Tomato Funeral

The blight has come to our tomato patch.  It seems that the large amount of summer rain encouraged the growth of a fungus, and all the tomato plants are paying the price.  The vines died from the ground up, and all the fruit that was still green has now turned black.  We salvaged about one more pound from the wreckage.  That makes maybe five pounds of tomatoes in all this year.  We spent $36 for plants plus perhaps $6 for soil  this year, so we put in $42 in total.  $42/5 pounds is $8.40 per pound for organic home-grown tomatoes.  That's even more expensive than the farmers' market!  Still when you factor in the hundred times the baby and I went out to watch them grow it comes out all right. 

Gather Ye Rosebuds

To Make Much of Time
By Robert Herrick (circa 1620)

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

Sneezing Our Way Into Spring

The sun may not be fully out yet, and the flowers may be delayed, but spring is definitely here. How do I know? My nose never fails. Spring "sent a green letter for all the trees to read" and they responded by producing a pale yellow snowfall of pollen. This is not a slight case of the sniffles, but a full-blown allergic response. The nose, eyes, ears, and skin are all in on the show. For some unknown reason I seem to be immune to all commercially available anti-allergy medicines. Thus I'm honking and blowing my way through my second day of work as her royal highness, Queen Sneeze of Itchland.

The Desk Garden

Yesterday, before it began to snow, I was wandering around our yard admiring the progress of the spring bulbs. I love seeing the little white bells of the snow drops that are just finishing their three week run. Now the daffodils are pushing their green heads out of the ground, and the crocus and tulips are coming along as well. Some are bulbs that came with the house, others I planted in a fit of autumn gardening few years ago, but the greatest number come from my desk.

At the grocery store, I often pick up inexpensive pots of bulbs to brighten up my classroom. They live on my desk for a few weeks while they bloom, and then, when they are passed, I take them home and plant them. I know that early spring is completely the wrong season to be planting bulbs, but somehow it usually seems to work. We have several patches of desk tulips that keep coming back year after year. Two tiny varieties of desk iris live under the Japanese maple, and offer up beautiful dark purple blooms in early March. We also have at least one bunch of late desk crocus right outside our back door. This year, I think it will be a new patch of desk paper whites that joins the garden. I like to think of it as my own weird version of flower recycling.

Snowdrops!

Snowdrops are blooming next to our front door! This is proof positive that spring is out there somewhere. First come the snowdrops, then the crocus and primroses, then daffodils, tulips, irises, and finally all the more sensitive flowers begin to return. This makes me especially happy because I just finished cutting the last late roses off as I pruned the rosebush. Even in this northerly place, a person doesn't have to go more than a few weeks without at least a few flowers.

Gardener's Pride

It's been such a wet June that you might not expect any garden at all. However, the plants in our backyard have been making a valiant attempt to do some growing. Our very first actual produce of the season was the lovely, rosy radish at in the picture. It was crispy and peppery and delicious; the perfect example of radishy-ness.






The second great achievement was the single red strawberry we have so far managed to produce. We are working in a single strawberry pot (you know, the ones with the sort of balconies on the sides?) so we were never going to grow bushels of them. We were just happy to get something that actually TASTES like a strawberry. I swear, they lose their flavor just a few hours after picking!





Last, but certainly not least, we actually have a pea crop. Not one or two little pods, but actual piles of peas. They were VERY slow starting out, but in the last few days they've been popping out all over. These are the pod'n'all variety, so you can literally go into the backyard and eat them off the vines. They so sweet and crispy that I haven't had the guts to cook any of them yet.

I know, I know, not exactly a replacement for the veggie section at the grocery store. Still, the satisfaction is at least as good as the actual produce. Next up, we are working on a tender and tasty-looking lettuce crop!

Root-less (I hope)

Writing about the squash yesterday made me realize that I never followed up on the "ROOTS" post I did a few weeks ago. I know my regular readers have just been on the edges of their seats waiting to found out what happened! I'm sorry, I know the gardening posts may be a bit boring for most, but I know I have a few readers who can relate. I remember, several years ago, standing over a garden box and exclaiming over the tiny green shoots. The visitor did not understand my enthusiasm, and he said "isn't that what you expected them to do?" Well, yes, but it's still a thrilling process to watch if you ask me. Therefore...

We dug all the soil out of the box and put it on a tarp. Then we clipped all the tree roots we could find (don't worry, this isn't supposed to hurt the tree since it's already very well established). Next, we lined the box with many layers of newspaper. According to several online sources, newspaper is good because it prevents the tree from "smelling" the good soil and sending up roots. Paper is entirely biodegradable, and most papers use a soy-based ink. Of course, this solution will only last one or two seasons at best. However, I'm willing to give it a try. We put all the soil back in the box and even added some rotted steer manure.

Now the garden is beginning to look like a garden instead of a sandbox. We have three tomato plants at one end (Brandy-Wine, Early Girl, and a new one supposedly bred for Mongolia), radish sprouts, red onions, and the first little nubs of salad lettuce. In the side yard are pumpkins, the famous gem squash, peas, eggplant, zucchini, crook-necked squash, and all the herbs. I still have to plant the corn which are going in the side bed along the street. We shall see if the HOA harpies have anything to say about that. I will bat my eyes and say "My yard IS maintained just like it says in the rules. I just happen to enjoy planting crops in with the shrubbery!" Wish me luck.

Illegal Squash

Last summer M's mother came to visit, and in doing so, she committed an agricultural crime. Tucked into her luggage was a single packet of squash seeds. Gem squash are not, to my knowledge, something that normally grows in the U.S., so this was a big deal to import them from South Africa. M loves Gem squash, so this spring, when the weather turned, I tipped six seeds into mounds in our garden. I wasn't sure it would even work since the seeds are now a year old, but I thought it was worth a try.

I joke with M that seeds from Africa have to be very tough indeed, and these little ones were no exception. All of the seeds sprouted after only three days, and now they are growing at an alarming rate. I think I may have to separate the little plants because they are so vigorous. With a little luck and a whole lot of sunshine and water, we will hopefully have gem squash to eat by the middle of summer. Of course, I'm not a huge fan of squash as a food, but who wouldn't appreciate the challenge of growing illicit veggies? Besides, I can always feed them to M.

ROOTS!

Last week, I went out, in the beautiful sun, to clear away the weeds and dig my garden box. Usually this is a half hours easy work, and then I can begin to plant my spring garden. However, my experience comes from gardening in an open area. It seems that when you garden anywhere near trees, things are quite a bit different. When I dug my fork into the box I found roots. Not just a few old roots from last year's plants, but lots and lots of roots. It was as if the soil had suddenly developed a venous system.

It seems that trees, and especially cedar trees like ours, can sort of "smell" tasty soil and moisture (or so I am told by Organic Gardening Online). This means that when they find good soil they send lots of extra roots to reap the bounty. Especially rich portions of the box were literally solid with roots. I was really wondering last year why one end of the box did pretty well, while the other struggled to produce. Now I can see that the end nearest the trees is the weakest.

I started digging out the soil (and a billion little roots) last week, and then M helped me to finish over the weekend. I'd asked all sorts of people how to combat the roots, and I did all kinds of online research. The general consensus is that you can never beat them completely (unless you cut down the trees or get a concrete garden box) but you can fight them. Black plastic was suggested as well as weed barrier cloth and even fiberglass or sheet metal panels. However, the winning entry was just simple newspaper. It got the most votes from the experts, and it had the advantage of allowing drainage and promoting worm growth. Most people seemed to believe it was as effective as the other options in the long run. Did you know that the ink is made from soy, so it doesn't pose a health risk?

Ultimately, we'll have to dig up the box every few years if we want to keep gardening in that spot. The trees, it seems, will just keep working to get in to all that nice soil. This is a good workout, but it is, by no means, a huge task. However, I have high hopes that we can hold them off enough to get a few nice veggies to grow. By the way, we checked with the experts, and no trees were really harmed in the digging of this box.

Trillium

One of our favorite local hikes is the trails on and around Tiger Mountain. A few weeks ago we went for a short walk around the area with an out-of-town guest. We go some great pics of spring in the forest. Finding a perfect example of a trillium was a special treat.

Snow Drops

Hooray! There are Snowdrops blooming in our front yard! I thought for sure that the squirrel had eaten all of them just after planting in the fall. However, low and behold, several came up! I'm so happy to see them. They are such perfect little white bells, and it almost seems a shame that they aren't blooming through the snow. It's proof that spring is out there somewhere.

I was also very happy to see a little patch of irises begining to bloom under our Japanese maple. M said they were there, but I couldn't for the life of me remember having planted them. They certainly weren't there last year. Then I remembered having a pot of irises on my desk at school. When they were finished blooming I couldn't bare to throw away the healthy plants, so I took them home and poked them into the ground. I guess they liked the spot just fine, and now we have beautiful little mini-irises.

Last, but not least, are the bulbs that show promise, but have no flowers as yet. The crocus I planted in the fall ALL came up. I think there must be something about them that squirrels don't like because these didn't even get disturbed let alone eaten. The daffodils were all dug up and thrown around several times, but I kept putting them back. I think most all of them are now sprouting including the one that lay on top of the ground all through the snow and ice, and even sprouted some nice green leaves before I noticed it. All in all, the future looks good for spring flowers. Now if we can just get through the end of winter without another snowstorm...

Tomatoes Galore!

Well the growing season is definitely over for this year. My mom helped me strip the last green fruits off the plants last weekend, and I am crossing my fingers that they will deign to ripen. All told I had more than sixty tomatoes from my four plants, but the production was not evenly divided. I had one Early Girl that became the monster of the garden and sort of pushed some of the other plants to the side. It produced MANY smaller fruits with good flavor and a pleasant texture. I also had two "heirloom" varieties that were supposed to produce unusual-looking fruit. One was supposed to be striped and the other was supposed to have dark to black skin. These were a bit of a disappointment. One produced hardly anything, and what did grow was the normal reddish color. The other produced a few very large fruits, but these were bright golden yellow instead of black. The flavor was watery and the texture was actually kind of fibrous and tough. I worked out the math for our garden this year. I believe we spent about $200 on wood for the boxes, soil, plants, stakes, and other goodies. We got about sixty tomatoes, five or six cucumbers, several handfuls of lettuce, ten or twelve onions, and a whole lot of nice flowers. Over all, we probably paid a very high price for our produce, but I am not at all upset. The pleasure I get from doing the gardening is definitely worth the price. The straight-off-the-vine taste is pretty good too.

Produce at Last!

Sure, we've eaten quite a bit of lettuce from the garden already. However, the first cucumber seemed like a much bigger deal. Growing lettuce the way we did feels like a sort of a cheat. You plant the wee lettuce plants in the garden box, add water, and eventually you pick leaves off the big lettuce plant. The cucumber, on the other hand, came from tiny plants, grew into big plants with lots of leaves and nice trailing tendrils, grew flowers which turned into teeny tiny little cucumbers which grew into big spiky cukes. Wheew! Then I went out and whacked it off with a knife! Ha! Ha! (and people say vegetarians are wussies) It tasted very good, and I think we might even do some pickling if all those flowers live up to their potential. I LOVE my little garden.

Garden #1

I've been meaning to post these pictures for the last several weeks. M and I built the box based on a plan we hashed out on the back of an envelope, and we used raw cedar because I wanted it to last without being pressure treated (Just not a nice flavor for baby lettuce). No, we did not use ties on corners. No we did not dig in one end to counteract the slope of the hill. No we did not use stretcher bars to prevent eventual splaying of the boards. In short, it was not exactly a professional job. Nevertheless, I was thrilled with the way it turned out because we actually went out there and built it instead of just talking about how we really should.

It only took about 7000 bags of steer manure and planting mix to get the thing close to full, but we did eventually get there. We planted lettuce, onions, and three varieties of tomatoes in the box itself, and we planted pumpkins, zucchini, and cucumbers in big pots. Last, but certainly not least, I planted a whole collection of flowers along the edges.

The most exciting flower discovery (for me anyway) was marigolds from the nearby nursery. Not just any marigolds though; these are my all-time favorites. Safari Reds are not just any old marigold with color all over the place willy-nilly. Perfect.

Roses

When we came to look at the house the first time, it was November. Still, I noticed the rosebush growing by the front door. At that time, of course, it was nothing but a few leaves and lots of leggy stocks, but I did have a passing thought that it might be pretty in bloom. Well, time makes all the difference it seems. I am thoroughly enjoying the rainbow sherbet (minus the green) colored roses now. The started out almost all yellow as buds, but the longer they bloom the more they deepen through orange and into pink. Not overly much scent, which is sad, but at least we get a feast for the eyes.

Botanical Garden

Last Friday we went to the Botanical garden with some friends. Being a garden fanatic, I love to visit this place. One or two visits a year will not cut it either because the garden changes SO much over just a few weeks. During the spring and summer I try to fit in a visit at least once a month. On this trip we saw how the spring flowers are really starting to pass off and the summer buds are just beginning. In other words, goodbye tulips and daffodils, hello marigolds and roses. The pics below are just a very few of the lovely ones we got on this visit. We also have a great one of geeks beneath a tree. M is doing is best to look really regal and intelligent.