looks great out there with many thousand
strawberry blooms in various patches around
the yard. i was wondering if the oldest
strawberry patch would have much going on
this year as it has been mostly filled in
for a few years now. i have selectively
turned under and thinning it and also planted
beans/peas as cover crops to help give a
natural boost to the soil along with different
top mulches of wood chips, pine needles and
leftovers from weeding. seems to be going
well. now i just hope the next few weeks
cooperate and i can start getting fresh
berries.

in one pathway out back along that strawberry
patch the path is made of crushed limestone, but
it has been there for so many years that it has
a fair amount of dirt under the gravel. it
sprouts some weeds, but it also acts as a great
bed for rooting runners that can later be pulled
easily and then put in pots. i did a few dozen
the other day, that were blooming, pulled them
out of the gravel/dirt mix without much effort
at all. promptly potted them up and watered them
and they didn't even lose a beat. the flowers
didn't drop and the leaves didn't wilt. it was
like they were happy to be in some actual soil.
those plants went a few days later to my brother's
place where he wanted to put them along the back
of his house.

being the verbose writer i am i sent him a note
giving him more details than he probably wants for
taking care of them.

sunny day, plans to get some weeding done and
garden prep for planting.

not sure if winter wheat or winter rye is first
to come in, but the eldest plants are starting to
form heads already. beautiful patterns. i've
always liked the older wheat-pennies (one cent from
1909 to 1959 USoA) and so it is great to see an
up-close and living representation of that.

also lovely turnip flowers. Ma even says she's
ok with them. now to see how long it takes for
seeds to form.

at the greenhouse last weekend we picked up the
plants to set out and Ma also needed some flowers
for a few of her friend's gardens. we checked
out the flower greenhouse and inside they had a
large selection of flowers. a large bumblebee
was in there and i thought it was very interesting
that the flowers it picked to harvest from were
the pink/yellow/red cosmos. we grow these type
along with the yellow/red/orange types and they
are always swarmed by bees when they do flower.

i did get some cosmos planted this week along
with some golden flax.

the early starts (peas, turnips, radishes,
rutabagas, onion seeds) are all coming along
nicely. so far the bunnies and woodchuck have
not made much of a dent in anything of concern.
the woodchuck is mainly taking the tops off the
alfalfa in the far back green manure patch. he
did sample a few of the garlic plants (probably
hoping it was the beans i've planted in that
same patch the past few years), but left the
rest alone... the deeper planted garlic used as
green onions is really yummy. i eat a few right
out of the ground when i'm out in the gardens.
keeps my breath fresh. haha...

yesterday went out to get some gardening done
after having a morning walk and finishing up some
chores (glueing foam sandal bottoms on the bottom
of worn out gardening shoes that i like to use
most of the time and my favorite purple crocs).
for about $10 i could refurbish three pairs of
my most worn shoes. not bad. most of the
expense was for the contact bond glue. the foam
sandals were on sale for about $1/pr. feels like
walking on clouds compared to how it was before.
love it when something like this works out. the
downside to foam shoes is that they do not stop
sticks from getting through if you do have pokey
things about. around here, it is mostly crushed
gravel limestone for pathways, so having some
extra cushion is nice. well the end of this
story is that i was just getting outside after
being inside and doing things when the field
across the road gets sprayed with weedkiller
and perhaps insecticides too. nasty, very fine
mist they use, it hung in the air and the wind
was the wrong direction so we got a pretty
heavy drift for a while. i held my breath and
came back inside for a few hours and coughed up
what i could and then took a shower and coughed
up some more. those big rig operators don't
often care what they are spraying when or where
and even if it is windy they just do it anyways.
this is a prime example of why i don't own a
grenade launcher or other large fire arms. irked
doesn't begin to describe how i was feeling. oh
well.

i needed a break anyways from the previous day's
turning of gardens. the winter cover crops made
those garden's soil so nice it was like i wasn't
even in the same yard any longer. all that work
to bring in extra organic materials, burying garden
debris, using ashes from wood burning and doing a
fairly decent crop rotation have really begun paying
off. the added worms and worm casting from the
worm farm have helped too. seeing all sorts of
worms in those gardens now that used to be largely
deviod of worm life this time of the year. lovely,
well worth the efforts.

ok, that's today's news and observations.
didn't expect to write a book here, but i had a
few minutes yet.


songbird

songbird wrote:
looks great out there with many thousand
strawberry blooms in various patches around
the yard. i was wondering if the oldest
strawberry patch would have much going on
this year as it has been mostly filled in
for a few years now.
songbird


We've only got a few plants and they're new , so I pinched most of the
blossoms . But yesterday I picked the very first strawberry I ever grew .
And gave it to my loving wife ... she said it was delicious . There are a
few more out there ... we won't get enough to really do much this year , but
next year ...
--
Snag

Terry Coombs wrote:
....
We've only got a few plants and they're new , so I pinched most of the
blossoms . But yesterday I picked the very first strawberry I ever grew .
And gave it to my loving wife ... she said it was delicious . There are a
few more out there ... we won't get enough to really do much this year , but
next year ...

the first ones of the season are wonderful
indeed.

i was beginning to be worried that there weren't
enough pollinators around this year. when i was
out planting the surrounding gardens over the past
few days i would take breaks and watch the strawberry
patch to see what was visiting. some very tiny bees
and flies have been active in there and i made sure
to give it a good watering one day. not as worried
now that i'm seeing berries forming.


songbird