Heath Weather

The daffodils are in full bloom and the three and a half inches of rain we got over Monday and Tuesday have given the grass a jolt, and everything else. The forsythia is blooming which means I should be planting potatoes, but it is cold outside. It is snowing outside! Not a lot, but enough to keep me by the fireside.

I should have known it wasn’t spring quite yet. We don’t have a single dandelion in the lawn. It almost resembles fine turf. From a distance.

Garden Extension

With my new camera in hand I finally went out to document the building of a new garden extension. The vegetable garden had been moved because of an apparent change in the water table and became too wet. It also had to become smaller because of a bad hip.

Now that the hip is new and well healed, it is time to add to the small garden. Last year we added raspberries (just to the right) and now more vegetables. Using the new technique of ‘lasagna gardening, I spread manure and bedding fresh out of the chicken house right on top of the sod, at least four inches worth. I moved about 15 wheelbarrow loads, but who’s counting This manure was given a good watering.

The manure was then covered with large sheets of cardboard, with lots of overlap between new pieces. The Transfer Station was happy to offload the cardboard. The cardboard was then well watered.

This year I have a ‘yard man’, 18 year old Justin who took on the job of moving another 15 loads of loam and compost to cover the wet cardboard.

No more watering was necessary. As soon as this was spread, the rains started. The rain was welcome and we’ve had 3 inches so far – and still counting. Saga of the lasagna bed will continue.

Earth Day 2008

I celebrated Earth Day by finally starting to plant the vegetable garden. No photos yet, but a new camera to replace the one that died is in the works. Peas! Lettuce! Broccoli! I don’t start seeds indoors anymore and I’m happy to support my local garden center so in additon to sugar snap pea, lettuce and radish seeds, I also planted 6 Red Sails and 6 Packman seedlings to encourage the garden – and give me an earlier harvest.

Of course, as the snow melted, I was able to do a little work. In addition to cultivating the old vegetable garden which is now in pretty good shape, we are experimenting with Eric
Toensmeier’s system of sheet mulching to start a new garden space without tilling. I moved about 12 wheelbarrow loads of uncomposted chicken manure and spread it on the new space, right on top of the sod. Then we watered it deeply, the manure and the soil. Then we covered the manure with large sheets of cardboard we got from our recycling center, Making sure there was good overlap between pieces.

After watering the cardboard so that it was soaked we covered the whole thing with plastic. The plastic isn’t part of Eric’s technique, but I didn’t have soil or sufficient compost (until today) to cover the whole area of cardboard which can dry out very fast. It is keeping everything moist, and it has been so hot the last couple of days that I think the plastic is helping that manure cook and rot faster than it might.

I’ll be planting large vegetables like squash in this new experimental bed, mulching between plants in my usual way with newspapers as well as cardboard covered with straw and grass clippings. I’ll keep you posted.

Bloom Day

I’ve been waiting for this cyclamen to bloom for months now. It doesn’t look like much and it is obvious that I have a lot to learn about getting gift plants, even those as hardy as a cyclamen, to bloom again. I do love cyclamen and when ever I fail with a potted plant I remind myself that it cost less than a bouquet of cut flowers from the florist, and gave me weeks and weks of pleasure.

An unexpected blossom on an ungainly orchid cactus which I haven’t been paying much attention to, although I do water it from time to time. The plant is sitting on an old kitchen step stool, painted black, and this long leaf is nearly down on the floor. There is no way to take a picture of the whole plant and get any idea of the magnificence of the open bloom and the promising bud. It sits in our bright living room, but not in the window. In the summer it sits out on the piazza, right in front of our south facing house, under the shade of the wisteria on a sheltering arbor.

Finally, blooms outside too. These snow drops are growing under an apple tree. The vegetable garden and raspberry patch are just to the west – both still covered with snow. Maybe it will disappear in another day or two. We had snow flurries on Sunday. Fortunately, not the kind of snow that accumulated. It has been a very long winter.

I am beginning to see shoots elsewhere in the garden. Daylilies, Siberian iris, and daffodils. Hallelujah!

I want to give credit to the abutilon. Still blooming. See posts for January and February.

Spring is coming!

I refuse to show any more pictures of snow. I have carefully arranged this shot of fattening lilac buds to avoid any hints of the snow that still covers lots of ground. These buds on my ancient white and nameless lilacs are encouraging and I am looking forward to seeing what my newer lilacs will do this spring. I planted the pink Miss Canada about three years ago and she blooms nicely, but hasn’t grown into anything substantial.

Last year, I planted the Beauty of Moscow so this will be the first time she’ll bloom for me. I hope there are a couple of blooms anyway. The bush was a good size. I can’t wait for the fragrance of spring.

Green at Last!

Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education

When Michael Pollan’s book Second Nature came out in 1991 I remember spending a lot of time reading out bits to my husband with disgusted exclamations – Can you believe he says this?!

Of course, all these years later, I don’t remember the particulars except how my view of the suburban lawn is so different from his. Still, since all this time has gone by, I wanted to reread Second Nature, and see in what ways the world in general, and my world in particular might have changed.

I find that he still irritates me, and it took a while to figure out why – and then it was clear. He makes very sweeping statements about groups of people that I just don’t buy. For instance, “Like most Americans out-of-doors, I was a child of Thoreau.” He may be a child of Thoreau, and I love Thoreau myself (Simplify! Simplify! Simplify!) but I don’t think ‘most Americans’ think a lot about Thoreau outdoors, or in.

Or this, “A society that produces ‘gardens’ (or anti-gardens) like Central Park is one that assumes nature and culture are fundamentally and irreconcialably opposed. . . . . Americans have historically tended to regard nature as a cure for culture or vice versa.” Really? Perhaps my problem is that he is concentrating more on ornamental gardens than I am allowing for. Vegetable gardeners clearly need to work with nature in order to meet the goal of a harvest. But really, even flower gardeners need to work with nature to achieve their goal of a healthy beautiful garden.

And this is not a new and personal view. For a brief time in my checkered career, I was a tour guide in the Stebbins House in the beautiful and fascinating Historic Deerfield. When the tourists were thin on the ground I would sometimes browse through the 18th and 19th century agricultural texts that were among the house’s furnishings. There I was amazed to find that farmers were urged to feed their cattle the best feed possible because that would insure not only the good health of the animal, but good quality manure which could be spread on the fields for a good quality harvest. the interconnectedness of all things and the importance of working with nature was not unknown then, or even earlier.

But about those lawns. Have I changed in my view? No. While it may be possible that developers had a vision of an uninterrupted swath of green lawn ribboning its way across countless suburbs, my own experience of suburban lawns is that fences, hedges, and bordering beds pop up in very short order as homeowners put their own stamp of personality on their blessed plots of land. That is the wonder and delight of the garden. No two gardens or even lawns are the same.

It is true that I have a philosophical position regarding my domestic landscape. I am an organic gardener, continually learning, and trying to live as lightly on my plot as possible. Having arrived at that position I don’t give the moral implications of my garden much thought. I have killed a woodchuck. Nature is red in tooth and claw.

Perhaps it is just a literary style or conceit, but Pollan’s constant moral agonizing gets a bit wearing. There are interesting facts and fascinating digressions, but so many judgements about aesthetics! For me the garden is a place where we can be ourselves, please ourselves, and enjoy ourselves without worrying about anyone else’s opinions.

Though this has been an extended rant, I will say that I did enjoy his book Botany of Desire.