Adventures in Mama-Land

Ants – and peonies. I read somewhere that the ants aren’t really licking the peonies open… but they sure do seem to be hard at work getting these blossoms ready.  Sara says they DO.  I say they don’t.  Because I read it, but now that I see them at work, I am beginning to doubt myself.  I know they love the sticky nectar, but are they really opening the bloom? I’m just thrilled because I transplanted these two peonies four years ago and  haven’t had anything like a satisfactory blossom on one of them yet.  They were in the shade and I figured they’d be MUCH happier in the sunshine, but so far, they have only sulked. A few more garden glimpses, taken at dusk, so I apologize for the weird light. The view from my bench on Shabbos and Yom Tov: Yes, there are tons of weeds, but I adore how lush and GREEN it all is, how overblown, with the hundreds of tiny white thyme flowers, the bright-green oregano, the giant hosta.  This is what I was dyin...

On Friday, the kids and I went out back and, in shame, I dismantled the garden.  It was a time for confessions :  I didn’t do enough, I didn’t care enough, I didn’t water enough, I didn’t chase the bad guys away (weeds and bugs).  I let stuff go see that really shouldn’t.  I let the brutes (bee balm, perennial sunflowers) take more than their allotted space.  I let beloved plants die through neglect while I baked breads and cared for my family instead. It was also a time for catharsis :  sure, I didn’t do enough all summer, but I’m not going to take this Fall thing lying down!  I tore out the pathetic, bitter-tasting tomatoes, the shrivelled, aphid-infested kale and rampaged at the weeds that had dared encroach on the square foot beds. And finally, it was a time for hope .  I emptied one composter; dumped rich finished compost on all three beds and all around the garden.  The little kids seeded the square foot beds with a birdseed cove...

Well, who wouldn’t be optimistic with an amazing clematis like this in bloom??? I love the motif of miniature bulldozer juxtaposed with natural wonders… something about “paving paradise”, but then, I’m tired. Here’s the rest of the clematis.  The story is – I bought two clematises on sale at the end of the season two years ago.  One is Nelly Moser and one is The President.  I planted them in what I thought was a good spot (feet in damp shade, head in the sun), but alas, it was too late.  They died. Except not quite.  Last year, Nelly came back and gave me two blooms – here’s one of them.  Not a sign of the President anywhere. This year, not only is Nelly back with a vengeance – that’s what the flower shown here is – but there is a single stem creeping up behind her that looks suspiciously darker in colour.  It won’t flower this year; in fact, Nelly is promising only one more bloom again this time, but the things have leafed out tremend...

The Bulbs Bulbs in – some 200-something of them, by my estimation.  That includes teeny-tiny bulbs like squill and muscari, though, some of which I just dumped into holes, set upright, and covered over again. Frugal gardener tip:  in late spring, buy pots of wilted daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, whatever (just not paperwhites or tulips).  Home Despot usually has a cart of them for $1 or something.  Choose the pots that have the most flowers sticking up.  Don’t worry what the flowers look like… they will look horrible ; that’s why they’re $1.  (but do choose colours you can live with!) Now just leave the plants to die.  Not total neglect:  I kind of set them out in the backyard so they can get some rain and sun, but eventually, the foliage dies back and dries out and then the bulbs are ready to pull up. Yank them out of the dirt – toss the dirt part on the composter.  Gather all the bulbs.  If you’re lucky, the pots have tags...

Square foot gardens are actually coming along really well.  Note to self:  more climbing beans next year!!! Full slideshows of progress since March can be found (still) here: slideshows (scroll down) I can’t believe Mrs. ViKi starts again in less than two weeks.  Don’t worry; I will refrain from lamenting about where the summer has gone!

Even my compost is going – nay, growing – green!!!  Yes, I’m growing a cover crop OVER the nearly-finished batch of compost while it waits to be used on the garden beds in the fall! I have been thinking about cover cropping for years.  Cover cropping, in case you’ve been living on Planet Inorganic (no shame in that; we stopped in there yesterday for paper plates and plastic cutlery for our al fresco Shabbos lunch!), is the practice in organic farming of rehabbing the soil between “real” crops by growing something fast and good for the world.  Cover crops are often a legume like clover, since legumes fix nitrogen in the soil (whatever that means, it sure sounds wholesome!), but sometimes they can be a grain like rye or millet.  They’re grown for a while and then turned back into the soil next season so more “real” crops can be planted.  Some cover crops are annual; planted late in the season, they don’t set seed and will die naturally over the winter so t...

(caution:  pictures of worms below – not for the squeamish!!!) In a fit of procrastination over the million and one things I am supposed to be doing this week, I went out to feed the worm bin and decided it was overfull and needed a bit of emptying and refreshing.  I’ve really only fed it about once a month, and was worried that the worms might be suffering. But – never fear!  They are wormily thriving in the cool darkness of the garage (a highly recommended location that will probably work for us between March and November). Here’s some of the compost I scooped out, unsifted, so the worms are still in it:   Lots of worms still left in the bin, too!   I shoved the rest of the bin contents over to the right side, and added fresh veggies (garden cucumber peel), eggshells, and coffee grounds to the almost-empty left side.  Then covered it up with “fresh” straw (it’s been sitting since last fall) and closed up the bin.  This is the easy par...

Everything is filling in nicely, with replacement crops having finally taken the place of the lettuce which bolted LONG ago…     In case you’re fascinated, here are slideshows of this year’s progress in all three beds: SFG #1: SFG #2: SFG #3a (it’s hard to photograph this bed as a big long rectangle): SFG #3b: Hope you enjoy watching these beds progress as much as I do!!!

Alright.  A quick update in case anyone cares.  Bad, bad, bad. They are light-deprived, nutrient-deprived and everything is doomed. But I love them anyway! Square Foot Garden Bed #1: Corn, beans and assorted melons are slowly, slowly starting to crowd out the first generation.  However, I cut back the leaf-minered chard to see if it would grow nice, unminered new leaves and sure enough, it’s actually looking quite edible, there in the back row.  The peas were starting to die back, and I was getting ready to pull them out, except the ones I’m saving for seed, but now, because the weather is cool, some are starting to bear again.  Aargh! Square Foot Garden Bed #2:   All that lettuce!  And now that it’s been hot and some bolted, I’m scared to eat it!  I bought some clearance cabbage and brussels sprouts seedlings at Fortino’s Garden Centre closing (2/25 cents), so I will try to pull out all the lettuce and start over with ...

In an effort to make things a little bit nice around here for my mother’s birthday supper tomorrow evening, YM & I moved the tacky plastic table out into the garden and I hung the Ikea tea-light lanterns over it.  This is at dusk, and I think it does look a bit magical. Unfortunately, we’ll be eating at 6 p.m., so unless the weather is unseasonably dark (maybe a storm will be brewing!) it will all be seen in the glaring light of day.  Actually, unless we figure out the umbrella, it really will be glaring, because we get quite a bit of sun-setting light from the backyard’s fairly open exposure to the west. Still; if not “romantic” and “dreamy” I think I can hope for “tidy” or at least “not too grim.” It has been occurring to me that the hostas thriving three feet from the veggie beds could be a message that the backyard doesn’t really get enough light to grow veggies; at least not in the back part behind the garage.  In the sunny front part where you first w...

If I grow it, corn will come… That’s right:  now that the warm weather is here, SFG Bed #1 has become my CORNFIELD.  Apparently, it’s better to grow corn in blocks rather than rows (improves cross-pollination, which is essential for the kernels to develop).  So this is basically four rows of four. Here’s one baby stalk: In a misguided and amateurish effort to grow a Three Sisters Bed (corn, squash, beans), I have substituted Sugar Baby Watermelon and Minnesota Midget canteloupe, along with various cucumbers, for the traditional squash.  Squashes take up way more space; my hope is that these viny things will grow around the base of the corn while beans of various kinds grow up the stalks.     Ah, what vivid, green garden fantasies romp through my mind late at night. Anyway, I gave the corn a couple weeks’ head start and last weekend planted out the beans.  I stuck the cuke and melon seedlings in at the same time as the corn s...

Looking more lush, but blighted as usual… leaf miners in the chard (I cut it down in the hope against hope that it will grow back), stunted beets, bolted spinach, bizarre fungi…  leaving me even more doggedly determined to make something work this year! Planted various beans in both beds (late, late, late, like everything in this year’s garden) and tomatoes in bed #2.  My next post will describe my latest and ultimate flight of fantasy:  Jfer’s Field of Dreams in SFG Bed #1. Pics below. For an ongoing slideshow of the progress in these SFG beds, just visit this post . Square Foot Garden Bed #1:     Square Foot Garden Bed #2:   Yes, I know I never straightened out those humpy-looking blind slats.  Face it, it’s almost July, it’s hot out, and I’m tired.  I honestly don’t think it’s getting done… this year, at least.  :-)