Last few days recap

Ok,  on Tuesday we got a fairly big snow storm.  About 8 inches here,  though some areas in Maine got as much as 15".  It was enough to cancel area schools. After last year's very mild and almost snowless winter, this one has been more normal.  I remember (because i blogged it) in 2011 we got snow on April first.

So,  now it is Spring!  ...and we're just waiting on the snow to melt completely and hoping for no more storms or at least plain rain.

Well,  yesterday was fun.  Hubby and i celebrated our 10 year Anniversary and our oldest daughter (she's 14 and yes hubby and i were not married before she was born -we had a very rocky start that God helped us through)  won third prize at her school's Science Fair. 


She used three samples of water to grow grass. One was well water, then spring water and the third was water from Eastport.  Eastport water is horrible stuff,  full of chlorine and who knows what else.  It turned out that the grass did poorer with the Eastport water, as suspected.  She enjoyed doing her project and needed little help.  I was glad that it had something to do with planting. ;o)  We also had all the supplies so there was no hassle.


Today also marks 8 weeks until the last frost date.  This weekend i may start my tomatoes and other things.

Well its been a fun week,   but i'm so glad its Friday!

Snowy February

January was fairly dry,  but we are more than making up for it in February.  We had the big storm 2 weeks ago,  got well over two feet of snow from that.  We had some cold rain last week.  Saturday through last night,  we had another storm that left us with another foot of snow.  As of now,  the weather forecast is telling us that more may be on the way this Wednesday through Friday.  This storm is expected to be mixed with rain and we may have snow accumulations of at least 6 inches.

This was yesterday morning when we had about 4 inches:

I wonder how long this stuff will take to melt this spring?

I'm hoping to order my seedling heat mat today so i can start my pepper seeds as soon as the time comes.

Just a bit of snow...

For my area at least,  this predictive map was spot on:

]

It was nice to stay in and watch the snow fall,  and blow around.  We were lucky like most and didn't lose power which allowed us to enjoy two days of quiet, enforced relaxation.  School was called off for Friday
When all was said and done we got around 24-28 inches of snow.  its hard to tell really because it blew and drifted so much.


Poor Molly had to go pee in this. It was still blowing and snowing when she had to go out on Saturday morning.  We had a 4 foot drift on the front steps that she and i had to plow through but the wind had blown a clear spot at the end of the drift.


Here's a couple videos of the clearout.

Front part of the house.  I took this leaning out of the living room window.


Backyard from the driveway:


We had a snow drift that covered the kitchen window entirely.


Well,  that's it for the storm update.

Snow and yarn!

We got some snow last night. I mean, nothing accumulated...but i saw spits of flakes falling from the sky so i'm officially calling it the first 'snow' of the season. Not quite the first "snowfall" but the first sighting of flakes is my criteria. This weekend we may have actual snowfall, a couple inches possible over Saturday night.  Yeah, i'm excited. Gardening season is over so the snow isn't getting in my way.... spring snow is what i don't like, lol

So,  what will i be doing this winter? Well, i forgot to mention this in my last post....but this is what hubby found for me a couple weeks ago

Yes, its all yarn!  We have a little shed off to the side at the town Transfer Station (town dump) where people can put what they don't want but isn't trash. Hubby happened to be there at just the right time to find me this huge stash. We assume the original owner must have passed on and her family does not have a fiber hobbyist.  There was some unfinished work in there in knit, so i assume she was mainly a knitter.  About a month before this my hubby brought home a ton of knitting books for me. We wondered if its from the same family.
I sorted it all out the next day.  Lots of acrylic, some wool, cotton, orlon etc. Plenty of Red Heart, some Bernat a little Patton's, a couple Caron and a large amount of unknown brands and labelless skeins. There were a number of bags of many skeins of all one color. There are also a bunch of variegated yarns in bright and earthy colors.
Well i don't have enough totes to hold it all, so i had to use new trash bags-- not the best method i'm told.  But it was all in plastic when i got it anyway. I counted 9 bags of yarn when i was done.
So i guess we know what i'll be doing this winter!
My first project is a granny square blanket. I'm using the variegated yarns to make the squares and i'll attach them with a dark colored yarn when i'm done. I have about 12 done so far.

I'm very grateful for all this yarn. Its easily $300.00 worth or more. Hubby says i'm not allowed to buy any yarn until its all gone.  I agree!


We are now officially under a winter storm watch for Saturday night into Sunday. Six to 8 inches possible.

Seedlings up

Looks like the Hoya is very close to blooming.








Yay!  It also looks like my very last and very old Cherokee Purple seed was viable and even vigorous. The seed leaves are well formed. When they are shrivelly , i am told, it means that the seed was essentially no good.  If i don't accidentally murder this seedling i hope to save the seeds so i can have some for next year.  They are suppsed to be a very sweet tomato, even better than Brandywines perhaps.  I can't wait to find out.

 

Snapper, a sweet bell pepper is up.

 Slim Jim eggplant is just starting out.  I got no fruit from this last year- i think wintersowing is not beneficial to eggplant. I think exposure to so much cold does not allow them to get in gear soon enough. This flat of seeds was germinated with bottom heat from a 60 watt incandescent bulb.  I hope to get sturdy plants by planting time.

 

 Below is another eggplant i am trying. Like Slim Jim, this one is a long , slender type, only green rather than purple.  The entire Slim Jim plant is a velvety purple- the two of these plants with or without fruit should be an interesting contrast in colors.  This variety is compact, can be container-grown and is described as being suited to my cooler climate.

 One of the Stocks are up...but that's it so far.

I'm still waiting anxiously for the durned snow to melt.

 It really is giving way, though slowly.  Along the roadsides, the snow is all but gone. Many yards are free of snow. The last few days of cold has not allowed the grass to green up yet.  Its been in the 30's and very windy. After Monday the weather forecasters are saying we should have 40's through the remainder of the week. I wish i had enough black plastic to cover the whole garden and absorb that sunlight!

Snow pics.

I wish i had something to do time lapse photos with- that would be cool. Set the camera on a tripod and leave it there and see what happens...  but since i don't i have to play with it this way.

3-4-11

3-7-11

3-12-11

3-16-11

3-17-11

3-18-10

3-20-11

Darn it all..... (3-22-11)

Spring is experiencing a slight delay...

Or maybe its not.  I'll have to look back and see what i complained about last year in regard to snowmelt and temperatures.  I'm sure i'm just being impatient.  The forecast is for temps in the 30s through the rest of the week.  We got about 5 inches of new snow that turned out to be less slushy than expected.  If the sun is strong it might melt quickly but if it stays cloudy it may not.

The Rose Orach sprouted- i noticed this yesterday. All the other seeds are still sleeping.

I'm still in the process of deciding what i will grow this year. I'm considering crossing the leeks off the list.  I'm not sure my method of planting would suit them.  Their need for a long growing season is discouraging.  I tend to plant in wide rows and leeks need to be 'hilled', and this will be difficult in wide rows because the soil i would need to use to build up around the leeks will be inhabited by more leeks.  I won't have a spare spot in the garden to dig out soil to hill them up and then i'm not sure how much yield...  They are expensive at the store and because of that i don't use them much- which means i can technically live without them. Also, if they don't size up to what i see in the grocery store i'll be disappointed- and its unlikely they will grow that large.  In the recipe i use them in, i use 3 at a time. My garden planner allows for 50 plants in the space i intended for them.  Not sure if i'll ever use that many before they go bad- and i don't plan to overwinter any plants in the garden, and and and i don't know if hubby will get on board with using the cold side of the basement as a root cellar.

I think i should stick to what i know- tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, summer and winter squash, green beans, brassicas, herbs and some lettuces.

Experimentation will be limited to  houseplants.  Speaking of which- the buds on the hoya are sizing up:

Maybe not dramatic, but i noticed.


I took a look at the garden the other day. It had melted enough that i could locate where the kale and chard had been and other things too.

I've read that kale can sometimes overwinter- but i don't think it happened for me, lol.


But it looks like at least one of my Comfrey crowns did ok. Of course its way early to expect much, but i found a bit of green

I can't wait to see how my asparagus does this spring.  According to Steve Solomon, asparagus from seed can be harvested as soon as the second year as long as the spears are 3/4 of an inch in size.  But i don't have any idea if they will be that large and anyway i'll need to let them grow freely so i can locate and remove the female plants.  Doing this prevents the plot from going to seed, the seed germinating and leading to overcrowding- which leads to the demise of the plot.  With only male plants left and good fertilizing a plot can last about 50 years.

I never did try harvesting the horseradish i planted last spring.  I have tried planting it before in my parents' garden.  When i dug it up it was full of holes from soil bugs so i'm curious to see what i'll get this fall.

Yesterday i heard robins for the first time this year. It sounded like they were squabbling over some territory.  Despite the snow it shouldn't be long until the weather fits the part of the season i like so much.

I can almost feel the snow melting

Rain, rain,
come today,
Come and take
this snow away...!

I can't believe i'm about 80% ready to plant. Just waiting for time now. That last 20% is waiting until the last frost date is closer, getting in the final order of my seeds and starting some of them.
I may have already written this down somewhere, but i decided that i'm starting peppers and eggplant indoors under lights and will be wintersowing the broccoli, bok chois and kales outside in the mini greenhouse.
Not sure what i'll do with the tomatoes yet.  In the past i have started them so early that they have gone leggy and i have had to bury about 8 inches of stem. Last year i wintersowed them in cell packs but got caught by frost  March 11th. (See this entry appropriately titled "Ouch").  Had i read my Old Farmer's Almanac  email newsletter for that week i might have been more cautious.
Newsletter for May 11, 2010
So whatever i do with the tomatoes, i'll not take the chance and will bring them indoors on such nights.
The main reason i start seeds in cell packs at all is because if i sow them direct in the garden, i'd be scared to weed around them until they are recognizable size. After how many years doing this, and i still forget every spring what most seedlings look like?  So planting a leafy, 3 inch seedling is easier for me to do than direct sowing.  I don't think either give me an advantage on harvest date- a day or two at most.  But maybe a bit against the weeds.
Of course our ancestors didn't grow their kitchen gardens with plastic trays under fluorescent lights. Its hard for me to imagine my great-grandfather mucking about with plastic cell packs and shoplights...  but i'm sure he used sod strips, cold frames and manure-heated hot beds. I have read a bit about those in some old and free ebooks that Amazon.com offers and in other places. I have never used a classic cold frame, i suppose my mini greenhouse could be considered one. I don't have a source for fresh manure to run a hotbed- although Molly does produce an awful lot of waste for a dog that eats once a day....but let's not go there.  My mini greenhouse does make hardening-off so much easier and it keeps the seedlings in the sun- i don't have enough suitable windows for this even if i jettisoned all my houseplants.

So, at any rate, i'll keep re-reading my garden books, probably revise my planting plan a hundred times from now and then get started with the seeds. Pinetree is on a 10 day backlog so i'll be patient.  I have my pepper and eggplant seeds form Johnny's so they may get started by the end of the week.

Belated April fools...?

All i can say is that i am prepared to replant if necessary.

Zapper

Got the electric fence today. I like it, looks very complete and i hope it will work to keep out the woodchucks!
I can't wait to watch it get to work...!

I keep checking the Jerusalem Artichoke patch and have been wondering if they are going to show up.  The rhubarb looks so happy that i imagine the soil has warmed enough for the JA's to appear.

But i think i see them now.  These are in the area i marked with the Red Rover tag, from Oikos:

There are two patches...

They seem to have been there for some time, but the days have been cool, so i am almost unsure if they are the JA's. I really hope the rest didn't get eaten. The seed tubers were not cheap.  I am almost considering beginning a small cottage industry selling them on eBay if i get inundated.  According to what i read about their productivity levels, the amount i planted should feed my family and the neighborhood for a year...  but if something ate most of them then i might get enough for a few meals every now and then through early winter.

Its supposed to be cold tomorrow, maybe even some wet snow...uggh.  But temps are not expected to get to the freezing mark, but prolonged cold with no sun to warm my greenhouses might not be good. But the  Wintersowing method seems to imply that bringing in the flats shouldn't be necessary.  I'm not so sure about that. I might bring them in anyway, at least some of them. Or just supply them with hot water bottles. I have squash and cucumbers sprouting and watermelon, those have me worried.  They aren't as rugged as the broccoli or even the tomatoes.
The weather may change and it may be warmer than they expect, if it stays in the 40's inside the greenhouses, all should be fine.

I hope. lol

First real snow of the season...

We got a nice little storm last night, it started later in the day- after dark, which is roughly a bit after 4 O'clock this time of year.  Took a while for it to stick, but it got heavier around 9pm and got close to 5 inches a little before midnight when i stopped keeping track and went to sleep. Woke up to about 6-7 inches of snow, and a dusting on the driveway.

Not very picturesque with all the stuff in the way that i didn't want to go out and shuffle past to get a nicer shot.  Its the weekend and even 7am is too early to be outside on a day i don't have to scrape snow off the cars.

I expect this to not last very long, or at least the majority of it will melt in the next day or so, its after noon and its 39F in the sun right now, the roof is dripping and the house is bright inside with the sun reflecting off the snow. Its nice.

Expecting more snow possibly on Wednesday and perhaps more later in the week, but its too soon to be sure.

Teething and boring weather

The youngest is teething. Four are coming in at once.  She already had two, soon the grand total will be 6. Its pretty rough on her...and me.  But infant tylenol and oragel will help.

poor critter.

The weather, frankly,  has been lame.   Its making me lame, and i am tired of gray skies.  It was chilly  yesterday and i'm seriously expecting a long, snowy and cold winter.  We did get a bit of snow, mixed wet with rain late last night, but nothing that stuck.


The winter rye that hubby sowed in the yard has not sprouted, i think its too cold even for that.
I neatened up the string around the JA plot, cause thats about the only thing i can do.

Here it is in all its anticlimactic glory:

looking West

&

looking East:

 

I have been looking up info on what to do about the apple trees, pruning suggestions and the like.  I haven't come to a decision on if i will try it at this time of year or not.  I did learn something new though. If you prune apple trees too heavily in the spring it can make them flower early and that can be bad if you get another frost.  So i think spring is out.  I do have to find out if it is wise to remove all the beginning apples next spring so the trees can concentrate on strengthening roots and trunk.  i noticed the trunk on the bigger tree is actually narrower toward the ground than it is about 4 feet up. It just does not look right.
They had been planted in a bad spot that may have been good at one time until the trees behind the yard that belong to the other neighbors grew too high and shaded them out. (Box Elders, rant to follow)

This is the bigger apple tree. It has a "knee"...  we had to prop it up with a portion of tree trunk we cut to move the neighbors fence OFF our yard.  I used the cotton strap the hospital sent me home with after my car accident that left me with a fairly messed-up leg. The belt was so hubby could wrap it around me to pick me up if i fell over.  Luckily it never had to be used! Now it has a great purpose!

Then, the littler one.  They look like they have not had enough light for a number of years,  i can only guess that the big one must be 6 years old at least, the little one at least 3. But with inadequate sunlight, they could be much older.

 

 The big one is very fruitful, but after doing a bit of research, i found out what is bugging the fruit. Apple Maggot is one thing i positively ID'd.

It has a LOT of shape issues. The only reason it is still standing is because it was hooked over the pickets of the fence the neighbors put up. That fence was placed about 3 feet into what is now our yard.  The trees are now about 5 feet away from the fence as it is properly placed about 4 inches inside our property line.

Now, for the Box Elder rant.  They are part of the reason why it took so much of the summer to get work done around the new yard.  They were everywhere, fallen over, broken, growing up through what used to be the basement of the burned-down house.  At best,hey are basically overgrown weeds. 

They are prolific, fast growing, weak, spindly, ugly looking things. The female trees attract tons of Box Elder Bugs, which are mainly annoying but they freak out my hubby who insisted that they were ticks when we first moved in.  The trees also drop their leaves slowly all summer and make a huge number of seeds that are similar to maple helicopters.  These leaves and seeds make a mess on any paved areas, stick to windshields, get into car vents and roof gutters, coat the lawn and the seeds start sprouting in flower beds and veggie gardens and of course attract the bugs which drink the sap from the seed pods.

The trees grow at least a foot in all directions each spring,  they sucker and water sprout all over if you lop off branches. The trees are so useless, you can't even use them to burn as firewood since they gum up the chimney and can create conditions that can cause chimney fires. They are also very brittle and can come down on houses and buildings, they crack under snow and ice and end up hollow or half deadwood. Very dangerous trees!

There is one on the other side of our house that belong to the neighbors that i will call "the nice ones" .  This tree is the only issue we have with them.  The tree leaned over our roof on the shady side of the house and it rubbed our ridge, dropped leaves on the roof and basically took a few years off the life of our shingles. We offered to have the tree cut down entirely (we are lucky enough to know a professional tree-chopper-downer so the cost would be minimal) and i even suggested that i'd replace it with something ornamental for them, but for some reason the Mrs is attached to the tree.
The best we could do was convince them to a friendly agreement that we would have the big branch that was dangling over our roof (and causing the trunk to list to our side) removed as well as the branches that were shading out  what little yard we have on that side of the house.  At least now the tree does not look as though it will come through my living room if we get an ice storm or a hurricane.  That's a relief!
This is what is left after we removed the parts that were causing damage and after the neighbor hubby did some trimming of his own:

As gorgeous as this tree is now, i still think they should have taken me up on that ornamental offer.  LOL

At least today is sunny, according to the weather forecasters we should be having "seasonable" weather for the next week or so. This means not so many threats of snow and temps more around the 50-60 degree mark-  this is great, maybe the ground will warm up just enough for things to move a bit before the snow really falls.

No snow yet!

Thank goodness.

It was way too early to be expecting snow. and i had too much to do this morning.  Had to register the truck and run a few errands. Our town hall does not take debit cards for some brainless reason, so i had to get the amount, then go to the bank, get cash and then go back to the town hall and pay. I know i have checks left somewhere, this is why i still keep them,  but do you think i could find them when they are needed? Nooooo! Haha.

So that is another good reason that i am happy that there was no snow.  Rain is no treat either seeing as we have had way more than our share this summer.  I can't help but wonder if that is going to translate into extra snow this winter!

I'm all but snacking on Tylenol today, the digger i took yesterday gets to take the blame.  Usually the pain is bearable on a good day if i don't have things lined up to do.  But today stuff couldn't wait any longer and if i got it over and done with i could sit back the rest of the day and not let it get to me.

I had some perishable stuff to mail out today and that sort of thing just makes me nervous. Like i think i'm going to forget to mail it, or i'm going to put it in the box and something will happen and it will sit on the table for a week, or i expect that something else will come up and all the money in my account will be needed and i won't have enough money to mail it and then i'll have to unpack it all and watch it go to waste in some other way....

See....  i need sedatives.     Be glad i drink decaff.


So the rest of the day i think i will spend trying to catch up on some light housework. Real exciting i know.

Laundry. Its clean and dry, i just hate folding it.

Later today or within the next week or so i might try and get my stuff together and list out the work that has been going on in the yard that this blog is about.
The whole thing started in February or March of 2008 when the neighbor's house burned down, thank God nobody was harmed- i always make sure to say that because i don't want anyone under the impression that i was happy that day.  Although it turned out to be a good thing for us, eventually , it was a sad day for a very nice lady who had been having it rough for a number of years.

but i'll get to all that later.

Laundry awaits!

First planting in new ground and preliminary babble

There is a plant thats called a Jerusalem Artichoke. And if you look them up online one of the first things you will learn is that they are not artichokes and they are not from Jerusalem. They are in fact a plant that is native to America. They are also called Sunchokes and even Passamaquoddy Potatoes, although my Passamaquoddy husband and his mother have both never heard of them. But we won't hold that against anyone, because out of the three names, that is probably the most logical one.

But i think i'll just call them JA's cause that is the shortest route.

They are actually a type of sunflower.


Anyway, i planted about 15# of them today.

Edit to add:
i planted 4 varieties

From an eBay seller, i got "Stampede" and "Red Fuseau".

From Oikos Tree Crops i got "Red Rover" and "White Fuseau" incidentally that is where i got my beach plum seedlings as well. They have great prices on some rugged plants.

Well, my mom and husband did much of the real labor. They dug, spaded and used the Mantis Tiller (i love that thing) to prepare the new ground, i just dropped the tubers into the trenches and tied the fluorescent string to the sticks so i wouldn't forget where they were.

I planted that many because i always expect about half of everything i plant to be eaten by something furry.
I also took out a sort of insurance policy by sending my mom a few pounds to put in her garden as well. If something eats all mine i could recover some from hers.... thats if nothing eats hers.

We live pretty rural out here in Maine. The banes of my existence are woodchucks and voles and don't forget snails and slugs. My parents have to contend with deer, wild turkeys and even the occasional moose. They have some red tailed hawks that hang out on their property that keep the squirrels and chipmunks in check

I don't have any red tailed hawks, so i have to just hope the woodchucks spontaneously combust. Unfortunately woodchucks don't do this. So the next idea is to use Havahart traps.
Anyway, talk of woodchucks leaves me in a bad mood, so i'll get back to what i like yammering about.

Garden.

So, mom and i were outside doing the planting and hubby was getting the snowblower ready, i almost joked that he was going to cause it to snow.... and i come in and see exactly that in our forecast. But it looks to be a rain snow mix with temps in the 40's. But its still early to see even faux sneaux.

So it looks like we got the roots in just in time.

Hubby had sown some winter rye out in the yard to try and prevent any more washouts, but unless it warms up for a few days in a few days we won't get any benefit out of that effort.

So that sums up today's garden adventure.



Apples

After helping me by digging up my protogarden, my mom has taken my oldest daughter out apple picking today. I was considering trying to go (take lots of tylenol and try to suck it up), but after slipping on a wet spot in the yard and landing on my bad knee/leg, it was out of the question, tylenol won't even touch that kinda ouch.
But i should be getting a large paper shopping bag full of apples, so i can make a few pies and such.



i guess that will be it for now...