Delayed Spring

Part of the lack of posting has been a result of the lack of Spring related news. Other lucky gardening folks may have crocuses and others blooms popping in their yard, but all we have is winter.  Old Man Winter has one tight stranglehold on the homestead.  The Grand Forks area has been 10 to 20 degrees below normal for the last several weeks, the snow has been slow to melt and there is talk of even more snow on the horizon.

Shaak Ti tours the snowy, muddy environs of the backyard.  There's still a good foot plus of snowbank over much of the yard and with temperatures in the mid-30's (at best) for the next week and some additional snowpack possibly on the way, Spring may be a long way off.

Even the pups tottering through the yard have torn up the dormant turf, it looks like a herd of buffalo sauntered through the yard. Sure a month from now, it'll be nice green grass, but for now, it's ugly.  And muddy.

There's still a lot of snow in the back yard.  Thursday night and Sunday are supposed to yield additional snow, we'll see what the future brings.  That future might just include a even further delayed Spring. Sigh.

More Easter Bunny Malfeasance

The Easter Bunny that scared my awesome little nephew may have terrified a poor little kid, but he/she was just doing their job (see Easter Trips and Bunnies of Terror).  At least they were an Easter Bunny in compliance with the law. 

But in San Diego the other day (just a few miles from where I used to live), the Easter Bunny got pulled over by a California Highway Patrol Officer. Seriously, I'm not kidding.  He was on a motorcycle (the Easter Bunny, not the officer) without a helmet, which is against the law in California.

Photo Courtesy of California Highway Patrol

Read the full story and see video. 

Easter Trips and Bunnies of Terror

Alycia and I traveled the Friday and Saturday before Easter down to Minneapolis/St. Paul with some errands and "big city" type tasks.  We spent most of our time in St. Paul and enjoyed the almost-but-not-quite Spring weather.  It was in the 50's both days, pleasant enough that yours truly wore himself some short pants, it was magical. 

We made it home and promptly left Sunday morning for Easter in bustling Cavalier, North Dakota.  There was much ham and fixings and deserts and the typical holiday meal deliciousness.

We didn't get visited by the Easter Bunny, but my awesome nephew back in San Diego did chat a bit with the big bunny himself.

As you can see it was less of a chat and more of a tear-filled encounter of pure terror.  The report was that he cried the whole time, at least until he was a safe distance away, 25 or 30 feet, at which point he waved repeatedly at the Easter Bunny.  Little brother James was as stoic and calm as you can get when confronted by a seven foot tall rabbit in a dinner jacket.

Jacob was a much happier camper when he realized the awesomeness that the Easter Bunny leaves.  Each plastic egg had all of one M&M in it, but he still thought it was pretty cool. 

2013 Garden Objectives

Even though we're technically a week into Spring, it seems like actual Spring is a long way off.  There's still 3 feet of snow (or more) on the ground and temperatures aren't forecast to get above the freezing mark for at least the next week. It makes it seem like planting-actual-living-things-in-the-ground time is eons away.

But we're going to start our seeds indoors this week and the itch for Spring will turn into an inevitable yearning that will soon enough enable me to work outside.  In the meantime I thought it would be a good exercise to relay my objectives for the upcoming gardening season.  Why?  Well this IS sort of a blog about gardening.  Plus it will be good thought exercise to consider my plans for the upcoming year and there's the bonus that if I know that my list is publicized, there's a better chance I will feel accountable to my reading public and not procrastinate the year away.

Objective Category 1 - Easy Stuff.  These are things that are either easy to accomplish or that I really need to do anyways:

• Add some pieces of re-purposed sidewalk concrete to the area underneath our gate.  In Spring and during rainy weather this small space gets really muddy from the people/dog foot traffic (it's our main exit in/out of the yard).  I'm going to dig in some broken pieces of an old sidewalk that we removed last year from the side of the house in order to make this space less muddy. 
• Plant more perennials.  I love annuals, but they're a lot of work to plant every year and I'd rather have them as extra additions than the main attraction.  We're going to plant some more coneflowers, clematis, monarda (bee balm), milkweed, and sedum. And whatever else strikes my fancy. 
• Plant at least one more honeyberry shrub.  You need two to get berries and we only have one right now.  I did the math on this one all by myself.

• Divide hostas and use them for borders for perennial beds.  
• Lose more lawn space.  Every year I want to take a little more lawn area and convert it to vegetable growing, flowers, or non-lawn space. Less lawn = less weekly mowing work.  If I do this slowly (a few square yards every year), the neighbors are less likely to notice.  I'm sneaky like that.
• Plant milkweed.  Monarch butterflies are disappearing at a rapid rate, I'm hoping that planting some of their favorite food will help a little.  These are also perennials, so this also ties into one of the objectives above.  

Objective Category 2 - Harder Stuff.  These are things that require some thought or multiple days to finish:

• Determine if my leaf mulching plan worked to improve soil quality.  Last Fall we raked up and shredded all our leaves, then put them on top of our raised beds, with some chicken wire to hold the leaves in, and some big bricks to weigh it all down.  This was a lot of work last Fall and I'm hoping that this has all broken down into some quality organic matter that we can work into the soil when we plant the raised beds.   
• Figure out if my blueberry relocation plan worked.  I've been trying to grow blueberries here for three years, despite the warnings from multiple local folks and nursery professionals. The soil is just too alkaline here and simply amending the soil just doesn't work.  My solution?  I dug a big pit (see picture below), filled it with compost and a bunch of peat moss, then brought it up another foot above the ground.  Then I transplanted the six bushes into their new acidic soil wonderland last Fall. This year we find out if it worked.  If not?  We may need to give up the dream of growing blueberries.  That would make me sad.

 

• Come up with some kind of definitive crop rotation system.  Right now my haphazard system of "we planted tomatoes here last year so..." method has left something to be desired.  
• Get a quote and some firm plans on converting our spare garage into a greenhouse.  I've been talking about this for a few years now and I'd really like to have a greenhouse up and running for this winter.  

Objective Category 3 - Big Picture Stuff.  These are things that I need to think about, plan, research, contemplate and probably won't get finished this year, but I at least want to think about them:

• Stump decisions.  We had a large, old box elder tree removed last Fall in the southwest corner of our yard.  It was very old and rotted out in multiple places.  Since it hung over our driveway and power lines we decided it was best that we take it down on our terms, not wait for a thunderstorm to do it for us.  Now we're trying to decide what to do with that space (and the stump that's sitting there now).  When the tree was there it shaded the garden from about 3:00 onward, preventing a full day of sun from reaching the garden, so I don't think we want to replace it with another large, full tree that will shade the garden.  I like birch trees.  They're a bit more sparsely leafed and not quite as tall as some other trees which would allow more dappled sunlight to reach the garden in the afternoon.  More research and discussion and planning is needed.  
• Backyard landscaping.  Inside the fenced in backyard on the west side of the yard, there's a distinct lack of landscaping, it's pretty much just the fence and lawn. This is the one place that we'll always have lawn (ask the dogs why), so we need to have some other landscaping to soften the fence and make the yard look a bit better.  Last year we planted some sedum along one side of the fence and one clematis vine on a trellis.  We need to plant a few more clematis vines on some cool trellises and maybe a few happy little shrubs.  Again more research and thought and planning is needed.

That's all I can think of for now.  What about you gentle reader?  What's on your to-do list this year?  Any ideas or solutions to my myriad garden issues? 

Squirrel In the Office

I was sitting home debating what to have for lunch when I got a picture and text message from Alycia.  The picture was her desk at work (at the University of North Dakota).  I couldn't really make much out of the picture, so it was difficult to tell what the deal was.  The text message was more helpful.  It said:

"I had a squirrel in my office this morning.  He ate my candy and peed on my desk. This is the aftermath after the facilities guy caught him with his garbage picker-upper stick"

I'm no wildlife expert but I think is terrible behavior for a squirrel. I understand eating the candy, but peeing on someone's desk?  That squirrels' Mama obviously didn't teach him (or her) right.

After I got done laughing and laughing I commiserated with Alycia at her bad squirrel fortune.   

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Hiding From the Cold

We had another 3 or 4 inches of snow yesterday, and it's back to the mid-Winter level of chill in the air, near -5 with a wind.  Ugh.  The kids have been hibernating in their warm beds and are quite reluctant to go outside.

Shadowfax is staying curled up in the warming bed. Yes, that's a heated dog bed on top of another dog bed.  She's a spoiled little deaf pittie all right.

No she's not growling, I just caught Shaak Ti mid-yawn.  This is probably about what I look like first thing in the morning.

Shaak Ti isn't getting out of her cozy little bed/blanket fort either.  In case you were wondering, yes our dogs are a tad bit overly pampered.

Our Awesome Neighbors

We have a phenomenal little corner of the world here in Grand Forks, a historic old house, a fenced yard for the pups, a little more than a 1/4 acre of land to garden with, and some of the best neighbors around.  One of our neighbors in particular live three houses down from us and are simply some of the best people in the whole friggin' world (I might be a bit biased).

Our neighbor Brad* has a John Deere tractor with a bunch of attachments, one of which is a pretty powerful snow-thrower.  Every time it snows (and it snows a lot here in North Dakota), Brad is out in his little tractor clearing his driveway/sidewalks and most of the rest of the neighborhoods' too.  Even if he's already been out for hours clearing his own driveway/sidewalks, he tirelessly cleans off our sidewalks and even our large driveway usually before we've had a chance to do it ourselves.

Last summer I was out in the garden and Brad and his wife Paula* walked by with their little granddaughter, enjoying the summer evening.  We started chatting about the raspberry bushes and plum trees that we'd just planted and the conversation turned to canning and making jam.  Brad and Paula have a huge garden and make various jams and preserves.

Our chat wrapped up and a half hour later I was inside washing up and there was a knock at the door.  It was Brad and Paula. They had two grocery bags of jams, preserves, sauces, and relishes to share with us.  All I could say was "Wow, thanks!!"  This isn't even the extent of all the awesome things they've done, they really are fantastic neighbors.  

Each Spring the last couple of years, after the snow has melted, we've given Brad and Paula a gift certificate to a local restaurant as a way of thanking him for all their help. But this has never seemed like quite enough of a "thank you".

So I ask you dear readers for some help, some ideas.  What do you think would be a proper/adequate way to say thanks to awesome neighbors such as these?  Months of help with snow removal is such a big deal, we want to make certain we express our appreciation.

*Names were changed to protect the identity of our awesome neighbors.

Thoughts of Spring and a TED Talk - Ron Finley

As I sit, prone on the couch, recovering from my knee surgery, I'm doing just about everything I can to keep from climbing the walls.  I've had some brief sporadic attacks of cabin fever and I'd give just about anything to go for a walk or a run, or just about any manner of physical activity.  Heck even a spirited mosey or saunter would be fine.  Unfortunately the optimal position for me is reclined, knee elevated, frozen in carbonite encased in ice packs. 

Alycia has been a kind and helpful nurse, much more nurturing than I thought possible.  But I feel that even her kindness has limits and there are days when I fear she is close to beating me about the torso (even in her rage I'm sure she'd avoid hitting my delicate knee) with my own crutches. Frankly I wouldn't blame her if she did.

It doesn't help the cabin fever urges within me that hints of Spring are tantalizingly in the air - seed catalogs, Daylight Savings, brochures for gardening events, snow melting, oh please just stop! Sure I know that this is only temporary. In a few more weeks I'll be back on my feet, walking around, starting seeds indoors and preparing for Spring. 

That's why this TED Talk by Ron Finley was just what I needed.  I highly suggest you watch if you have 10 minutes, very entertaining.

Thanks to the awesome blog Root Simple (you should read this blog) for tuning me on to this.