I know Spring Will Come

Signs of Spring

Well, it has been a long winter and a long time since my last post.  Yet, finally we are seeing signs of Spring in our yard.  No crocuses survived the squirrels, rabbits, and deer.  But the snow drops have and each year the patch gets a little larger.

Then, next to the snow drops was one single dwarf blue iris.  The splash of color from this volunteer is a delight for the eyes.  A reminder that there are more colors in the world than white, brown, and spring green.

Pussy Willows Bloom

And the pussy willow bush is blooming.

Daffodils are up and we can even see the buds forming.  And the bud on the rest of the flowering bushes are starting to swell.





It's Time to Plant Peas

So, with spring starting to show its face, it is time to plant peas.  Each time I look at these small wrinkled orbs I marvel at how they will transform into lush green vines and sweet, delicious peas.  But first we have to wait. . . . . . .


Here is the garden.  The peas are in the center bed.  Next weekend I'll add the radishes and carrots.  As spring progresses it will be hard to wait for the last frost before we plant tomatoes.

Last year was the first year we tried using the old dog pen as a garden fence.  It worked!  It kept the deer out.

A new (four legged neighbor) appears

This morning we realized that the brown lump at the bottom of the tree in the back yard was not a branch.  Yesterday morning, in the bleary-eyed pre-dawn drizzle I noticed that a branch must have fallen from the plum tree.  And, I never thought more about it.

When we looked out this morning, this is what we saw.

Looking closer, we could see a new fawn.

A couple days ago, about 6:30 AM we saw a deer in the back yard.  It was nibbling the leaves on this tree.  Then it wandered out the hole in the back fence.  Our first thought was to check the garden.  We didn't find any evidence that the deer had tried to eat anything inside the fence.  Now I wonder, was it the mother looking for a place to drop her fawn?

In the early afternoon today, we saw the fawn wander off through the back fence.  When and where it caught up with its mother we don't know.  So far it hasn't come back to bed down under the tree.  But we'll check in the morning.

I did learn a couple interesting facts about fawns.  For the first few days they have no scent.  This helps them avoid predators while they are gaining strength to walk.  The mother stays away during this time so that her scent does not attract predators.   However, the mother is always around the area watching and she will come to her baby's aid should it be in distress.  That is a reminder to me that fawns are not abandoned even though they may seem to be.

Radish Harvest

The past two weeks have seen a lot growth in the garden.  This morning the radishes were calling to be thinned.  Even after pulling this huge bunch of radishes the bed looks just a full as before I started.  Debby has started looking for fun new radish recipes.  One with smashed avacado on toast sounds good.  If that doesn't work we can always fall back on thinly sliced radishes on hot buttered toast.  Both types of radish have a wonderful crisp fresh crunch with a peppery after bite.  Pure spring delight.

Looking around the garden, I see amazing evidence of growth.  The onion sets were put in the ground just over a week ago and their tops are stretching sunward.  I wonder how many peas we will really get since the weather is already so hot.  However, they are still climbing their trellis.  Hope springs eternal.

Kale, spinach, and Swiss chard are all growing like gang busters.  

The basil is filling out into beautiful globes.  The tomatoes are settling in well and starting to fill out.  The carrots will have to be thinned soon.  It has been a wonderful weekend to spend in the garden.   I didn't even mind having to replant the dill in the herb garden.  Since the herb garden doesn't have a high fence, either the rabbits or deer got to the dill.  However, the dill is now safely ensconced inside the fence.  

The morning air has been gentle and breakfast on the deck has been relaxing.  We are quickly making the transition from spring to summer.

As we celebrate this Memorial Day, I want to share this photo I took yesterday morning.  The sun was rising, the sprinkler was watering the garden, and I realized that we had a rainbow.  The rainbow has always been a sign of promise.  

A promise of 

Bounty.  Peace.  Memories.

To all who have served, to all who have gone before, you are not forgotten.

Planting Peas

It has been a busy day.  This morning I had my first green smoothie using our own swiss chard.  In addition to chard our smoothies usually have some fruit.  These have mellon, blue berries, and strawberries.  Debby found some chia seeds to add for additional fiber.  The color may look odd to some but the flavor is great.

My projects for today were to finish the center raised bed in the garden and plant the peas.  Debbie surprised me the other day with some pea plants from the nursery.  I had been really bummed that I hadn't been able to get the peas in early enough.  But the garden wasn't ready in time.  Now that these plants are in the ground it looks like I got my peas planted back in April.

The rest of the garden is growing well.  The radishes and carrots were planted May 1st.  Yesterday I started thinning the radishes (the sprouts will go well in a salad).  The carrots are out of the ground.  In this picture the carrots are those tiny things going crosswise in the background.

So far the deer and rabbits have stayed away from the garden.  We can probably attribute the success with rabbits to the additional chicken wire around the base of the fence.  I wouldn't be surprised if the deer are not interested because the plants aren't big enough.  Only time will tell.

Signs of Growth

It has been a busy day.  While eating breakfast on the deck we saw that there was new green in garden.  Our radishes have sprouted.  The seed packet said 4-5 days to sprout, and I did plant them on Tuesday, so we shouldn't have been surprised.  However, any time I plant seeds I wonder.

Now we wait patiently for the carrots to sprout.  The germination tables say 12-15 days at 75 deg.  So I guess I have to wait till next weekend to greet them.


We had picked up some Swiss Chard and those plants are doing well.  Tomorrow we'll start picking chard for green smoothies.  I did have a green smoothie for breakfast yesterday.  Debby made it with spinach we already had.  

 Today's project was replacing the falling down fence in our front yard.  The job is done.  I could even get the grape vine to twine around the new rails like it had done with the old fence.  

Even with all the post hole digging, the Lily of the Valley survived.  Whenever I smell that flower I remember our neighbor's garden back East where I grew up.  She had Lily of the Valley planted along her house.  It brings back fond memories.  This is the view out our kitchen window. 

It has been a good day.  Lots of yard work and now we're ready for a relaxing evening.

A New Garden - In a Dog Pen

Well, it has been a long time since I added a post to this blog.  Last year we didn't even try to grow anything in containers.  The deer had been too effective in 2010, and all we harvested from four tomato plants were four cherry tomatoes.  No matter how many chairs and small fences I made to block the deer from the edge of our deck, they found their way through and had midnight snacks each night.

Now it is 2012 and we have a brand new idea on how to restart our garden.  In the garage we had the parts for a dog run.  Since we don't use the run, we decided to create the garden inside a fence.

The garden pen is 10' x 10'.  The beds are raised 10" above grade.  We know that rabbits can slip through chain link with ease.  We watched them get away from our Welsh Terrier that way many times.  And there were the few that didn't hit the chain link holes just right and Cassie got them instead of them getting away.  Fortunately, that didn't happen too often, but Debby will say it happened too many times while I was out of town.  Here is a close up of how we hope to avoid the rabbit problem.

What looks like double fence is just that.  I added a 2' high section of poultry wire around the inside base of the chain link.  The fence sections are resting on 4x4s.  The 2x10s that make up the bed are screwed to the 4x4s.  We'll see how well this all holds up.

Today I planted my first seeds and plants.  The plants are Swiss Chard.  Green smoothies are on their way.  I'm taking a bit of a chance, but went ahead and planted radishes and carrots.  I have divided the garden in to 1' squares (in my imagination, at least) and I am trying a modified version of square foot gardening.  So here is a long view of the first plantings.

And here I am, one happy gardener.  As any of you who try to grow a garden, you know that we could never do this unless we believed that hope springs eternal.

Mike

2010 Container Garden

This year we are repeating our container garden efforts. This time we have lettuce, kale, chard, spinach, basil, and one stray cabbage plant. The cabbage plant came with the one of the chard seedlings. I am reusing the containers from last year, but with new soil. The tomatoes haven't been planted yet. We were gone over Memorial Day weekend and I didn't trust that there wouldn't be a frost. So this summer I will probably have the latest tomatoes of anyone I know. Oh well, such is life. By the way, no peas this year. For the handful we harvested last year, it wasn't worth the effort. Maybe next year.