Cottage and Yard

Just a quick note to let you know that spring has officially arrived at my garden this past Friday, April 3rd. Why do I say this? Because this was the day upon which I noted the first tiny red nubbins of my rhubarb plants starting to push their way to the soil surface.

Sure there has already been a little green growth on the walking onions and the parsley from last season has already been showing signs of renewed growth but they don’t count! It’s the emergence of the rhubarb that puts me into the mood for the upcoming garden season and starts my mouth watering at just the thought of the first rhubarb pie. We ran out of rhubarb from the freezer months ago. The four large plants that I now have producing are just not enough, but never fear I have a fifth smaller plant in waiting to be divided into two and planted in the bed that I prepared for them last fall.

The first year that the rhubarb was planted I just watched the three newly planted crowns grow. One was just a single bud but it survived and thrived. This one I split into three pieces the following spring. This past summer the two larger of them produced nicely along with the two original plants. That third little plant is now large enough to split and will provide two more good sized crowns that will begin producing next year. That will give me six good size producing plants. Hopefully there will be a third piece of the plant left when I divide it so I can replant it and have another plant to split again next year. That will then give me a total of eight plants which should be enough to provide us with rhubarb pies the year round for years to come.

So spring is finally here and the garden work begins in ernest.

Here it is the last day of July and the gardens are on life support.
If we didn’t have a good deep well to supply them with the water they need they would be in the same shape as the lawn ( actually just a wide assortment of weeds with a few blades of grass here and there.) It is definitely in the later stages of crispness. It crunches under foot. Even many of the weeds are drying up. There is certainly more brown than green.

The gardens which usually blend in, now look like oases in the desert.

A few days back they were warning of a big storm coming, possibly three inches of rain. HA!

Missed us completely not even a shower, not even a drizzle.
Don’t remember the last time it rained.

Combine this lack of rain with temperatures that have been running in the high eighties and predicted into the mid nineties for the coming week.

For the past couple years I have supplemented sparse rain by manually watering with a hose and nozzle. I was able to keep everything going nicely. This summer I am needing to use sprinklers as well to do some deep watering.

There is a prediction of a 30% chance of rain on Wednesday night.

COME ON RAIN!

Posted: July 30th, 2007

Back after a few days away from home visiting friends and family over an extended Easter holiday weekend.

Not much has changed. Seedlings are still sprouting and growing, The snow that came the day before we left was not completely gone upon our return.

Temperatures here are still in the thirties during the day and twenties or lower at night. Although the garlic cloves I planted last fall sprouted after a couple of sunny and warmer days they have made little if any growth over the past week.  My blueberry bushes and nut trees arrived while I was gone but the excellent packaging along with the cold temperatures kept them from coming out of their dormancy. They have now been heeled in and await planting as soon as our currently predicted late winter (early spring) snowstorm is over.

While on our visit we spent the time in an area of suburban neighborhoods. It reminded me of how much I did not miss that style of living.

I really like it here in the north woods. Although we live on a fairly busy road and don’t have much land by local standards, we live among fields and forests, and little houses with big yards rather than streets and sidewalks, and big houses with little yards.

I can hardly wait for this LAST SNOWSTORM OF THE SEASON to be over with so that some serious gardening may begin.

Originally posted: April 11th, 2007

This is what the UP is supposed to be. I woke up to 10 inches of pristine snow blanketing everything. I spent over an hour on the driveway. Making precision cuts through the soft whiteness with the snow blower ( I wish it would work silently) making an ever widening path until the drive was totally clear.

There was no wind just gently falling flakes and a landscape of rolling drifts of snow. This is the beauty of winter. Once the snow blower is silenced and I am cleaning up around the edges there is a hush as only can happen when a thick layer of fresh light snow blankets the earth. The snow seems to deaden any sounds, even the silence is quieter. All the harsh sharp lines of the earth are gone except those I have created with my snow removal efforts.

It really feels good to be alive and outside. The exertion and exercise feel good like working hard in the garden during the summer. That’s what I’ve missed and needed during this almost snowless winter. I needed to get into the snow just like into the garden ground, and work with it.

Simply walking around on a thin layer of frozen icy snow is not enough. That is not the enjoyment of winter. That would be like walking across last year’s garden and not digging in the dirt, not experiencing the weight and texture, not exploring the deeper, “dirtier” dirt under the dry crusty surface.

This afternoon I went out again after another inch of snow had fallen and did the drive by hand, the way I like to work the garden. Just me and a shovel.

Originally posted: February 26th, 2007