Fran Farmer wrote:
songbird wrote:
yesterday i finished up removing one of the
chive patches that was taking up too much space
at the bottom of the north garden. the smell
of the roots and dirt make me rather sick to my
stomach so i was very glad to be done.

:-)) IMO, you can never have too many chives. I use them so often in
the kitchen.

that's part of it, that we rarely actually even
use them. we sure don't need 100sq ft of them.
besides the two main patches (now down to one) we
also have them scattered around growing in other
locations.


most of the clumps of roots were buried upside
down under a layer of dried stuff or whatever
paper scraps i had on hand and then six to eight
inches of dirt. they will likely never be able
to come up through that and the worms will turn
them into fertilizer in time. yesterday a few
piles ran out of dried stuff to use so i may see
some of those again this season. probably will
plant extra beans/peas on top of them because it
is in an unfenced garden.

Members of the allium family are reputed to stunt peas and beans so it'd
be interesting to know if that same reputed impact applies to planting
on top of interred alliums.

hmm, these are buried quite deeply below the root
zone in most of the area. i can always put beets in
the shallower spots (where i didn't have enough stuff
to cover). otherwise, i didn't notice any trouble
in my previous years growing of beans on top of
similar piles of chive sod.


....
the other project finished up the other day was
getting the back spiral garden/green manure patch
weeded and to dig out all of the garlic in there
that i could find. it is much easier to do this
before the alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil gets
tall. this also gave me a good chance to observe
the quality of the soil and to see how the late
summer cover crops of buckwheat and turnips had
fared. considering the condition of the soil
when i started several years ago it is coming
along well.

:-)) Isn't it a great joy to notice those sorts of improvements?
Non-gardeners never seem to understand why that gives gardeners such a
thrill.

i consider it a lifelong process which i hope
will go another twenty or thirty years. each
year certain things get easier too.


i'm now going to be adding a mix of
other plants into that patch in areas so that it
can start being an alternate and back up food
source. turnips, beets, beans, peas, fennel,
bak choi, rutabagas, ...,

I've forgotten what the rest of the English speaking world calls them.
Is it turnips??????

swedes, they are a type of turnip, but not the
same as the purple topped globe turnips which are
very common. these are pale yellow inside and
turn yellow/orange more when cooked. they have
a fairly mild flavor to me. turnips i like to
fry up in the pan in a little olive oil until
they get a little brown on the outside. to me
much better than potatoes...


....
the killdeer are out there running around in
tribes (mating season i suspect). funny...

I think I'll go and have a rest after reading of all your busyness.
You've made me feel quite weary :-))

wasn't too bad as it was stretched over
the past few weeks. i left out some of the
great blunders and adventures in sillyness.

i did find some diakon radish seeds and some
dill, also restocked the buckwheat and turnip
seed supplies.

the earliest tulips are starting to show up.
that's about when it is the time to start
getting more peas in the ground. still might
get some frosts here or there but the worst
of the hard freezes should be over. at least
i sure hope they are.

oh, and the apple seeds i planted last fall
seemed to have sprouted. i'll have plenty of
scrub apple trees or root stock for grafting
by the looks of it. all experimental as with
the rabbits and deer around here i'm not sure
i'll ever see a fruit tree make it very far.
if i do it will because the thing has armor
and fences around it.

time to check the weather radar and see if
i'll get out to plant anything or just keep on
goofing around today.


songbird