Garden Update

 I packed my beds pretty tightly this  year and I am starting to think a bit too tight. This one above is herbs, swiss chard and lettuce.

 Peas, beets, turnips, and zucchini

 Green beans, herbs and peppers

 Tomatoes

 Garlic, asparagus, rhubarb and nastruiums

 onions, leeks

 peaches

 My new artichoke is establishing, yea! (cucumbers behind)

 raspberries and strawberries

 flowers

 blueberries

 hydrangeas

figs

Cats and Baby Birds

For a few years now a robin has made a nest above our backdoor on the light there. I haven't noticed much except the birds always fly off the nest when we open the door. This year it was traumatic to find fledging robins hopping on the ground while my favorite cat stalked them from a few feet away. I decided to keep my cat inside for a few days while these baby birds hopped away. Except that proved very difficult. The cat was obnoxiously meowing and running to the door every time we opened. it. So I let her out. I came home to find her playing with one of the live robin fledglings on our porch so we could see her "catch".

I freaked out. Joffre's advice was "close your eyes and walk through the door".  I couldn't do it. So I put it way out  on the other side of the fence in our yard. I went to check on it and found that it wasn't attacked by the cat. It had just hopped into the middle of the road! I moved it into the field across the street where something else will eat it and did not look for it again. I was determined not to mettle any longer....till today.

I saw June ( the favorite cat) carrying a baby Blue Jay in her mouth to the backyard to play with it. AAArgh! The mom Jay was dive bombing her the whole time but she had that bird. So yes, I rescued it. This time I immediately took it to the field across the street and only checked on it once. It was a lot cuter than the robins. It had a fuzzy head that started to have that finlike point on top and it's pretty blue feathers where coming in... but I will not check on it again. Spring is getting stressful with the cats.

Gardening for Gen X and Yers

I read these two articles, Greening Up the Slackers and Where Are the Gen X& Y Gardeners , about the lack of Gen X and Y gardeners. It was interesting to think about this and try to think about what our Generation is like.

I agree with the criticism of the Greening Up guy about the laziness of our Generation. I think we don't like to work even though most of us are at "work" a lot of the time.  Most are working to make money not because we are satisfied by our work. We don't know how to enjoy work (like gardening). We are also spending lots of time at work because so much of work today is inefficient.

A lot of the "Where are the gardeners" article's comments mention that they are in apartments. I think a lot of our generation lives in apartments or is renting . We also move a lot. People buy a house and want to create a garden but you have commit to staying in a place for a while to slowly create a garden. You have to have a 5 to 10 year plan with gardening. I don't think patience and "settling" are virtues of our generation.

There is also the issue of having to deal with the last generation's ideas of gardening. Tearing up entire lawns and trying to find ways to get rid of grass is difficult, and not well enough explored yet. We don't know what to do with what we've got . One thing that irritated me a little in the Greening Up article was his assumption that what a lot of our generation likes are ornamental grasses and succulents, etc. That's a very modern look (not even postmodern if you ask me) which I dislike. I still like roses and hydrangeas mixed with some succulents etc. I don't want to paint my walls purple and plant cactus next to it. We haven't figured out a more balanced aesthetic to replace lawns. We also haven't figured out how to go back to keeping plants healthy without chemicals.

Lastly, we are broke. We don't have our parent's income to work with and that makes it a slower and more difficult process. Add things like new copyright laws on plants that are disease resistant and easier to care for that you aren't even allowed to propagate for free and it makes buying plants expensive. (Ridiculous that you can copyright an organism.) There is a trend to grow your own food and do square foot gardening because of food ethics and smaller incomes. Honestly I haven't seen that much earnestness from my generation even about that. The enthusiasm wanes when problems arise like pests.

I personally just decided to experiment on my own and see if I could rid myself of the gardening work I don't like (weed wacking, applying weed killer, and  most of the lawn mowing). I will have to do this work till a lot of my plants get bigger  and shade out weeds etc. but hopefully I am replacing that work with weeding raised beds and pruning that I don't mind. I don't plant needy plants ( I only plant the disease resistant landscape roses and hydrangeas) and I am looking for ways to get rid of lawn. I have decided not to care about having grass in my lawn vs. weed lawn. I do love landscaping with edibles and raised beds with weed barrier beneath them like many of our generation. Hopefully more of my generation will learn a love for gardening and better ways to garden.

Epsom Salt is Great for Gardens

I thought this article about the benefits of Epsom Salt in gardens was interesting.

Garden Update

Sorry about how blurry a few of these are.

  

Resurrection Reel

We had our annual dance for our church. I organized it this year and made one terrific decision...We had it at a barn. It was super fun. We all brought platters of sandwiches and the church provided all the sides and desserts. We even opened up the doors and the kids played in the meadow when they weren't dancing. Fun times.

Sugar Leaves

Ward was walking upstairs with something stuffed in his cheeks. I stopped him and he looked nervous. So I was nervous. "What's in your mouth, son?" "Sugar leaves." I spent a few minutes in confusion before I realized he had found my new Stevia (natural sweetener) plant. My very small Stevia plant. "Let it grow big before you eat the leaves, ok?" "Ok".  The little booger.