It's wonderful weather! Warm, not hot, and no frost for the past two or three nights, just great gardening weather! Yesterday I finished the hands and knees job of weeding the garlic. I also watered all of the rhubarb one plant at a time giving them a slow soaking. I lay the hose down and let the hand held sprinkler give the roots a good soak. A baby bunny popped out from under one plant, it seemed dazed by the bright sun and had taken a good spray of water so wasn't a happy bunny. When I moved to the next plant another one popped out! And I flushed a mouse out of the next one. No shortage of places to hide and they'd better be careful or they will be owl food! The bird nest I mentioned in the last blog post now has 4 eggs. As the stalks and leaves have grown it is now way down in the plant and looking like a failed construction project. It probably won't hold together much longer.
The ten day forecast doesn't show any temperatures near freezing. It has me wondering if it might be safe to plant tender things like tomatoes outside. The tomatoes I started from cuttings off last year's plants are tall and spindly despite being in full sunlight in the greenhouse. They have had plenty of blossoms and not one tomato! The air circulation is good because there is a small fan running 24/7 so I think I will buy some new plants. It was an experiment anyway.
My seed starting efforts have been a bust this year. Operator error. I put the pots on a heat mat and I think it was too hot. Nothing came up. I was trying to make up for the days we were away when I should have had them growing already. I will be buying cabbages, tomatoes, and squash. Maybe some broccoli. With our short season those are the things I always start from seed and set out six weeks later. I'll direct seed some beets, bush beans and ? How much depends of space available. Potatoes are already planted next to the peas.
My garden will be smaller this year anyhow because I am only planting the part where I didn't put so much of the cow manure compost. The rest of it will get a generous application of the bagged leaves I brought home last fall. Our son is coming for a bit of visiting and work while he is between jobs. He will use our big old Troy Built tiller and get them all underground. Meanwhile, I will mow the grass that has come up and use the smaller tiller to try to get it underground. I might need to do some raking before I stir up the soil to remove the grass clippings. Last year we used the weed eater on the grass and I raked it into piles before he could do the tilling. It's looking very shaggy already!
So far I have only seen one fledgling owl. After his wild sojourn into the grassy pasture (probably aided by a gust of wind) he was on the nest tree the next day and the day after that. I try to spy on him from a distance so I don't scare him, but I think he probably doesn't like the riding lawn mower even at 40 feet away. He did stay put on mowing day. Good little owl, now listen to your parents! Actually I have no knowledge about what owl parents tell their youngsters but it is fun to guess!
We DO have owl babies! At least we have one. He must have fledged today because he is sitting in the grass and weeds in the pasture above the house. Just sitting. I saw one of the adults in the nest tree so I think as soon as it is about half dark that one will be checking on the fledgling, feeding it and maybe encouraging it to move to a more sheltered spot where it might be able to climb up on a branch. Young owls mature very quickly but will need to be taught how to catch prey. Meanwhile the parents have to catch dinner, keep track of and feed the youngsters, and patiently teach them how to hunt. This is a critical part of owl upbringing!
Most of the peas are up. This showery weather is great for peas. The onions I set out don't look so good because their leaf tips got burned. Being away for 4 days right after planting them out into garden rows wasn't good because those few days were away were sunny, not showery.
A bird has built a nest on top of the rhubarb leaves! It's a messy pile of dry grass and weeds with a mud lined cup in the center, only about 2 feet off the ground and completely exposed. I think that bird needs a lesson about proper site selection. My guess on bird variety is a Brewer's Blackbird. Another bird has built a nest on the beam that supports the porch roof. A wren? A sparrow? Little brown bird anyway. That one's nest might blow down in the first hard wind storm.
I knew I was taking a chance with where I planted them but thought maybe the excessive nitrogen had been diluted enough by the application of leaves last fall. Nope, the plants are burned and one of the four is probably dead! I'll start over with new plants and put them in an area that wasn't so heavily fertilized with the composted cow manure. Yes, I could move them but if the problem is not excessive nitrogen I risk moving diseased plants which may spread a problem to a new area. This year I will not plant anything more in the top half of the garden and will add more leaves to that area and hope that fixes the soil. I still have 30+ big bags of last fall's leaves. I see a lot of rototilling in my future, or maybe somebody will come to visit and be put to work doing it for me. Often when people come they ask what they can do to help. That's an advantage of being old.
A couple of days ago I took the lawn mower to the garden and mowed the grass around the rhubarb plants and next to the garlic patch. The four legged observers (cows) lined up next to the fence and watched. None of them offered to help but on the other hand they had no criticism or advice. I stopped mowing when I needed a break and the next thing I knew it was raining and hailing with gusty wind. There is more to do but the grass in that area is not as high or thick as what I have already done. The past 3 days have been more like March than late April.
I hope to see some green sprouts soon in the starter pots in the greenhouse. Most of the seeds were planted 6 days ago, so it is a bit soon. Meanwhile in the garden the peas have started to come up! The onions I planted don't look great and some of them not good at all. What has happened to my green thumb?
We have 2 pear trees, one plum and an apple tree that all burst into bloom in the past few days. There is no frost in the next few days' forecast. Spring is such a critical time for fruit trees. There isn't much we can do if frost comes at the wrong time. We just hold our breath. And after that there is always the possibility of hail. Mother Nature can be very unkind at times.
Our neighbor brought cattle to our big pasture yesterday. Although it is difficult to count cattle in a group I think there are about 30 momma cows with calves that were born last fall. Our hilly pasture adds to the challenge. They are black Angus. By the time they leave here in a couple of months the calves will be almost as big as their mothers. They are born at around 80-85 pounds and gain two pounds or more every day. Black Angus cattle produce very good beef. As with most beef breeds the mother only makes enough milk for her calf. The calves start eating hay or grass when they are a few weeks old so by the time this group come here they are only depending on Mom for a small amount of milk.
Yesterday I sorted through my supply of seed packages and started soaking seeds. I also filled pots and today I planted the seeds and put the pots on a heat mat. I'm behind this year by about 10 days. That makes a big difference with our short growing season. Some seeds will be direct seeded into the garden rows, and more seeds will be soaked, potted up and transplanted later. The seeds I planted today are various types of squash, cucumbers, a few tomatoes and a lot of cabbages. I've found a couple of nice, small headed cabbage varieties that I really like. Katarina and Bobcat make small, very compact heads about the size of a softball. I also planted a variety that makes larger heads and plan to make kraut with those.
My newly planted raspberry plants don't look very good. I think they dried out while we were away last weekend even though I watered them well before we left. This rain we got this afternoon would have been appreciated last weekend. No sign of pea sprouts yet and I hope they survived. The onions have dry tips on some of the leaves. It was bad timing but we needed to go to a family memorial across the state, so spent one day getting there, two days with the family and memorial services, and another day coming home. Actually any time during the snow free months is a bad time to be gone.
What is it? That lavender bush that I ruthlessly cut back to dead looking sticks a few weeks ago. After pruning I looked up how to prune lavender and learned that I had done it wrong and probably killed the plant. It now has quite a few little green sprouts coming out of those ugly branches! I was pleasantly surprised to see that new growth! In a few weeks none of the ugly, woody stems will show and I will have a nice looking bush. Hopefully it will bloom this year. The bees have been busy with a flowering bush in the garden. I don't know what it is. The blooms are yellow. I didn't see any honey bees but did see bumble bees and other pollinators. Actually I heard them before I saw them.
Yesterday I planted the peas and the onions. I buy the pea and onion seed at Andrews Nursery in Ontario, just across the river from Idaho, paying $2 for 2 ounces of seed. You'd have to buy several regular seed packets to get that much seed. Our farm store sells some larger sizes of common things like corn, beans and peas, charging $6.99 for 2 ounces.
Our lawn mower is back from the repair shop, easier to start and running better than it has in years. They gave it a tune up, nothing major so it wasn't an expensive fix. Today I finished mowing around the edges of the garden, the pathways, under the grape vines, around the raised bed. It looks much better. This is the job I was doing when the mower quit and wouldn't start a few days ago. And I mowed the yard. That was also a big improvement. The flower beds are still very weedy but mowing made part of it look better overall. I learned long ago not to expect perfection because by the time I get the flower beds weeded it will be time to weed them again.
Quite a few tulips are blooming now. The lilacs have flower buds, so far not showing much color and not open. I made hummingbird sugar-water and have a feeder up. No hummers so far. They aren't as predictable as the swallows returning to Capistrano on the same date every year but they do start coming when the lilacs just start to bloom.
Early this morning the temperature was 23. Today our high was about 55 which is about normal for days in April. We'll have another cold night tonight and then warmer for the next few nights. We are still 5 weeks or so from our last expected frost date which is usually around June 1. I'm thinking about planting potatoes soon but don't want to have to mulch them if we get frosty nights in late May. Probably should do that soon anyhow because I can mulch with the hay my horse wastes. I'm going to mulch the peas to help keep them moist until they germinate and then the mulch could be moved to the potato row right next to the peas.
