Getting Things Done

The soil is workable.
A bit too damp still, but I can ignore that small detail.

As is the case every year, the hubs had the usual fight with the rototiller. Apparently, just add oil and the motor will seize tight as a drum on you after it has started momentarily and then stalled.
I went on an internet hunt for used ones for sale. Ha! $1800.00?! Are these people kidding? They're used for Pete's sake. The prices never got down to a range we were even close to affording. I think the cheapest I found in my area was $600.00. Bah. So the fight continued after a few phone calls to friends for discarded motors, of which only one was found that wouldn't come close to fitting.

In the end it didn't matter as 'spawn of satan' tiller decided it had given him enough grief and was ready to go to work for another season. His arm is hurting like heck this morning from a temperamental rewind being yanked a thousand times, but at least he won in the end.

After the wasted few hours fighting with the devil tiller, we popped over to my step-mom's for her birthday. By afternoon we were more than ready to actually get something accomplished.

The trellis got set up and the peas are planted. All five varieties. I hate peas, but the rest of the fam love them, so I guess it's not wasted space? lol.

Alaska
Wando
Sugar Snap
Oregon Sugar Pod
Laxton's Progress

Whichever variety they decide they like best is what will ultimately get planted next year. I don't even know what variety we grew last year. They will eat them no matter what kind they are anyway, so I guess it doesn't much matter.

Half the onions got in the ground - Sweet Spanish.
We ran out of light before we could get the White Bunching sprouts planted. We'll get to those on Tuesday.

The koi are much happier as we've gotten the pond filter and waterfalls up and running. All seem well and happy. Unfortunately, we lost one last year (due to a pump malfunctioning) but this spring everyone looks good. I'd really, really love some Wakin, but they're impossible to find for sale around here, and if you do stumble on a few, they want $25.00 a piece! Unreal.

The Orfe were zipping around and looking for those first bugs of spring. It is glorious to see them whizzing through the water again. There may be no blooms in the yard, but there is color in the water. :)

According to last years records, we transplanted broccoli, cabbage, head lettuce, cauliflower and brussel sprouts on April 22 and they all did very well except for the brussels. Maybe I'll start hardening them off this week and get them in the ground a week or ten days earlier this year to see how they do compared to last. Hopefully, I'll have better luck with the brussel sprouts staying tighter.

My daughter got me some India Mustard seed last year. I have no idea what this is, or how to use it. The packet only says "used for greens", "pick outside leaves as they mature to encourage more growth". I've come across a few sites that say it is an invasive weed in some parts of the US, but dies at 17 degrees.

So, what do you do with it? Eat the leaves or grow it for the seeds? Some info said that it has a peppery flavor in salads when you use the small interior leaves, but it will have a 'burn your tonsils' effect if you eat the mature leaves. My youngest son would be happy with the burn your tonsils thing, but the hubs would not. Do you cook like collards (which I'm also hoping to try growing for the first time this year)? Mix with lettuce? Wait for the seed and make mustard? Seriously - what?

I'd hate to waste garden space on something we won't end up eating. Maybe I'll give it a half-row with the collards. Experiments are always fun!

And It's...

...snowing.
Yes, the white crap is falling from the sky again.
Bummer.
It's suppose to get to almost 70 next week, so I'll bide my time and stare at seedlings on the plant stand. And repot. And prune. And transplant. And water. And fold more newspaper pots. And stare. Oh, and sow more seed.
I have a feeling this ridiculously long winter is only turning into an enabler for me.
Exactly where do I think I'm going to plant everything?

Win $50 Worth Of Seeds

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I Have Green!

Two days ago, my WS jugs were frozen solid and sitting under snow.

I figured it would be a few more weeks of getting some decent warmth before I saw any germination at all. But...

I have green!

I only checked a few containers because it's suppose to get down to at least 18 degrees tonight and if anything else has sprouted - I don't want to know I lost them.

The three I looked at and quickly ran away, lol:

Cardinal Flower (I know these will care less about the quick chill)
Nicotiana
Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena)

If I lose that Nigella, I am not going to be a happy camper.

I have sprouts! Yay!
~doing the happy dance~

I really should go back out there and peek at the rest just so I can have a germ date recorded, but it's like 10 with the wind chill out there (gusts at 45 mph. sustained at 25-30. grr.). I'll wait until tomorrow and then I can get excited all over again.
:)

Woohoo - the green wave is definitely riding north!

The Sap Is Running

You know how I know?
I saw it. I actually saw it with my own eyes.
Not in a good way.
We have a half-dead maple tree in the front yard that I've been refusing to cut down. I've left it as a snag for the Red-headed Woodpeckers, and it worked. Every spring, when they've finished emptying the matted mess of leaves the squirrels have packed the holes with all winter, we get to watch (and listen) to them situate the place to suit them.

Yesterday was a shock.
While I was out messing with the front flowerbed edging, I kept hearing something that sounded like a waterfall, but I knew it couldn't be ours as we haven't started up the pond one yet. I have ear problems, and most of the time I only have partial hearing out of one ear or the other, and lately my right ear has been plugged up completely, so I figured it was just an echo from the creek as all the snow melt and rain have turned it into the rapids.

But, even an echo from running water wouldn't sound like falling water! I walked a few yards away and didn't hear it anymore, shrugged and went back to the edging.

There was that sound again! Honestly, I thought I was losing my mind.
Then this dummy finally looked up.

Sap waterfalling, and I DO mean really waterfalling from one of the holes in the tree! There were gallons and gallons pooled at the bottom of the opposite side of the tree I was working around.

I have never seen anything like this in my life! Yeah, droplets rolling down bark, or drips from small winter wounds, but this was as if someone had turned on a bathtub faucet. It was so unreal! I swear it had to be at least (at the very least!) a gallon a minute! A true waterfall of sap.

Man, oh, man, I wish I had a freaking camera. I figured the hubs would never believe it. The flow had slowed down by at least 3/4 by the time he got home, but he could still see the big puddle at the base of the tree.

It was the strangest thing I've seen in a long, long time. I think the poor thing is a total goner this year. Bummer.

And no - I didn't think to grab some buckets. ~sigh~

Hurts So Good

I dodged raindrops and got quite a bit accomplished today.
Go me!

I repaired the cracks in the pond stream. I hope I got them good enough. This winter was a real pisser on the concrete. We've never had a problem before, but this year beat the crap out of it. The stream wasn't the only thing to heave - every freaking perennial I have is sitting a few inches higher than it was in the fall.

I started weeding the cracks between the stone path (who said the weeds and grass could grow there all winter?), got half done and had to postpone the carnage due to a rain delay.
Hey, I got half done before another task ... ummm ... caught my attention before the next bout of rain vs plant-slave-lady. The soil is so pliable right now, it was pretty hard to resist digging in it.

After much searching (why, oh why do I never pay attention to where I store tools?) I found my happy little half-moon edger and went to town on one of the front flowerbeds. The grass had actually creeped into the bed a good 6 inches through winter. Urg!
But, might as well make it even bigger while I'm at it, right? The hubs will never notice? Ahem ... yeah, right.

Now, that bed is a foot wider. Alrighty then, so all that removed sod is flopped onto the lawn and looks like hell. Shhh! It'll go away (eventually).

The oldest son brought me some tiles someone was going to use as fill (no, no, no!) and I got them all into the ground as an edger for the bed. It looks pretty nice! They're brick colored, but only about a quarter inch thick, 4 inches wide and maybe 6 inches long. They worked nicely. I'll still have to keep an eye out for grass roots creeping between where the edges are butted together, but it's sure better than letting the grass just go to town and taking over the whole freaking flowerbed. I got them as tight to each other as possible. (who knew a trowel worked just as good as a rubber mallet?)

Another rain delay. I tried to work through it, but do you know how wet your butt can get when you're bent over and it's facing the sky? Yeah - enough said.

I finally got all the edging done, thought about finishing the weeding in the walkway, but decided the dianthus ('fire witch' I WSed last year) might as well be moved. It sure as heck isn't happy where it is and those tiles looked so lonely a whole foot away from anything green! So, I moved almost all of them, at least 50, to the edge of the front bed.

Honestly, that wasn't all that much work to do in one day, but for the first real after-winter workout it was more than my body thought was necessary. My legs and ankles hurt, my back aches, and my arms are asking if they could please fall off and be left in a heap on the floor. I'm kind of shocked that I'm hurting already. It's usually the next morning that the bod starts the protests.

But, it's a good hurt, you know? The, "I got something accomplished today," kind of hurt.
It sort of feels nice! We won't talk about the stained hands and dirt under the nails. Hmmm...now where did I stash those gloves...