What have you done today in the Garden?

Today the weather was gorgeous (got up to 42º today!!), so I sat outside for an hour, and gave my yarrow and ornamental grass hair trims haha

 

Fed the birdies.

 

I spread sand on our driveway as my husband pulled snow & chipped ice off our roof. We have ice dams, but no damage as yet. Hopefully his work with the roof rake will have done the trick.

Jerry--What are your plans for your orange seedlings?

Carolyn--I have been getting a kick out of your posts of "dug more paths in the snow today" & the like. I can so relate.

 

That has been all there has been to do around here for the last several weeks, CM....Plow snow, shovel snow, spread salt...hmmm, oh joy! (not) I want my husband to go back to work, but with the frost 24-30" deep there isn't much digging going to happen even if it is an emergency. If there is any snow or ice on our driveway the machine is NOT going down our drive. It probably wouldn't make it back up IF it got down to the road. Sounds like tomorrow I may get to shovel a path again. Snow over night. The last fore cast was 2-4" and we got 9. I hope we don't get that again. I am so ready to work in the garden. I do get to work in the greenhouse though. I am sure that counts.

 

Carolyn, I so envy you your greenhouse! I have always wanted one but it has not been in our budget.

We have had a much needed thaw here in New England & we have been taking advantage of it with ice chipping.

My husband & I head to FL this coming week to visit relatives. I am so looking forward to the trip.

 

The orange seedlings will go back into the garden this spring.

Oranges and Froggie

I did this once a few years ago and they got to be about a foot tall with thorns(ouch). Then I forgot to take them inside during the fall plant migration.:-( They now provide the angels with their morning orange juice.

Jerry

 

Jerry,
Once upon a time, I was sitting on my college sofa, eating a grapefruit that was full of seeds. Being lazy, I just reached behind me and stuck the seeds in the nearest plant pot. Dang it all if they didn't all grow. I had those grapefruit 'seedlings' through college, grad school, & multiple 20-something apartments until they got too big for my lifestyle & I had to give them the heave-ho.

 

I watered. As Toni said, things are dry here in Texas so I watered our new pear trees and apple trees, which are showing signs of growth (yippee!). I also watered the seed beds in the vegetable garden, picked spinach, and pulled our first winter carrots.
I was talked into planting "rainbow" carrots, so we have one orange, two white, and a yellow carrot in the fridge. Ought to make a colorful salad!

 

I cleaned out the bird bath/fountain. Yucky muddy job. Then tore out the old hyacinth bean vine from it's trellis. And for extra fun, I painted a few little trinkets.

 

Not exactly the garden, but close and for the garden...We cleaned the chicken coop, Thanks to DH's PC130 kobelco excavator...Thank you dear! He plopped the bucket down inside the yard by the door and I filled the bucket twice. EEEWWWW YUCK right now, but it will make a nice pile of manure compost for later. 2 cubic yards of a pile. That is a lot of manure for a chicken coop.

 

CM, I wouldn't have been able to (or able to justify it) if I wasn't selling the plants or produce from them. Otherwise I would be envious (but mostly sad) of all those who do have one, too. My first one was a cobbed together, hardware store grade sheet, plastic covered leanto on the deck with the patio door swung open day and night. It made me enough money the first year selling all of those plants and doing farmers markets to put up a real leanto one. We found an Amish greenhouse builder (which was a very economical way to do this) who fabricated this for us to spec. The first one was spec'd wrong and he had to re-fabricate it by adding a piece to each arch....oops, a slight miscommunication there. But we got it fixed and put up. now, we need to add on to it. I am out of room. Maybe this Fall we will run it all the way along the basement wall and cover the basement door opening. I really am blessed with being able to go out there each day and putter away and get some sunlight/shine , humidity and heat to my bones. I would be suffering from SAD if I didn't have it.
Maybe you can justify one if you need it for the SAD that we get each Winter from the lack of sunshine...Just what the doctor ordered! See? justification. I did it for you, now call your insurance co. and tell them you need one asap to combat the SAD and have them get on it right away.

 

Cute Carolyn. But maybe I should put my mind to it. I would love a greenhouse. Can you get to your greenhouse directly from the house or do you go outside first, then in the greenhouse? If you don't have it already,covering the basement door might give you direct access, huh? Our house is set up such that I don't think I could have direct access, but maybe that's ok.

I have been impressed with your business. You know how each of us could do any number of jobs/careers? But we must pick one (or two or three) and pursue that? Growing plants was one the always appealed to me. I took an elelctive course my senior year of college: veg crops 101. the lab was working in the univ. greenhouse. I loved that course! & I loved my time in the greenhouse. I had already been preparing for a different career for 4 years, so I continued pursuing that, but...

 

Your right Carolyn about the greenhouse and SAD. It even works on an overcast days. I go out to my gh every day and find something to do just because it makes me feel better. Yesterday I transplanted all my tomato seedlings. I'm sitting here now waiting for the sun to come up so I can go play in the gh.

 

CM,
I can't get to the greenhouse without going outside. the door is not open to the basement as of this time. There is a glass block window that we knocked out and put a fan in there to blow warm air from the basement into the greenhouse. (I would love to have an sunroom/atrium/kitchen with a flagstone or similar floor to keep house plants in the house and have it as part of our living space.)

What I do isn't going to allow us to have it as an only income, but with a single main income it is a decent supplement, but there is no time off and what we do is day in and day out for at least 6 months of the year, just like any other farmer...it is in our bones (at least mine I guess. I did find out not long ago that my DH's surname means "gardener" Quite fitting!), I guess. It isn't the money as much as it is the satisfaction of doing it, although without the income from it I wouldn't be able to do it, either.

Donna, You go! Isn't it so nice to be able to extend the season as well as enjoy the day "outside" with out being out in the cold or rain. After growing up with my dad and his terrible temper and attitude for 18 years...I acutely see what a difference it makes in my life.

 

A clean-up was in order. Lots of the vertical dead stems already have the coming season's growth well above ground.

I just piled the brown stems on top of the beds to wait until I begin planting.

After cutting and breaking-off the dead stems, I raked the debris up as well. This looks really nice and neat, but it is not really wise. I don't know what got into me. Well, at least when the badies begin coming up, it will make removing them easier.

Another little thing that needed doing was the strimming of the grass paths. That job was quickly done.

It is early, but I pruned the Buddleja. I usually do that on the Ides of March. They all came through the "winter" just fine this year.

A nice lady from up the way came down for tea and bikkies at one point, and we had a bit of a natter as well.

We went out to the blueberry patch where I had planted some snowbells and crocuses this past october. They were up as were the multitude over in front of the bee hives. The whole lot was not half buzzing with the sounds of bees.

My three hives were really busy with bees flying in all directions on a sanitation run and getting to know the area as well as foraging.

It was the first warm and windless day in weeks, if not months...and they were taking advantage of it.

At any rate, eventually she went back to her own plot. A couple of hours later while I was removing the dead stems of last year's Nepeta, she called-out from the path. She had returned with a little box full of snowbells and a crocus tricolour.

I was moved. That was so nice. That crocus had one more bloom left, that had not yet opened. I am looking forward to seeing that.

Of course I thanked her profusely and planted them all immediately. I was a happy camper, as they say.

I wound up the day by hand-picking the odd weed. The ground is soft and they come out with very little effort. It was such a nice work with the warmth of the sun on my face and the sound of a multitude of small birds in my ears.

It is time to put the rain water barrels back in place....ach--but tomorrow is another day.