The Garden Plog

Tree and shrub planting

2007-11-19T13:26:00.000-06:00

My order from Oikos Tree Crops arrived in good nick and managed to get them planted the weekend before last. The crabapple and sloes went in the orchard. The 6 persimmons I originally ordered turned out to be 9, so I was scrambling to find adequate housing for all of them. I hope the Wafer Ashes do well. I would so dearly love to have giant swallowtails in the yard. I also added a hybrid American Chestnut and an American Mountain Ash out in the yard. The American currants and spicebush went in my erstwhile herb garden until I can find the right spot.

Been ages...

2007-10-04T10:55:00.000-05:00

Sheesh. Everything got busy and I've neglected this place. Just got back last Friday from a great trip to Scotland and Ireland.
So many cool fuchsias over there.
Tisn't fair!!!

And another-

Garlic

2007-07-18T13:07:00.000-05:00

I harvested most of the garlic over the weekend. 25 bulbs are now drying in the house.

It's all Spanish Roja. We'll see how long it lasts me.

The ones that had scapes remaining also produced a nice crop of bulbils to plant on for the future. You can see them at the bottom of the photo next to the kohlrabi. I made a nice salad with the carrots, bunching onions and kohlrabi, mix with a little Asian influenced vinaigrette and yum...

Daylilies 2007

2007-07-18T12:49:00.000-05:00

The daylilies have been doing well so far. My new one from the annual 4th of July Excursion was 'Etched Eyes' from 5 Acre Farm Daylilies.

Just an interesting unknown from Bonfield Gardens

'Sugar Cookie'

'Ed Murray'

Scape harvest

2007-06-18T10:43:00.000-05:00

One of the best reasons to grow stiff-necked garlic is the annual scape harvest. I decided to chop a handful for a pseudo omelette last Saturday.

A whole egg plus another white with chopped scapes, cheddar cheese and dill.

As my dad might say "tasty fing!"

Gotta love the baby birds

2007-06-18T10:39:00.000-05:00

I found this brown thrasher fledgling loitering about in front of the garage. He had that remarkably peeved looks of baby birds. I was afraid the Mr. would hit him with the car so I kept an eye out, but he hopped away into the yard. Mom or dad brought dinner shortly thereafter.

It's been so long...

2007-05-25T14:41:00.000-05:00

The garden has expanded. The birds are very much in evidence. Life is pretty durn good at the moment.

This little Chipping Sparrow is one of a few hanging about in the flower bed. Between the Indigo Buntings, White Crowned Sparrows, Gold Finches, Thrashers, Robins, Cardinals and these guys the yard has been alive and loud. I even think there's been a Song Sparrow or two about.

The best performing plants in my veggie garden are the milkweeds. I've decided that I'll just whack off the ones that are competing and leave them alone otherwise. I keep hoping to have a good crop of Monarch butterflies. So far, at least one has found the patch.

'Tis spring

2007-03-16T12:46:00.000-05:00

I saw snowdrops!

Almost haiku

2007-03-15T13:45:00.000-05:00

Out
Ball hits Smith low on the pads.
The fielding side appeals in unison.
The Umpire raises the dreaded finger.

*A tribute to the Cricket World Cup. (I didn't write it, but it sounds good.)

Don't forsake me oh my darling...

2007-03-14T13:38:00.000-05:00

So I repotted the three pop bottles of tomatoes last night. I felt bad leaving some of the seedlings behind and ended up with 64 seedlings in the deep root trays. Some people can't leave baby animals alone. I can't forsake seedlings.

1 inch of mud, 4 feet of frozen tundra

2007-03-13T14:43:00.000-05:00

Wandered around the yard on Sunday. Most of the snow had melted off by that point, but drainage was not happening. My poor alliums are drownded as my grandmother would say. A few of the bunching onions popped free at some point since their decaying carcasses were staring at me from the tide pool of dead vegetation that is my veggie garden. However, the garlic is valiantly attempting to sprout.

The rabbits devoured my Symphoricarpos completely, girdled my little oak sapling and chewed off the tips of my tulips. I really hate rabbits right now.

Peppers, parsley, watercress and more leeks were sown last Wednesday.
The tomatoes need to be repotted soon. They've all come up a treat. I'm just growing three paste types this time since I wasn't impressed by the Principe Borgheses I grew last year, and the currant tomatoes were more work that I want to futz with.

I planted out the crocuses and narcissi I missed last fall.

In the handywoman corner, I nailed a piece of fascia back on the garage where it belongs. The morons that originally put it up didn't install it correctly so it will probably come off again.

Sowing has begun

2007-02-28T13:55:00.000-06:00

The tomato, leek and onion seeds were sown Monday night. I have more pop bottles to carve up this evening, since the Mr. will be bowling tonight. He objects to the squeals they make as I slaughter them.

At the moment the garden is still covered in snow drift, but hopefully I can get out there soon and put down more black plastic.

My cardinal pair have been hanging around with the juncos. I put some black sunflower seed out for them, but something else got in there as well. The marble-sized turds certainly aren't rabbit. I'm afraid it's a groundhog. A co-worker volunteered to get the rabbits in the yard, maybe he'd get a groundhog too. I've also observed a brace of male pheasants wandering about the front garden. Something else saw them as well because I found a pair of tail feathers with flesh still attached- a hawk or possibly an owl.

Sunny and seven (whoops! bumped up to ten)

2007-02-16T13:41:00.000-06:00

The Mr. may be the luckiest husband in the world. I don't insist on anything for Valentine's day, my birthday or our anniversary. I buy myself presents and he keeps silent. And even then, I'm buying myself rose plants and not that pathetic "journey" necklace the ads have been flogging. 5 roses from Vintage Garden.

I ordered potatoes January 12 and seeds February 7.

I just found out my student employee is friends with Chief Sitting Bull's something great grandson. More later.

Trees, seeds and baklava

2006-12-11T10:17:00.000-06:00

It's been way too long, and I wish I hadn't let this lapse. Life just accumulated somehow. The fibromyalgia is acting up again, it's gray and rainy out and it's finals week here at the grand ol' uvinersity.

At any rate- I managed to get my bulbs planted at the side of the garage formerly occupied by those nasty hostas. The allium plot has expanded again with at four rows of bulbils planted (the rapture of scapes) two rows of Roja cloves, a row of bunching onions, three rows of shallots and a couple of leeks that are hanging on over the winter.

The fall planting of peas went pants after a rather freakish arctic blast in early October. And the pods were just starting to fill out too. Bollocks.

My $80 some dollars worth of shrubberies from Coldstream arrived in good shape. I had to heel them in for the winter. The package smelled like bayberry when I opened it.

Also ordered a bunch of trees from Fedco: apples, a pear, a cherry and blueberries.

Vintage Gardens is having another rose sale. Guess I'll order my birthday present a little early.

And the seed catalogs have started rolling in. I'm still waiting on the Richter's though. I need to compare prices for some herb seed. I think I'm going all Fedco this year on the veggies. Maybe their carrot seed will grow.

Oh yeah, baklava... trying it this year for the first time. We shall see.

Ugh life stinks.

2006-09-29T10:04:00.000-05:00

(or how to count your blessings without really trying)

This is why I hate the summer solstice. It's now the end of September, life is ostensibly crap, the fibromyalgia is acting up, it's cold, damp and dark. My office mate and friend will soon be going elsewhere (bully for her at least!), my nice boss has been replaced by someone else. (Tisn't helpful to publish further thoughts on said else) My Illini, Worcester Warriors (stop getting binned you nitwits!), and Carlton Blues are losing/have done lost. Shall I continue my whine?

Meh. Precious little will change between now and the vernal equinox.

I should be getting an order of bulbs from Fedco, roses from Vintage Gardens and my loverly shrubberies from Cold Stream Farm within the next few weeks. At least that's something.

And it will shortly be the 2nd anniversary of the first round of my initial (and so far only) bout with FSGS. I'm very thankful that I haven't had a relapse. Staring kidney failure in the face is a scary preposition, and it's the sort of thing around with which you do not mess.

A photo of my sock beasties Bill Whale and Polly Bunny just because they are good and make me smile.

The hummingbird

2006-08-10T09:33:00.000-05:00

I've read that there is hardly a square foot of the US that has not been investigated by a hummingbird at some point. I think that may be correct. There's been a female Ruby Throat hanging about my yard for the past couple weeks. My cornfield surrounded, poorly treed yard has at least one of those marvelous little birds. I haven't planted one of those twee "Hummingbird Gardens", but I did have some agastache. The feeder was in storage since we moved to this place, but it got a quick rinse after I saw her at the agastache. And I suppose I'll keep the 'Dropmore Scarlet' honeysuckle after all. I just wish we had Lucifers here.

Tomato insanity

2006-08-07T10:26:00.000-05:00

The currant tomatoes have started producing en masse. Very tasty little things.

I sowed some carrots, scallions and peas for *hopefully* an autumn crop. Lettuce, spinach and kohlrabi will follow. Since I'm in the middle of Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman, I felt inspired to try this. One of my goals in the garden is to be able to produce enough stuff to greatly reduce and/or eliminate the need to buy vegetable produce at the store. Otherwise, I'm just playing around at veggie gardening. I have the land to do it, so I should. But how many rows of peas will keep me in peas all winter?

Now to figure out how to convert the old storm door into the lid of a cold frame...

Oh hail!

2006-07-20T09:35:00.000-05:00

It hailed early this morning, and I didn't have the heart to go check the veggie garden before we left for work. I guess it's a good sign that the daylilies by the driveway weren't shredded and no major limbs had come down. The squash bugs have diminished, but I still catch a few during the evening hunt. After the high of 80 in 24 hours, 7 isn't too bad. There are two big, fat, black swallowtail caterpillars on the dill and a couple new tiny monarch caterpillars on the dill. Now I'm hoping for some painted ladies on the borage to complete the larval trifecta.

Attack of the squash bugs and a death in the garden

2006-07-12T10:54:00.000-05:00

The squash bugs have finally arrived. For the past three days I've gone hunting. It's amazing how the mind can become tuned in for the littlest of things. As long as it doesn't go too far and I start seeing squash bugs on my hollyhocks. *yee gods* The yellow crooknecks have been producing for a few weeks now, but I just ate my first pattypan over the weekend. Very tasty, and the cuteness factor is quite high.

The currant tomatoes have gone bonkers, but haven't ripened yet. The San Marzanos and Prin. Borgheses are doing well too. Last year the tomatoes were an unmitigated disaster, but for some reason this year is doing exceedingly well. As the Mr. has said- at least you're getting the garden in instead of the garden getting you.

I'm also excited about a second flush of peas. That's the first time it's happened. But my much anticipated monarch butterfly didn't hatch from the chrysalis. The chrysalis started to go translucent, but something got into it and killed the butterfly. It was just a dry husk. *alas*

I've also begun the reclamation of the 2nd third of the original plowed ground of the veggie garden plot. Black plastic DOES have it's uses from time to time. This year it's going to be my late summer/autumn sown crops. More peas, spinach, broccoli and lettuce.

The black raspberries that the birds had sown produced some fruit, but I still don't like them and shall be shovel pruned at my earliest convenience. However there was also a blackberry in the mix. I think it's R. argutus, but can't be sure. At any rate, it will be given houseroom next to the red raspberries.

Spare the ditches

2006-06-22T10:59:00.000-05:00

On the drive in to work today I noticed someone had mowed another ditch. Not too unusual around here; it's flat farmland prone to collect water in low areas. So every road has a ditch on either side. And lots of landowners mow their ditches. The funny thing about this instance was the fact that the mower chose to leave the patch of feral asparagus alone.
They NEVER leave anything alone once they start mowing. It's a rural male thing I think. *If a plant isn't something I intended to grow in my fields it's something to be chopped down or zapped with herbicide.* It all comes down under the chains or blades: milkweed, wildflowers, enclaves of native grasses.
I know where they're coming from. Farmers need to give the stuff the world pays them for the best opportunity to flourish. And every one I've known has a deep, abiding affection for the skin of mother earth- the kind that doesn't say "I love you." But the rest of the world needs cheap cornflakes and soy lattes and "grain fed" beef. What can a man providing for a family do? So the ditches are kept mowed low to keep down weed problems, or keep things tidy.
At least the little girls with jobs in the city like me can find the ignored sections and rejoice in a little bit of neglect.

Phooey on the summer solstice.

2006-06-21T13:10:00.000-05:00

This may be my least favorite day of the year. Somehow my interior switch knows we start losing daylight now and the whole lack of light thing begins. Add the steam bath outside and, yeah, the worst day of the year.

Exciting weekend events

2006-06-20T10:31:00.000-05:00

I've got a chrysalis in the peas.

One of the monarch caterpillars I've been watching formed its chrysalis on Monday. The Friday photo as the sun was setting...

I lost him on Saturday, but found him while I was picking peas on Sunday.

I was beginning to hit the mediative state of pea picking, and I'm glad I caught sight of him before disaster. But, crisis averted, there is now a bit of living jade under the pea leaves.

Peas!!

2006-06-15T14:47:00.000-05:00

First pea harvest of the season!! YAY! YAY! YAY!

A good weekend all round

2006-06-12T10:54:00.000-05:00

The baby roses are doing well. Apothecary & Rosamund are almost finished for the year. I went down to my folks' place to see my brother and dogs (AKA the Bumpas hounds). Mom and I dug some bricks out from the foundation of the old house in the barnlot. We didn't try going down into the cellar since one side of the entrance was starting to cave in, but we got enough to get me started on the herb garden. I need a crowbar. I also dug up some oak and redbud saplings, plus a fern and a rose of some sort (poss. R. blanda). However, I do think I've got a chestnut oak and a couple swamp white oaks. I also found a second wild clematis, which I think is C. pitcherii, but I can't find anything definite. Got my first peas of the year. woo hoo!

And now for something completely different. It's...

2006-05-31T14:26:00.000-05:00

the roses that are blooming today.

Apothecary Rose

Rosamundi

Professeur Emile Perrot

Rose de Rescht

Gha. Back to work...

2006-05-31T11:28:00.000-05:00

Had ourselves a blast over in Aus. & NZ. More time in Tassie please. Want to go thylacine hunting now. Watching wild platypus is fun. When I grow up I want to go help rip those damned willows out of the riverbanks in Tasmania.

I hope the unhappy octopus at the Melbourne Aquarium now has a golf ball to play with like the feller in Sydney. A bored, unhappy octopus is a sad thing. An octopus with a golf ball is an entertained octopus.

Max the wombat at the Healesville Sanctuary is very friendly and will let you pet him. He moved when I tried to take his picture.

If you ever go there from Melbourne, take the train to Lilydale and then catch George's bus- McKenzie's Route 685. He was very nice to the two semi-clueless tourists and dropped us at the Sanctuary after he'd finished his regular route. Yay George!!

We also need more time in NZ. But we did get to see our Super 14 teams win their matches. And a sincere THANK YOU!! to the nice Chiefs supporter who gave me his extra inflatable kotiate before the game at Eden Park. I am now cooler than my husband. He couldn't find a foam Crusaders sword in Christchurch. But I got my Chiefs war club in Auckland.

*aHEM* Nya, nya, nya.

2006-04-12T10:12:00.000-05:00

The tomatoes finally have their second set of leaves. I've gotten the lettuce, spinach and peas planted. It will be interesting to see how well they do while we're gone. I've got at least two toads in the yard, and possibly one skunk that was out by the fruit trees on Saturday. As long as I know where he's at it's OK.

The plane tickets (paper ones, how quaint!) arrived for our trip to Oz and NZ. Hopefully it won't cost much to ship a box of sweet chili sauce and kangaroo jerky back home from Sydney. I'm quite chuffed that we'll get to see Aussie Rules and Super 14 live. Go Carlton! Go Waikato!

Finally sprouts

2006-03-22T10:26:00.000-06:00

Almost all the stuff I've sown has started to come up. Woo hoo! Now if they'll just live long enough to plant out. (bigger woo hoo to come).

Back to sorting files now...

2006-03-09T10:20:00.000-06:00

These are two of my antique roses. Two of the classics in fact. The solid one is Rosa gallica 'Officinalis', aka the Apothecary Rose, and the other is R. gallica 'Versicolor', aka Rosa Mundi. They're once bloomers so people who insist that their roses rebloom don't pay any attention.

Post numero uno

2006-03-08T10:47:00.000-06:00

It's too filthy outside to post much. Springtime in Illinois is arriving with its usual mud and cold. Come on sunshine!