In response to the drought, I’m cutting back on my drip irrigation, but the garden to date has never been so beautiful. Before it withers a bit, here are some shots:
Front Garden
Walking Iris
Back Garden
Snow Peas
Category: Garden
Preparing for planting
I haven’t been able to do much in the garden since my encounter with the Land Rover, but this week I hired some help and we dug potatoes, weeded, spread compost and mulch. We left the parseley and a few onions.
Here is the first bed, ready for planting. Then the rains came and settled everything in. Soon this bed will have peas, lettuces and maybe a tomato or two.
When Larry notices the garden
you know it has to be spectacular. Mostly, he doesn’t pay any attention to it except to ask for a handful of herbs or spinach. Right now, though, after the rainy winter and a few weeks of sun, it is so dazzling that it can’t be ignored.
The camera on the iPhone really doesn’t do it justice. Walking out in the morning is a glimpse of paradise. This poem comes to mind:
God’s Grandure
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
xxIt will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
xxIt gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
xxAnd all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
xxAnd wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
Continue reading “When Larry notices the garden”
It’s not all politics and poetry…
I have been working in the garden. The labyrinth is gone, replaced by a fountain and lots of herbs and flowers. It should all grow in and be easy to keep free of weeds–at least so I hope.
In back, we’ve been eating lettuce, fennel, green onions, chard and spinach for weeks, with snap peas just starting.
Planting by the moon
I have read that planting leafy vegetables at the new moon increases their productivity, but I never tried it until Monday, which was the new moon this month. I prepared about 100 little peat pots and planted lettuce, bok choi, tatsoi, cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, marigolds… By Thursday, I had the
first baby seedlings.
Bounty
Between poetry and politics, I haven’t updated my garden posts in a long time. But the garden has ignored everything but its delight in rain, and has been yielding potatoes, fennel, spinach, collards, garlic, peppers, onions and the delicious Yacon.
All this wonderful produce, plus the hens laying again makes for the best breakfasts.
And did I mention I’m replacing the labyrinth with a waterfall and herb garden? More on that later.
It’s good to remember that life goes on, despite politics…
I’m putting in new seed orders today.
Dismantling the labyrinth
No, it’s not because of political chaos, it’s just that the labyrinth has become too labor intensive. I decided to have a little pond and rock garden instead. The first step is digging up plants I want to save–easy to do after the rain–and pot them for the short term, to replant after the stonework and pond are done.
It’s looking a bit trashed at the moment, but I made a discovery in the process–not a giant asparagus, but a flowering of aloe: Continue reading “Dismantling the labyrinth”
The Yacon
My neighbor gave me a few Yacon rhizomes a couple of years ago, and now I have a Yacon forest. This Peruvian vegetable looks a lot like a sunflower, with long stalks and heavy green leaves, but the flowers are smaller. Underground, it grows huge tubers.
Lavish
is the only word I can think to describe this spring. Even before today’s rain, the hills were Ireland green, and the flowers, spinach, and herbs have overwhelmed the Labyrinth. They look so good in their profusion, I’m just giving up on the labyrinth idea for the moment.
In back, the small flower area of the vegetable garden is a riot of color–with nasturtiums, geraniums, cymbidiums (should that be cymbidia?) and poppies.
We are eating whole meals from the fall vegetable garden, which has yielded potatoes, onions, greens galore, and bouquets grace the table:
It’s been so warm, I’ve made a temporary summer office (had to take in the rug and the hammock today, of course).
How does your garden grow?
With the recent rains, I’ve been working a bit most days in the garden, weeding, mulching pruning, planting.
The chickens love the weeds, and the garden loves the attention.
Favas, blueberries, lots of green:
Remember those paper bags of asparagus I planted in the wet dirt? Here are a few little tips poking up:
A garden solution
Because of the beautiful, day-after-day, much needed rain, I had a gardening problem. My bare root asparagus arrived in the mail, and it was too wet to plant. I came up with the idea of planting the 10 roots in individual brown paper bags. I set up a doubled lunch bag, filled it with dirt, and gave it a try. The bag almost immediately split. So I got plastic bags to act as sleeves to hold the paper together.
Fall garden
Because of the drought, I didn’t plant a summer garden, but everyone’s predicting massive rains this winter, so I turned on the irrigation and started seeds in flats. I use old plant holders or egg cartons, or anything that holds dirt. I set them in something that retains the water and keep them wet. I started these four days ago, and already I see little seed leaves from the lettuce and zinnias.
