LysmachiaMoon's blog: Wild weather

Posted on Apr 13, 2024 6:04 AM

Nonstop wind and off and on rain here for the past 3 days. We did not get the worst of it; the major storm went south to north and actually split east-west and missed us. Just west of us there was a tornado warning; here, the worst we saw were some new leaves torn off trees.

This morning (Saturday) is very heavy overcast but the wind has died down. The NWS is predicting "gusty" winds today, but no more rain so I may take a chance with a load of laundry.

Remember I said I was helping a friend move house? Seeing the tons of stuff she had accumulated and was consequently getting rid of really opened my eyes. Yesterday I cleaned out the office closet and got rid of 5 boxes of old gardening magazines I've been saving since god alone knows when. I leafed thru a few: blurry pictures, out of date information, and "news" about plants that have since become *yawn* soooo jejeune, darling. The debate now is over a very heavy box of old National Geographics. At first I thought save at least some of very old ones (1952), but now I'm thinking I'll just toss the whole lot. Everybody says "Oh they are collectible!" but nobody actually wants them.
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Got more nice stones for the Folly Wall raised bed. The township did a little grading along a nearby road and scraped out a lot of stones, some of which are perfect size/shape for my project. I may go back again today and get a few more. I really want to finish that retaining wall bed; as it stands, instead of making progress there, I'm actually behind because I had to dismantle the wall.

Green. Everything is suddenly so green you want to grab a fork and eat it. The veg is getting behind but the soil is so saturated I don't want to try to work it. I have heavy clay and working it when wet is a disaster. Got my red Pontiac potatoes in on Thursday morning; peas are up and growing nicely. Asparagus is starting to shoot; I think I have a few spears that are big enough to harvest Hurray! I need to get some feed on those plants.

Which reminds me. I'm going to make up a few notes and every time I go past a local house with a horse I'm going to leave a note asking if they have manure I could have. My steady source of lovely horse manure is gone and altho I'm making do with my hen's product, nothing, in King Charles III's words, "is better than good rotted horse manure."

Indoors, my old Moonflower seeds germinated beautifully; I now have more moonflower seedlings than I need, but that's ok. I can find room. Marigolds and Cosmos are germinated; still waiting to see if the zinnias will come up. I'm trying to use up old seed from 2020. I'm going to be ruthless and toss everything that's 2020; I'm tired of wasting time with old seed that has given up the ghost.
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Saw a report on "urban wastelands" in the UK, city areas where there's nothing much green, and how residents are taking it on themselves in to transform waste spaces into community gardens. In one area, neighbors cleaned up a garbage-filled alley and made it into a lovely garden. This got me thinking; we hear a lot about urban wastelands, but nobody in the US really notices the "suburban" and even "rural" wastelands all around. Acres on acres of mowed grass, maybe a tree or two, and nothing else. The neighborhood I live in was divided into 2-acre lots when we all bought and built. Of about 20 lots, I have the ONLY vegetable garden. Most of the other properties are just grass and widely spaced trees. And most of the trees are only there by accident. Think of all the beauty, biodiversity, and wildlife habitat that is missing! As a nation, we really need to encourage more people to create gardens. I'm not suggesting everyone put in a highly productive veg patch; it's a lot of work and I know most people don't have the time or inclination. But somehow we should promote more low-maintenance landscape planting: mulched islands of trees and shrubs to provide beauty, shade, and wildlife cover. I think it's important that we as gardeners get the word out there that gardening doesn't have to be back-breaking, exhausting work or even very expensive. I remember when I offered some daffodil bulbs to my neighbor she asked if I'd plant them because she was afraid it would be too much for her; I had to assure her that all she needed to do was dig a hole and drop them in. We need to educate others--- and here's a shout-out to SlowCala for her efforts. It sounds like she's encouraging a whole neighborhood of gardeners! Thumbs up Let's take a lesson and do likewise.

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