Posted in gardening, tagged asparagus, gardening, oregon coast, planting, spring on April 30, 2013 | 1 Comment »
This week we brought home 10 asparagus crowns, purchased on an impulse at our local nursery. You can read about our whirlwind project over at Tend today. We are feeling happy to have this bed made and planted. It feels like we just made a big, exciting investment, though it cost almost nothing and will provide food for many years. If our plants are healthy and happy, the asparagus patch could be a longer term resident of our home than we are!
Posted in Life, tagged april, Life, spring on April 29, 2013 | 2 Comments »
Hi there. I have been a bit absent here! I think I could blog everyday with a little something about the garden, but I am trying not to completely flood the blog with garden talk :) Life has become relative to being outside these days, and anything that isn’t outside seems to get a wee bit neglected. This spring has been pretty incredible. It’s been gentle and soft and just plain lovely, and I am feeling so grateful for it, spending as much time in it as possible.
I have been carving out time to work on a collection of new works for the shop as well. It’s been super fun, though relatively slow, with lots of stops and starts. I’ve been trying to just have fun with it, without pushing too much; going at it a little differently than I might have in the past. I’ve been a little bit discouraged lately with all the sameness out there. It can seem like a thousand reproductions of the same few bags are coming out of the woodwork, and it’s getting a little bit strange and a little bit frustrating – particularly when you see some of your own work, and the work of your cohorts, in some of those reproductions. That’s a topic for another time though, and that aside, I guess I’m glad for the nudge toward making some changes. One of my favorite things about working for myself, is the freedom to explore.
This week we’ve been watching the swallows come and go from the boxes we put out for them last year. So far it seems like we have more of them this year. They are great for keeping the bugs down and it’s impressive to see their acrobatic, aerial maneuvers as they snatch bugs from the air. A very pregnant doe laid in the yard for a few hours last week. She looked so relaxed and restful, with another deer close by to keep an eye out. It’s getting close to the time where there will be baby deer bouncing around again. Ah! and right this minute I see an osprey flying over, with a big branch in it’s grasp. They are building their nest across the cove, in the same tree they do every year. So much activity right now!
How’s your spring looking? What gets you excited during this time of year?
Posted in gardening, tagged gardening, photos, spring, tend, thoughts on April 2, 2013 | 6 Comments »
I realized that in my previous post, “garden notes,” I actually didn’t include a single garden photo, but rather my surroundings while in and out of the garden – a break on the porch, a cold drink on the patio, some deer that wandered through.
Sometimes I think I would do well to have a little gardening business, just so I could spend more time out there. I love the work of the garden so much. I like the heavy digging, the weeding, the moving of plants, the tending of plants. I don’t mind troubleshooting and I enjoy garden research. Even though there have been frustrating challenges, I have been able to rise to the challenges and even find interest in working through them (like pests for example).
Maybe it’s the perfect balance of physical labor, which I do so well with (I am a JUST DO IT kind of girl), and the parts that require me to slow down and think things through, plan things out (which I don’t always have the patience for when I just want to do it!)
Gardening has taught me a lot of patience. And as an organic gardener, there are rewards of that patience showing up in ways I hadn’t known how they would look.
The work of providing for ourselves in a way that is direct, foundational and basic – such as feeding ourselves – is so simple and animal, free of superficial complications. Maybe this is why gardening is like meditation for so many people.
I actually sat down to just share a few photos, but I guess I had some thoughts to share too. Gardening, particularly growing food, is like nothing else for me. It’s satisfying to me in a way that is hard to describe. Maybe you know what I mean.
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I will be sharing over at Tend this year, every Tuesday. I’ve been following Tend since it started 2 years ago, and am looking forward to sharing in this year with them (and you!) as a contributor. Hop on over there if you’d like.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged garden journal, march, notes, spring on March 31, 2013 | 7 Comments »
It’s been a couple weeks now since I started jotting these notes down, and I have planted another round of seeds since, but I wanted to get this posted anyway. Almost all of the seeds mentioned below are now growing strong. The red romaine is slow to germinate (I remember this now from last year), but 2 tiny sprouts have finally appeared this week. It has been a great early spring for seed starting, with abundant sunshine for new plants to bathe in.
March 17: planted a dozen walla walla, dozen parris island (green romaine), dozen red romaine, dozen lacinato kale, 6 bush buttercup. Most all of the earlier sets of starts have germinated and are doing very well.
The last couple days we had what felt like record warmth for this time of year and every living thing seemed pretty excited about it. Yesterday there were a number of firsts – I saw the first honeybee, buzzing in the rosemary flowers; the first black ants, and when evening came I saw the first bat. We also heard the first osprey, and today saw them soaring overhead. It seems like we have more and more birds in our yard each year, which makes an organic gardener so happy! (so long as they are not eating your food, haha). Steven put some cotton balls left from an empty B-vitamins bottle out for the birds, and watched a crow carry it off today. There is a lot of nesting activity going on, and even a bit of squabbling over nesting materials between the crows and the blue jays. This green, lush, new season brings me so much joy.
What’s happening where you are this time of year? And if you have one, how is your garden coming along?
Posted in gardening, tagged 2013, gardening, spring on March 12, 2013 | 7 Comments »
I think it’s safe to say that spring is really here. And still light out at 7:30 pm? Yes, thank you! The spring peepers in our little cove of the lake started peeping a week or so ago, and to me, that is the sound of spring and summer. It makes my whole body smile to hear them.
The spring-time garden season has officially begun here as well, and the first seeds have been planted. A few weeks ago, I was a little worried whether my excitement for planting this year’s garden was ever going to come. I became a little bit discouraged at an epic fail of my late summer planting. We have a wormy-looking, root-eating soil dweller, taking over the universe out there, and I need to somehow identify what it is so I can figure out what to do about it. But anyway, all it took was a single afternoon out there – working in the soil, weeding, harvesting a pot of soup’s worth of root vegetables – and I realized my worries were for nothing. I simply LOVE to be in the garden. Challenges and all, the garden is a place where I feel happy and at peace.
Notes: March 9: Planted tomato seeds (8 each – Riesentraube, Black Cherry, Purple Cherokee, Orange Banana), 8 ground cherry, a couple dozen sugar snaps, a couple dozen bush beans, a dozen red onion, and a whole lot of basil. I didn’t plan ahead very meticulously, and assumed I had certain seeds on hand that I don’t, so I have just ordered cucumber, summer squash, more peas and a few different herbs. Also, we are thinking about changing the layout of our garden beds this year, so hopefully we will get that worked out in the next couple weeks.
Will you grow a garden this year? Have you started planting? I love to hear what fellow gardeners are up to. In fact, a quick trip to the food co-op today turned into a 45 minute gardening chat. There are always things to learn from each other.
Posted in gardening, Life, tagged gardening, hoop house, spring, weekend on February 25, 2013 | 4 Comments »
It was such a beautiful weekend here. Coffees were had on the patio, while we soaked up the warm sun. Deer nosed around nearby looking for tasty new growth. The birds were extra talkative, singing all day long. A little chipmunk even came to visit. It feels so much like spring!
Talk of the garden has been ongoing around here, even though somehow it still feels so early to me. I looked back on my blog, and to my surprise, I was planting seeds less than a week from now last year. And I started journaling about last year’s garden in the beginning of March.
On Saturday, we bundled up in the late afternoon to do some outdoor chores. We took all the compost down to “the big bin”
and then we headed down to check out the hoop house, still full of a dried-up tangle of tomato plants.
We gathered up a few tools, and jumped right in.
Between us, we made pretty quick work of cutting the overgrown grass path and clearing out the beds. There is now just a bit of weeding to do, and then we will ready the beds for planting.
We talked about a few improvements to be made, and what we will grow in there this year.
When we were finished, we headed inside to the most amazing smell of fresh bread, just finished baking. I mean AMAZING. I wish I could display smell on the blog.
This was somewhat of an experimental loaf, and it turned out to quite possibly be one our all time favorites, ever. I love when that happens. Onion, chili, caraway, dill, with a fresh flour blend of quinoa, corn, millet and rice.
We made a huge pot of soup, with mostly root vegetables from our garden, and then settled into a long and relaxing, productive evening.
I often have no concept of weekends vs weekdays, but this weekend felt like a real weekend. Yes, I really do like weekends.
Welcome to the new week, friends. How was your weekend?
Posted in Life, tagged deer, spring on May 20, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Sweeties. Restful day for deer today. The mamas are looking super pregnant. Should be new tiny babies soon.
I’ve been too busy to sit down and blog lately, but am looking forward to sharing about a few things soon – gardening, dealing with slugs, balancing busy days, and a simple recipe to name a few :)
I hope your weekend was superb. Did you see the solar eclipse today? Too foggy here for us to see.
Posted in diy projects, Life, nature, tagged bees, bikes, birdhouse, spring on April 14, 2011 | 3 Comments »
A few of the things that made my Wednesday.
I found this bumble bee on the floor in our living room, covered in fuzz and looking disoriented so I brought it outside and set it in a calendula flower. It wallowed in that flower for the longest time, sticking it’s beak in each little pollen filled anther, going around and around the flower, over and over again. Amazing. I watched it through the live view of my camera, zoomed way in. Wish I could transfer that to video to show you (you can click that first photo and it will get big). For any other nature nerds out there, this diagram is really nice http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/qca/flowerparts.html.
On nice days I like to bike my orders to the post office, but there are many days when there are too many packages to fit in my rucksack and on my puny little bike rack. So yesterday, we built a better rack! As soon as we finished, and strapped everything on, the sky turned dark and there was a MAJOR deluge… But now I am ready for all the nice days ahead.
Crossing our fingers that the chickadee who has been pecking a hole in the rotten trim board on our house, will decide to use this little cabin that my guy built for it instead.
Posted in Life, tagged home, spring on April 10, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Happy weekend! It has been a full one here, with the sore muscles to take with me. Had an exciting first of the year, and was able to work outside in shorts, bare arms and flip flops. Oh my, I think I was born for sunshine. My body feels so happy. Many loads of dirt and compost were moved, a shoulder load of golden plum tree branches were bicycled home – and starts from those branches planted, lots of seeds were planted, furniture was moved in and moved out, bread was baked and yummy food prepared, glasses of wine shared. I used to get stir crazy, feeling housebound working at home for days on end, but there is so much to do and experience right here close to home. It is really satisfying to feel content with where I am.
Posted in gardening, Life, tagged gardening, planning, spring on April 6, 2011 | 5 Comments »
I’m sure you have noticed by now that the yard and garden is the main thing on my mind these days. I can’t help it! Even while I’m sewing I am thinking about my next project outdoors.
- We are slowly devising a plan for minimizing the huge amount of lawn we have, and replacing with native plants and food. For the past year and a half I have been using a push mower for the main lawn areas. That’s a super workout on the amount of space we have here. While I do love a great workout, I am pretty excited about a recent acquisition of an electric mower. Amazing machine!
- Our nectarine tree is about to flower for the first time. Maybe there will be a few fruits this year. Not the most likely tree to produce well on the coast, but we are giving it a try.
- Getting ready to create more potato towers. We thought we invented this idea, but then I saw pictures of something really similar from this inspiring garden show.
- I found a couple wooden frames and old windows this week, with building a simple cold frame in mind. I think we came up with an even better idea though, and will create cold frames in the place of planting for protecting seeds while they are starting, and keeping the soil warm. I think the birds have pecked out a number of the seeds I have already planted, so this will help with that as well.
- Picked up this inspiring book at the thrift store a while back, all about creating backyard cottages. We have a little outbuilding that we have always thought would make a nice studio or guest cottage. A potting shed / garden retreat / guest space sounds like the perfect little getaway-at-home.
What plans are you cookin up these days? Anything fun you’d like to share?
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