July sullies on

The tall and diminutive day lily, last to bloom, emerging from behind some painters pallet.

Out in the garden early this morning, feet wet from the deluge of rain that came at dusk last night.  It brought 4/10ths of an inch to add to the inch that came on Tuesday night. Blessed rain. I feel so lucky when it lands at our house, it could be dry just a quarter mile away.

Baby hummers were trying to drink nectar from the red tips of new growth on a Japanese maple, they’ve got the color right, just not quite differentiating between leaves and flowers yet. Red-shouldered hawks continue to scree above the house, hunting and claiming turf, I’m sure there is some territorial and familial stuff going on between them these days, how long do the babies stay in the parents territory? Do they chase them away? How far do they go? I have no idea, but that young one has still been around our yard on a regular basis.

Only one bunny left, is it Flopsy or Mopsy? In the yard a week or so ago I came across the pom pom that was a rabbits tail, white on one side, brown on the other, nothing else, all that was left of that bunny was it’s little cotton tail….

A  view of one end of the garden, here the squash to the left, hanging in there- I haven’t spied any squash bugs or signs of borers but they seem a little anemic, this end of the garden suffers from poor soil and tree roots robbing the nutrients from the veggies I think. Sweet potato vines march towards the camera.

The beans and cukes on the trellis to the left are slowly dying from the ground up, some kind of funk -viral or soil born that’s causing the leaves to brown and fall off, but they still continue to produce. Fresh beans on the trellis to the right, just beginning to bear.  Carrots, beets and chard in between the beans need to be harvested.

The okra are finally getting their heads up above the purple hull peas in my experiment of a shared row, the peas are setting tons of pods and the okra are beginning to bear too. An infestation of aphids settled into the middle section but diligent application of soap spray seems to be slowing them down and keeping them from spreading.

July sullies on, hot and humid, at least we’ve had a spot of rain, but the prospect of 6 more weeks of days in the 90’s is a little bit depressing. Maybe we’ll get a reprieve as we did around July 4th, or perhaps a few days to escape once again to the cool of the mountains.

Last Days of the Hummers

The first official day of fall is next week and though I long for sweater weather, I know it won’t be here until November. Yet today we have the first real taste of autumn, cool and rainy, the windows are opened up, AC turned off, maybe for the rest of the season? The week promises cooler drier air once this front moves through and I'm ready.

Every morning for months as I've stood at the sink to get water or wash dishes I've been greeted by the hummingbirds visiting the crimson flowers on a cluster of 8 foot tall purple leaved cannas that are growing outside the kitchen window. On still mornings the breeze generated by the blur of their wings actually moves the surrounding foliage of plants they are visiting.

The hummingbirds are now busy dipping their bills into the last of the salvia, zinnias and cannas, looking for any drop of nectar they can find. They need to get as fat as possible for their miraculous journey south. The young hummers buzz about the yard testing their fighting and flying skills. Swooping up and down and strafing one another -- and us if we are sitting in the yard near the feeder. Sometimes they fly right up to the window and just hover there, seeing their reflections, but it feels like they are checking me out. One day soon it will dawn on me sadly that they’re gone.

Our flowerbeds are overgrown and need deadheading, but goldfinches busily eating seeds from the spent coneflowers and sunflowers give me an excuse to postpone that task. Once this rain has passed, I'll get out there to tackle the late weeds and tidy up a bit. D. pulled down the last of the summer tomato vines yesterday, what a wonderful surprise to come home to, I've done that onerous task the last few years and wasn't looking forward to facing the soupy tomatoes hanging on dying brown vines.

We pulled out the rotting squash, snap beans and okra and got the fall vegetables planted just before the big rain from Hurricane Hannah came through. Young plants of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collards and cabbage are nestled in and the seeds for a myriad of fall greens are all sprouting thanks to the wet warm days of the past couple of weeks. Beets and carrots planted in July are getting some size on them now and lettuce and arugula planted in early August are ready to harvest, the fall veggie season has begun and my mouth is ready.

Vacation Time

Look Out- It's Fennel Man!

After weeks of being beaten down by vegetable production and preservation, we are out of here! Heading to points north for vacation from the sunny south and the constant demands of the homestead.

We'll be visiting Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, Cape Cod and points in between. Camping, kayaking and hanging with friends, eating lobsters, swimming in icy waters and hopefully having a bang-up time.

I'm trying not to let the fact that I am currently experiencing major stomach upset get me down, hoping its just a passing virus? It isn't helping me get packed and D is off to the store for a couple of last minute items including Pepto-Bismol. This medicine should be called Pepto-Abysmal- but if it helps, I'm all for it.

I was initially blaming my indigestion on too many tomatoes having eaten gazpacho 8 days in a row, but I'm thinking its not just that. Ah well. In the past couple of months we have dried and stored about 100 pounds of onions, 60 heads of garlic, I've made 3 batches of tomato sauce, 2 batches of ratatouille, one of minestrone, one of gumbo, pickled beans, pickled okra, frozen green beans, 2 batches of zucchini bread, oven dried tomatoes to pack in oil, frozen about 6 dozen whole tomatoes and last week I just started giving the damn things away in huge bagfuls to anyone that would take them and they are still coming in.

Note to self, 26 tomato plants is too many.

So as I said before, I am looking forward to actually getting away from the garden for a while, I did plant some lettuce, beets and carrots in the past couple of weeks, wouldn't want to come home to no veggies...

Batman will ride as our protector on our trip- I found him in the Current River on my vacation last summer and he's been riding the rear view mirror of my car ever since, warding off evil as I speed down the road. See you in September.

Summer Solstice

Happy Solstice! Its great to have so much light around isn't it? Wake up early and stay up late, at least that seems to be whats been happening around our house. Seems like we are constantly eating dinner at 8:30 or 9 at night, just can't seem to stop and come inside before then.

Ah well. We celebrated today by getting up early and heading out to Jordan Lake for some time in the kayaks, I knew it had been way too long since we had paddled when I had to dust off the boat before I could get in.

It was lovely as always, we saw red-headed woodpeckers, prothonotary warblers, eastern kingbirds, bald eagles, osprey, a yellow-billed cuckoo and cliff swallows under the bridge- though not nearly as many as there were last year. As always dozens of great blue herons fished along the shores and croaked and honked as we scared them up into the air, flapping their wide gray wings to fly off to the next cove.

We saw tracks in the sand on the shore when we stopped to stretch our legs that David was sure were bear, but checking the book when I got home I think they were a big dog or maybe a coyote. We got excited about them anyway. Button Bush; cephalanthus occidentalis, was blooming all along the shore line. It is a small shrub with flowers that are the size of a golf ball, perfectly round and covered with white spiky flowers sticking out. The wildflower books' crazy description is "globose inflorescence...made up of many small flowers with exserted anthers" you can see a picture if you click above, I think they are really cool.

The lake was pretty skanky up towards the Morgan Creek arm as it often is, as soon as we pass back under the bridge it seems to clear up a bit, I guess the Fearrington Road bridge forms a bottle neck through which the waters are slow to pass. After all the horror stories I've heard about the water quality at Jordan Lake I've gotten to where I 'm afraid to go swimming which is too bad- it would have felt petty good about the time we got back to the boat ramp to jump in there, but we didn't.

What a marvelous break we've had from the terrible heat these past few days with cool nights in the 50's and low, low humidity. Summer's coming back now though and I feel that we might have to turn the AC back on. My latest Chapel Hill News column June Comes Blazing In is all about the bad heat we had early in the month and heading to the creek for comfort.

Last week we were in Kentucky up in the coal mining section of the mountains between Harlan and Hazard in a little town called Hindman at the forks of Troublesome Creek. We spent 6 days at the Hindman Settlement Schools'-Appalachian Family Folk Week; singing, dancing and playing traditional Appalachian music with old acquaintances and family and new friends too. It's an action packed week that fills me up with spirit in a way that I can't explain or describe, but the way I feel when I'm there is the closest thing to a religious experience I've probably ever had. It doesn't hurt that my brother Jon and his wife Candy, who are very near and dear to me, are there as well and we get to spend lots of quality time together at meals, walking the steep hillsides that surround the school, on the dance floor and at the after party that happens nightly at the wood shop.

Getting back home was made easier by the break in the hot weather. The garden is perking along despite the hot and dry, been watering the veggies and fruits regularly, the flowers just have to manage. If I'm thinking about it I capture gray water as I'm working in the kitchen and carry that around to things that look particularly parched. There is rain in the forecast for tomorrow so we've got our fingers crossed. I hope we aren't heading for another hot dry summer like what we had last year, it's too depressing to consider.

I've started picking squash and expect cukes and beans in another week or so, chard continues unfazed, dug a few taters the other day but they still need more time I think. The onions are filling out nicely and starting to fall over so we'll be harvesting them soon and I pulled about 50 heads of garlic and have those drying in the shed. I guess I'll braid them and the onions and hang them in the kitchen and hope they keep.

I've still got a ton of leeks in the fridge but planning a leek and carrot soup for this weekend to use a bunch of them up as they are not looking as good as they were three weeks ago when I harvested them! It will be a good thing to cook as I pulled 5 pounds of carrots the other day because they were starting to split under ground from being in too long, so everything needs to be cooked up into something yummy- as usual.

It's a good problem to have-too many veggies-as everyone is complaining about the price of gas and food as a result, I'm glad I planted a big garden this year and we are enjoying the fruits.

Another day in the garden, backache to prove it

As I was working in the vegetable garden this morning I thought "you should tell your readers it's not all sweetness and light" My backs been aching and I'm overwhelmed most days by all the things I need to get done. All the same- I wouldn't trade any of it.

I stirred up a toad while I weeded and mulched around the Swiss chard I planted last fall, he hid between the rows and I tried not to scare him too much. We've got a little bunny living in the yard too, so far it's only eating clover and chickweed outside the veggie garden, I'm hopeful that the rabbit wire is really small enough that he can't squeeze through.

Call me anal retentive, but it really makes me happy to see the garden beds looking so tidy.

From front to back this is beets, carrots, red and toscano kale, tatsoi, cilantro, radishes, lettuce and peas at the back, you can see some onions on the left and the shed with all our rain buckets in the background.


Wish it would rain, its getting dry again. I stepped my peppers and eggplants up from small to larger pots today, will set them out in a couple of weeks. Next week I'm going to plant tomatoes, yippee, only about 10 weeks now till the first red ripe one.

Gray Day

It was overcast today and made my walk feel somehow other worldly. Pine warblers warbled from the tree tops, towhees called there name from the underbrush and woodpeckers tapped away on dead trees, the sound ringing through the woods. Aside from these few bird songs, the forest was still, silent.

The trout lilies are in full swing and joined now by spring beauties, windflowers and the first of the giant chickweed. Bloodroots are in bloom in our woodland garden at the house, bright white. The creeks and streams are still flowing smartly and even the side meanders are trickling along, I hope we get another good rain tonight.

My tomato babies have sprouted long and leggy but I've got them under the grow lights so I hope they'll stiffen up, still waiting to see the peppers and eggplants sprout.

I tried to work in the garden but just as I was getting rolling the rains began and I quit, so did the rain, but by then I had lost my enthusiasm.

Planted 3 rows of potatoes yesterday in a new section of the flower garden, but it was easy with the new loose soil and I didn't have anywhere else to put them that hadn't been planted in night shades in the last season or where I am planning to put them soon. I try to maintain a two to three year rotation on the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and potatoes, but since those are some of my main crops, it gets challenging sometimes.

It's thundering now, bring it on.

When it rains it pours

I’ve been busy and I haven’t had time to blog! I started working part-time with two different community gardening projects in town and its been really fun but has me running around a bit more than I had become accustomed to over the past 8 months. Along with trying to get the gardens going and my writing group starting back up I’ve been rippin’ and runnin’ as they say.

We got 5 inches of rain this week in two separate storms. Three and a half inches on March 4th, and another inch and a half on March 7th. Real gully washers as my Papa woulda said. Check out these before and after pictures of the creek in December and then this week. It’s amazing- we couldn’t remember how long it had been since we had rain like that- maybe more than a year.

Looking up stream from the same spot

Dec 20th and March 4th

Looking downstream

The pond filled up and its creek was raging.

Our little creek was out of its banks
And the dry wash was even running steady on Friday afternoon.
We need way more rain barrels than the two trash cans and 15 five gallon buckets that currently are brimming with rain water, another project for another week I guess.

I got the rest of my spring seeds in the ground last weekend, more lettuce, spinach, radishes and carrots, beets, broccoli raab, turnips, tatsoi, and cabbages- which I thought were broccoli when I bought them but realized as I was planting them they were not, oops, I guess I’ll have to go get some broccoli plants. I still haven’t gotten the potatoes planted but hope to this week- getting some new ground ready for them.

I started the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in their flats yesterday and they are now sitting on the heating pad to encourage them to sprout. I did 9 kinds of tomatoes and 6 kinds of peppers! As usual- over the top, but I love variety.

We are going to paint the house- another one of those got to do one thing before you can finish another- we are planning a big cedar arbor for the West side of the house to grow roses and clematis on, but need to paint the house first and that rose is about to spring to life any day- so this week we’ll be behind the rollers and brushes- getting the West side done at least.

One more funny picture from the rain- our neighbors kids beach balls got caught by the high winds, blew into the creek and floated down into our yard. So colorful and surprising to see amidst all the brown and rushing water after taking some pictures we returned them home.

Merlin Sighting

We were surprised this week by Merlin, I don't mean the wizard, but the falcon. Yes, that makes the 100th new bird on our list of "backyard" birds. I thought it was a sharp-shinned hawk which are pretty common around here, but after studying the photos and the bird book we realized it was a Merlin. One major distintion is the Sharp-shins have red eyes and the Merlin's eyes are black. Very cool and kind of rare here. It was perched on the fountain just outside the kitchen door so that made it even more fantastic. It was hunting a junco or sparrow that was hiding for its life in the ferns. More than once we've seen a hawk make a strike on a smaller bird visiting our feeders, it's one of the down sides to having feeders, but doesn't make us take them away as we love having the birds here in the yard and its natural for hawks to prey on smaller birds.

On the gardening front, I planted 12 dozen onion plants I mail ordered from Dixon Dale farms, Stockton purple, Candy yellow, and Super Star white. I figure thats 12 onions a month which should be just about right, we eat a lot of onions around here. It looks like nothing but onions out there right now with the leeks, garlic and green onions planted in the fall next to all the new ones. But the peas are sprouting, sugar snap and snow, and I planted radish, spinach, carrots and lettuce that I'm watching for daily.

Bulbs are popping up everywhere, remember the 1,000 that we planted last fall? The squirrels keep digging them up and moving them around, so not only are they coming up where we planted them, but in other spots too- its kind of fun and the beauty of planting so many is you don't get so torqued out by those mischievous squirrel antics as you might if you had only planted 50.

We are working the flower beds, weeding, mulching and moving plants around, spring is so close we can really taste it now, those 60 degree days make us want to get out and dig and those 40 degree rainy ones that follow give us a chance to rest those winter tired and lazy muscles from the day before.

We are contemplating getting a really big cistern to set up behind our garden shed and gravity feed the veggies, I'm going to see how much they cost. Next on the to do list is to get the taters planted, I bought sets for 3 kinds last week and need to get them in the ground this week. The few we planted last year (from some that were sprouting in the kitchen) were so tasty that we vowed to plant MORE this year, enough to store.

More Warm Southern Winter Days

The global warming trend continues with two days in a row in the 70's. It's crazy. I feel compelled to go outside and work though I have lots of things to do inside too. Yesterday our buddy J came by and together we cut back our 75 asparagus plants and weeded, fertilized and mulched the two 40 foot rows. We will be so glad when those babies start popping up in April.

Back when we first started the garden in 1998 our best friends J&M asked would we please plant extra asparagus for them? They live in a mill house in Carrboro with a postage stamp cottage garden. It's a lovely garden with sun in front and shade in back but no space for asparagus.

So we got together, dug the deep trenches, amended the soil and ordered the 75 asparagus crowns to plant. Each year J&M help with the maintenance and get as much 'grass as they can eat in return. When you first plant asparagus you don't cut them in the first year. Second year you cut for two weeks, third year for 4, after that, 6 weeks or as long as they keep putting up decent sized spears. Now we harvest a pound or so a day for about a month in the peak season and we eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner and give lots away to friends. At any rate, one more chore taken care of and you will hear more about asparagus in April.

I also raked leaves and shredded leaves to make mulch for the asparagus beds. I am using an ancient leaf shredder that belonged to my father, I have no idea how old it is and am sure its blade is as dull as a spoon, but it makes this lovely light chopped leaf mulch. Combined with the heavy aged leaf that we bring by the truckload from the Carrboro public works pile, it makes the perfect covering to block out weeds, hold in moisture, and adds organic matter to the soil as it breaks down.

Last night we made a yard fire and grilled some chicken wings from the freezer and I cooked up a skillet of fried rice with lots o'veggies in it, the "eating from what's here" campaign has been going fairly well, only buying dairy and fruit for the past couple of weeks. We are not going hungry. The veggies that I picked on January 1st should last at least another couple of weeks counting the cabbages which have good storage capacity. What's really amazing is that even after three nights in the teens and 20's, the broccoli still looks pretty good and the spinach and swiss chard and radicchio, which I covered with floating row fabric, survived and are enjoying the warm weather! Life in the South, can't beat it this time of year.