooming among a Burning Bush I love, I was depressed at the effort it would take to remove it.  But when I approached, there was The Scent!  The Hawthorn Rose had established itself 150' away from the original plant!

I have to remove it from the Burning Bush shrub, but I'm going to take 36 cuttings (a flat of 6-cels) and try to grow some first.  The rose never spread much from its original spot, so I'm not worried about it taking over like the blackberries did.  I can think of several spots where it would be happy (and I with it).

I think that is more than enough for today.  I still have the inside projects to discuss...

Good Outside Day

I presoak my large seeds.  I think I get more emerging seedlings that way.  I put them in an old ice cube tray.  It isn't hard to tell some seeds apart (what else looks like corn or beans?) .  But I had 2 kinds of SE bi-color corn (early and late) so I drew a box on paper with names.

I planted the beans (yellow italian flat pole beans), english style seedless cucumbers, a couple yellow squash along the trellises at the back of the framed beds.

Planting the corns was more involved.  I chose to plant then where I had tomatoes near the house last year.  It was mostly still covered with red plastic so there weren't too many weeds, but there were some.  And I added 2" of compost to the top.  I have a nice little electric tiller good for small spaces and used that to mix the compost in.

I didn't think there was much above ground or below, but this little tiller really wraps up anything around the blades!  It took we 15 minutes to unwind all the grass and weed roots (and I was annoyed to find a poison ivy vine it pulled up. 

I was wearing gloves, so no real concern about a poison ivy rash, but I soaked the gloves in hot soapy water and washed my had up to the elbows carefully afterwards.  I'm careful around that stuff, as I pulled up unknown viny roots from my asparagus bed and had 2 weeks of poison ivy annoyance years ago.

But after the tilling, the ground was soft and mostly weed-free.  So I drew two 3'x3' blocks  and stuck stakes around them  to mark the planted area.  There is space for another succession planting of 2'x2' blocks of both corns in 3 weeks.  Stuck one germinated corn seed in each 1 square foot block.

Then it was time to fertilize.  I had some leftover 6-0-0 corn gluten meal liquid and some N-Lite 2-6-6 (which makes a good balance), but I can't use the corn gluten liquid where there are new seeds.  Then I remembered I had some organic 11-0-0 lawn fertilizer.

So I sprinkled a mix of the lawn fertilizer and the N-Lite that resulted in a 6-6-6 fertilizer for most of the garden.  I used the corn gluten liquid (that prevents seed from germinating) on the tomato and pepper seedling bed (since it won't disturb them but will suppress weeds).   And I spread mostly lawn fertilizer over the corn planting area since corn is a heavy Nitrogen user (like lawn grass).

And since I was in "fertilizing mode", I mixed more 6-6-6 to spread on the meadow flower bed and the hummer/bee/butterfly bed. 

The hummer/bee/butterfly bed really got my attention.  It is almost bare of growth!  I suspect the seed mix I sowed last year was almost all annuals. 

I need to find a better mix.  I got out the catolog I bought the last year's seeds from, but they do not say which are annuals and which are perennials.

But that is for next time.  I was tired.

A Week In The Life.

Some of you know that I don't live a regulary-scheduled life, LOL!

So here is the past Tuesday through Saturday:

1.  Stayed up all night Tuesday 8pm - Thursday 8 am visiting cat blogs, processing camera pictures, and shifting between a gardening forum and an atheist forum.  Yeah, that 36 hours.  Went through a 1.5 l bottle of wine and 4 packs of cigs (hey, it WAS 36 hours). 

2.  Visiting my cat-friends takes about 2 hours, and then I get email notifications to new posts and I comment.  I always comment.

3.  I love reading posts at the gardening site and spent a total of a few hours there.  Sometimes there are questions I know something about and I answer.  I've been veggie and flower gardening for a few decades, so I have some experience.  I I have a good library to consult when I'm not sure.  I consulted my Peterson Guide of Eastern Trees when somewhere was trying to identify the specific one in her back yard.  It was one I have never seen, but the leaf shape was unique, so I mentioned it.

Sometimes there is new information I value.  Sometimes I ask questions.  I am new to growing Venus Fly Traps (for example) , so I'm the one asking questions there. 

4.  The atheist forum takes a lot of time.  There are atheists, agnostics, and theists there, and many of the posts are long and factual.  It takes some time to reply to those well.  I probably spend a lot of time there.  I joined this forum October last year and have over 4500 posts there now. 

Mostly, I discuss everyday events with other atheists.  Yes, atheists discuss almost everything from politics to cooking, to movies.  But it does mean we don't have a religious view on them.  Atheists may have a more reality-based approach to life, but we also love sci-fi and can do the "willing suspension of disbelief" as well as anyone if not better.

5.  I tend to switch back between the gardening and atheist forums.  I use up all the threads in one and go back to the other.  I don't mean that I post fast.  I give a lot of thought to each.  My interest is to answer posts carefully, well, and in detail without be overly long.

You can always tell tell the theists' posts by length.  They go on forever before they start quoting religious texts to get to their point.    I treat them kindly, with facts.  They can decide whether to change their minds if they want. 

6.  After a long time on the computer, I usually feed the cats (yes I fed them regularly before) but always make sure to feed them a good meal before I go to bed.  Because staying up that long means I'll sleep 12 hours after.

7.  When I got up Friday, I started on making a hinged top for the new compost bin.  Sometimes you build things by measurement.  But having the compost bin built, I simply put boards on the top and marked the edges for cutting.  Friday, I cut a lot of boards to size.  I glued and clamped some but even with mosquito repellent all over me, they were fierce around my eyes and fingers.  I worked fast and ran.

8.  Saturday afternoon (after another 12 hours in bed- I did have to catch up)  I went out to complete the top.  Fortunately, it was windy and the mosquitoes have trouble with winds over 10 mph.  I got the entire top structure completed.  OK, not the screening, the wood structure.  The hinging was perfect.  The 2 bins now have tops that lift up smoothly.  All I have to do now is attach 1/2 wire mesh to the top and add a few spacer boards under it.  That will leave no space for even a mouse to get inside.

9.  Added a lot more garden stuff into the old toolshed with the new shelves.  Every day, I will clear more basement space.  Weeded the Fall garden a bit.  Not many weeds left.  A year of weeding as removed most and I suspect there aren't many viable weed seeds left there.  Which means I can FINALLY tackle the part of the backyard overgrown with wild blackberries soon.

There is always SOMETHING that needed attention "last year", and I am always behind on some part of the yard.  On the other hand, suppose I caught up with everything?  What would I do?  OK, fix up the house better...

I'll do that when Winter arrives...

The Neighbor

I have to laugh.  I have not yet met the new neighbor.  But he/she has a lot of contractors doing a LOT of outside and inside work.  Which is good I suppose; means they care about the property

But I had to laugh because the contractors first trimmed up the trees 12" high.  OK, a little more light in my yard.

But then they came back and cut down every single tree in the yard (trimmed before or not) EXCEPT the only ones that shaded my yard.  It is to cry...

BUT, a little positive manipulation...  I talked to the Boss worker.  Told him he might score some points about this one tree.  A mulberry tree.  The berries fall on the ground.  You step on them and you stain the bottoms of your shoes.  Then you do inside and it stains the carpet.

That's true.  It is why I cut down mine years ago and where their's came from.  He said he would tell the owner.

If that doesn't work, I will point out to the new owner that the berries attract mice and rats.  Not that we HAVE rats around here, but the new owner won't know that. 

I am only slightly embarrassed about telling a fib.  OK, a lie.  But I sure would like that tree to be gone.

I wonder if I could bribe the workers...  Somewhere between $20 and $50?  $100?  They get paid by the hour for their work anyway...  And the more hours the better, right?

The Garden

My enclosed garden has been a bit of a bust this year.  The beans were slow, the cukes didn't grow tall, the melons stay short with no fruits.  The tomatoes and unproductive.

So I was reading an article in the Washignton Post magazine Local Living section.  There are articles bout gardening and cooking included there.  The gardening article today was about nurturing the soil and the various micobes, fungi, and insects that live in the soil. 

And I realized that I had gone away from all that lately!  I got casual the past few years.  Bad move...

I used to pay attention to all that stuff.  Time to start doing that again.  "Feed the soil, not the plants".  Grow cover crops in Winter, encourage worms.  Don't fertilize the soil, grow the soil.

TGey say not to dig the soil, but after I rebuilt the framed beds, they had large amounts of bad soil in clumps and that's not good.

So at the end on this season, I'm double digging the framed bed soil to mix it up, adding worms, adding shredded leaves and some kitcken peelings, some healthy soil from the old compost bin (for microbes and minor insect life, and covering it with permeable landscape fabric (to let rain in). 

Time to start re-building the soil...

Flowerbeds

The newer flowerbeds are doing great.  I never imagined the meadow bed would look so good (last year was dismal, but the flowers were just getting established).

The Hummer etc bed is doing good for a first year with annuals and should be better next year when the perennials and self-sowing annuals get going.

I'm not seeing the hummers/butterflies yet, but the bees are busy.  The Summer has just started, and I expect more flowers to bloom there that the hummers and the butterflies will like.

Meanwhile, it's not like they are lacking pollen and nectar.  I have 3 of the best hummingbird feeders I have yet found and several butterfly bushes are blooming now  with various butterflies feeding at them.

Speaking of hummingbird feeders, I was so pleased to discover how easy it is to make the "nectar".  When I started doing it decades ago, the rule was to boil water, set a cup of it in a pyrex cup rinsed with vinegar, add 1/4 sugar, stir til dissolved, cool it, and add it to the freshly cleaned (no soap) feeders.  The boiling was to make the sugar-water supersaturated so it wouldn't crystalize out when it cooled.  So the instructions I had learned said...

When I mentioned it on a gardening site, I was corrected by many posters.  They said the sugar dissolved just fine in merely hot water and was ready to go at outside temperature.  Checking hummingbird sites confirmed that.

Wow, did that make things easier!  And if you don't think there are hummingbirds around your yard, try setting up a few feeder stations and they will appear.

BTW, the best feeders I have found are "Hum-Zingers" .

Easy to clean, easy to fill, and the birds love it.  And I have no connection to the company.  They don't know I exist.

Funny story:  I never saw hummingbirds when I moved here.  But when I bought my first hummer feeder and stood around outside looking for place to hang it, a hummingbird came to it IN MY HAND and fed!  They are around; most people just don't know it.

 Meanwhile, the daylilies are doing great!  I had a bunch of them in pots and ignored them for 2 years, finally planting them last Fall.  I didn't remember how many colors they had!

I might get really into those...

Compost Bin Site Cleanup, Part 2

First, wow did I have "fun" getting those pictures right yesterday  They suddenly showed up with dates on them.  Not that the dates were wrong, but I don't like sudden changes not in my control.  I searched and searched for the cause and how to delete the dates.

And...  it finally occurred to me to check the camera itself.  Yep, I had somehow changed the menu to REQUIRE dates on the photos.  My bad!  I had fun retouching the photos to erase the dates...

SO...  Here are my photos of the spot where the new compost bin will go.  It was 2 days of sweat and various BAD words.  I had forgotten there was carpet buried down deep among the vines and weeds.


The space needs to be leveled and that is a rototiller job.  But I was so worn out yesterday I just didn't want to do that.  And there are stumps of junk trees that need to be dug out (the rototiller can't do that).

And everything is wet and muddy.  I'm taking the day off from that.

But here is a picture of part of the old compost bin, fallen over sideways...

I can't believe I only nailed it together and had no diagonal braces in it.  But I was inexperienced then.  You live and learn... 

Not that I'm not doing anything.  The old toolshed has a leaky roof from when a tree fell over on it 2 years ago.  Rain got in an ruined the cheap particle board shelves I foolishly installed 25 years ago (hey, they were under a roof and should stay dry - it seemed like a good idea at the time).  They swelled up like sponges and warped and fell apart.  So I needed real shelves.  And a new roof.  I'm still thinking about that.

But it needed cleaning too.  Generations of mice nested in the dark corners , in boxes, and under old equipment.  I had to use a snow shovel to carefully scrape out the nests and poop careful to not disturb it into the air.

And there were old weird tool holders in there.  I had to detach them after cleaning out the mouse debris.  I can't figure out how I even screwed in the brackets that held up the old shelves.  The screws were unreachable with the cordless screwdriver.  I must have done it by hand.

So I just beat it all off with a sledge-hammer.  Sometimes direct force is the only way to go.  I have a wheelbarrow full of debris from that.  The trailer is going to be used a lot soon.  Garden carpet, particle board, bent brackets, old framed bed boards...  The landfill charges by the ton.  Fortunately, also by partial tons.  I may have a half ton.  Unless I pound off the old toolshed roof and replace it.  Then I might have a full ton, and it gets cheaper that way.

Anyway, the new compost bin site is nearly clear.  I just want to rototill it to get it all level.  Then I can dig the corner post holes and start setting some posts in loosely.  With modular parts preconstructed, it becomes more "fitting" than "measurement".  So I will make large holes at the corners to allow for some adjustment and see what changes I need to make.

When the whole thing is in place and firmly set around the belowground posts, I'll build a top to fit.  Latched.  Part of this is to keep the varmints out of the compost bin.  Not that they eat much, but I don't need them around.  Rabies, parasites, diseases that might harm the cats, etc.  And the more varmints around, the more likely they will find a way into the enclosed veggie garden.  Enclosures are good, but none are perfect.

Tomorrow may rain too.  It may be Friday or Saturday before I can get at the new compost bin site to rototill it flat.  Muddy rototilling is not fun.  You'll know when I post about this again, LOL!

Various General Work

Some days are just catching up on small things. 

1.  I spent an hour pulling grass up from the new front yard island bed.  With 3" of Fall leaves topped with 3" of compost, the weeds don't have a solid grip.  But they were lots of small weeds and it took a while.  Better now than when they good good roots into the soil...

2.  The pole beans and cucumbers are up.  But there were a few spots where a seed didn't grow.  So I soaked a few replacement seeds in water for 4 hours and then planted them. 

3.  I can't BELIVE I forgot to plant a cherry tomato seedling with the regular ones.  So I planted it 3 days ago and shaded it from the direct sunlight for 2 days.  It wilted a bit the first day but is happily hydrated now. 

4.  I have a 2'x8' framed bed against the southern side of the house.  Hottest part of the yard.  I planted 2 blocks of bico9lor corn there today.  One matures 2 weeks before the other, so I'll have a staggerred harvest.  And I'll plant 2 more blocks in 2 weeks, for more staggerred harvest.

5.  The Meadow bed is full of several dozen large bright yellow flowers, some dozen multiple flowers in reds/pinks.white, some white daisies, and some small blue flowers.  The plants are listed on the packet; I will look them up so I know what they are called.

6.  The Hummer/Bee/Butterfly bed is too new to have flowers.  BUT, on a whim, I scatterred old veggie seeds in there too.  I am harvesting the best sweetest radishes ever!  And there are a few corn plants coming up.  It is going to be a weird bed this year.

7.  I've been growing bok choy to harvest young for stir fries.  Some are old even to flower.  I just discovered that the pre-flowering heads are like brocoli, only sweeter.  I coukld grow them just for THAT!  But I also like picking the young leaves for the stir-fries...

8.  Got one major project done I meant to do last year and waited too long.  And almost waited too long this year.  The Spring Bulb bed has daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths.  The Tulips and Hyacinths are in wire cages to protect them from the voles.  But there is unused space between the wire cages and I want to plant daffodils to fill the bed (except for the tulip and hyacinth cages).

So I had to mark the spots of the tulips and hyacinths.   It was a close call.  The tulip leaves were still just barely visible.   I thought because the tulips bloomed after the daffodils; the leaves would last longer.  Nope.  I had to to some careful searching to find the spots.  I did. 

Which led me to how to mark the spots.  Well, first, I found the cardboard cutouts I used to make the cages.  12'x14".  Then I had to find cardboard to cut to size to place on top of the cages (so I wouldn't auger in to them in the Fall while planting daffodils around them.

An aside...  I keep things the are of similar size because they seem useful that way.  A dozen liter juice bottles, a dozen plastic jars that hold mixed nuts, etc.  Well, I buy the same wine by the case and I had a dozen of them stacked up in the basement (thinking they would be good for storing stuff fitting together perfectly in tight spaces).

Well, guess what exact size they were with a wide side and flap?  The size of my tulip and hyacinth cages!  And I have a weird curved linoleum cutter my Dad made.  It sliced right down the corners of the boxes perfectly. 

And guess what I also had?  Fifty 10" tent stakes!  Perfect for holding the cardboard down.  I cut them to size, put the debris in the recycle bin, poked a hole through opposite corners with an awl, and carried them all outside.

It was hard to find the remnants of the tulip leaves, but I had pictures of the bed from 2 directions from the blooms last year.  Between the few leaves and the pictures, I set down the cardboard covers and stuck the tent stakes in the holes to keep them in place.

Then I weed-whacked the whole area.   Why?  So that I can cover the entire area with black plastic to kill all the weeds.  The bulbs won't care; they don't like rain while they are dormant.  When the weeds are dead, I'll uncover them in Summer so the bulbs won't overheat (they are shaded all day now).

9.  All this work has been awkward.  I like to keep my kitchen knives sharp.  Stele them once a week to straighten the edges (they curl with use), and sharpen them every few months.  You know that test about tossing a ripe tomato at a sharp knife and it cuts the tomato in half?  Mine do that.

It does that to fingertips too.  I'm careful.  I have brushes to keep my fingers away from the sharp edges while I clean them.  But OOPS!  I cut my fingertip badly a week ago.  I hadn't seen that much blood in 30 years.  It was 15 minutes before enough pressure even stopped the bleeding.  Fortunately, I coagulate fast.

Anyway, I finally managed to get enough coagulation to put a bandage on it.  I have some of that triple antibiotic ointment on it first, then a large bandaid, then some adhesive cloth bandage along my finger to hold the bandaid in place. 

It HAD to be the index finger of my right hand of course.  The MOST inconcenient finger for a right-handed person.  Makes even putting on my velcro-strap watch difficult, never mind tying shoes.

But I may be a bit lucky there.  I think I was a natural lefty, taught to be right-handed in the 1950s (a common practice in the US, then).  I still do some things with my left hand naturally and deliberately do some things left-handed for practice.

It has certainly helped. 

10.  Making progress on the compost bin.  Nothing to show, as I was just collecting boards and posts for cutting and assembly tomorrow.  I looked at the boards and posts I already had and adjusted my design slightly to account for those.  Might as well use up what I have rather than buy new boards!  I'm always flexible about designs.

Busy As Bees We Is, Part 1

This is one on the busiest times of year for me in the yard and garden (the "Yarden").  No matter how I try to organize things, the week around the average last frost day of the year has too much to do.  This year (someone hit me with a "stupid stick"), I added to it.  I bought more flowers to plant.

In the past few days, I did too much and every joint and muscle is sore (I Love Ibuprofen and non-smelly muscle rub).  But I think I've gotten over the hump for this year, so I have time to post about it. 

First, I should say that I am not a very efficient user of time these days.  Oh, in the office, I was great at it.  I could multi-task with the best.  Switching from scrolling through telephone call data to answering a telephone question from a regional office, to joining a quick meeting on some other subject, no problem.  I was at the office and that was all I was doing.  Office stuff.

Second, at home, forget it!  I'm in bed 10 hours to get 7 hours sleep, I spend a lot of time preparing fresh meals, I play with the cats, I watch some TV in the evening (political commentary, baseball, documentaries).  I have to fit all the yard and house work around those.

When I plant stuff outside, I am very detailed.  Take planting tomato seedlings, for example.  I don't just jam a trowel into the dirt and stick a rootball in there.  No...  I dig a hole a foot wide and deep.  I put a handful of compost in the hole, add a sprinkle of crushed eggshells I saved (to reduce blossom-end rot), add sprinkle of 2-6-6 fertilizer (for stem and root growth - the compost provides the nitrogen).  I add the lovingly-grown tomato seedling, add a mix of compost and topsoil, and repeat that 2x until the seedling is buried with only the top leaves showing (tomatoes will grow roots from all buried stem). 

Then I form a wall around the seedling to hold water and stick a metal label in the ground with the variety name on it.  Then I put in a 3' stake to hold the seedling as it grows, and go on to the next seedling.  When I finish a row of tomato seedlings (3, 4, 5 whatever fits in the space).  Then I cut holes in a red IRT plastic fabric that both suppresses weeds AND reflects red light upward into the tomato plants (increases yields about 10-20% - I need all the help I can get with my limited sunlight). 

Then I place heavy-duty wire cages over each seedling.  Forget those cheap flimsy tomato cages they sell in catalogs.  Mine are made of concrete reinforcement  wire mesh.  The openings are 6" square, and the cages are 24" diameter and 5' tall.  Each cafe is then anchored in place with a 6' metal stake pounded at least a foot deep to prevent summer storms from blowing the mature plants in the cages over. 

And I'm doing all that rather bent over perched on a piece of plywood to distribute my weight so I don't compact the lovely soil around them!  It takes about 20 minutes per seedling overall from start to finish and I'm in awkward positions most of the time. 

That's the difference between a hobby and a business, LOL!

So, over the past few days, I planted 12 tomato seedlings - 4 hours just for that.  But they are good to go for the season...

Part 2 tomorrow...

Random Thoughts

Someome who emails monthly hasn't for 3 months.  I checked the obituary pages.  Not there.

My sister will be visiting in a few months, lots of work to do.  I have plaster over spots where electrical work was done 2 years ago.  I better get at that.  And some painting to do.

It really messed me up having the old Mac Mini computer filled up last month AND Verizon shifting my email to AOL at the same time.  Bought a 4x good new Mac.  Took 40 hours in March not getting it working with the Mac Mail.  And then suddenly, one of their techs DID.  Hurray, and I deserved it.

A shipment of canned cat food arrived half destroyed so badly I took pictures and complained.  The shipper sent a new full shipment.  The replacement shipment came surrounded by bubble-wrap.  Smart people.  There were still a few dented cans, but not actually damaged.  Good.  They keep my business.

My old M/W finally died.  The replacement arced twice.  Burned a black hole right through a sweet potato.  No way I would tolerate THAT.  They accepted a return and I bought a lower-powered one.   Well, I M/W small amounts sometimes.  So it is slower but safer.

I planted 25 Astilbe flower roots in the front yard.  They are supposed to be deer-resistant.  The first night, some deer came by and pulled 2 up.  Deer don't chew, they grab leaves and pull.  So I replanted the 2.  They didn't actually eat them.  I may sit out hidden by my my front steps with my crossbow.  A few deer running around with a bolt in their flanks should discourage them from feeding here.  And if one dies on the front lawn, I know how to butcher one.

But there are sprays that activate when something approaches.  I might try that too.  Disassembling a deer takes some time and I don't need the meat.

Speaking of deer, there are actually some plants they don't like.  I'm collecting some for the front yard.   There are so many deer here, they are worse than rabbits and groundhogs combined.  A solution would be wolves, but who wants to face a wolf when you take out the trash at night?  I prefer to deal with herbivores.

My daffodils are at their peak.

I have some of 2 types planted last year and some of those planted new last Fall.  They didn't all bloom at the same time this year.  Next year they will.  And I'll add more this coming Fall.  The tulips and hyacinths didn't work out even protected in cages (from voles).  I think I will just cover the yard in daffodils.  They are immune to voles (toxic to rodents).

I played one of my best online chess games the other night.  The other player had beat me 2 times.  He is better.  But that game had such a great ending.  He even complimented me on it.  When you have it, you have it.  One grandmaster once said "Sometimes, I forget the opponent has good ideas too".   I won the next 3 games.

I have a windowsill planter full of baby bok choy.  I harvest leaves at a time.  None of those grocery store rust-infested junk.  And I have 6 celery plants I harvest leaves from too.  Only way to go.

I'm thrilled baseball season has started again.  I visit my cat friends more often then.  Football and basketball are too busy.  Baseball gives me time.

I planted wildflower seeds in a bed yesterday.  I spread compost out a 1/2" deep, scattered the large seeds on tip, then spread 1/8" compost around and scatterred small seeds over that.  That wasn't exactly the instructions, but it matched what  I read about the plants online.  I hope for serious wildflower growth.  And some perennial wildflowers I planted last year seem to be coming up.  I know my regular yard weeds and these aren't those.