So much dirt, so little time...

I have a real job that would normally be 40 hours a week at this time of year sewing awnings commercially, but work is slow. Last week, I got almost 40, and when I have been laid off for a period of time, I forget some of my time management skills, or maybe just forget to use them. The week flew by, my house looks neglected (translation--wrecked!), and my to-do list is long.

Today, while there is light and wonderful sunshine, I'm going to begin cleaning out beds and laying out the area for the big new one at the end of the garage. There's a wonderful southern exposure all along that side of the house, unshaded.

I'm also going to check the asparagus bed and see what I might need to do to it. It's under a blanket of winter mulch right now. I densely planted asparagus roots last year, and by the end of the season, we had sturdy pencil-thick stems. My plan includes continuous mulching to keep down competing weeds, and blanket composting the bed, about which Ruth Stout has written in depth. I have used this method in the past, and support it wholeheartedly!

I tried the GrowVeg.com free trial to plan my garden spaces, and I love it. It's easy, illustrative, and gave me plant needs, planting dates, spacing distances, and the number of plants I could fit in the space I had in mind. I will be purchasing the subcription, because I can see myself using it to update my plots as I succession plant some things and to refer to next year. This is an awesome tool! It can be used to plan flower gardens too, but I wasn't doing that, so I didn't thoroughly investigate flower information in their data base. (I am not an affiliate of this product or website, and I'm not being paid in any way to say this.--BHD)

Outdoors, my irises and daffodils show serious determination about moving on to spring here in Zone 5. My daffodils took a hit last year as the village constructed new storm drains on our streets (we have a corner lot). A large dead tree bole, about 12 feet tall, left by electric company tree trimmers, had to be removed for the project. The guys running the dozers daily were careful about my daffodil bed after I explained what I was doing with that spot, but the guys doing the tree removal didn't the message. They laid the bole down on the bed, unknowing, since it was fall and the bulbs were dormant and nothing was visible topside. I came home from work and was aghast. I tactfully asked how long the tree bole would be left there, and they said until they were done digging out that section of pipe and could get the other machinery in to move it. They asked why and I told them, and they all looked at each other like their mom was about to tell them to pick a switch and bring it to her. They were very apologetic and most of the guys got very busy doing "stuff" while the foreman told me they would move the tree as soon as possible if I could show him where the flowers were...I was nice and told him not to worry about it, I was just being a mother hen about the daffs, but they were under the tree, but he couldn't have known that anything was planted there. Long story shortened, my daffodils poked their tips up right through the dirt this spring, thicker than last year. The tree bole had to weigh half a ton at least, but they appear to be unharmed.

My irises are indomitable as well. I grow them in several places, and follow usual care procedures, lifting and dividing the roots every two to three years when they get too thick. This is the year for that, once they are done flowering. So I will be expanding those beds too, in June.

Anyway, I'd better get to it, or it won't get done. I need some sunshine!

Planting Update, amongst other things...

I have daylilies popping up all over the little dirt cubes and the cottage cheese tub I planted the seeds in. The first seedling to emerge stands over 3 inches tall now and is a deep healthy green under the lights. Lots of others followed quickly behind.

I also planted a flat of peppers and tomatoes. I chose a mix of sweet bell peppers, sweet long peppers, and "Biker Billy Hybrid" hot peppers, which appear to be a large jalapeno type. The tomatoes are pretty standard, Romas and Sweet Millions cherries. They have come up already after less than a week. I noted tonight that one of the bulbs in my light stand has burned out, so I'll have to replace it, but I may wait another week so I don't sunburn the little seedlings with too much light all at once. I would welcome other people's comments on their experiences with situations like this.

We're still having morning temperatures hovering around the freezing mark here, but the skies are usually clear and sunny (except on the weekends, then it likes to do the spring weekend cloud up and rain thing, sunny during the work week cycle just for us bikers). If it didn't take so long for me to thaw out, I would go ahead and ride the bike to work in 40 degree weather, but I have to be able to sew as soon as I get there...

I have one tip that I discovered several years ago that gave me miraculous results with my peppers and tomatoes. I read somewhere that watering with a solution of 1 to 2 tablespoons of epsom salts to a gallon of water after the regular watering would improve the plants overall. So I tried it. My pepper plants grew to about 30 inches tall and produced huge peppers with thick juicy walls, and the tomatoes just went nuts. Epsom salts is magnesium sulfate, which I guess would acidify the soil and allow the plants to take up iron better and probably some other nutrients as well, because they just took off. I've never had better results, even with Miracle Gro, and that works wonders too.

Still haven't knit anything in over a month. I have 8 batches of soap ready to photograph and list on the websites, and still need to write listing copy for four of them. I think about these things while I sew during the day, but when I get home, there're regular chores to do first, then dinner...time to make lists again.

Nite all, morning comes early.

Lily sprouts

There they are, all snuggled up to the side of their cottage cheese container. Two lily sprouts, just uncurling themselves from their seed hulls, bracing themselves against soil and structure, soon to stand up straight and tall.

You would never know that the seeds have been waiting months, sitting in ziplocks in my butter chiller in the refrigerater with their toes wet, for the chance to do this within the last few days. How did they know it was time to grow? The refrigerator doesn't open any more or less in spring...The temperature inside the fridge doesn't change. So how did they know? Their dirt cubes are about 1 1/2 square at the top for size reference.

They started out as little black bead seeds, all shiny and plump, about an eighth of an inch across. After about 3 and a half months of forgetting about them, I remembered, and there they were, growing toes. So I gave them some dirt to dig their toes into, and then they stretched...they are beautiful...!

So, naturally, I had to go shopping. For more seeds.

I realized it was about 8 weeks before Memorial Day, which is when I have traditionally aimed at putting tomato and pepper plants into the ground. Last year, I had horrible winter blues and couldn't wait, and planted indoors in January. Hah! Okay, so three plants made it until time to go in the ground, but they were really ugly. We grew a little basil for pesto and it was pretty good. I grew some African Violets under lights too, and still do. I know that's not a "green" thing to do, but I love my A.V.'s, they are on a timer, and there are only 6 plants under a shop light. That's how I start my tomatoes and peppers as well. It's therapeutic too-- helps keep me semi-stable when I can't ride my motorcycle and can't grubble in the dirt outdoors.

Anyway, about the shopping. Eight weeks to go, and no tomato and pepper seeds. Wal-Mart's selection of seeds sucked. I went next door to Lowe's and they were somewhat better, more variety within the vegetable types, and still good prices. I looked at seed catalogs, and I love the incredible variety you can get there, and I would like to try some of them when I have my garden better established in it's new home, but the seeds are very expensive compared to discount stores. I can get Burpee seeds at Lowe's for $1 to $2 per packet, more for the larger packets of course. Some of the catalog seeds in the more unusual varieties not found at discount stores were close to $4 per packet. I would be willing to pay that in the future, but not just yet, and not for everything I plant. They also have tried and true varieties that run just above discount store prices, but you also pay shipping. Next year I will order my "experimentals" early, because catalog seed orders can take possibly 2 weeks to arrive in the busy planting season. I, obviously, did not plan ahead this year.

I did find Roma tomatoes, and Sweet 100 VF cherry tomatoes, both of which have given me good results in the past. I bought two sweet pepper mixes, one of which is a bell multi-color mix which doesn't include green; the other is sweet banana and corni ti toro or red bull horn pepper. I chose Biker Billy Hybrid hot pepper, slightly larger than a jalapeno, "as much flavor as heat," so I'm hoping that means it's good for our salsa. Some of the plants that I grow, (if they survive) I'll share with friends.

We ate kohlrabi for the first time the other night, trying to decide to plant it or not. If store bought tastes that good, it's worth planting. So I bought some of those seeds too, but I saw they aren't that common, or they are and people beat me too them already. I also got wax beans, baby salad spinach, yellow summer squash, patty pan squash, cilantro and sunflowers for seeds. Last but not least, I've never grown a competition-sized pumpkin, a real monster, and I've always wanted to try, so I got some Big Max seeds. I've been told they make good pie, and I love roasted pumpkin seeds. We've got some space out behind the garage for them.

More about planting our tomatoes and peppers tomorrow.

False sense of spring

The weather doppler looks like an inland freezing hurricane. Sleet and snow and wind and all that other hogwash, and all I could do on the way home from a great dance was pray they didn't salt the roads again...I know that sounds backwards for the sake of all the people who have to drive in this kind of crap, and truly it is. My concern is for them first and foremost, because my sweetie is one of them. But please let me whine for just a moment.
If the salt goes back on the roads, we wait for the rains to wash it back off again before the Night Train and the Silver Streak come out to play again. And we don't want to wait anymore. We're like two little kids sitting at the window with our noses pressed again the panes while the sleet beats on the other side. Gotta be the worst time of year for us.
Okay, I'm done bitching.
Like the new paint job in here? I got tired of the cookie cutter blog-skin. I was reading a Feng Shui book, "Feng Shui, Step By Step" by T.Raphael Simons, and decided to try out some of the information. It said my birthdate in the third Chinese season of the year, whose corresponding element is fire, and the affiliated colors are purples ranging to reds--the colors of fire. Hence the new colors on the blog skin. I'm still reading the book, which I find extremely interesting and comprehensive. It appears we intuitively chose the right colors when we painted our bedroom to create harmony between us, and indeed, that room is one of the most calming in the house.
I have been making soap, cutting soap, talking about soap on Twitter and Facebook and to all my friends, thinking about how to sell soap, looking for farm markets locally, primping my labels and brochures and a banner for our canopy, and working out the new smaller guest soap size for production. Soap started out as just a hobby because it smelled so good, and more is always better, right? Oy. We have 4 new soaps drying and several more in the works. The new ones will be ready for sale mid-April.
Something tells me I should knit something while I wait for the real spring to please stand up. It has a meditative quality about it, and once the outside is no longer behaving like the Siberian steppe, the Pink Lady will wait for me again while the Silver Streak takes me looking for harmless trouble.

I planted the seeds!

Last fall, Sweetie and I took a walk around our tiny town, and at the public library, a planting of day lilies was going to seed. Most of the pods were brown and just beginning to burst, and I could see the shiny, plump black seeds inside. I began stripping the seeds with one hand into the other, and Sweetie asked what the heck I was doing. I explained it all to him.
"Will they grow?" he asked.
"That's the plan," I said, not having a clue how day lilies like to be treated. Hmmm, something to google...which we did when we got home. I found instructions on eHow.com.
Day lilies need a cold and damp spell to sprout, then light and warmth to continue sprouting and growing. To be ready to deal with more harsh springtime conditions here in the Great Lakes area, they need an early indoor artificial spring that is a little gentler, provided by 3 months in a ziplock bag with some water in my refrigerator.

I had doubts as I checked on them through the winter and saw no changes, just plump black seeds, but I left them alone. Today, as we were looking through seed catalogues and being annoyed with the prices of established bulbs, I remembered the seeds. I went and looked again, and shrieked, "THEY SPROUTED! The seeds, the day lilies, the red ones, THEY SPROUTED!"
So, we pulled out the bag of seed starting mix and the pressed peat 12-section flat, and went to work. As Sweetie says, he's not usually about "grubbling in the dirt" but doing it together is more fun if we don't have to do it the hard way. He's looking forward to seeing what happens with the day lilies, since I have never grown them from seed before and don't know if they will make it. Whether they do or not, we will continue to save seed from various places and keep things growing. I saved seed from all of the best melons we grew last year as well, and hopefully we will get some good ones from those too. Hard to say, the plants were from a mixed packet of melon seeds, so I don't know what was hybrid and what wasn't. Could be interesting.