Strawberries? Seriously???? in April??? and the new Combs' vineyard --Dianne

Okay, people,  this weather thing has made life very interesting.  Yesterday, just before church, on April 29,  my daughter comes to me and says, "Hey, Mom, red strawberries in the garden!"  So we had to investigate, and sure enough, there were some!!  Alas, some of these have already become one with my insides, and so no longer appear as such.....

I also cut iris at church yesterday, in April!!  Just seems weird!.

I plunked some tomatoes into the garden yesterday from their in/out-the garage wheelbarrow.  I moved the white hooped row cover over some of them.  I am thinking that this year I will use posts for support, instead of my old fencing material.  I never seem to find just that perfect tomato support system. By the end of the summer, I always have a jungle. 

A list of tomatoes I have planted:  Park Whoppers,  Better Girl , Golden.  I still have some more to get into the ground.  I'm not putting so many in this year, I still have boxes of jarred juice in the basement, and canning time will hit right when I start up fall semester.  May hit the Amish auction in Guion, Park County, if I feel the need for large amounts at one time.  I usually get canner tomatoes for $2 a box.   I'm sure that this week they must be selling hanging baskets for about a dollar.   Sounds great until you have to cram a lot of 25 into your car!  Also, bedding plants should be going for very cheap.

Bill's brother, Bob, the engineer, and his family have lived on the family farm since they got married.  Bob decided a few years ago that he was not going to farm any more, and someone else rents the land from him.  However, he and his wife, Debbie, along with lots of friends and family, have been  put in about 600 grape vines for their new vineyard!  They live near the Wild Cat Creek Winery in Clinton County, east of Lafayette, and have decided to become grape growers.  I'm not sure what kind they are growing, but it sounds really ambitious.  We're about to get a bunch of rain this week, which should help with their just-planted vines.

I'm hoping that this on/off spring weather doesn't affect what they already had in the ground.  My big grape arbor looks like someone took a blowtorch to it.  I heard Welch's people on TV last week bemoaning the big freeze in the midwest, and how it will affect their crop this year.   We keep running out with tarps to throw over the potatoes, but I think for at least this week, we should be fine.  I keep my eye on the nightly low temps, and for this week, we seem to be staying in the 50's, hence the tomatoes have gone out.  I put canning jars over some of them for mini- greenhouses.

I am slowly getting control over the weeds that also came up early.  That stinkin' $%#$@# ground ivy  that is the bane of my gardening life has made a grand appearance this year, we have had some vicious wars in the front garden, I can tell you! 

AND, he's Ba-a-a-a-a-a-ck!! yes, that annoying groundhog has shown his face around here again,  having spent the winter rent-free under my barn floor. 
   Sure, eat up, fuzzball, I'm gunning for you, my furry little munching friend.  May you be sprinkled with the pellets from my son's gun so much that you go live somewhere else.  No sweet potatoes for you  to snack on this year, my fine friend!

Oh, and I've been very cautious in the garden, since Oh, Shi===, the snake, has progeny lurking about.  Robbie saw one first,  I could hear him yelling over the noise of the tiller!! 

Just had a wonderful rain, so weeding should be better tomorrow.

Now get out there and get dirty, folks!!


Dianne, Dirt and all!

Coming Soon! Book Review of Seedfolk from Young Adult author

Reading about gardens is as much fun as playing in them. When my student Jennifer asked me to critique an essay for Sylvia K Burdock Award, she introduced me to another book about gardening. In a few days, the award should be announced and we've agreed that would be a good time to publish her essay here.

In the meantime, NPR's Backseat Book Club promoted Seedfolks by Paul Fleishman. Check out an excerpt here.

Then, think about how gardens grow even where unbidden. I am enjoying the prospect of scavenge gardening, even as the rabbits have threatened my tomato, bean, pea and carrot starts. I lost most of 8-ball and melon starts in this wonky spring that turned warm, then snapped windy and cold. They were not in ground yet. They might have been safer there, where their lusty root system, pushing out of the pots wanted to crawl out. I was worried about the cold snap. I left in them the portable greenhouse which tumbled in gusty winds.  They were weary of their confines and gave up their lives in that last hurdle. Now we shall have to buy starts and plant seeds in a week or so for late rounds.

Care to make the most of your local plants? How about this. I learned Stinging Nettles, blanched in water, become delicious pesto. I think the economic downturn has made us all be a bit more creative. No dumpster diving yet, though I've thought about it. Instead, the growing season brings hope for yummier days.  Enjoy this link to NPR's "The Salt" blog for an affordable spring pesto.

yikes, we've been frostbitten!!!--Dianne

Here in Indiana we have had a wacky late winter/spring.  80 degrees and trees almost fully leafed out.  Flowers blooming 2-4 weeks ahead of schedule.  Lots of things blooming at the same time that usually never do....

After recovering from midnight Paschal service yesterday, April 15, I was up and  out trying to spread some mulch around in a front flower bed and found that my hostas got very frostbitten in a couple of frosts last week.  Their cells literally exploded in the leaves.  The leaves look watery, limp, and pale.  They feel almost slimey. 

I have hydrangeas that are blackened, all new growth has been killed off.  Several other shrubs in the garden are looking bad, like Rose of Sharon.  The newest leaves on some plants are dead, crispy, black ick on the ends of branches.

I had put out some early crop broccoli along with cabbages.  They are showing some stress, as in light patches on leaves.  I believe they will recover, since we had a nice rain in the night Saturday.

I have been researching what to do with my frostbitten plants... 

A) Leave trees alone.  They will put out new growth, and push off the deadened leaves.  Do NOT fertilize.  Do NOT prune heavily.  You may do some light trimming back of damaged leaves, but no heavy branch trimming.  Give it time to recover.

B) Hostas and other smaller plants, it is okay to trim them back.  They will also put out new leaves.  Do NOT fertilize.  Fertilizing them now puts extra strain on them to put out leaves while they are recovering.  It could overwork the plant.  In fact, what I read said not to fertilize them at all until next year. Tomatoes will probably not recover if frostbitten.

C)  Make sure your plants are getting enough water to continue new growth. It has actually been dry here, and I had been watering anyway.  Now I must continue, to reduce stress load on recovering plants.  

Having married a former corn/bean dairy farmer,  I have learned to "farm" as we drive around.  We inspect fields, and he tells me yet again what has been chisel plowed, but not planted.   Two weeks ago, as we drove to Lafayette, and a grain truck in front of us drove over the center line and then off the side on the right.  I was freaking out!  I screamed at Bill, "What's he doing up there?"  Because NO one wants a fully loaded grain truck to spill in front of them!  Bill swerved a bit too, and replied, "Well, he probably just saw that guy over there planting corn the first week of April."   Sheesh...See what happens when the weather warms up?

This appears to be a 5 row planter.  Some can have many more attachments on the back and plant huge fields in much less time.  See the fertilizer tank on the front of the tractor?
So, last week, driving back from Indy, I actually saw corn up about 3 inches in a field.  I hope it survived the frost.

Here's a picture of frostbitten corn, about the same size that I saw. 

Like last year, I have repotted tomato plants in a wheelbarrow, and have been dragging it in and out of the garage everyday.  No frost bite and the plants are doing well!!

woohoo!  Just received my new issue of Urban Farm in the mail, time to find and pass on the last one to Maria. 

I hope you have all found an allergy medicine that makes you feel better with this early onslaught of every freakin' allergen in the world that has descended upon us early this year.  Every morning I have to pry my eyes open, and then they are swollen most of the morning.

Happy Gardening!! 

Dianne, dirt, allergies, and all

You might be a ....

A Grass to Gardens Fan if you are muttering "Die Grass Die" to the grass you are trying to hoe and handtill from your front lawn.

So I won third place in the Holland Bulb recipe contest:
http://www.bulbblog.com/3rd-place-winning-recipes/


I won 25 buckaroos, which are now coming in the form of White Clematis, a Francoise Ortegat Peony, and Columbines to join the creeping thyme and Pilgrim Cranberry creepers for the front lawn.

A Scavenge Gardener if your husband sauteed Dandelion greens, you hunt for fiddleheads and have stared down at weeds while walking hand-in-hand with your hubby, looking for purslane in the past year.

Make the recipe at the previous link and here, from Food and Wine Magazine.


The ultimate recycler/Portandia Fan, if your husband jokes,
"I see you pickled the {torn} mat to the dismantled trampoline" because your are using it around a tree to choke out the poison ivy.


In the clip below, they pickled the unsold Farmer's Market cukes.
Here's what I've been pickling:

1. The stems to broccoli.
 See this Wegman's link for some great Japanese pickling recipes.
2. Five-year aged Garlic Heads with peppercorns, balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar and sugar.



Check out the humor of pickling all veggies and food, as well as CD cases. Warning about the ending!

Hello, my little Chickadee!

What do you do when spring comes early? The cold crops got a good dose of 80+ degree weather in the past couple of weeks. The late starts got too much heat too early and are going to resent the cool snap starting tonight.

There is so much to do. The Pilgrim Cranberry bushes went into the ground last week as did several Brussel Sprout plants. Already the lettuce and arugula have taken off and my husband made the most of my travel time. He jiggered the spouts into the rain barrels, scavenged from the dandelion greens for a stir fry, and did a bit of this and that. Now it's time to locate more dirt for our raised beds.

I brought home six pullets just now, cute little drops of Easter chicks. They are peeping in fresh cedar up in my garden room, next to asparagus and broccoli starts. When they can hen peck back at the last two Rhode Island Reds from last year, we'll move them over to the chicken coop. Oh, how wonderful are these early days of spring, as E.B. White noted in Charlotte's Web.

Pictures will be posted soon of the three new species of chicks. The worm farm is outdoors now. I'll post pictures of our rain barrels, raised beds, cold frames, current bushes, and hopefully some scavenged raspberry starts. I bought the rooting hormone this afternoon and will return from my 10 miles in the morning with a quick trip to the nearest patch to cut some starts. In the meantime, here is how to convert some

Food grade barrels into recycled rainwater repositories

Tires to into Worm Farm

Happy Easter, Happy Spring, Blessed Pascha.

TICK on me!!!!!--Dianne

This is a tick, it is NOT your friend.

This is a tick burrowing into someone's skin.  Also, not your friend.

This is how big they actually are.

Wow!  took a shower, and was drying off, and felt something under my hand, looked in the mirror, and it was a brown thingie.  looked down, and it was a tick!!!  I may have to have Bill look me over like an orangutan before bed to see if I have any in my hair.   Be careful out there, people!

So, what's going on in the garden today?  LOTS and LOTS of seeds that survived our mild winter are now sprouting into young tree seedlings.  After some rain tomorrow night, I'm going to have to go out and start pulling them up, or I may have to rename my garden "The Haphazard Arboretum!"

Also, I talked about this last year, and it seems to be working for me.  I went out with a bag to the garden to pick all the dandelions I could find.  I don't like to spray if I don't have to, and this is a great way to get in all those squats I don't want to do for exercise class.  I don't have nearly as many as I had when we first moved here.  It takes a while to get down your numbers, but at least they aren't taking  over the garden.

My strawberries are blooming now, and should be fertilized tomorrow, before it rains. This is about 2 weeks early, just like everything else around here.  I hope you are all enjoying the beauty of the flowering trees through the fog of allergy eyes.  I nearly scratched mine out this evening. 

Maria said that one of her sisters was asking for recipes.  Today I ate some fabulous tabouli at a Mediterranean restaurant in Indy, Khouri's , over by Glendale Mall.  $7 lunch buffet.  yum. 

Tabouli---
couscous, cooked and cooled
finely chopped tomatoes
parsley , chopped
mint, chopped
olive oil
salt , pepper
chill when mixed

It is a light, refreshing salad.   I could see adding chopped cukes. Or, really, any crispy raw veg that you like.  The mint adds a zing that makes it perfect for a hot summer's day. It would be great as a side with a pita sandwich in place of chips.  Add some honey-drenched Middle-eastern dessert, and you are very happy. 
I also ate baba-ganoush, which is made with eggplant, something else I need to get into the garden this year.
I have tomatoes in pots,   brocs and cabbages in a newly turned garden.  It is a spot that I heavily composted and grew potatoes in last year, I can't believe the difference in the "friability" of the soil,  it practically runs through my fingers, as opposed to the clay from the foundation digging that was originally there.    Keep composting, it works!!

Seems like with a warmer winter, the garden jobs are just piling up.  Remember to keep the pain reliever handy, and drink water frequently.  Oh, and occasionally, a cold "liquid bread"  (beer) helps to make me not feel the aches and pains.  And maybe a Tom Selleck movie. 

Dianne, dirt and all