Spring Continues - Tulips, Honeyberries, Trash

Spring continues to take shape here on the Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes urban homestead.  There are finally flocks of robins (Alycia contends this is the true indicator of the arrival of Spring) clamoring around and there's been some rustling and commotion from the garage cubbyhole where the garden gnomes are hibernating, I think they're beginning to awaken from their winter slumber.  More on the developing garden gnomes situation later this week.

The tulips continue to emerge, looking ready for a good spring color show.

I think we may even get our first tulip blooms this week.  My fingers are crossed.

The honeyberry is almost fully leafed out and looks terrific.  It's not a native but thrives in our very cold winters and was one of the first plants to set leaves.  It needs another variety as a pollinator and the second honeyberry we had was nothing more than a 4 inch bare root twig didn't survive last summer due to a series of unfortunate episodes of neglect when I was out of town.  We may buy another pollinator this year so we get berries.  The berries are small, oblong, dark blue (like a blueberry) and very tart.  They are not the best to eat raw and we'll use them to make jam.  

One of the Spring tasks I despise is picking up all the trash that accumulates over the winter, gets stuck in the snow and then reveals itself after the snow melts.  The truth is that picking up trash is not just a Spring job, but an unfortunate year round task for Alycia and I.  The regular heavy winds are partly to blame as they tend to blow trash around until it gets caught on shrubs and windbreaks, but the majority of the fault is with people who are just messy inconsiderate litterers.  Weekly we pick up candy wrappers, cigarette butts, pieces of paper, soda bottles, fast food bags, beer cans, you name it.  People who litter suck.

Every once in a while the litter though is mildly entertaining, such as the picture above - I found the Giraffe 9 of Spades in the garden. 

The Giraffe 9 of hearts was in the front yard (sorry the picture didn't come out great).  How these particular cards made it into our yard I'll never know.  Perhaps this was a losing hand in some majestic poker game.  Or perhaps this was the winning hand (tallest animal on the card wins?), we'll never know.  What I do know is that littering is pretty bad around here and it makes me sad/angry. 

It's a lovely sunny day outside, 70 degrees and light winds, the perfect day for some light outdoor tasks with periodic bouts of distracted bird watching and miscellaneous procrastinations.  Have a fabulous Sunday.

Deaf Dog Photo of the Week

Shadowfax is an imposing figure, striking when she sits up straight.  And she certainly knows how to pose for the camera.  I'm pretty sure she's the best puppy in the world. 

Being so pretty all the time can tire you out though (I can also personally attest to this).

Deaf Dog Bed Repair

One of the dogs beds opened a seam in the last few weeks and had a 6 inch gaping hole on the top with stuffing/fuzz coming out.  It wouldn't have a been a big deal except for the fact that the puppy likes her fuzz like politicians like fuzzy math.  Yeah, that much.  So Alycia grabbed her sewing kit and, even though she's not the fastest seamstress in the world, doggedly (I went there with my awesome pun so deal with it) set out to repair the dog bed.  I figured that she'd work at the table or even on the couch, but she decided to sit down on the floor to work on the dog bed.

"Uhh you know what's going to happen if you do that, right?" I inquired. 
"What?  It's fine."
Sure enough about six seconds later, this happened.

And then this.

Which quickly led to this.

Luckily despite the fact that sewing needles were inches away from everyone faces, no pups were accidentally injured and the dog bed was repaired.  It must be nice to be so well loved that the second you sit on the ground multiple dogs are jockeying for position to snuggle with you.

Starting Seeds Indoors

The warm weather and Spring-like atmosphere has made me antsy to get gardening, but since it's only March, I'll have to settle with starting some seeds indoors.  It might be too early to start seeds, but I think that it might be warm enough to set out some of these transplants when they're ready in a month or so.  It might be pushing the envelope, but I like living on the edge.

I started four large trays with about two dozen six packs of pots I've saved from former nursery purchases.  It's super easy to just fill them with fresh potting soil and pop in the seeds.

All of the seeds are on the counter down in the basement with a large shop light on a timer so that seeds get plenty of light and (hopefully) germinate like champs.

These have some of our veggies (tomatoes, squash, honeydew melons, watermelons, eggplant and cabbages).

These are some annual and perennial flowers (zinnias, coneflowers, salvias, hollyhock, lavender, and clematis).  I'll be sure to show updates if/when things start to germinate and are ready to put out into the garden.  It's easier for me to be slightly more aggressive putting the flowers out sooner, when there's still a danger of frost, if they get frozen there's no big loss.  If I lose one of my delicious Sun Cherry Tomato plants though, I might be a bit of a sad panda, so I'll wait to put those out. 

This is only a fraction of the veggies and flowers that we plant.  We will still make our annual May pilgrimage to a nursery in Fertile, Minnesota, the fantastic Bergeson Nursery and buy other plants from local nurseries and hardware stores.

We're On Facebook

Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes has finally cleared the formidable obstacles (John) and arrived on Facebook, finally joining the technological world of 2009.

Check out Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes on Facebook.  Once you're there you can "Like", "Really Like", "Like Totally Really Really Like", or "Pledge Undying Allegiance" to the page.  OK, you can only "Like" the page until I figure out how to make those other things happen.

Howling at the Moon

It's been a while since I posted a picture of my little nephew Jacob. He's already motoring around at a high rate of speed, tottering around on two feet and trying to master the whole "walking" thing. 

Jacob's canine big brother Buster is teaching him all the important things in life: how to chase bunnies (see picture above), howl at the moon, and to greet others by sniffing their hindquarters.  Buster is a pretty good big brother. 

Signs Of Spring On the Homestead

Even though it's only March there are signs of Spring around the homestead here in North Dakota.  The grass is starting to green up and trees are beginning to swell with new growth.  I'm expecting little green leaves to burst forth on tree limbs any day now.  The honeyberries that we bought last year have already started to produce small leaves.  I'll get some pics of them later this week.

The weather was wonderful again yesterday, mid-60's, sunny and warm.  These are bonus days to me.  Normally we'd still be knee deep in snow and yearning for warm dry weather.  Now with this early Spring I can get out and start puttering around the yard - starting some Spring cleaning, tidying up the garage, building more tomato cages, completing some of the projects that never quite got completed last year, map out the perennial beds we're going to plant, etc.

You have to look pretty hard, but you can see the first tulips emerging from the ground.  The tulips are a full month ahead of schedule from the last two years when they didn't emerge from the ground until mid to late April. 

These are legacy leeks, already greened up and growing.  Legacy isn't a variety of leeks, these are literally a family legacy.  They were growing in Alycia's grandparents yard for years, then transplanted to her parents yard where they've grown for an unknown number of years.  Her parents dug some up last year and brought them to us and we planted them.  They go to seed in late summer/early fall and we allow them to sprout in the designated leek area (I call it LeekLand) adjacent to the compost bin.  The leeks seem very hardy and don't need much in the way of winter protection.  I half-assedly scattered some leaves around them in late Fall last year, but I don't think they needed it.

The Early Arrival of Spring

An early and vigorously warm spring has arrived here in northeastern North Dakota.  Yesterday was 70+ degrees and warm enough that a) Alycia and I moseyed out into the yard for some light yard work and b) I worked up a light sweat in the process. 

I spotted the first robin of the year on Wednesday, hopping about in the neighbors yard, and have since noticed several more each day.  Alycia is of the opinion (gleaned from one of her bird watching books) that Spring hasn't truly arrived until there are flocks of robins bounding about in every yard and peering down from every tree branch.  We can't be far off from that scenario.

Photo Credit