Garden Today

The last couple of days have been brilliant.  Today the sun is shining brightly.  At 3:30PM, we'd already generated over 20 KWH of energy and the array was still producing over 2 KW of power.  I'm pretty sure we could do better if I were to get up on the roof and carefully clean the PV panels.  If I approached the whole thing from the back (north) side of the house it would probably be safe.

At the right, you can see some of the rows of salad greens in the main garden.  As I type this, Ray is outside putting up the final set of gates.  This is a good thing.  At lunch time I went out to check the mail.  "Bambi" was standing in the flower bed that's on the NW side of the driveway. S/he looked at me as I came down the stairs.  She looked at me very calmly.  I had to get within about 8 feet of her before she decided to saunter off into the neighbor's yard. Yes, it is a Very Good Thing that Ray is putting up the gates.  "Bambi" and her friends could make short work of the garden.  I shudder to think what could happen if the neighbors' goats get out.

At the left, you can see some little chard plants and some potatoes that are clearly thriving.  Some of them came up outside my bird netting, so we'll have to see if the crows have a go at them.  I'm hoping that since potatoes grow underground, we'll be okay.  

Last night I cooked up some chard we got from the co-op.  I washed and cut the chard into manageable pieces.  Then I put some canola oil in a skillet.  I added a splash of sesame oil and some herbs for flavor.  I cooked the greens gently -- all the time thinking about the Steve James recording of "Greasy Greens" from his "Not for Highway Use" CD.  They weren't very greasy, but they sure were good.  Later in the summer we're going to enjoy eating from this garden.

The soil seems to drain extremely well.  We've had a couple of good rainstorms in the past week, but there's never been any standing water in the main garden.

Tomorrow, I'm going to re-bed the worms (if any are still alive, that is).  I think I've got some ideas on how to make them more comfortable.  Hope I'm right.

Was that a Corner We Just Turned?

Angel, Isabelle, and I moved into our new home just about a year and a month ago. Of course the home was just barely inhabitable at that point. It was about seven more months before the house was done enough to call for a final inspection. What with the mess of construction and the partially organized chaos of moving, it almost seemed as if the components of our life had been dumped into a gigantic container and shaken. And shaken some more. And then divided into blobs and distributed around the property.

Big, well-labeled things were organized quickly. So were basic need-type things: cooking utensils and clothes, for instance.

The garage? Oh, don't go in there.

The basement? Piles of boxes of books waiting for the bookshelves to go in. Other piles of boxes that probably should have been placed in the garage.

The yard? Piles of construction wood scrap. Much of it useful. At least useful as firewood. But so much of it. And just everywhere.

Little-by-little, mostly on weekends, we've been nibbling away at this chaos. That's Angel and I doing the nibbling. Isabelle yawns on her blanket by the window and covers her head with a paw as if to say, "Can you guys be quiet? I'm trying to take a nap here."

Boxes in the basement are reopened for the 12th time, but now inspected carefully. Oh that's where the yoga mats went! Piles of stuff -- really just stuff -- finally sorted through in the garage to uncover... a GIANT container of some kind of caulk. A five gallon can that had originally contained paint but now holds a paint roller hopelessly stuck to a grate and about 3" of dried paint sludge. Empty paint cans that the painter or the contractor should have removed. A carpenter's much-abused sawhorses, left behind for someone else to deal with. I may cut them up for firewood too, by golly. Other things are found. Sorted. Discarded. An end to mysterious boxes. Or at least a decline in them.

The last couple of weekends seem to have brought us past a corner, however. The yard, while still far from completely landscaped, looks like something's being done with it. The garage mess finally sorted through sufficiently to clear a space in the shop area where one can walk and work on things without stepping over & around ladders, paint cans, garden tools, boxes, boxes, (did I say boxes?)... the list goes on. But now most garage stuff is stacked neatly on shelves or hanging on the wall or in racks. One can visualize a kind of ordered state. Or perhaps a state of markedly reduced disorder.

In short, we have passed some nebulous point and are entering a region where the chaos seems to be declining. We are entering a place where one may imagine doing things without constantly wondering where the right tool or fastener might be hiding. We identify where we'd like that hoe, rake, shovel, mattocks could reasonably reside when not in use.

It is good. It is very good. And about time.

Oh, and lest I forget to mention, the weather was nothing short of gorgeous.

Tulips

The tulips Angel planted months ago have bloomed. Just a week or two ago we started to see some buds forming. In the last few days, the flowers have opened and are adding some color to the area on our deck that faces the main vegetable garden.

Today is less sunny than yesterday, but it was off-and-on very bright, and all day long it was perfect gardening temperature.

Angel & I transplanted another donor plant from a neighbor -- this time Penny & Bill. They have a spectacular yard and they decided that they didn't want a large, high-standing cluster of some grass-like foliage.

This plant, in the right place, will get pretty big. In P & B's yard, it was hemmed in by other established plants and the street. We have an excellent spot for it where it will get plenty of sun and grow to form a backdrop for irises, day-lilies, rhodedendrons, and other flowering plants. These are all along the northwest side of our driveway.

We continue to sift large rocks from the stony soil. What is left behind, when amended with organic compost, is very plant friendly. Angel continues to plant smaller donor plants given to us by other kind friends and neighbors.

Much is done. Much more remains.

Worms Under Stress

Last week, when I checked the worms, they seemed to be doing fine.

This AM I went down with some leftover brown rice, some used tea leaves, and some fruit leavings, and saw no live, adult worms! The drainage pan beneath the bed contained quite a few dead worms. I did see some little "wormlings" wiggling about in the bedding.

So I cleaned out one large glop of un-consumed food and took the drainage pan outside. I dumped that whole mess into an outdoor compost bin and then hosed out the drainage pan. Now I've reassembled the worm box in the basement.

Maybe the materials I used for the bedding (mostly shredded newspaper and cardboard with some added sawdust and soil) contained something toxic? Maybe it's too wet? I'll need to keep a close watch on this; although I don't know what to do differently. It's probably time to reread the web references on worm bins.

Roaring Out

May seems to be getting its sunshine act together. The last couple of days have been nothing short of stunningly beautiful. 65 °F, slight breeze, bright sun.

The potatoes, squash, garlic, salad greens, and many more veggies are simply roaring out of the ground. All that heavy ground prep that I did last year as my alter ego "the human mole" seems to have paid off big time. Tomatoes are going in the greenhouse. Flower boxes of tulips are painting everything yellow, coral, and pink. So far; so good.

Angel has some asparagus in (won't be able to eat that for a couple of years) and some chard (which is thriving). Those are on the north side of the property -- sort of behind the garage. That spot gets good sun only from about April through September, but we're told that's plenty of sun for these two plants.

We have blueberry and raspberry plants in. All the blueberry and non-local raspberry canes surrounded by cylinders of chicken wire to keep the deer off. Angel got some little strawberry plants in as well.

We talked to a guy named Tim about having the property mowed a couple of times per week. The Amigo's knees just can't take pushing the electric mower up and down the hills, and I can't afford a ride-able tractor/mower right now. I think we'll let Tim's team take care of the basic mowing for a while. It'll make things look better and let me spend time on some other projects.

There is still a part of the main garden that needs bird netting. Maybe I'll get to that tomorrow. Also, Ray-the-contractor promises that he'll finish the gates for the front porch and get them up next week. Early next week. That'll close off the last potential deer access to the main garden. So far the critters have shied away from walking up the steps, onto the porch, and into the garden. There is such a big salad bar for them without moving into a confined space like that, that they don't seem to be interested, but we can't count on that long term.

On other fronts, neighbors, new friends, and random people encountered on walks have given us cuttings and bulbs from their gardens. We've put in literally dozens of ornamental plants without spending any money on them. It's so great. Most of the plants have taken to their new spots very well. In a couple of years, even the yard may look decent.

We're getting close to the first phase of gardening drawing to a close. It feels good.

There is another retaining wall to build. And there is much more of the property to develop into food-producing land. In a micro-scale effort like what Angel and I are doing, it seems very manageable to do this in a way that actually improves the quality of the soil. It really is nothing more than time and money limited -- but then most things are, right?

but wait, there's more!

It's now about 8:40PM.  After a long afternoon of heavy garden work, Angel & I are relaxing, reading.  The weather turned mild as the day wore on and we cultivated a few square feet near the front of the property.  There, the already rocky soil was made much worse during the construction because the contractor had a large load of coarse gravel dumped in that area to keep the mud down near (and beneath) his construction trailer.  Now we must break the soil and rocks apart with a mattocks, pile it up, and run it through a screen.  We are gradually moving the rocks down near the street to form a parking space near the mailbox.  Eventually, this will be a large, color-filled area of perennials.  For now, we dig, we sift, we move dirt and rocks.  We hurt.

The wind came up about a half hour ago, and the rain that threatened off and on seems to have decided to water our newly transplanted shrubs and flowers.  This is a good thing.

The house is warm and quiet: I can hear the refrigerator in the pantry and a wind chime just outside the window.  Beneath the cheery sound of the chimes, I can hear the wind gusting past the house.  It is good.

What Happened?

It's May 2nd. Yesterday was another sunny day -- the latest in a string of lovely days in which the PV array pumped out lots of energy.

Today, however, dawned cold and gray. It is as if the calendar had been set back over a month. This is the first weekend of the local farmers' market, and it was raining when we began our day.

Now, please don't misunderstand, I enjoy cool and rainy... cool and foggy... cool and overcast. It is just a surprise when the weather changes so abruptly. Soon I will join Angel in the garden. We have barely scratched the surface of what we need to do; although we are seeing potatoes and lettuce growing in the garden.

One other brief bit: at 12:01AM yesterday (May 1st), WDOT shut down the Hood Canal Bridge. This is a long-planned maintenance shut down. It will last from four to six weeks. The teams are working on the bridge 24 hours per day to get it back up as quickly as possible.

Big controversy among the locals. Consternation in some quarters. This is not a big deal to Angel and me. We have, after all, only visited The City twice in the past 12 months. The local shops and those the next town over have nearly everything we need.

But some people seem very wound up about the Hood Canal Bridge being down. They write (some barely) letters to the editor of the local paper. Their letters castigate the WDOT for shutting down the bridge. It is baffling. In other parts of the country, bridges are allowed to deteriorate and fail.

Me, I'm glad that the bridge is being maintained. Bridges should bridge. People should think.