Wild Turkeys and Seedlings

This morning started with shooing a couple of wild turkeys away from the veg garden and the hoophouse (which stood wide-open). Luckily it was just the two of them, not a whole flock. I brought the seedlings up from the basement and watered and fed them seaweed emulsion to get those root systems nice and …

Garden Snake and Other Back Yard Tales

While hacking out a stump in one of our “wild” side gardens, we scared this (harmless) garden or garter snake. He, or she, was very defensive, striking out several times and unwilling to leave the spot. So we left. Amie understood: it’s the snake’s garden too. In any case it brought home the importance of …

A Phenological Ambition, More Mice, Naps

One of my ambitions is to make a phenology of this place. I’d love to use many media. Words foremost, then drawings, paintings and photographs, and  occasionally audio recordings and videos (but those I wouldn’t be able to stick in my favorite “container”, the book). To make a little drawing every day, of the newly …

Of Calcium in the Soil and Plants – Part 8

You guessed it: it’s time for another episode in the Calcium in the Soil and Plant series! Take heart: we’re getting close to the end (maybe only one more part to go?). Actually, it took me so long to post on this again because this one took me a long time to figure out. If …

A Gardener’s Spring

This time of year I get that lump in my throat. I see my seedlings come up in the basement. I do the rounds of blogs – mostly gardeners, homesteaders – and see their seedlings come up as well. It touches me deeply. It is a reawakening of a childlike feeling of wonder, that, with …

Some Quick Notes Before I Dissapear for a Few Days

Friends are coming to visit for a couple of days, and I doubt I will have the time, or the inclination, to interrupt the fun we always have to post here. But before I go, a few notes: ~ Turns out that the bobcat I heard a couple of weeks ago was most likely a …