April Showers

More rain, what a wonderful thing. I emptied out all the rain barrels yesterday afternoon and had to break out the hose to water in a few of the things I planted. After close to an inch of rain last night, the two trash cans were full again, I emptied those into 10 five gallon buckets and I'm thinking the trash cans could be full again after the downpour we just received. Needless to say- we've still not made any further progress on our rainwater catchment system, oh well, at least its raining.

I've been thinking about all the people around the world that have to carry water everyday just for cooking and drinking let alone agriculture. It's a meditation for sure to fill the watering cans by dipping them in the rain barrel and then make repeated trips back and forth to the garden to water the young plants and seed beds almost daily. I really do want a better set-up where we can at least gravity feed through a hose. And we clearly need a much greater storage capacity.

When I decided to do a daily post for April, I felt sure that there we be something new everyday to talk about and there has been. Here is a shot that includes a hot pink dianthes in the foreground, just beginning to bloom, a very late blooming daffodil called Fragrant Rose, it isn't really fragrant but its nice and tall and is still blooming after all the other daffodils are finished. To the right you can just see a blue columbine and in the back our weeping redbud which is a fabulous plant. The redbud has a curvy trunk that's gorgeous all winter, then it puts on this pink show in the spring and in the summer it is covered with large glossy leaves that reach to the ground. Then I call it the "Cousin It" tree because it looks like a giant green lump.

You can see the trees are really greening up in the woods beyond. With all the rain they will pop for sure and soon it will be a thick lush forest of spring green on every side of our yard. Oh how I LOVE this time of year!

Taxes finished- now I can fully enjoy the season

Dear friends-
Apologies once again for the long dry spell.  It's spring, what more can I say?  I just finished my taxes, phew, another year I managed to sort them out by myself with the help of Turbo Tax. Self-employment has some downsides, not the least of which is paying all 14% of your own social security, hopefully I'll actually get to collect back on that one day.

The past month has been filled with gardening both home and in town.  In the past few weeks I've enrolled about 15 new families bringing the total number of families in the three community gardens up to around 40.  I've only got a few plots left which is great.   It's the time of year when everyone is excited, the gardens are looking tidy and the new spring veggies are growing fast and green.  Hopefully the enthusiasm will continue,  there are always folks that flake out when it starts to get hot.

 On the home front- just a few highlights from the last few weeks:

New growth and cones on the evergreens, I roam around petting and fondling the tender tips

Weeping redbud Traveler.   My friend Michele says 

"Don't you want to sit and stare at that for about 8 hours and see how it changes you?"

If only I could find a spare 8 hours...

Apple trees in bloom, fortunately ours did not get nipped by the late frost last week

Pollen on the pond like marbled paper or chunky aggregate granite.  It's been so thick for weeks you could chew the air and everyone's complaining of scratchy throats, snotty noses, runny eyes and dusty houses.

Heavy rains in early April allowed the giant carp to swim up stream to spawn for the first time in several years.  Once their work is done, they die and become food for the critters.

Pinkster Azaleas in bloom.  They are finished now, the mountain laurel will be next...

That was just a taste really.  Been eating piles of asparagus, fresh baby green salads, radishes, finishing off the collards and kale from the winter, working away at last years storage crops, sweet potatoes, garlic, frozen tomato sauce and black-eyed peas, strawberries frozen and now fresh.

There have been lots of snakes of all kinds, new turtles come to court Gertrude, lizards galore and two gray tree frogs have taken up residence in the rain barrel.  They look like soft putty slapped down on the rim of the gray trash can, I can't put the lid on tight for fear of crushing them.

The lilac and dianthes are in bloom and their heavenly scents waft around the garden and into the open windows, rafts of blue and purple columbines adorn the front walkway with splashes of white daisies among them and dots of bright orange poppies scattered through.  The roses and peonies are about to put on the best show of our spring season.  I'll do my best to post some photos.

Now that the weather has settled down and nights are above 50 degrees for the most part, this coming week will be time to start planting the summer garden; tomatoes, beans, squash and cukes.  Once that is done, maybe we can slow down, but there is still lots of weeding, mulching and plant rearranging to be done...

Asparagus, Morels and no Time to Sit Still

12 days without a post, it must be April!  BUSY, BUSY, BUSY.  I've barely had time to enjoy my garden let alone get any work done in it or write a post.  It's a good thing David has been around to do the major share of watering, weeding, and mulching, if it had been up to me, everything would probably be buried in chickweed going to seed by now.

I have managed to get the spring garden well under way with two plantings of several things.  We have good stands now of young carrots, beets, fennel, turnips, peas, lettuce, radish and kale.  The onions are growing as are the garlic, the strawberries are flowering and we've started harvesting asparagus.  I also set out some cabbage plants and sowed seed for bok choy, tatsoi and swiss chard last week.  We'll be working hard in another month to eat all the vegggies we've planted.

Tomatoes are stepped up to bigger pots and have been hardening off for a week, hope to plant them next weekend.  After the hottest first week for April on record all the leaves have flown out and the tulips and daffodils made a quick exit.  Thankfully the temps have cooled back down to normal.  The weeping redbud has been putting on an excellent show.

I took my first real spring bird walk yesterday with my friend Stew, still a bit early for the migrants but managed to see ovenbird, northern waterthrushes, yellow throated warbler, common yellow throat and heard but did not see northern parula and hooded warbler.  It was a splendid day weatherwise and we enjoyed each others company while getting warbler neck from trying to spot those darn parulas, always in the very tops of the tallest trees straight overhead. David caught this pileated woodpecker messing around in the yard, seems he may be considering our vicinity for a nesting ground this season, that would be very fine.

And to top off the season, morels!  Perhaps the best harvest we've found on the land near our house in all the years we've lived here, it's such a matter of timing and then just being able to spot the things, they look exactly like the leaf litter and D has a much better eye for them than I do.  I can be starting straight at them and not see them. But oh they were yummy.

Salamander eggs in cold puddles

Another busy week and therefore a dry spell on the blog.  Between working at my two jobs and taking on volunteering at 2 more, it seems that time got away from me this week.  Add to that the excruciating pain physically and financially of getting an emergency root canal Monday afternoon and well, I guess you could say I've got an excuse for being a bit off my game!

The cold weather has continued unabated as well and left me a bit ornery, I'm ready to spend more time outside and its just not been very welcoming.  But I do want to follow up on an earlier promise, to share another of my favorite winter scenes from the garden.

This is our weeping redbud; Traveller.  I've shared photos of it here in spring and summer but one of my favorite times is winter when the little moss patch that David planted beneath it glows in the sun and the sinuous shape of the trunk is most striking.  In another month or so the branches will be covered with tiny pink flowers at each leaf node.

I spotted amphibian eggs last week in the puddle of a hole left beneath a fallen tree, I think they are from the spotted salamander.  You have to look through the reflection of the trees and sky and then you might be able to make out the two fist-sized milky white sacs beneath the surface, each containing dozens of eggs. 

David planted peas yesterday.  It's supposed to get up into the 50's this weekend so I intend to plant carrots, spinach and radishes.  Fifteen dozen onion plants are due to arrive next week so I better get the ground ready for them too.

Bring on a warm sunny day, please.

More Rain

So we've now had almost 3 inches of rain in a single week. This is a switch, I'm glad its raining but I wish we had a better cistern and rain barrel set-up figured out. And the weeds are growing like crazy and I can't get outside to work. Despite the rain- the view out the kitchen window this morning was marvelous.
A trio of pink trees. On the left a weeping redbud, in the center the "Prairie Fire" crab apple we planted last year and in the distance, the Tulip Magnolia already touted repeatedly in this blog. You can also see a magnificent Japanese maple on the right- bright lime green and if you look closely you can see the terracotta nest pot that's been taken over by chickadees. Also you can see the tulips and daffodils scattered about.


Here is a close up of that Japanese maple in bloom last week

Here's what happens to a ripe cabbage that gets 3 inches of water in a single week. Think I'll be cooking a favorite dish for dinner; shredded cabbage with sliced apples and chicken sausage, a bit of onion and caraway, red wine vinegar and pinch of sugar, altogether in the skillet- delicious, beautiful and easy.