April 15, 2023

Spring is coming, although it doesn't look like it from these pictures on March 26th. We woke that day to a surprise of 8" of snow on Sunday morning. 

Now, nearly a month later, our garden has been covered with chicken manure and compost, chiseled, tilled and planted with early crops. Potatoes, spinach, lettuce, beets, peas and onions.  We have been having a problem with two kinds of fungus on our onions, root rot and black mildew. The online solution is not to plant onions where there is fungus for 6 years. Our solution is to plant fewer onions and harvest them before the fungus does. 

We bought a dozen JetStar tomato plants. We really liked the way the produced and stayed healthy last year, so we are trying them again. We have 2 milk jugs of the 12 we need to cover them, and we plan on getting some yellow tomato plants later. 

I have planted alyssum seeds by the flag pole and the spot by the driveway. I planted snapdragon seeds there also.  (by the driveway) I intended to plant them in two spots, but when I was half done I noticed I spilled the rest onto the edging, so now I will have plants were I don't want them. If they come up, anyway. 

After three hot days last week, two of which the temperatures approached 90. we are expecting frost for the next couple of nights.  We had drizzle today, which was welcome.  We are very dry around here at the moment. 

 

April 18,, 2020

We had our freeze and then a warm-up.

I worked in the flower garden and wore myself out.

My scillas looked pretty bad after the freeze, but they perked up a little after it warmed up.

More snow -- April 16

It snowed ALL day. Quite a bit melted as it came.

The morning after.

May 25, 2014

Time to start up a new growing season. We've had a slow start this year for several reasons, one of them being cold weather.  We had snow April 14th as this photo of table and chairs shows.  With the high school graduation of our last child, the only gardening we did was cleaning up the flower garden that we didn't get finished last year.  We planted onions and potatoes in April.  We planted a package each of yellow and white onions, and about 5# each of Yukon gold and red potatoes.  

We haven't planted anything else for fear of frost. 

I did put some flowers in the deck boxes the week before graduation, and covered them a couple of nights that we saw 32 degrees before morning. 

The old pond hadn't been working for several years and essentially turned into a bog, with the reeds and cattails taking over.  The grass and dandelions were also moving in so we tore it out and put a pre-form pond in.  We will likely put filter and waterfall in later.  

Here are some pictures of the finished project, as finished before graduation.  The chips are hiding some weeds and grass and more planting will be done as time allows.  We are thinking of making big changes to some of the beds to allow for larger paths so the rider mower can be maneuvered through there. We like the idea of more grass and less weeding.  

These photos do not show a bunch of other landscaping places by the house and shop.

This beauty was a birthday present, and since most of my house plants die within months of being subjected to my neglect, it is permanently enshrined in a photo.

I went to a miniature garden/succulent garden class to get some ideas and plants to replace the one from last year, which died.  

We'll see.

Finishing up last years fruit I made a bunch of jam, peach with a little strawberry and plain\ strawberry.

The next day I took the frozen tomatoes and made juice, and the frozen grapes and made a batch of jam and some grape juice concentrate. 

And even though we don't plant our chickens, they do provide us home-grown eggs.

Six of our 11 hens.  

 We bought six new chicks, who are obviously shy.

Too bad one of them turned out to be a rooster.  

July 2, 2013

We are slow gardeners this year.  We have picked a few peas, I made soup from the spinach, Jim is weeding, all a little bit at a time.  

We are making stabs at the flower garden, which is way out of control, and we found this little guy just hanging out while we worked.  An hour only gets us a square yard.

And to prove why this season is as slow as we are.  This is May 1st.

February 8, 2012

Snow again.  

People around here, especially of the kid variety have been clamoring for more snow, like I will be able to do anything about it.   This storm was just about made to order. 

It started snowing Friday evening, and by bedtime we had an inch with the most expected over night.  In the morning, we had 11" of very wet, heavy snow on the ground. We had company so we had a nice little stay at home time with the traditional doughnut making and eating. We had light snow continuing throughout the morning, and Jim got the neighborhood driveways and ours done by 1:30 so I was able to go on to Cyndie's Valentine Tea.  

Later, Lynette and I had a quick photo shoot downtown to celebrate the snow and her yellow coat. 

 Evening

Early Morning

Wet, sticky snow, wind from the north.

After daylight.

On Tuesday, we had another little snow, about an inch, but the weather has turned cold so this snow won't melt in a hurry. 

January 17, 2012

 Our winter is still in the up and down mode.  We have nice days, and then it dips down in the freezing and below range.  We got an unexpected snow, January 8th.  We looked out after dark to see the flakes coming down. I love snow.  I don't really know why, but when I watch the snow falling gently in the dark, it does something to me.  It's a sad, glorious, hard to explain feeling. 

 We got about an inch.

Beautiful days start with a beautiful sunrise.  January 13th, 7:59 am.

The 15th, we had a high of 62 degrees.  Jim and I went biking for our exercise.  I noticed that the rose bush in the front of the house has been growing in these warm days.

That has all ended again, with a temp this morning of 7 and another inch of snow.  I scooped off the driveway for my exercise this afternoon, and it is melting off. It was 20 mid-afternoon. This can't be good for the plants.  Jim watered the trees, too.