I'm taking a short break from the garden. Thus these words might end up in a pile of lost electrons you'll never see, but I have to keep it short as it's an ideal day for gardening.
The weather is overcast with a bit of rain last night and the promise of perhaps some today. A welcome relief from the heat of last week and a chance to pull weeds and shape the spring garden.
The music is Santana - Abraxas 'cause it's just the best! followed by Supernatural & Soul Sacrifice. The mystical elements of the music along with - let's call it- Afro- Caribbean rhythm seem to be in line with the amazing changes in the garden, spring brings.
The peas I planted on St Pat's day are starting a growth spurt reaching for the second piece of twine I hurriedly put up this morning. I've come to plant the peas quite close together as I heard that they like to hold hands. I then push my collection of stick, which I somehow always have a bundle of, in about every foot. As the peas grow old twine wrapped around the sticks makes the perfect ladder for them to climb. I'll have to look in my garden log to see when I should expect to start eating the first pods, but it shouldn't be too long. Sweet and crunchy Mmmm!
The arugula is - well, one of the weeds I need to contend with this afternoon. A few seeds little more than sprinkled in a poor spot. Was it one or two years ago? (Gosh the mind is blurry today!) Have become more than Deb and I can eat and before too long one that will have neighbors closing their blinds when they see me coming with bags in hand. I always thought of arugula as kinda rare and exotic - good marketing I guess!
With Mother's day tomorrow and the weekend weather unsettled I put my extra tomato starts out for sale yesterday. Six plants along with some small potted Sweet Marjoram and some baggies of seeds is hardly making the local garden center quake in it's accounting department. But really, that isn't the point. I like living in a neighborhood where people put out a couple of saw horses, plants on a board, and an honor jar and invite their neighbors to do a little gardening. Gandhi said, you should "be the change you wish to see in the world". I'm no Gandhi but it seems a very low cost coin to toss in the metaphysical collection plate.
The Music has changed. It's now Gipsy Kings Cantos de Amor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkZI7xKHYUc It's now the end of the same week and again raining. The music might cycle around to Santana again as I've kept it on the turntable and been listening to it all week. I've recycled or perhaps composted the electrons that I started with. As while the garden has progressed like the music of the Gipsy Kings it's a slow gentle progression.
Yeah it's raining again. It started yesterday with a hard pounding rain with some tiny hail. It was while I was watching the evening news and the story on the school shootings in Texas. I tried wishing both away. I had some minor success in that the hail abated but the rain was still a hard rain of an angry god. As to the shootings I had to accept that I am quite glad I don't hold any elected office and do not have to solve this. I clearly know nothing and my beliefs leave me wondering if what I "know" to be right is in fact so. About all I could conclude is that I shoulda let that guy who was driving like an ass behind me yesterday pass. That whole "being the change" things is easier to visualize in grand schemes than to practice in small deeds. But small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.
I guess that's why I like gardening. Most of what needs to be done in a garden is just a series of tiny steps. Plant a seed, tie another string up for the peas to climb. You can't control the rain or the hail. You can and should try to understand the garden and keep doing little things to make it just a little better. God rewards you with tomatoes that taste like heaven and nectarines that leave you slurping them down while handing one to your neighbor and saying "try this!"
I noticed two things while walking the dogs this morning in the rain. One, I don't own a true rain coat. I own a couple of jackets and coats that are kinda sorta rain resistant and I'm sure I've got one of those emergency rain poncho in the emergency kit in the truck but no rain coat. I have to assume that is a function of living in Colorado and it's nameplate 300 days a year of sunshine. The economists among you will likely point to the theory of marginal utility but that is as deep as I'll go. The other thing I noticed was worms. The rain that I began this blog with 5 days ago littered the streets with worms. Not just worms but huge Mongo worms thick as your pinkie and 6- 8 inches long. Today's rain - scarcely a worm? I spent a bit of the walk pondering theories for the difference. Perhaps the robin population wasn't quite as large till today and thus hadn't cleared the streets. Or perhaps the previous rain had acted like a wormpocalypse and taken out all the old (and thus large) and unprepared worms and with this storm the worm population all had comfy hidy holes to ride out the rain. Cooper felt the question wasn't worth considering and wanted to keep walking. Callie felt the question could be better considered if we went by the spot in the park that she found the Frito last time. We went home.
Speaking of theories City planners have long argued about the societal role of the front yard. Some see the front yard as yours to do with as you wish so long as you wish for grass. Perhaps a tree but certainly not a fruit tree, as "those are messy". A fence perhaps "but let's talk about what type of fence you want 'cause...". Gardening in the 'front lawn' "well perhaps some flowers but well maintained we can't have pig styes". "A VEGGIE GARDEN IN THE FRONT - J'ACCUSE- ANARCHIST!" Legendary are the HOA presidents that have made themselves the iron fist in the velvet glove of those societal norms. Better in some HOAs that you should announce you own a gun - nay an 'assault rifle'!
Thankfully, I don't live in a HOA and the City's rules are minimal but there still is normative behavior. As the Japanese say the tall nail gets pounded down. But societies thoughts on gardens are rapidly evolving with the younger generation. Thus while I previously snuck some onions into the front flowers ("they're alliums too") and last fall I put garlic near the fruit trees this spring I've gone full frontal. Yep, tomatoes with cages and poles. Gardens are art and my choice of art is my 1st Amendment Right and I have a shotgun to protect them. Thank you Joe Biden. (or wait is that the other Amendment? Either way the tomatoes are staying - unless the rabbits eat them.)
I can't leave you without telling you about the tiny Albert Etter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Etter Pink Pearl apple tree in my kitchen. It started growing leaves! It's a little bitty graft of a thing sitting in a 5 gallon paint bucket with holes drilled in it and filled with potting soil. That was as close as I could understand the 3 pages of "care & handling directions that came with it from Greenmantle nursery.
Greenmantle's owners may or may not be Libertarians but if you go to their website http://www.greenmantlenursery.com/ and contrast it to say Stark Bros Nursery https://www.starkbros.com/ you'll quickly see that both Libs and Greenmantle subscribe to the theory that a thousand words is hands down better than a picture. And why would you want online ordering when you can have a little fuzzy order form you can print out yourself and conveniently drop in the mail with a check - no credit card or cash! Don't get me wrong they are nice people and more importantly Stark Bros doesn't have the goods. At least not Albert Etter's goods.
Yup so another 3-5 years and I'll be supping on my own beautiful red fleshed apples. Thanks Albert and Ram & Marissa and thanks to each of you for reading. Doug A.
The weather is overcast with a bit of rain last night and the promise of perhaps some today. A welcome relief from the heat of last week and a chance to pull weeds and shape the spring garden.
The music is Santana - Abraxas 'cause it's just the best! followed by Supernatural & Soul Sacrifice. The mystical elements of the music along with - let's call it- Afro- Caribbean rhythm seem to be in line with the amazing changes in the garden, spring brings.
The peas I planted on St Pat's day are starting a growth spurt reaching for the second piece of twine I hurriedly put up this morning. I've come to plant the peas quite close together as I heard that they like to hold hands. I then push my collection of stick, which I somehow always have a bundle of, in about every foot. As the peas grow old twine wrapped around the sticks makes the perfect ladder for them to climb. I'll have to look in my garden log to see when I should expect to start eating the first pods, but it shouldn't be too long. Sweet and crunchy Mmmm!
The arugula is - well, one of the weeds I need to contend with this afternoon. A few seeds little more than sprinkled in a poor spot. Was it one or two years ago? (Gosh the mind is blurry today!) Have become more than Deb and I can eat and before too long one that will have neighbors closing their blinds when they see me coming with bags in hand. I always thought of arugula as kinda rare and exotic - good marketing I guess!
With Mother's day tomorrow and the weekend weather unsettled I put my extra tomato starts out for sale yesterday. Six plants along with some small potted Sweet Marjoram and some baggies of seeds is hardly making the local garden center quake in it's accounting department. But really, that isn't the point. I like living in a neighborhood where people put out a couple of saw horses, plants on a board, and an honor jar and invite their neighbors to do a little gardening. Gandhi said, you should "be the change you wish to see in the world". I'm no Gandhi but it seems a very low cost coin to toss in the metaphysical collection plate.
The Music has changed. It's now Gipsy Kings Cantos de Amor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkZI7xKHYUc It's now the end of the same week and again raining. The music might cycle around to Santana again as I've kept it on the turntable and been listening to it all week. I've recycled or perhaps composted the electrons that I started with. As while the garden has progressed like the music of the Gipsy Kings it's a slow gentle progression.
Yeah it's raining again. It started yesterday with a hard pounding rain with some tiny hail. It was while I was watching the evening news and the story on the school shootings in Texas. I tried wishing both away. I had some minor success in that the hail abated but the rain was still a hard rain of an angry god. As to the shootings I had to accept that I am quite glad I don't hold any elected office and do not have to solve this. I clearly know nothing and my beliefs leave me wondering if what I "know" to be right is in fact so. About all I could conclude is that I shoulda let that guy who was driving like an ass behind me yesterday pass. That whole "being the change" things is easier to visualize in grand schemes than to practice in small deeds. But small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.
I guess that's why I like gardening. Most of what needs to be done in a garden is just a series of tiny steps. Plant a seed, tie another string up for the peas to climb. You can't control the rain or the hail. You can and should try to understand the garden and keep doing little things to make it just a little better. God rewards you with tomatoes that taste like heaven and nectarines that leave you slurping them down while handing one to your neighbor and saying "try this!"
I noticed two things while walking the dogs this morning in the rain. One, I don't own a true rain coat. I own a couple of jackets and coats that are kinda sorta rain resistant and I'm sure I've got one of those emergency rain poncho in the emergency kit in the truck but no rain coat. I have to assume that is a function of living in Colorado and it's nameplate 300 days a year of sunshine. The economists among you will likely point to the theory of marginal utility but that is as deep as I'll go. The other thing I noticed was worms. The rain that I began this blog with 5 days ago littered the streets with worms. Not just worms but huge Mongo worms thick as your pinkie and 6- 8 inches long. Today's rain - scarcely a worm? I spent a bit of the walk pondering theories for the difference. Perhaps the robin population wasn't quite as large till today and thus hadn't cleared the streets. Or perhaps the previous rain had acted like a wormpocalypse and taken out all the old (and thus large) and unprepared worms and with this storm the worm population all had comfy hidy holes to ride out the rain. Cooper felt the question wasn't worth considering and wanted to keep walking. Callie felt the question could be better considered if we went by the spot in the park that she found the Frito last time. We went home.
Speaking of theories City planners have long argued about the societal role of the front yard. Some see the front yard as yours to do with as you wish so long as you wish for grass. Perhaps a tree but certainly not a fruit tree, as "those are messy". A fence perhaps "but let's talk about what type of fence you want 'cause...". Gardening in the 'front lawn' "well perhaps some flowers but well maintained we can't have pig styes". "A VEGGIE GARDEN IN THE FRONT - J'ACCUSE- ANARCHIST!" Legendary are the HOA presidents that have made themselves the iron fist in the velvet glove of those societal norms. Better in some HOAs that you should announce you own a gun - nay an 'assault rifle'!
Thankfully, I don't live in a HOA and the City's rules are minimal but there still is normative behavior. As the Japanese say the tall nail gets pounded down. But societies thoughts on gardens are rapidly evolving with the younger generation. Thus while I previously snuck some onions into the front flowers ("they're alliums too") and last fall I put garlic near the fruit trees this spring I've gone full frontal. Yep, tomatoes with cages and poles. Gardens are art and my choice of art is my 1st Amendment Right and I have a shotgun to protect them. Thank you Joe Biden. (or wait is that the other Amendment? Either way the tomatoes are staying - unless the rabbits eat them.)
I can't leave you without telling you about the tiny Albert Etter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Etter Pink Pearl apple tree in my kitchen. It started growing leaves! It's a little bitty graft of a thing sitting in a 5 gallon paint bucket with holes drilled in it and filled with potting soil. That was as close as I could understand the 3 pages of "care & handling directions that came with it from Greenmantle nursery.
Greenmantle's owners may or may not be Libertarians but if you go to their website http://www.greenmantlenursery.com/ and contrast it to say Stark Bros Nursery https://www.starkbros.com/ you'll quickly see that both Libs and Greenmantle subscribe to the theory that a thousand words is hands down better than a picture. And why would you want online ordering when you can have a little fuzzy order form you can print out yourself and conveniently drop in the mail with a check - no credit card or cash! Don't get me wrong they are nice people and more importantly Stark Bros doesn't have the goods. At least not Albert Etter's goods.
Yup so another 3-5 years and I'll be supping on my own beautiful red fleshed apples. Thanks Albert and Ram & Marissa and thanks to each of you for reading. Doug A.
I love your writing style, makes me smile. Yes, vegetable gardens are art! And I thought I'd comment on the rain coat; I own one, but almost never use it. I use it most in the winter when it snows, though. But it is not a snow coat, but a real rain coat. It is fabulous. It is a genuine East German Army goretex over-cover-shell that is big enough to go over my winter coat. It has a hood to keep my hat and head dry while shoveling snow. Sure, it has the camo pattern with German flag insignia on the sleeves, but being half-German myself and fluent in Deutsch, I wear it proudly. Just not very often because I live in Utah, next to your state, and we don't get much rain here, either. P.S. I still have your garlic in my garden; thanks!
ReplyDeleteNow that sounds like a rain coat! Glad to here the Colorado Black garlic is still going. Mine was looking small till about two weeks ago when it took a good jump. We'll see how it finishes. Doug A.
ReplyDelete