garden chat

Little by little our spring veg garden is coming along. I’ve felt really relaxed about it all this year, and it’s been coming together naturally and at an easy pace. I am sure I’ve overlooked some things, and still need to do a bit of direct sowing, but I think I’m almost finished planting starts. A lot of them are in the hoop house, soaking up the extra warmth. The hoop house is almost weeded of the grass that runs up the sides (in the sections not shown in the photo) , which got pretty thick this year, and the garden is holding us over with kale, small treats of arugula, and the last few carrots while we wait for new greens and peas to start picking up the pace.

I just planted cucumbers and squash last week. In the past I have tended to plant them a little too early. I’m hoping the timing aligns, so that once they are ready to go in the ground, we are past the threat of excessive soaking rain and coolness. I saw the first sign of basil germination yesterday. I wish I might have started basil a little bit sooner! I like to grow a lot of basil each year, in a few successive plantings. I did pretty well last year, and we still have a little bit of pesto in the freezer to look forward to. One of my favorites.

Since moving the tomatoes from the house to the hoophouse, I am seeing visible growth by the day. Some of them seem to have doubled in size since this photo was taken less than a week ago.

I keep talking about making a rhubarb galette or pie of crisp or what have you. It’s time to actually do something about that.

We were able to take the fencing down from 2 of our fruit trees this year, as they are finally tall enough to reach out of harms way of nibbling deer. A deer can strip a little tree of new growth pretty quickly. We expanded the fencing around the other 2 trees and all of them are looking pretty happy for the changes. We should have quite a few pie cherries this summer, and I think we might have our first small set of plums this year.

This is a fairly regular harvest these days – though more so on the greens than the carrots.

What’s happening in your part of the world? Are you growing food this year? Anything you’re particularly excited about? A funny little thing I’m looking forward to is parsnips. This will be my first time growing them.

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april

 

Spring-induced bliss is happening here (or, possibly a pollen-induced stupor).

I am liking April a whole lot.

 

 

 

 

 

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spring things

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?

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these days

So much excitement and anticipation.

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it’s april !

Happy Easter to those of you celebrate!

We are having a little hit of winter here again.  I don’t think there were too many outdoor egg hunts happening in our little town this morning.

We had a stack of fence posts delivered yesterday, for the deer fence we will build around our little garden. We have always had deer come through our yard, but in the last couple of weeks herds of deer (as many as 12 at a time) have been coming through, and they get all feisty, right where we have planned our new vegetable garden. They wouldn’t even have to eat a thing and our potential harvest would have already been devastated! We like having them around and all, but there’s plenty to eat in other parts of the yard.

I have also been fantasizing a bit about having a couple of hens here, and am thinking about purchasing this book, recommended by Molly, who has her own brood of happy hens and chicks. We’ll see though. There are 2 of us living here here, and only 1 of us seems to be enthused about this idea so far.

Thanks for a kick butt sale last week!! (and sorry if that staled blog post caused anyone any confusion, considering the sale ended a week ago).

*  Enjoy the day!

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