I can see spring from here
Heinz recently chopped down several trees, mostly dead but some alive, and my birthday this year was spent splitting and stacking wood (there is a wood-splitting machine that hooks onto the tractor's PTO, but you still have to haul the giant stumps up onto the machine). After splitting, the three-foot, still hefty ("I'm making firewood, not kindling!") pieces of wood get stacked on a wagon. There was a girl doing a farm visit this week and we were able to team up on heaving some of the heavier, sap-filled pieces onto a pile taller than our heads.
My real birthday present was the weather this weekend (high 50s and low 60s--my definition of nice weather has broadened since coming to the farm).
I'm sitting in a wicker chair on the front porch, in the shade but with bare feet stretched out in the sun. On the clothesline are a pair of socks and two scarves that are waving in the wind like banners. In front of me are two not-very-square beds marked off by brick borders. They mostly contain dead leaves and wood chips, but just this weekend I noticed the leaves of some bulbs emerging from their drab surroundings (Gabrielle tells me they're going to be daffodils).
Despite the fact that I work on a vegetable farm, I'm excited by the prospect of having a garden of my own. In recent explorations, I discovered that last summer's residents carved out a 13' x 27' plot on a gentle slope facing west. I immediately started making a list of things that I want to plant. Most of them are things that Heinz doesn't grow (corn, edamame, jalapenos, Job's tears, yellow pear tomatoes, mint) but some are crops that he grows but that don't result in many seconds that I can freely take (basil).
Further inspection of the garden plot revealed that some plants are already coming up. Besides the inescapable chives, I found a few small, gnarled spinach plants (glad they turned out to be spinach, because I tasted them), two spearmint plants/patches putting up new leaves, some dead celery that seems to have some new growth in the center, and lots of little bulbs with leaves thicker than chives. I can't tell if they're going to grow into larger onions or not. I'm going to leave them be for now. Yesterday as I sat at the picnic table drawing out a grid on which to plan my garden (I am my mother's daughter), Gabrielle drove by with the girls and stopped to pick up my recycling. When I mentioned corn and edamame to her, she warned me that I would be competing with deer and groundhogs. As she drove off, a groundhog appeared 30 feet from where I was sitting, slowly and obliviously ambling along. The wind rustled my papers and his amble became a hustle, and he was gone before I could get out my camera. Later, I went into town and bought some Liquid Fence, which is made of rotten eggs, and which is supposed to deter deer.
My real birthday present was the weather this weekend (high 50s and low 60s--my definition of nice weather has broadened since coming to the farm).
I'm sitting in a wicker chair on the front porch, in the shade but with bare feet stretched out in the sun. On the clothesline are a pair of socks and two scarves that are waving in the wind like banners. In front of me are two not-very-square beds marked off by brick borders. They mostly contain dead leaves and wood chips, but just this weekend I noticed the leaves of some bulbs emerging from their drab surroundings (Gabrielle tells me they're going to be daffodils).
Despite the fact that I work on a vegetable farm, I'm excited by the prospect of having a garden of my own. In recent explorations, I discovered that last summer's residents carved out a 13' x 27' plot on a gentle slope facing west. I immediately started making a list of things that I want to plant. Most of them are things that Heinz doesn't grow (corn, edamame, jalapenos, Job's tears, yellow pear tomatoes, mint) but some are crops that he grows but that don't result in many seconds that I can freely take (basil).
Further inspection of the garden plot revealed that some plants are already coming up. Besides the inescapable chives, I found a few small, gnarled spinach plants (glad they turned out to be spinach, because I tasted them), two spearmint plants/patches putting up new leaves, some dead celery that seems to have some new growth in the center, and lots of little bulbs with leaves thicker than chives. I can't tell if they're going to grow into larger onions or not. I'm going to leave them be for now. Yesterday as I sat at the picnic table drawing out a grid on which to plan my garden (I am my mother's daughter), Gabrielle drove by with the girls and stopped to pick up my recycling. When I mentioned corn and edamame to her, she warned me that I would be competing with deer and groundhogs. As she drove off, a groundhog appeared 30 feet from where I was sitting, slowly and obliviously ambling along. The wind rustled my papers and his amble became a hustle, and he was gone before I could get out my camera. Later, I went into town and bought some Liquid Fence, which is made of rotten eggs, and which is supposed to deter deer.
Comments
;)
By the way, I didn't forget your birthday. I figure we'll celebrate Sunday. And I have a weird gift for you...but after X-mas, I figured it was time for something practical.
I hear that capsaicin also repels deer, there are some "blend these usually-thrown-out veggie scraps with water, then strain to create spritzable pest control stuff for your garden" recipes that came with my Blender Of Great Magicness - email me and remind me if you'd like them.
Happy belated birthday!
And deer in the fields? That's what I call "Meat in the Garden." This was supposed to be the title of one the children's book that my mom wrote that the publishers reject. :(