Happy Solstice 2016

"Winter is the time for comfort,
for good food and warmth,
for the touch of a friendly hand
and for a talk beside the fire:
it is the time for a home."

                    — Edith Sitwell

 

 

 

 

 

 

May the deeply dark star-filled nights,

the cold, bright mornings, and

the long shadows of afternoon silences

be yours and be for all who share your path.

 

 

 

Happy Solstice (2015)

May the delight of the child's heart be yours.

May your home be filled with solace, joy, and laughter.

May you have stories to tell and memories to share.

May you see beauty in unexpected places.

May there be magic, wonder, and tales of travel for you.

May the deeply dark star-filled nights,

the cold, bright mornings, and

the long shadows of afternoon silences

be yours and be for all who share your path.

And please, oh all that be, let there be peace on earth.

Urban Farming - 2nd Summer - First Harvest

"Missus Yount"

"Robin Yount, Jr." and "Kon-Biki"

Our porch garden was home to a family of robins this summer.  We don't see much of Papa Yount and just at lunch today, my Beloved Spousal Unit saw Robin Jr. leave the nest. The Missus is still watching out for his/her sibling who is a little smaller in size - probably the 2nd to hatch and a day behind developmentally.

The container garden has been a little less successful due to our run of successive heat waves.  The pepper plants are pretty scrawny with no vegetables yet and the kitchen herbs seem to be struggling with the heat.  The two 'dwarf tomatoes' both now over 3 feet tall, however, are going great guns.  We cut the first 'matoh' this afternoon.  

 

One other gardening adventure: a squirrel has been digging in the flower pots! 

Urban Farming - 2nd Summer - Setting Up

Image source/credit

Last summer's community garden experience wound up being a bit of a science experiment.  Fun, interesting, but bit of a bust in terms of a substantive harvest.  So this year I am going to switch things up a bit.  I'd used our front porch for pretty stuff and some herbs.  This summer, I am going to try container gardening.  

The beginning set

Last weekend I cleared away the winter's stash of firewood and swept away all the old leaves.  Then during the week, when I took breaks from my remote database management job, I started to get the pots up from the basement and began testing out how I wanted to arrange them all.

Our upstairs neighbor/landlord is lending me some blown glass watering bulbs.  Last year we had some pretty hot days and I didn't always get out there to water the poor bairns.  Maybe these will help in case I fall behind again.

Always encouraging is this perennial I dug up from our shared backyard several years ago.  I just wanted something leafy that first summer when we moved in.  This beastie - have no idea what it is -- has been showing up every spring for 3 years now.  Yes, it's a perennial and that's what they do - but I have not treated this plant particularly well.  I thought it had died after Year 1 and just left the pot uncovered and unprotected out on the porch all through the winter. 

Last week I took an afternoon to get the first round of plants in.

 Two varieties of tomatoes, with protective chicken wire 

(we have many cats and squirrels who visit our porch on a regular basis).

 

The kitchen herbs (thyme, sage, 2 kinds of mint, basil & rosemary).
Plus 4 'sweet banana peppers' and 1 green pepper.

All the Pretties!

Porch garden at day's end.

Next week I'll be putting in some seeds: green beans, carrots, and several varieties of leaf lettuce.  As things get all 'bloomy' and stuff, I'll post some updated pics.

Urban Farming: Week 7 Update

Dear Diary,

A couple of weeks of hot sun  have been most encouraging.  I've had to water the garden regularly for the first time this summer (not complaining, just a change in routine after all the rain we had a few weeks ago).  This morning I found the burnt remains of firecrackers and bottle rockets on the paths among the plots, no doubt leftovers from the holiday doings last night. 

Looks like the cauliflower seeds weren't good as nothing but some self-satisfied weeds have come up in those three squares.  The bush beans are looking all proud and flamboyant, but there is nary a bean-to-be-seen!  The sunflowers grow at least 3 inches a day, I swear, a neck and neck race with the zuchinni who are similarly expanding. 

Guess what, Diary dear?  I thought I planted a 3rd kind of beans over at the end with the pole beans . . . but I am pretty sure what's coming up are beets not beans!  I planted those squares at the very end of a toasty couple of hours, which may explain the confusion.

Have harvested only a couple of lettuce leaves so far, and those were just to test for flavor.  They are still pretty tiny.

Till next time, dear Diary.  Happy 4th and all . . .

Previous Garden Posts:
Week 5
Week 3
Week 1

Urban Farming: Week 5-ish Update

Dear Diary,

All that rain made it easy to care for 'The Farm' these past two weeks. It's pretty cool, though, how just a few days can make such a difference.  On Tuesday - just 3 days ago - I was showing off the Back 32 (4x8) to one of my sisters.  The brussel sprouts and zucchini were looking pretty fine.  This morning, when I went over to do my weekly community stint with the compost pile and mulch spreader, I swear the b-sprouts were an inch higher and the zuchs at least 4 more inches wide across!

Not sure what's happening with the cauliflower though.  I planted 3, one per square like the book says.  Two I can see and I'm not sure if that 3rd wee beastie is a weed or the other one; too small to compare its leaf shape.

In another week or so, Beloved Spousal Unit and I will be enjoying fresh lettuce for our salad (along with a flavoring of fresh basil from the porch garden!). This is good as the b-sprouts are starting to crowd out the lettuce a bit. Not sure if whose going to win the Space Wars: the bush beans or the collards - may have to thin things out there a bit soon.

Took a little time to look at the neighboring plots.  Rather a mix of approaches and intents there.  I'm pretty sure the one next to me is owned by someone who isn't sure what s/he planted and is waiting for the plants to get big enough to pull some rather obvious weeds (and there is a thistle plant front and center going full guns looking like it plans to take over the planet!).  Another plot has some very full sugar peas that have been crying out to be harvested for two weeks now.  Wonder if they'll transmorgify into vinegar peas!

A few folks are clearly old hands at this farming thing.  Lettuce planted in one plot, when I was still daydreaming about what I might like to eat this Fall has grown, been harvested, and something else has been planted in its stead.  The guy growing melons (who said they don't do well in his 'home garden') has those babies tenderly tucked into a straw mulch like he's expecting quintulplets for each single plant! 

It's supposed to get sunny again soon.  I expect my next update with you, dear Diary, will be showing stuff as 'high as an elephant's eye'!

Til then . . .

Week 3's garden post is here and
Week 1's post is here.