It seems like every year I post signs of spring and then – bam! – we get more winter. This time, my signs of spring will be one post at a time.
The barrels are back!
It’s a true sign of spring: the rain barrels are set up! Last year – well, last year was difficult. I’m glad to see one of my favorite garden tools – or should I say supplier? this is my main water source – is up and running.
It’s March. Correction: It’s March in Wisconsin. That can mean anything, weather -wise. So of course, what am I doing? I’m planning my garden.
I was reading about blueberries when I stumbled upon a fact that I hadn’t known: blueberries like acidic soil. Raspberries prefer a less acidic bed. Last summer we planted raspberry canes salvaged from the area behind the garage (pre-garage replacement) back into the topsoil salvaged from the same garage project. We bought a few raspberry starter plants from the Plant Station to supplement and maybe cross pollinate the originals. As long as they were on sale, we bought a few blueberry canes, too.
Oops. If my research is correct, one berry will grow well and the other won’t. I haven’t tested the soil for pH yet (duh, it’s still frozen!), and maybe I won’t. I bought myself a soil pH meter last year as a treat – gardening for geeks! Yea! – so I will probably measure at least the pH in the main raised beds. I like to rotate “crops” anyway, and this will help me place my vegetables where they’ll grow best.
But seriously, I’ve never gone to the trouble of testing my soil. I just stir in homegrown compost, dump the rabbit’s litter boxes (now there’s a source of acidic fertilizer), and plant away. Maybe the best plan is to watch the berry canes for a year and see what really thrives.
I’ll monitor the berry situation – eventually. For now, the snow has to melt.
My school-related goals get set in August, as the agrarian calendar puts the school year in place. The arrival of the New Year, the number change in the ones place, is a whole different animal.
Goals with gimmicks are most likely to catch the attention of readers in the blogosphere. Remember A Year of Slow Cooking? A blogger decided to use her slow cooker every day for a full year. I use mine a lot, but 365 continuous days would be unrealistic. The standard weight loss and nutrition goals always suggest themselves. Household chores – clean more often, clean more thoroughly – those go on the “should” list. Gardening chores – aren’t chores, really. Garden goals are enjoyable. Some of those plans get set in the fall, too. I planted onion and garlic bulbs in October. With this odd El Nino winter, who knows what will happen?
But back to goals.
We have a saying in our family: Progress in Baby Steps. To make progress on any goal, small steps are the way to go. Take my garden and canning hobbies for examples. I started growing tomatoes and a few other plants I’d bought as seedlings in the spring. The plot got bigger, and I expanded into growing a few plants from seed. One year I started tomato and pepper plants from seed – and the rest is history. But if I’d started a large plot totally from seed in the first years, it’s likely I’d have gotten poor results. Canning, too. That first batch of raspberry jam in Green Girl’s kitchen certainly was the “gateway drug” to putting up more and more. We haven’t bought commercially made jam, salsa, or pickles in years.
In that light, no big goals for January 1st. I might set short term goals and attempt short term projects. I’ll blog some of those, in particular if those short term goals are successful and lead to long term results.
Readers, what are your plans for New Year’s Goals and Resolutions?
The rain barrels are emptied and turned upside down.
The cushions are inside.
Onion and garlic are planted; we’ll see if they come up in the spring or if the winter critters dig them up. I saved a few bulbs and cloves, just in case.
The lawn and the leaves got mowed into mulch one last time and dumped on the garden plots.
Lawnmower is in the shed, and snowblowers are in the garage.
Winter jackets are in the mudroom, and the windbreakers have been through the wash and put away.
Gloves and mittens sit in the back hallway where the baseball caps used to be.
I have pumpkin spice coffee in the coffeemaker.
I’m ready, Winter. Bring it on.
We have a small football pool at work. We call it “Wings” because when all is done, we’ll go out together for wings, and the winner will not have to pay. So far, I’m only in the running for the longest losing streak.
It’s a good thing I’m doing better in the home picks. The irony here is that I’m tied for the lead with (wait for it) the rabbit. The rabbit “picks” based on the team name – the mascot, mainly. Bunny prefers teams with names/mascots that are friendly to (you guessed it) rabbits. Packers play the Vikings? Packers, of course. Seahawks play the 49ers? San Francisco. Falcons play the Eagles? That one is difficult. No rabbit in her right mind would like an eagle or a falcon. For that matter, no rabbit would truly enjoy NFL football. So what is my pet rabbit doing in the family football pool? Never mind. Don’t ask.
I spent time on this beautiful day with no Packer game tending to the fall garden chores. Took down tie strips from the tomatoes, pulled up tomato and pepper plants, stashed the tomato support poles next to the storage shed. Tripped over a board, skinned one knee, and now the other knee and ankle are throbbing. Took ibuprofen. Held ice pack on joints.
To top it all off, laundry is still thundering through its cycles. I managed to combine everything into four loads, and I enlisted Amigo in helping move loads from washer to dryer. With his help, I might actually be done by the time he throws his own laundry in on Monday.
Time to look forward. To really prep for Monday, I should check my emails and grade tests and quizzes online. Should. I’ll give it my best effort, though. I try. You know I really try.
Here’s what I said on an autumn day nine years ago. Photo credit goes to La Petite. She was already talented with a camera back then.
Things I can do now until the cold weather strikes:
*Clean the bunny litter boxes outside with the hose
*Take small amounts of easily digestible compost out to the bin
*Shake rugs out on the deck in my stocking feet
*Take out garbage and recycling without a coat or jacket
*Rake leaves (a simple pleasure)
I can’t:
*Harvest from the garden, the last frost did it in
*Sit out on the backyard swing, it’s just a bit too cold to enjoy
*Leave the windows open, because the heat is on
But I can enjoy:
*Coffee or tea or hot spiced apple cider in a favorite mug
*A wood fire blazing in the fireplace
*NFL or college football on television
*leaves falling outside as I read a book in the cozy, warm den
Know what, readers? Not much has changed. I now compost through the winter with a second bin closer to the house. I still carry the bunny boxes outside, and after I empty them in the compost or in the garden, I rinse them with water from the rain barrels instead of using the hose. It’s windy enough today that I don’t feel the need to rake leaves, but I don’t mind the chore. I pile the leaves, like the biodegradable litter, on top of the raised beds. No wonder my tomatoes grow so tall!
Readers, how about you? Do your fall chores stay the same each year? Or differ greatly?
Was this really only two years ago? So much has happened since then. I was looking forward to spring, not knowing what awaited me. I still look forward to spring – as soon as I can get the tomatoes indoors for the fall harvest.
I’m looking forward to spring. I know, it’s not even winter yet, but autumn is the season when I pull apart the fading foliage of my garden and take steps to prepare for next spring. Chuck got into the thick of it this year. Take a look.
Straw bales and repurposed boards
Another Angle
Rather Awesome, I’d say.
Yesterday and today I took to the task of harvesting all tomatoes that could ripen indoors. The herb pots are already inside. Next, I pulled all the tomato plants and tossed them on the brush pile at the back of our yard.
We’re adding leftover potting soils to the new patch as I deal with most of the containers. If weather permits, I will dig out compost from the base of the brush pile and from the base of the compost bin and fill in what I can of the new patch. It’s going to be a raised bed, built inside the repurposed lumber that Chuck assembled so nicely. Whatever I don’t fill this fall, we’ll build up next spring.
It’s another experiment: straw bale gardening. As long as we were expanding the once-triangular plot, we decided to try the bales. A year from now, when the growing season is done, the straw-based soil will become compost for the future. Planning ahead, we are.
But stay tuned, folks. There are still piles and piles of green tomatoes ripening indoors. I’m sure there will be stories.
So, readers, what kind of autumn tasks have fallen your way? Leaves? Lawns?
If the Packers play the Rams often enough, I might be convinced to invest in a small home fryer for making fried ravioli. This time, though, we stuck with what we know we can make.
The neighborhood meat market had pork steaks on sale (coincidence? we think not), so Chuck grilled up a batch of St. Louis style pork steaks with an amazing marinade. He boiled up fresh corn from the farmers’ market and some of my freshly harvested carrots and parsnips. Oh, those veggies were good.
I made a St. Louis Mississippi Mud Cake – delicious. Absolutely delicious.
Frankly, between our menu and Aaron Rodgers’ arm, the Rams don’t stand a chance.
It was a day that wasn’t quite going right – a day to make the best of less-than-average situations. I decided to make our Eating the Opponent San Francisco from scratch instead of going to the store. We combined a home-made rice-a-roni style dish with a simple fish pan fried in butter to suggest Fisherman’s Wharf. I picked a few carrots, parsnips, and one turnip from the garden to enhance the rice-pasta dish. Rice and vegetables could cook well together, I thought.
The carrots were purple. The rice became purple, too.
Purple rice
It was delicious. After cooking in chicken broth, then adding a little maggi sauce, onion, garlic, and despite its hue, we enjoyed every bite.
I must remember these carrots when we play the Minnesota Vikings.
There really ought to be a theme song for tomato season. We could sing it to the tune of Oklahoma.
But back to reality, I’ve had a lot of tomatoes become ripe and on the way to ripe. I pick most of them so we can eat them and the wild things in the neighborhood can not.
Tomatoes in the sun
from left to right – ripening
tomatoes for freezer
and last but not least, yellow pear.
And there’s more where those came from, folks. Lots more.
Readers, do you have an abundance of tomatoes? What will you make with them? You can leave a comment here, and you can see more gardeners with an abundance of something on Harvest Monday at Daphne’s Dandelions.