Archive for April, 2009

It was a beautiful day.

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

All I can say is… “IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY” ( excuse me for shouting ).

But it was great, aside from the fact that income taxes had to be in the mail today.  I was able to get mine done a few weeks ago so the pain is almost gone.

But hey the weather was really great today mid 60’sF. This is the first day while being outside that passing into the cooling shade of a big old evergreen in the late afternoon felt good.

I was able to get a project started that has been nagging at me for more than a couple years now. I was able to put down a length of ground cover cloth covered with a layer of rocks ( collected while tilling my garden beds) along the woods edge near my garage where the burdock is trying to take over. I will not use weed killer so it thought it had the upper hand. I am, however, fighting back by throwing rocks at it, so to speak.
I was not able to complete the project but got a good start and should be able to finish it in a couple more afternoon sessions. I need to let the ground at the bottom of the rock pile thaw so I can get the rest of the rocks up.

The garlic is doing well. I would say that 85% to 90% of the planted cloves have sprouted and are now between 1″ and 3″ tall. The bulbils that were planted at the same time are taking a little longer although a few are already poking out.

And of course the daffodils are coming up nicely.

Don’ really have anything else exciting to say. Just wanted to let you all know it was a beautiful day here.

Posted in Garden, Projects, Weather | No Comments »

Spring is here according to my garden

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

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.

Posted in Garden, Weather | No Comments »