On the subject of bulbs

Everything in bulb form is growing nicely - here are pics of iris and garlic.














I started my experiment with oats. The plan was to spread spoiled straw on a new area. Let the rains give it a good rinse with nutrient leaching into the soil. Rake the straw off to the side after it has dried again. Then till and sow with oats. The oats are both a cover crop and will be feed for the chickens.

Straw has been out there for a couple of weeks - rake, till and sow

Here is a tomato at 5 weeks into the season. The reason it is so advanced is that it has been grown in a cold frame.

Green shoots

With more rain on the way, I rushed to finish up some things in the garden. And while tidying up, I noticed potatoes from last year reemerging. These were extra potatoes that I just planted in any available corner and edge of the garden area. They are coming up and it seems like a great opportunty to try the straw mulch technique. So I've create a raised bed with wood to be mulched with 12 inches of straw.









Early planting of beans and corn are sprouting:















Quote of the day: "It looks like those 'green shoots' which Bernanke saw were, in fact, merely fungus growing on the rot of the economy which the Federal Reserve has engineered through long term manipulation, mismanagement, and malinvestment."Jesse's Café Américain

Still Learning

This is a local CSA now in their 2nd year. Looks like he's got lumber for raised beds in the pickup truck. And a fox ate 10 of his chickens the next day. I found this out when I went over to his house the next day to pick up 2 pounds of spare onion sets.

















I've read garden books galore. And you really think you know what your doing. But between the printed page and the dirty finger is a leap over a chasm so vast that it humbles you. For example, planting dates on the calender get shredded by unusual weather patterns. This means all those delicate lettuce sprouts that we coming up 2 weeks ago we pounded by 5 days of heavy rain. So it's back to reseeding the bed. The books didn't explain how to protect them. Maybe a cloche, or hoop house over the early beds. In the 60 minute garden, all the garden beds are raised beds with 2x6 lumber with clamps that can hold onto PVC hoops. So yes, you can protect the seedlings.

Currently, I just till and plant in rows. But I think next year I'll take the next step of having some 'high-tech' raised beds that can act as nurseries and hoop houses for earlier starts. Also, I have lots of plate glass (I got them free as scrap from a company that sold glass shelving). So I plan on doing lots of cold frames this fall to extend the season on tomatoes and to start over-wintered spinach.


Garden activities:

1. visited a new CSA - their 2nd year. The had lots of spare onion sets. But Eric said they likely will not bulb due to day length, so use them for scallions.
2. transplanted peppers, reseeded lettuce, worked on deer-proofing the fence. I'm extending it upward another 3 feet.
3. trellised the peas
4. spread wood ash on the chicken run grassy areas - to neutralize the acidity. Did this before the rain that will get it into the soil and not kill the grass. .

World news:
GM and Chrysler head toward bankruptcy. A couple of thoughts: it's a shame the country is not protecting it's industries but the tragectory of the U.S. was not sustainable anyway. So there will be a lot of additional unemployment coming with this. And two, like many others, I welcome the end of the hideous interstate highway culture and a transition to more local economies and trains and trolleys. But a lot of folks are going to suffer. And if these industries are dead and factories closed, where will the trains come from? China? The country won't have good credit. Sigh, even if you are skilled and are 'garden-centric' for food and are prepared - still when others suffer, we will be affected too.


A pair of geese have a nest at the edge of the lawn. Last year a pair tried the same thing but foxes got them. We'll see if these two succeed.














Here is a new hoe I bought at a barn sale two weeks ago. I had never seen this in any book or catalog - but I love trying out new garden tools that might save work. This one, it turns out, is really effective for some applications. It has a good 'push' motion to dislodge thick rooted weeds. You can also step down with it like a spade to get the tap root of dandelions. And you can pull on it to use it like a regular hoe.

April showers bring in May showers

Well it's May but the April showers just showed up. The ground is at saturation point after a week of rain here in the northeast U.S. zone 5. So the traditional weather pattern is late by a few weeks. But the rain barrels are full, transplants are loving it, and the flowering bushes like azaleas and wysteria are in bloom.

I thought about what my own garden blog would add to the plethora of blogs out there. None of them used the garden as the center of consciousness. Really, isn't that required to remain sane, a center of focus? When all the other blinking lights and carnival noise is too much, withdraw your focus a little closer. Not to withdraw into a recluse, a hermit but to remain positive and mentally healthy - not overstimulated and stressed out.

Can you really absorb all the bad news, or like the ground or barrel, you are saturated and depressed? Meanwhile the flowers are in bloom but your focus is only on that barrel the soggy ground, the overcast sky and rain.

Garden activities, 6-May-09:

1. Reseeded missing Sugar snap peas - there were just a few seeds that failed to germinate.
   
2. Weeded the blueberry patch - I am battling thistle and ground ivy
   
3. Organized the shed and hooked up the radio to a battery and solar panel
4. Moved the chicken run - the rain did a good job cleaning poop off grass - and it looks like the Silky hen is now brooding on her nest (only the rooster is in this picture)
   

World news:

1. Bank Stress Test - BoA needs $34B in capital. Note: capital should come from past profits, not from future tax revenues which is what these bailouts are, ie. deficit spending to capitalize banks.