"The earth laughs in flowers." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
April 15
Wild and windy today and yesterday! Gusts to 20+mph. Brought all the porch and hanging plants in last night. My little sprouting greens begged to be back in the house for a few days until this last cold front passes. I guess this one is called the dogwood winter as the locals say the dogwoods are in bloom.
Many of the yellow finches have molted their drab winter feathers for their new brilliant yellow garb. I wonder if the molting process is uncomfortable making the finches grouchy. We have one that is between old and new feathers and is always in a foul mood striking out at other birds when they try to get seeds at the feeders. Maybe he's just ornery.
April 19
In the past 24 hours we've had 3.5+ inches of rain, a little reprieve this afternoon with sun trying to make an appearance. Yesterday Cliff fired up the old Toyota and gassed the vole holes after I discovered seven new holes in a 4x7 foot area of the garden. Each day I check the garden soil and just found two more new holes. The minute I reached the porch, the clouds opened again and dumped more rain. We had thunderstorms and wind through the night last night. More predicted tonight with lows of 41 in town, but probably 37 here, and a high temperature of 45 tomorrow. Our Farmers Market began the first weekend of April. I've been buying garden mix lettuce and spinach at the market until ours is ready to eat. This year I tried something new that I read in Mother Earth Magazine. Beet and carrots seeds can be planted in the plastic clam-shell containers fruit come in and placed outside to overwinter, through rain and snow. The containers act as little greenhouses when sun warms the soil. In the spring the plants sprout and are transplanted planted in the garden.
Carrots in the clam-shell. A few days ago I transplanted the carrots and beets in the garden before the rain. It'll be interesting got see if they produce edible roots.
Lettuce, kale, spinach transplants that were started in seed pots.
After Cliff finished all the projects his wife had lined up, he had time to build his stacked wood platform.
I'm thinking up new projects in case he gets bored.
April 15
Wild and windy today and yesterday! Gusts to 20+mph. Brought all the porch and hanging plants in last night. My little sprouting greens begged to be back in the house for a few days until this last cold front passes. I guess this one is called the dogwood winter as the locals say the dogwoods are in bloom.
Many of the yellow finches have molted their drab winter feathers for their new brilliant yellow garb. I wonder if the molting process is uncomfortable making the finches grouchy. We have one that is between old and new feathers and is always in a foul mood striking out at other birds when they try to get seeds at the feeders. Maybe he's just ornery.
April 19
In the past 24 hours we've had 3.5+ inches of rain, a little reprieve this afternoon with sun trying to make an appearance. Yesterday Cliff fired up the old Toyota and gassed the vole holes after I discovered seven new holes in a 4x7 foot area of the garden. Each day I check the garden soil and just found two more new holes. The minute I reached the porch, the clouds opened again and dumped more rain. We had thunderstorms and wind through the night last night. More predicted tonight with lows of 41 in town, but probably 37 here, and a high temperature of 45 tomorrow. Our Farmers Market began the first weekend of April. I've been buying garden mix lettuce and spinach at the market until ours is ready to eat. This year I tried something new that I read in Mother Earth Magazine. Beet and carrots seeds can be planted in the plastic clam-shell containers fruit come in and placed outside to overwinter, through rain and snow. The containers act as little greenhouses when sun warms the soil. In the spring the plants sprout and are transplanted planted in the garden.
After Cliff finished all the projects his wife had lined up, he had time to build his stacked wood platform.
Comments