Ice cream containers

They say a lot about your tomato growing habits!

The humble crocus

Crocus is one of my favorite flowers. I’m not sure why; there’s nothing fancy about them, and they are definitely not long enough to be a cut/vase arrangement flower. I just think they’re gorgeous!

Rose cuttings: update

It’s been about 2 weeks since I started my rose cuttings, and some of them are making progress!

The cutting at about 2 o’clock gets a gold star sticker for the day. As you can see in the photo, one of the buried buds on it has started growing, and is basically producing a new rose bush for me. If you see this on any of your cuttings, you’re in good shape!

Small red buds are also a good sign. That cutting is definitely not dead, and will hopefully soon produce a nice shoot like the rose cutting in the top picture.

More updates later!

First Calla Lily of 2009

Dear first Calla Lily of 2009,

I am in love with you!

Sincerely,
Claire

Blooming

Springtime soon?

Rooting from rose cuttings

Mike McGrath of You Bet Your Garden did a show a couple weeks ago about rooting rose bushes from cuttings. The steps go like this:
1) Clip off the flowers and get a cutting about 6 to 8 inches in length, preferably with buds on it
2) Soak in water 12 to 24 hours
3) Fill a pot halfway with seed starting or rooting mix, put the cuttings bud end down around the edge of the pot, then fill the pot with dirt

For the full description of this method, you can listen to Mr. McGrath’s show either from the link above or via iTunes. After doing a little more research, it seems like this method is definitely not 100% success, but for very little effort it would be nice to get some new rose bushes! And what a great idea for people who receive rose bouquets this Valentine’s, now you don’t have to stick the whole bouquet in the compost pile. I’m giving it a try with some of the broken stems from my work, I’ll post updates to let you all know how it works for me.

Good news!

Weeds have sprouted where Shirley’s deck used to be! I know, it sounds like bad news, but it’s really good news because it means things will actually grow there. A couple weeks ago I added some compost and a little vermiculite to the soil, and I think everything will be just fine this spring. I also tried planting some french breakfast radishes in a few different spots to see if the soil was decent. It looks like almost all germinated, so there’s a good chance we will be up to our ears in radishes in a few weeks.
I think the weeds are very sneaky. I was gone for eight days, came back and it seemed like they had just taken over both of our yards. I’m guessing they actually waited until I was gone, then decided to all come up and have a disco party in my backyard.

Has anyone else seen the pro high fructose corn syrup commercial? I was basically flabbergasted – I can’t possibly imagine anyone watching it then thinking, hey hfcs isn’t so bad after all! The guys who made the documentary King Corn (which is great by the way so watch it) made their own commercial spoofing the hfcs ad.

Food Democracy Now

If you care at all about where food comes from in the US, or if your family farms, please take a few minutes to visit the Food Democracy Now website. These folks are working on a message for Washington that some people in this country want sustainable agriculture, and they need more signatures! It only takes a few minutes to read the website and sign your name, and it helps push Washington towards Americans eating real food!

Plastic be gone!

Today was sunny and warm again, so I dug out all the black plastic! After a bit of thought I decided to skip on the rototiller, I’m just not into them. After the plastic was out I got down and funky with the hula hoe, then raked all the dirt out. Note to self: when some people call you on the phone and ask what you’re doing, you can’t reply simply with the words “hula hoeing.” The dirt is now loose and beautiful, and for some reason it made me crave watermelon.

On the topic of watermelon, has anyone grown Moon and Stars before? I heard it’s delicious so I’m planning on getting seed for it, but I have no clue how big they are. Are we talking cooler box watermelon or giant watermelon?

Remember that wood deck?

After hours of pulling up boards and hauling them away, that deck is finally gone. Today it was way too warm for January, almost 70 degrees in the middle of the afternoon. Perhaps Al Gore is now traveling around the country with very large heaters to teach us about global warming? Whatever the reason, I had the day off and decided it would be a shame to waste such nice weather. Maybe it was too warm after all. I was decidedly unlady-like by the end of the day. But hard work pays off, and now the potential of Shirley’s yard feels so much greater looking at dirt instead of an old rotted deck.
After pulling up the boards, I was greeted by my greatest gardening arch nemesis. That’s right: the Saga of the Black Plastic continues. For those not familiar with this ancient tale of grief and heartache, I will try to explain without engaging in a rant of epic proportions. You may have thought to yourself before that putting down black plastic, then dirt on top, then river rock, then more dirt in your yard would be really great. Dear reader, this is a horrible idea and it will bring future residents of your house great grief. Thankfully, today the Saga was continued with merely a layer of black plastic, then dirt on top, without the accursed river rock then more dirt layer.
I think after removing all the plastic I might have to borrow a roto-tiller. Usually I’m against such things, but this is a rather extreme case of compacted subsoil. I’m not sure I could withstand turning all of it with just my shovel. Next step is adding lots of compost and waiting for last frost, which by the looks of it may come sooner than I think.