Pollinators

The stachys hummelo is doing its job... Feeding butterflies!

Memorial Day facing Boalsburg...

So pleased with the front garden beds. They are weed free, and filled with perennials that will flower throughout the seasons. All these photos were taken on Memorial Day weekend.

Here's what we have, from East to west...

- The Hanoki pine... Great place for birds to hide, or even nest? 

- Liatris spicata about to be planted

- black pine, not doing too great. The front is strong, but the back looks like it's dying.

- transplanted day lilies from a shady spot in the back yard where they never bloomed. I hope we'll get to see what they look like this year.

- two mugo pines

- daffodils and grape hyacinth and regular hyacinth

- astilbe with red flower head and greenish red leaves

- backdrop of tall perennial grass

- Black-eyed Susan

- two wild indigo (ice blue)

- bird bath

- stachys humelo

- penstemon tubaeflorus

Other side of front porch:

Bleeding heart

Hasta

Lily of the valley

Iris

Ferns

On the front porch...

And also our gorgeous dogwood that has finally taken off. It was planted over a drainage field and was stunted for 10 years until it's roots found their way.

Massive planting

Managed to prep a pretty good chunk of garden.

Most wonderful thing was discovering (or rediscovering) a fully composted weed pile which added tremendous organic matter to a bed that wasn't in bad shape to begin with.

Sunday, April 24th:

Cilantro
Chioggia beets
Nantes carrots
Dante carrots
Nasturtium
Bok choy
Spinach
Lettuce

Soaking beans

Brutal cold snap

Early this past week, temps dropped to the 20's just a few days after temps in the high 60's caused bud burst all over town.

These mushy bleeding hearts were a casualty in my yard - But I'm definitely worried about fruit crops on farms in our surrounding valleys.

Wah.

Garlic

Sometimes you get a break. One you didn't deserve.

Today I divided and replanted at least 80 garlic plants. I abandoned the garlic plot two years ago after the harvest showed what I thought was a fungus infesting the heads.

Turns out it was frost damage, and the survivors made it through last summer and were ready to go again this summer.

Awesome.

Chard - so far so good

Well, they nearly cooked Friday morning, but I managed to remember to vent around 11, and they survived. Their contemporaries under the light in the house are getting leggy and falling over, but otherwise they look about the same right now.

Two out of seven in the cold frame have been munched. Perpetrator has not been identified.

Chard

I can't remember how long ago exactly, but the kids and I started chard, basil, and nasturtium.

I don't have a good light set up so I always have leggy seedlings.

I decided to place some of the chard seedlings out in the cold frame. About half.

The ones inside will get leggy and will outgrow their egg cartons.

The ones outside will die because:
1. They were too young to transplant
2. A bug or fungus will eat them
3. I will cook them in the cold frame, long before they've grown big enough for cooking
4. Some other killer I've yet to experience

OR we will get lucky and have beautiful rainbow chard in a month.

Stay tuned.

Lettuce, beets, arugula

In the cold frame. Fedco delux lettuce mix, chioggia beets, arugula. Seeds dropped in today.

Spring

Found the first crocus blooms the same day we heard the first spring peepers down at the Boal mansion. Yay!

Compost

Ok, February 23rd isn't exactly the best time to work your compost pile. With two little kids and a part time job, one doesn't miss a window of opportunity.

Luckily, only the outside of the compost bin was frozen. I moved most of the last two months of scraps (preserved by frost) into a barrel.

I moved the rest of the partially composted stuff into a bucket. Then I dug out the thawed core of the pile.

While digging I found this supposedly compostable "corn cup" which I'm sure has been in my pile for at least two years. I left it there so I could photograph it again next year when I'm sure it will still resemble a piece of plastic.

I was able to cover the cold frame soil with about 3 inches of pretty nice looking stuff. I'm sure it will come back to life when it warms up in there.

I'm going to go back out and get the rest when it thaws, then rebuild the pile starting with the bucket.

Planted peas

I soaked them overnight before planting. Two pea lovers put them in the ground. (These were planted one week ago, April 24th.) I hope they nature before it gets too hot.

More cold frame starts

On Monday, Ames and I put a row of beets next to the arugula that is already up, and a new row of arugula next to that.

On the far side of the romaine, we put a row of scallions and two rows of Fedco winter lettuce mix. (That's the end of that pack.)

The cold frame is getting hot enough to need venting these days, and the soil is warm enough to protect the seedlings inside their closed box on cold nights.

Arugula is UP!

Nice. Turns out I wasn't crazy to plant those seeds on February 28th. They came up less than two weeks later.

Optimism

The cold frame was steamy in today's full sun. The trowel that had been standing up in the frozen soil all winter turned the soil easily and it was warm to the touch of cold hands.

Even though we still have 5-6 inches of snow covering the back yard, and we are forecasted to get 3-4 more tonight and tomorrow...

I planted a row of arugula and a row of romaine, seeds that were easy to find near the top of my seed box.

What's the worst that could happen?

Gleaning in November

I never would have guessed that I could be picking the last of the fresh raspberries in mid-November. Two light frosts and they are as sweet as they were in September!

And look what came home from our walk! Pears. Of the ground but barely bruised. We will see if they ripen. Pears are quite possibly Willa's favorite food.

Echinacea

The two buckets of echinacea purchased last year were a great investment. I'm delighted!

Blackberries

Two years ago a blackberry cane appeared on the far side of our front yard. By last year the canes had multiplied and were worthy of trellising. This year you can't see the trellis.

And today I picked all I need for a great bowl of cereal.

Ames picked plenty for his bowl too!

yard long beans

I grew a mix of pole beans this year. Haven't really eaten any, but they are always beautiful on the garden fence. 

 

okra

8 plants this year. About right for us. I barely have enough to do anything, but I can make an excellent succotash when the corn and tomatoes are coming in, and that's about all I'm after. 

They take up about 1.5 feet x 4 feet of garden space. 
 

edible podded radish

Experimental this year, and quite good! The seed pod is lighter than the root - in flavor, in density... It's juicier, but still very "radish".