April Showers

We have had quite a bit of nice weather, but we are entering a week long rainy system with no end in sight. The moisture will be good for the perennials, but we need some sun too.  I have everything set up and ready for rain.

The lettuce is growing well

I changed the peas from burlap to frost blanket mainly to prevent the lettuce babies from growing up into the weave and being torn out when I remove it.  

The lettuce loved the burlap and I got great germination

Store bought broccoli and cabbage under insect netting.

Strawberries growing well

I have a lot less going on in the cold frame than I sometimes do.  That is mainly due to my saved Marigold seeds not germinating in cool conditions.  Last year I ran a heat mat and infrared heater in the cold frame and it made a big difference. I was hoping to have several trays of Marigolds growing on at this point, but they are just now germinating indoors.  I have some papyrus that I bought early to make sure I have it for my planters, and a partial tray of Celosia that was started indoors under grow lights.  They have been out here for two weeks and are holding well despite several frosts.

Here is something new for this year.  Rather than spend up to $50 a planter every year for annuals, we are going with perennials.  I have been wanting to try planters of Heuchera (Coral Bells) and this spot will probably work.  We went to the Amish greenhouse and bought 4" pots of heuchera for a really good price.  6 pots for $22.  They are first year plants, but nicely grown on.  Since they are fresh from the greenhouse, I gave them frost covers.

Ta da!

Most of the growing is going on indoors.

Celosia and sweet peppers that will need to move to the cold frame to make room for tomatoes

Coleus and some tomatoes

Below are tomatoes for my friend Elsie.  She is Amish, and has her own family heirloom variety.  This is the second year I have started a tray for her under lights.  Last year went without a hitch. This year I ran into a bit of trouble.  The cotyledons on this variety are not very robust so I spritzed them with water to soften the seed shell and help the plants shed them.  By the end of the day I had two plants damped off.  I immediately sprinkled them with cinnamon (anti-fungal) and pointed the fan right at them.  The next morning, four more had keeled over, but that seemed to put an end to it.

I need four dozen, and this batch looks a bit short so I started a second batch to fill in.  In a few days they will be pricked out and transplanted into this tray and the Celosia will go outside and this tray will go under that grow light.  I need more lights.

Temporarily Out of Mulch

 This week we edged and mulched until we are out of mulch.

Today we will just edge while we wait for another truckload of mulch.

We basically started at the front of the property and did anything visible from the driveway.

We cut the circles around the London Plane trees.

When we got to the bottom of the mulch bunker where the mulch is damp and more rotted, my husband wanted to toss it in the woods.  Wait!  I want that for the bank where I plant odds and ends!  Well rotted, nearly compost is perfect stuff to mix in and plant in.  The conditions have been perfect.  The lawn was dry enough to get the tractor on and moist enough to cut well.  There were only a fraction of the number of weeds we usually deal with.  I don't know if that can be attributed to the dry spring or the infrequency of mowing during last summer's mini-drought.  But I liked it!

  Yesterday morning at 8:00 am it was 66F in the garden.  Perfect weather for sowing.

I planted two rows of Penelope Seeds.  This is my second generation of self saved seeds.  As an experiment I put worm castings in the first row.  I sowed lettuce seeds along side and covered with burlap to keep the birds out.  This has been a very very birdy spring.  They're everywhere.

I also set out Tom Thumb buttercrunch transplants.  I was looking forward to using my new transplant tongs.  The problem with buying sturdy cells that you can use over and over is getting the transplants out without damage.  With a flimsy nursery cell you can squish the plastic, push the seedling out and then toss the mangled cell pack.  These tongs are perfectly sized to work with Gardeners' GrowEase cells.  Maybe at some point I will do a breakdown on the GrowEase system.  They work well for bottom watering seedlings and starting indoors, although I do not like using them out in the cold frame for various reasons.

Twenty Four transplants set out in last year's cabbage bed.  I didn't have to do a thing to this bed.  There was still some shredded leaf mulch on top and it was completely weed free.

I covered them with some Dollar Store baskets to shade them from the sun a little on their first day and topped it off with floating row cover.  These transplants have been hardened off pretty well and this evening I will likely remove their little shade protection going into two or three days of cloudy skies and rain.

This is the prime season for daffodils.  Everywhere you look around here....

Happy little daffys.

Undo Redo Day #2

 We got that step replaced today.  Not a big job, but a tedious one.

You have to dig everything out first.

There was not much left of that tie.

Darn Yellow Jackets!  

They were always trying to nest in it and stinging my ankles when I walked by,

All better.

I also got all of my grow thru grids placed.  I keep an inventory of what I have and a list of what plants need them each year, and what size.  I put them on any long stemmed plant to keep the heavy flower heads from bending their stems and splitting the plant.  I also use them over Hosta to deter the deer.  There are at least two grasses that I always have to tie up in a heavy rain and this will prevent the clump from splitting.

There are a few reasons why I like to get them out early.

#1 it stops the deer from nibbling on the green shoots before I get around with the repellant spray.

#2 its never too early to get the grid over the plant.  When it is tall and flopping over, its too late.

#3 when you are tromping around in the garden you can step on new shoots and set the plant back.

#4 it helps my husband identify new shoots when he is weeding and mulching in spring.

Hopefully, we can get started on mulch tomorrow.  The lawn is hardening up enough to drive the tractor on but not so much that it will be difficult digging.  Last year we had the whole west side and the frontage mulched by now,

Undo Redo 2023 Edition

 Today was Undo Redo Day.  We need some Rail Road Ties to replace rotted steps in the walkway.  So we decided to redistribute what we already have. We weren't real attached to this line of ties.  Sometimes when you finish a project and you see it in its entirety, something just isn't right.  These ties needed to go.

There are several places that need to have ties replaced.  Some of the punky spots you can avoid stepping on because they are part of a wall.  This isn't one of those spots.  You can't avoid this spot.  Darn ants and ground bees.  I blame them for undermining this.  And for being so surly and stinging me in the ankles when I walk thru.

Once we get a few more rocks arranged and maybe plant something to soften the edge, this area will look much more natural.  This is a good change.  We'll get it sorted out and we have material to work with.

The firepit planter needed to be leveled.  Assembling this without mortar is just one degree easier than assembling Stonehenge.

Yesterday we pulled a 2x4 border out from between the bricks and the pavers around the firepit.  Every year it heaved and made a good toe-catcher.  We replaced it with gravel and it looks much better.

We also moved the cold frame up into position.  This thing weighs a couple hundred pounds and I'm sure my arms are at least an inch longer.  Now I can get the Marigolds started.

And I got one section of landscaping mulched.  That was the first thing I intended to do when I left the house this morning.  Mulch the west end and maybe get some planters and supports out of storage and distributed where they need to be.

How is it you can work all day long and only get one thing checked off of your To Do List?

Spring has Sprung into Summer

It's Grow Time!

The Maple leaves are ready to pop.

The peas and lettuce will be direct sown next weekend.  But I have some lettuce babies that will be ready for transplanting, and 75+ degrees and unabating sun will cook them to a crisp.  I am hardening them off this week.  They had their first half hour of morning sun today and then they went back to their grow light which I set up in the garden shed so I can easily set them out for their allotted time each day then return them without having to navigate the basement stairs every time.

This morning I transplanted eight peppers and some Celosia.  They always look so bedraggled the first day but they will be fine.  I have extra Celosia that I might try in the cold frame as an experiment.

I ended up with two extra pepper plants.  Instead of doubling up in the cells I got them their own big boy pots.  We'll see if the different pots cause them to grow any different than the others.

I also moved the Dahlia tubers out of the bulkhead into the empty chicken coop because the bulkhead will be heating up in the sun this week whereas the coop is insulated and dark so it will be cooler.  I will not be fooled into thinking that summer weather is here to stay.  We could still get two weeks of miserable cold and snow in May like we did in both 2020 and 2021.

 

Patience in Gardening

 

It is really difficult to have patience in the spring when it is nearly 80 degrees out and mostly sunny and even a little flowery.  Even if it is very windy.  But I will NOT plant anything yet.  I have made my notes and consulted the Almanac's Moon Calendar and chosen the days based on past experience and future goals.

I am waiting until the weekend of the 15th to direct sow peas and lettuce and carrots.  That's more than a week away.  That will probably also be around the time when the Peppers and Celosia and maybe even Coleus are ready for transplanting into cells.

The first true leaves are coming but oh so tiny

Every time I peek at the Butterhead lettuce it looks like it has grown a little more.  I gave it a little half strength fertilizer and it stood right up and started to grow.

The week after that I will see if the local nursery is ready to sell cole crops.  Their summer hours will have begun then and if I had started my own plants they would be ready about then to set out.

Patience....

Pruning and Cleaning

Today was cold but pretty out.  I got the Apple trees pruned and some general clean up.

This tree had a lot of water shoots.

Seriously!

One tree worth

Besides the water shoots I took very little else out.  Just a couple of cross branches.

Then I got the strawberry bed cleaned and fertilized.

There were half a dozen runner babies which I cut loose and potted up as spares.

These plants are the Honeoye that I bought on sale last May and transplanted in late summer.  It looks like all of them survived the winter just fine.

After that we played pick'em up stix in the lawn thanks to the high winds we had.  And we got some drifts of oak leaves collected up out of the corners.

A Tale of Four Chairs

 

Remember how I said that I routinely run into these Eastlake style chairs?   Our table seats six people when all of the leaves are in it.  The seventh chair, being ruined, had resided in the attic since before we arrived.  We do have a side table and an empty spot in front of a window.  We have room for eight chairs,  I once saw a complete set of eight.  My husband and I are what collectors call "completists".  We want the whole set.  It was actually my husband who said he thought I should find an eighth chair to round out our set.

It is surprising the number of chairs you run into when you are actually looking for chairs. The nearest Antique Mall has about three dozen that I never noticed before. The Monday night auction house in the next county hauled a few dozen old project chairs out of a barn last week.  Somewhere in Northwestern PA there was a person who got it in their head to repair chairs.  And the project outlived them.  From the vague online photos I saw that one or two may be exact matches for our seven dining chairs.  To the average person, these all sort of look alike.  

Can you spot the one I'm looking for?

How about here?

As a newly minted ChairNerd I should round out my set of eight. Right?  Especially when a golden opportunity such as this presents itself.  A couple of years ago my husband was looking for a pair of oak arm chairs like you see in courtrooms, bank offices etc.  We checked this auction house's auction pics, and there were the perfect chairs.  And as I told him then I repeated now:  "when you send out a request to the Universe for chairs.  And the Universe gives you chairs.  You don't mull over whether you really need chairs or not.  You just go get the danged chairs."

 So off we went.  They were running two auctioneers in two rooms so my husband and I split up.  I figured I could get one or both chairs for under $10.  Chair #1 was in a lot of a dozen which appeared to have solid seats (after a hundred years they are all at their breaking point). We had to pay $7.50 for choice. Mission accomplished.  Chair #2 was in a pile of a dozen chairs in various states of ruin.  My husband paid $2 for choice on the ruined chairs.  

Chairs #1 and #2 are exact matches for our seven

And by the time he met back up with me and told me what he had been up to, he had also paid $1 a piece on single chairs #3 and #4 because he "felt sorry for them" and didn't want them to go on the burn pile with the other unwanted chairs.  

Chair #3 is very similar but has a perfectly round seat
#4 we call "Plane Jane" because she doesn't match anything

Chair #3 may be made of Black Walnut and has a round seat that is and inch and a half wider than our chairs.  Maybe good for larger people to save our "good" chairs?  I think I will try a different weaving pattern on it.  Plane Jane is going in our garage sale free to a good home.

And so it begins...