YAG – Yet Another Garden #mngarden

I had entertained an idea of no garden this year, but the thought of missing out on fresh tomatoes and peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers and tomatoes … well, you get the idea. I really like garden tomatoes!

The last few years I’m less enthusiastic about gardening. Actually, I think it’s the “preparing the garden” part. You know, laying out the soaker hoses, covering them with fabric mulch, putting up the panels for the tomatoes and cukes, and gathering mulch. Lots of mulch. And that’s all before I do any planting.

Yeesh.

We’re running out of the pickles I did a few years back (OMG, like 5 dozen quarts!), so it’s time to do pickles again. My son actually absconded with a quart, reminding me of all the times I did the same thing with my mom’s pickles whenever I came home during college. She made awesome pickles.

So, here it is. Take a good look, because this is the least amount of weeds there will be. Bonus: we left the perimeter fence up with the chicken wire from last year–take that, rabbits!

Using some wood chips this year for mulch

Pig panel for cucumbers to climb and cattle panels for tomatoes on the right

Did I hear you ask what I planted this year? Sure I did 🙂 So, here’s the list, starting with my favorite: tomatoes, a couple zucchini, cucumbers, beets, kale (hey, I like kale), kohlrabi, onions (of course!), brussels sprouts, green beans, peppers, cilantro, dill, radishes, pie pumpkins (because pumpkin bread!), and I got a sample packet of basil. Oh, and marigolds this year, because color and marigolds just might discourage pests. Maybe. But they should be pretty.

I will say I’m glad I didn’t have to figure out where to plant potatoes this year. Hubs tilled another spot and planted potatoes and sweet corn (because I refuse to plant sweet corn anymore). Thing is, creeping Charlie is rampant in that location, or it was before he tilled. Yes, I warned him. And no, I’m not weeding it for him, which I also told him.

Oh, you’re wondering why I won’t plant sweet corn anymore? First, you have to plant at least 4 rows to get good pollination, because corn is wind-pollinated. Then, you have a limited window of time to pick it when it’s at the perfect ripeness. And it’s all ready at the same time. After that week or so, the corn starts getting starchy.

Yes, I know you can freeze sweet corn, but it’s usually ready when I’m in WI at my Writing Sisters reunion, and apparently no one else can pick corn. And a person can only eat so much sweet corn. A lot of the corn ends up staying on the stalk and aging out of the prime eating stage. Hence, I refuse to plant sweet corn.

Anyway. There you have it. As for writing, I’m still revising. Turned in my homework and got feedback. One more assignment to go, this one analyzes plot. I’m so glad I took the class; it’s really helping me focus on cutting the chaff, and notice what I’m lacking, at least at this point in the revision process. My instructor’s comments will help me through the next round of revision.

So, enjoy the glorious spring weather (in the southern hemisphere, enjoy your autumn 😀 ). Don’t forget to keep writing!

Happy Memorial Day!

Image by Keturah Moller from Pixabay

For those in the US: Happy Memorial Day! For everyone else, Happy Spring Weekend!

Super short post: Hope everyone is doing well. I’m gardening this weekend, so next week I’ll post pics of my super-spectacular–well, maybe just super–garden.

Enjoy your holiday weekend (even if it’s not really an official holiday for you, just pretend 😀 )! Keep writing!

YAW (Yet Another Week) and more Spring!

The squill are blooming

As I cross week 7 off the calendar, I’m finding it harder to focus (like that’s different than any other day). Then again, at least this whole work-from-home stuff is happening as the weather is getting nicer rather than as winter sets in. At least I can get outside and enjoy sunshine and new green growth and allergies–um, wait, scratch that last one.

Seems my allergies kick in now when the boxelder trees that make up most of our grove are blooming, if you can call the little dangly things flowers. And for those wondering, yes, boxelder bugs are associated with boxelder trees, but they focus on the female trees (which, oddly enough (ha!) ) are the ones that flower. They are harmless bugs, but creepy (which is why I am not going to include a picture here, but you can see for yourself). They really don’t become a nuisance until late summer, when the seeds are ready to helicopter down from the trees.

Now that we’re past the late snow point for the most part here in MN, I’m thinking about the garden. Hubs tilled the spot once so far. I want him to till it again before I plant. Here it is in all its naked glory:

The raspberries are popping up everywhere, and I mean, everywhere! That’s the one thing to remember about raspberries: they spread by subterranean runners. They have expanded beyond the original patch and are invading the asparagus. Which, by the way, is doing nicely so far:

Asparagus, with misbehaving raspberries

All that green behind the asparagus is raspberries blatantly flaunting the informal boundary between raspberries and asparagus. You can see there are more than a few poking up within the asparagus spears.

In any case, I got to enjoy my most favorite springtime treat this week (even if I had to share with hubs and daughter).

Mmmmm, aparagus!

The harvest has been declining, due, I think, to a combination of competition from the raspberries and the shade of a renegade tree we haven’t cut down yet. We need to do that (should have done it ages ago) because it’s right at the corner of the barn. I hate to cut down any trees, but luckily the boxelders grow like weeds. Or unluckily, because this renegade is a boxelder.

In any case, I need to find a new place to establish an asparagus patch. The question is where, both in a sunny spot and out of the way of summer mowing and renegade trees. You’d think with eight acres I’d be able to find some place to put it.

Anyway, hubs tilled a new patch of ground for the potatoes. Great, except for the fact that the spot was previously conquered by creeping Charlie. Crossing fingers the potatoes can/will outcompete the invading creeper. On the bright side, that leaves me more room in the main garden for stuff like tomatoes and cucumbers.

I’ll post pics of my seedlings before I plant. They are doing pretty well, and seem to like the grow lights. It’ll be a couple weeks before I plant, just because I know (like everyone else in MN) that we can still get frosts in May. Not often, but it happens. I’ll keep you updated, because it seems a lot of people enjoy it. Thanks!

This weekend I plan to clean a bit (ugh!) and focus. I’m about halfway through the first round of revisions, and of course as I go I have those head-slapping “duh” moments that force me to go back to an earlier chapter to adjust so later chapters make more sense. And watch for a special announcement next week!

Until then, enjoy the weather, the spring green, and write!

Zoey rolls around on the dog’s rug bed when the coast is clear!

Cabin fever yet?

Image by Thorsten Frenzel from Pixabay

Today I finished my second week of working from home.

Needless to say, the home office idea is climbing on the to-do list. However, it’s still below spring cleaning, mostly because every time I see a cobweb or dust bunny or muddy dog prints on the kitchen floor I am reminded how much better I am at procrastinating than I was yesterday. Or last week.

On the bright side, we had SUNSHINE today! Yippee! And warm weather, around 50 F. I enjoyed a couple nice walks. It’s amazing how good a sunny spring day makes you feel.

So, in the spirit of a long-awaited awakening of trees and weeds, and a drier yard (short-lived low mud levels since we’re supposed to get rain this weekend), I have a couple pics of my baby plants.

This year hubs and I decided to try using genuine grow lights for the seedlings. For years we have been using shop lights with fluorescent lightbulbs. They worked great in the beginning, and hubs rigged them up so I could adjust the height as the plants grew.

Thing is, those bulbs weaken over time, so the last time I started seeds, the plants ended up leggy (tall and spindly) even though I had the lights almost touching the plants. Plants get leggy when they are stretching to get more light. That’s why being able to adjust the distance between the lights and the plants is important. Keep the light close enough so the plants don’t need to reach for it.

Anyway, grow lights tend to be pink in color because apparently seedlings like red and blue wavelengths in particular. These days, grow lights are often a combination of red and blue LEDs.

Ready?

You sure?

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

Peppers, onions, and more peppers. Can’t see the tomatoes very well.

Peppers, onions, and kale in the blue container

Do the plants like the grow lights better than regular lights? It’s hard to say so far. Once the plants get big enough to transplant, it’ll be easier to tell if the oh-my-god-PINK light makes a difference.

Now, to help your retinas recover …

I’ve worked from home before, and Zoey has a routine in the morning: come downstairs (she sleeps in my son’s room), stretch and roll around on the floor, snack, then beg to be petted. Since I sit toward the front of my chair, there’s room behind me for her to jump up and hang out behind me.

Has she ever sat on my lap while I’m working? Nope. That is, until this week.

I’m not sure if she was just curious about what I was doing, or just felt needy since my son had returned to his apartment the night before.

Anyway, it was fun while it lasted.

Hope everyone is staying safe, washing hands, practicing social distancing. Remember, you can still enjoy the outdoors, just not within 6 feet of anyone else. Sunshine does a brain good!

Happy Leap Day!

I was going to dig up some interesting factoids and myths about Leap Day, but I didn’t find anything super interesting.

Such as, even though the Egyptians figured out that the Earth takes a little more than a calendar year for its solar round trip, the Romans added the 29th to February, and Pope Gregory XIII tweaked that formula so we only get that evasive Feb 29th every four years.

And I learned that people who are actually born on February 29 can’t use that birthdate; computers really don’t like it, so they have to pick the 28th or March 1st. Oh, and women are supposed to propose to men on that day. It’s an interesting story involving St. Brigid and St. Patrick.

And then I asked, why does February get short-changed on days, hmm? That apparently is what we get when we let ancient Romans create a calendar. Or rather, when the Romans let superstition get the better of them. Who knew having even-numbered months or worse, an even-numbered year, was bad luck? So some guy named Numa came up with a calendar that made sure the year had an odd number of days. In order to do that, one lucky month had to have an even number of days.

Guess who got the short straw. Yup. Poor February. Even when Julius Caeser decided to fix Numa’s whacked calendar, February got gyped.

Then again, if February has fewer days, it means we get to March faster. And that means we get to Spring faster! The equinox is in a few weeks. Yippee!

I’ll be starting my seeds this weekend. This year hubs and I decided to try out special grow lights. We’ve been using shop lights with flourescent bulbs, but the bulbs lose some umph every year. The last time I had seedlings they didn’t grow all that well. The ones we’re getting are LED lights, so our electricity bill shouldn’t change too much. We’ll see how things go.

One more day to work on my rural MN WIP, then I’ll be diving into Book 2 revisions. Aaand, we’ll leave it at that for now. The first 100 pages or so I’m not so worried about because I worked on them with my writing teacher for a class. It’s the remaining 200 pages that worry me.

At least I have something to revise (after eight freaking tries to get a first draft completed. Sheesh!).

Have a great writing weekend!