Notes for March 23, 2010

Thunderstorm in March last night.  I could tell, it was easy, there was an 85 pound golden retriever stuck to my leg.

Notes for March 21, 2010

Yesterday I finally broke Spring.  After my morning errands I was able to work in the yard.  It was unfortunate that I did not get home until 11 and that kind of shot half the day since we had dinner plans.  Anyway, I did stop at my local garden center and it being the first day of Spring, I walked into a 20 percent off everything in the store sale. woo hoo!  I had a $50 gift certificate so I bought a 24 pound bag of bone meal, a shut off valve for the hose (squeeze type) and a hand rake (18" long), and I still had $6 left. When I got home I turned the onion bed after adding bone meal, wood ashes and leaves.  Then I planted yellow and red onions. While shopping earlier this week I found a purple daylily on sale and bought a pack of three.  I then planted them after the onions and learned the old lessons that unless its a new flower bed, you really shouldn't plant new perennials until May.  In the first spot I wanted to plant it, I ended up digging up a hosta that hadn't sprouted yet.  So I changed strategies and planted them in spots where the marigolds were and still needed to be cleaned out of the flower bed. After that I started cleaning up the yard of fallen branches and got two thirds of the front yard done.  Then I ran out of steam.

Notes for January 12, 2010

I have received at least four more seed catalogs since my last entry.  I will look through them all.  Who knows where I will find my next idea (plant etc) that actually works in my yard.  Yesterday I even received two post card packs of gardening gadgets but I didn't see that they came until this morning.   One of my local gardening stores doubles as a Christmas store and each January and February they advertise 40% off all seeds.  Looking at the calendar, I will probably be stopping by there the weekend of the 23rd this month.  I have already started my list although I haven't completed my inventory yet to see what I need.   I have decided to change one thing so far this season.  For my larger vegetable plants, I think I am going to start them from seed in biodegradeable pots.  I lost a couple of tomato, pepper and cucumber plants during transplanting and using the peat pots will eliminate that problem.  I will have to use some sort tray underneath to keep them from falling over as well as catch any water.   I think I am going to try even another variety of green pepper to try to get some earlier than late August.  I found a variety that touts its for short growing seasons but it was only a day shorter in its description than one of the two varieties I grew last year.   I had beautiful success with growing Juliet tomatoes instead of growing cherry tomatoes.  The cherry tomatoes seem to crack more oftten.  I think I will grow them again and look for another variety of grape as well.   I didn't plant my lima beans until late and I think I am finished with that exeriment for a while.  Not sure what I will plant instead, maybe some leaf lettuce or another row of carrots.  I wish I could get better spinach germination, I'm thinking of trying a different variety to see if the germination is better.   It was a little warmer this morning.  It was only 27 when I got up.  The last two days it was 11 degrees.

Notes for January 5, 2009

I have received (so far) 15 different seed catalogs.  Now that the wind is howling and the ground is frozen and lightly frosted, its the perfect time for browsing and planning.   We've had some hard freezing weather (enough for skaters on the local smaller lakes) and a couple of snow storms.  We got 24 inches between Saturday December 19 into Sunday morning.  Every time its gets below freezing or we get some snow, I get bluebirds in my front yard.  They love the berries on my hedge along the road and the droppings from the suet block from the other birds sloppy pecking.  They wait until a piece drops and swoop down and get it.  Sometime they go to the suet block but most of the time they watch and wait for sloppy eaters.

Notes for December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas everyone!  We are guaranteed a white Christmas this year.  We got 24" of the white stuff Saturday night into Sunday.  I have never seen that much in December.  I am still getting seed catalogs and I got two more this week.  More reading for the holidays.

Notes for December 15, 2009

I picked the last of my carrots on Saturday and I think they are on the menu for tonight.  I was able to pick some nice medium size and small carrots.  I picked them around mid morning and had to chip the frozen earth around them.  The top two inches of the ground was frozen.  I could have waited until the afternoon but there were other things on the schedule.   Did some cleaning later on Saturday which including recycling the pile of last years seed catalogs (why is difficult to part with them?).  I have a few catalogs already for next year and have started a new pile.   We've had some wind storms and the leaves have started to pile up in the usual places.  But they are not posing a threat to my grass or gardens yet.   Saturday afternoon as I went to borrow the extension ladder (to put up the outdoor Christmas lights on the house) from a family member I noticed not one but two red tailed hawks perched in the trees behind my house intently watching the birds at my feeders.  In defiance I shouted to them "Leave the birds alone!  There are plenty of squirrels!"  Then one flew off.  When I returned with the ladder, the other was gone.

Notes for Monday November 30, 2009

Finally a success for the record books.  Well ok may be just for the journal.  Thursday (Thanksgiving) morning, I picked the last of my radishes and I picked some carrots.  The carrots weren't big enough for the dinner meal but they were big enough for the snack tray.  And this year they were alot sweeter.  Last year the carrots were bitter.  So this year I tried a variety known for being sweet and I made sure that I added wood ashes to the soil.  I plant my carrots in the same bed that I plant my onions and after harvesting the onions I plant carrots in late August in hopes of some small carrots for Thanksgiving.  When I made the soil ready for the onions and then for the carrots, I added ashes and leaf mulch to the soil.   This weekend I also finally put up my two suet feeders for the woodpeckers and nuthatches as well as the squirrel jar.  I bought a new silo feeder for the finches.  The one I got this summer was already caked up in the bottom half and the birds stopped coming to it about a month ago.  Last month I collected about a bucket and a half of acorns and I plan on putting them out for the squirrels in January.  I'm interested to see what happens.   I replaced the screens with the windows in the storm doors as well this weekend.  It really hasn't been that cold yet for it really to be needed.  Even yesterday afternoon was delightful after starting out at 27 degrees.  I tried to put up the outdoor Christmas lights yesterday but I had completely forgot that my father-in-law took back his ladder a few months ago (I borrowed it a few years ago and he hadn't needed it since).   I've started to get seed catalogs already but I try not to look at them until after Christmas.