|
My Profile
Retro-retrospection - 2008-10-06
|
9:18 a.m. - 2005-06-08
Today's farm report. The news from the veggie patch is good. Stunted from the protracted cold spell, the last week's high temps and drenching rain worked wonders. The tomato plants are now knee high and have some blossoms. The broccoli is leafing upward. Out front in the tiered beds 4 out of the 5 pepper plants show signs of recovery too. Novice farmer that I am, I assumed that because the plants were in stock at the garden center it meant it was time to get them in the ground. Uh, no. Planted way too early and my wee crops suffered. Ditto the dahlias I started in the cold frames. I transplanted them into the ground and the spindly seedlings just stayed spindly seedlings. They didn't die, but they didn't get any bigger either. Now they're perking up. I may get some flowers from them after all. My experiment with planting seeds is paying off. The pumpkins and radishes are up. I've thinned the radishes twice so far and I know I need to do it again. It's hard though. The idea of ripping up healthy plants upsets me. Even though I know that leaving them too crowded means all of them will suffer later on as they compete for space and nutrients. I'm out of room and can't put the displaced radish sprouts somewhere else either. Being an ardent Darwinian, I'm okay with the idea of culling the herd. But ripping out perfectly healthy radish plants isn't the same as predators taking out the slow, the lame, and the stupid gazelles. Survival of the fittest, baby. I approached the radish thinning like that. I took out the smallest ones and the ones that had weird leaves. But there's still way too many radish sprouts and ALL of them are healthy and growing like gangbusters. Damn. LA the Sage- radish murderess. At least I am relieved of this burden with the cutting garden. I planted a packet of mixed flower seeds a few weeks ago and now the whole section is frothy with sprouts. I haven't a clue what's what so aside from the ever encroaching clover I'm leaving everything in there. Time enough later to find out if sneakier, less obvious weeds are growing along side the still unidentified flowers. The hummingbirds have discovered the perennial garden! YAY!!!! Along with the trumpet honeysuckle, I planted foxgloves and hollyhocks and sweet peas just for the hummingbirds. Okay, I planted the flowers for me too. But it was with an eye toward attracting hummingbirds and butterflies. Let's see, what else is new in the garden? The carrot seeds are in. The cucumber sprouts are in and the funny curly trellis spikes from IKEA are sunk next to the cukes. The spikes aren't very tall, but I should be able to train the cucumber vines to twine around them and double back. With things being so crowded in the veggie patch, it's important to keep sprawl to a minimum. Dopiest of all, I planted 3 wee hills of corn. I have no idea if this will work. However if I get one ear out of it I'll be thrilled. The blackberries and raspberries have set fruit. I keeping a close eye on the bushes, I mean to beat the birds to the berries this year. Didn't do enough of a radical chop on the grape vines last fall and this year's yield promises to be thin and scanty. Did a check on the fruit trees yesterday. The pears are doing well. The female side of the apple tree has 2 dozen goodish sized baby apples. The nectarine tree is barren. Sigh… If only we could eat pine cones. The pines are loaded. I'd give anything for a stone pine. I love pine nuts. Alas our pine trees are the variety that produce slim tightly folded cones. Frankly the pine cones we get look like turds. They're not even good for turning into Christmas crafts or bird feeders. And as a sop to those who think I've gone totally hopeless and nasty, I've got news. Billiam van Roestenberg and his husband Jeffrey McGowan were the first gay couple to be married by Mayor Jason West last year. Despite the bitter hate and the windows broken out of their house and the graffiti scrawled on their cars and the eventual dismissal of their marriage as non-binding, Billiam has made a proposal of peace among neighbors. His idea is to plant sunflowers. Like Johnny Appleseed, he has encouraged our part of the valley to join him in planting sunflowers. Sunflowers are beautiful, non-partisan and a symbol of peace. A local nursery has donated seeds to the cause and dozens of folks have been out the last couple weeks planting sunflowers. Along the road sides. In the fields and parks. And in their own gardens. I've planted more than 100. Love, ~LA
|
