Busy as Bees

Peony Do Tell

Howdy sports fans!  I will tell that it has been spring madness around here for a few weeks now.  Non-stop gardening, interspersed with bird-watching and splashed with actual paid work.  The annual battle of trying to beat back the weeds in the flower beds and get fertilizer and mulch down around things to help them along and keep the weeds from regrowing is an ongoing effort.  Progress has been made with a truckload of compost spread and three truckloads of mulch.  But we've yet to finish the task.  I'm guessing I'm about two-thirds of the way through at this point.  About the time I get done with all the flower beds, it will likely be time to start weeding the ones I did first, again.  Such is the life of a couple of over the top gardeners.

In the veggie patch things are looking stellar.  I just peeked a couple of posts back and the potatoes pictured there are now knee high and the peas are almost to the top of the trellis and flowering.  Greens are lush.  We have been eating obligatory monster piles of salad and skillets full of cooked greens on a daily basis.  Glorious mixes of red and green leaf lettuces, red-stemmed Bordeaux spinach, arugula and cress for the salads.  Kale, beet greens, spinach, chard, mustard and turnip greens in the braising mix.  Love the first fresh greens of spring!

Summer garden is almost in.  I've planted 22 tomato plants, 13 peppers, beans, squash and cucumbers.  Basil and nasturtiums.  I still want to put out some butternut squash, sweet potatoes, more beans, tomatillos and a few more peppers. Also sunflowers and zinnias need sowing.  But I'm getting close.  We've been picking and eating sweet red strawberries this week and asparagus too.

Peony Raspberry Sundae

I've waxed poetic many times before about peonies.  They are just starting to open and the yard is hypnotic with their fragrance and that of the lilac in full bloom.  

Birding during the past two prime weeks for northern migration has been rewarding.  My extreme birding brother Chris has been out each morning and calling me once or twice a day with the bird report.  When I've been lucky enough to get out there with him we have seen some excellent birds.  Most exciting for me are always the warblers and this season was no exception.  I have seen prairie, pine, black-throated blue, yellow-throated, common-yellow throat, chestnut-sided, Canada, parula, black and white, hooded, Kentucky and blue-winged warblers.  Also in the warbler family; Northern and Louisiana water thrushes, ovenbirds, American redstarts and chat.  Veery and Swainson's thrushes have also been in the woods on their way north and the fluting and melodious wood thrush has been calling daily for several weeks.  Back for the season to breed are the scarlet and summer tanagers, indigo bunting, great crested flycatcher, peewee, and red-headed woodpecker.  It's a great time to be a birder.

I've also been working on promoting the new business and finally finished my website and launched it last week.  So hop over and check it out at www.playfulnatureconsulting.com  and if you are on Facebook, please like my page: playful nature consulting.  Thanks!  now I'm off to bed to rest off so I can do some more gardening tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday

April Delights

I wish I had a video camera so I could take you on a virtual tour of our yard.  Everyday seems more spectacular.  Trees are leafing out, many things are budding.  Crab apple, redbud, dogwood, deciduous magnolias, and azaleas all blooming at once! 

We've just come inside from covering up plants.  The weather today is to be first crazy stormy and then the temps to plunge from 70 this afternoon to 29 degrees tonight.  Many things may be too tender to endure.  But we only have so much remay fabric.  We covered the strawberries, in full bloom, the potatoes newly sprouted and quite tender.  And the spring veggies and salad garden, probably could take it but very tender.

Yesterday in the sunshine:

 Taters on the right, beets, spinach and garlic in the middle, salad to the left

 Baby salad greens and peas on the trellis

It has been a strange spring weather wise and I guess this is the new normal in our days of climate change.  Lots of wild extremes and tough storms.  But plants just go on and do their thing.  We hope the blueberries will not be harmed, nor all the brand new leaves on trees, but there is nothing to be done but wait and see.

We did cover this little maple (to the left, yes, that is a dwarf tree), its been nipped in years past.  Always the Japanese maples seem to be among the first trees to leaf out.  Here you can see Davids big project from last weekend.  He moved this path that previously went to the left of the dogwood in the center of the frame past that little maple.  He so carefully moved everything around that you can hardly tell!

One last thing to share, this flowering cherry Hally Jolivette.  This has been its best season ever.  Right outside my office window the tree has gotten fuller with the dainty pink and white flowers everyday for two weeks and now is starting to wind down.  I imagine the cold nights will be the end of the flowers for this season.  But what a joy it's been.

Wordless Wednesday

The Creativity Collective

My new business cards

I've been meeting every two or three weeks with a few of my most creative friends.  Artists, musicians, writers.  We're calling ourselves the Creativity Collective.  

It has been a supportive and motivational process.  

Each time we meet we discuss issues we are facing in trying to move our work forward, in getting marketing done, building business and clientele, organizing various projects we each are working on.  We help each other set goals and provide a venue for accountability to meeting those goals.  

One of mine is marketing to launch my new business Playful Nature.  One of the gals helped me with graphic layout for my card and then another came up with the snappy idea of stitching together seed packets into a patchwork to back the cards, making each one unique.  Yes, you read "stitching" Peg is a fabric artist so thinks of sewing everything.  Click on the photo above to get a closer look. They are very cool and memorable, not something I want to produce thousands of, but they should make an impression on folks when I hand them out.

The website is coming along but not quite ready to launch, though I've set a goal for this week.  I'll keep you posted, taxes still need to get finished...  

I do have a really good gig tomorrow presenting on gardening with kids to a group of childcare center directors and staff through the Natural Learning Initiative at NCSU.  This is the sort of thing I hope to get lots more of. 

Spring is here and along with it come lots of new opportunities and new beginnings.

 

Camellia Kujacku Tsubaki

Every day there is something new in bloom.  I LOVE April.

Spring Ephemerals

Bloodroot and Trout Lily

Warm rain and everything is starting to burst forth.  I braved the damp mist and took a walk today, eager to get out of the house, stir crazy from organizing my tax documents. The may apples were unfurling their umbrellas. Dainty spring beauties, trout lilies and hepatica dotted the edges of the path along the creek.  The mosses and lichen seemed electric in the gray wetness of the day.  Shining out chartreuse and grey green, I kept expecting to spy a leprechaun peeking out from behind a tree trunk.

There are masses of spotted salamander eggs in the vernal pools.  They must have crawled out of their underground hiding places in the first warm rains a month or so ago.  I've been watching them develop, picking up blobs of the jelly-like clusters to take a closer peek.  I think I might put some in a container to take and show to the kids in my programs, maybe keep a few to watch them hatch, then return them to their birth pools to carry on.

Here's what they look like when they are all grown up. So ready for spring and all the unfolding.

Inside and Out

 Mr. and Mrs. Wood Duck

I actually managed to sneak up on this lovely couple today, they are normally quite skittish.

 

Foam mat today

I've been thinking about Carol's comment on the creek foam so did a bit of research.  I knew it was naturally occurring but wanted to know more.  Foam is caused by the presence of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Basically DOC comes from plants and other stuff breaking down and decomposing in the water or washed into the stream from the land.  The DOC then changes the surface tension of the water allowing air to get incorporated into the surface.  That air at the surface makes foam which piles up against stream banks and logs.  A similar thing is happening at the ocean edge when you see foam in the surf.

Things that change surface tension are called surfactants.  Soaps and other pollutants can cause this to happen, but in that case the foam is everywhere and often has a scent like the soap that caused it. Fortunately our foam seems to be all natural.  And that is our science lesson for today!

Secret Agent Veggies-Under Cover

In other news.  The weather is capricious with below freezing temps forecast for the next few nights.  Many of the veggie seeds I planted began to sprout when it was warm over the weekend. I've now got everything tucked in and hoping it won't just die when the temp drops into the mid-20's tomorrow night. 

Inside, I had too many seed flats and not enough space or light so I developed the latest in seed starting technology.  Yes folks, those are seed flats and grow lights in the bathtub.  Sadly I don't take near enough bathes in our big beautiful tub so I got the notion that it would be a perfect spot to put more seed flats and suspend lights from boards across the top.  Tah Dah!  It's perfect.  It did require another $45 investment in the grow lights and bulbs, but should be worthwhile if I generate 200 herb, flower and veg plants in the deal.  The cost of a transplant these days can be as much as $3 or $4 each.  You can do the math.  And the original lights I bought for my older set-up have been in use for about 10 years now, same original bulbs.  I know these will help start many healthy transplants for years to come.  And if I really want a bath, I can move the plants out pretty easily.  They should be able to go outside in about 3 weeks.  In case you are wondering, we have a separate shower, so won't be going unwashed for an extended period.

Here's hoping the cold temps don't cause too much damage and that warm spring weather will come very soon.