When Tractor Guy gets going, stand back!

 Early in our sojourn here on the grounds of Fussing Duck Farm, I attended a tree sale at Fedco, one of the local organic growing institutions here abouts. I picked up an order and browsed around for other goodies and bought a couple more blueberry bushes. 

Yes, the wild ones DO grow .... er... WILD... here in Maine but most of the best places are not nearby and as I have gotten older, they are a PITA to pick. Most folks "rake" them with a special tool, but that gets both ripe and unripe berries and I do not want to do that. I does not respect the plants and is wasteful. But I like blueberries and  am getting a nice stand of the cultivated "high bush" ones going here. All of the plants are from Fedco. But one year, in their display area, something *else* got improperly filed in one of the blueberry bush slots. That happens in all retail, we know. Wrong sizes, wrong items, misplaced by distracted shoppers trying to help, usually. In this case, I ended up with a tall deciduous and decidedly not fruit bearing TREE in my row of blueberries. I did not recognize it, but let it grow, hoping it would eventually bear some kind of fruit. But Fedco sells both ornamental and fruiting plants and all this one wanted to do was host web worms and grow taller, so it really needed to leave the berry row. 

Today it did. The Other Half, affectionately known as Tractor Guy in the warm side of the year, got Fergie, the tractor on the job. The tree did not want to give up, but TG and Ferg won the day!

And once you get a Tractor Guy going, it's hard to turn him off! LOL  Nothing like tilling up the driveway to help even out some of the winter's ruts!

The blueberry patch is back as it was, minus tree, with cardboard and mulch on the nearest 6 plants and plans to finish mulching the ones beyond where the tree stood after we spend some time with a mattock and shovel, after the rainy period this coming week, to remove much of the stump. That tree was tenacious though, and I suspect I will be fighting it for some years to come.

The big project for me, after the tractor work was done, was collecting the electric fence wire, resetting all the posts and re-running the wire to keep the deer at bay. I was not sure how they would react to the sudden disappearance of a tree...something that, in their world, usually stays put. Would the space make them leery and put them off approaching, or would deer curiosity win the battle in their brains? I was not willing to gamble my juicy, freshly budding plants so round and round I went, coiling up the wire and then round and round again to re-deploy it... 5 strands on the outer fence and three on the inner one. They are 3' apart and designed to keep the deer from jumping over. So far, it has worked. 

But my feet were dead, my legs were bitching and damn, was I tired! But it felt good to get this big project this far along. 

I have 4 more blueberry plants coming next month, so I will watch over the patch until then and finish the mulching when they arrive and are planted.  What a day!

But spring is here, with my favorite spring flowers greeting me on my way to the berry patch this morning and the trees and bushes are beginning to bud. Yeah, I know that begins the allergy season for many of us, but without all of these wonderful green things bursting forth, why would be bother to keep putting one foot in front of the other!

lilac buds

Maple tree budding

If you did not know I was a garden geek...

Cherry trees are on my mind. My single pie cherry has made enough cherries for a pie the last couple of years and I am sort of thinking of more. And thinking of cherries to eat, straight off the tree. Turns out my favorite vendor of such creatures, Fedco, right here in Maine, is having a get 'em while you can sale online starting tomorrow, for a week. I have researched and picked out the eating cherry trees that are most likely to survive here. Unfortunately they both require pollination from another tree.. and one of their kind will not work, so this will be a bit of a crap shoot. Also the pie cherry tree which has been so fruitful (self-pollinating) will not help in this game. 

SO...

If I can log in and score a tree at a somewhat discounted price, I will be happy. If I can figure out two that might pollinate each other and score one of each I will be close to broke, but will deal.

I am kinda chuckling here, inside at least, thinking about friends who have stayed up until midnight, queued up in all kinds of weather at stores out there for video game or book midnight release parties. They had a blast, or so they reported, hanging with their fellow geeks until time to (usually politely, at least here in Maine) rush the doors. But for me, it's trees... the big ticket item in my "garden". Defining "big ticket" for something that will outlast my lifetime as selling for under $40 might seem odd, but that kinda defines a low-income senior. 

 I am also adding to the list some other things that might be nice, if the cherries fail to materialize: a peach tree to replace the one that my friend Morgiana bought for me, with the understanding that I would share many of her favorite stone fruits with her... and which set its first crop of peaches as she laid in hospital under hospice care. Each and everyone of those peaches shriveled and died, as did the tree, the day of her passing. I am happy to think that she took them with her, but I would like to try again. 

 And my blueberry area is not yet full.

So we will see what we will see.. (I will not spend the mortgage or electric bill money. I will not!! LOL)

 

Spring Finds the Northlands

 

The First Robin

Yes, I am writing about spring... again. Spring and it's not so eagerly welcomed cousin "mud season" are a constant subject of conversation here in the Northlands. Contrary to the name of the season, it does not "spring" upon us here, as perhaps it does elsewhere. It is often slow to arrive, with many eagerly awaited signs and almost as many grudgingly acknowledged spring snow and ice storms. But eventually the earth gives up its white blanket, the rivers and streams become liquid and one sees the first robin. Somewhere in there, pussy willows open their catkins which then produce the first bits of pollen for the early insects. And, much more quickly than most of us expect, they will be followed by dandelions, which the bees love, so please leave them.... be... for the bees... for a bit.

The arrival of visible spring weather and signs, even here in the far north, is often associated with the Easter holiday. This happens much less often than many folks might like, as both Easter and Spring's arrival are essentially "movable holidays," and only when Easter is at the end of its possible date range and we Northlanders are having an unusually early spring, are we likely to have anything like thawed ground for that popular bunny to hop upon. So while my Christian neighbors hopefully don their spring-type Sunday best as they head off to the sunrise service tomorrow (sunrise just after 6 AM, temperature prediction 24 degrees F) my acknowledgement of the holiday will be as a second (you can see it from here!) celebration of an earth-centered liturgical calendar day called Spring Finding.

And find it I shall, as I set out a bit of sugar water in the proto-forest in an attempt to capture wild yeast for eventual baking, walking there on actual earth, not icy snow. It is, even, just beginning to thaw.

To those of you who celebrate Easter, may your day be truly blessed, as I hope Passover, just past, was for my readers who walk that path. Me, well my nod to tradition was to pick up a chocolate bunny when I was out and about with a friend today. She bought some real chicks to add to her flock. I decided to act a bit like an adult and bought a high end chocolate bunny. But I will still eat the ears first.

Spring in the Northlands

Pussy willows, Narcissus and
the early spring garden field beyond
the kitchen window.

We in the Northlands have been seeing lovely signs of spring, now, for months... as posted on the interwebs by our more southern friends. And even late summer into fall from those on the other side of the equator. And we are used to it, after a fashion and take joy in the brightly colored bits as we scroll the screen. 

Sometimes, when we want that flowering cheerfulness a bit closer, we snag a bouquet or a pot of flowering friends, imported from the southlands, or at least from a local greenhouse, from the enticing display just inside the entrance to the produce section of our local grocery market. And yes, it helps. 

When we are in what "should be" the last dregs of winter, but the old woman (or man, depending on your mythology) just won't relinquish the reins, bits of a poem often come to my mind. 

If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,
And from thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.

Now, I am not especially a fan of hyacinths (though I do like the little spring flowers commonly called "grape hyacinths" which are Muscari armeniacum, actually a type of lily and are not true hyacinths), but from the first time I read those lines, I saw a hilly field before my mind's eye, covered with daffodils. And so it is and will always be for me. And in the last dregs of winter, or the most frustrating days of early spring, I often have a bouquet or a pot of jonquils, daffodils or to be most accurate and cover them all, Narcissus (their genus). 

Finally (and for now, at least) all of the early spring "poor man's fertilizer" as these late snows are often called, have melted, leaving only the more solid bits of actual left-over-from-winter snow. There are still larger expanses in the back field but the garden, to the south  of the house, is clearing nicely. Not thawed yet, to speak of, but with the predicted temperature *next* week (long range forecast... likely will vary!) staying above freezing even at night and at least one day predicted to reach 60°F, I will be taking Mother Earth's temperature soon and that means plotting to plant the first partial rows of early season crops that can tolerate colder soil AND getting my seedlings some daytime airings (beginning the hardening off process) on the porch. YAY!

Of This and That on the Last Day of March

garden, end of March, 2023

I am considering March to be "going out like a lamb" if a lamb can be considered to have a high temperature of 45 F under this morning's bright sunny skies. The weather guessers are predicting another inch or so of white fluff in the forecast for "today" and the sky is therefore supposed to cloud up as the day progressed, but in their estimation, the snow (again, supposed to turn to rain later) is not expected until after dark, so I will take the liberty of not counting it for the lamb/lion dichotomy. 

Today is Frigga's day and should be focused on fiber things, as it will be in part. I have been struggling to start the knitted owl pattern and will start again today, starting over after posting the link and seeing they call it a "tutorial." Hoping it is not a video because I do not learn easily from them, but whatever. I always struggle with starting "in the round" projects with just a few stitches. Like socks, toe up. Like this little owl, 9 stitches and "magic loop" it. As a witch, the so called magic loop should not be an issue, dammit. But it is. LOL And after one round of knitting they call for "knit front and back." yeah, of course they do. Hopefully the link and Frigga will help. 

But Frigga is also a hearth Goddess and today I shall also invoke her in that capacity, as I start another batch of "5 Minute Artisan Bread." I will use the first bit tomorrow, making a small loaf to eat with split pea soup which will cook in one of my crock pots all day, alongside some chicken which will get turned into chicken and dumplings Sunday, I am glad I have two smaller and one larger slow cooker, as I will be spending part of Sunday making a basket with a local friend.

Along with the knitting and bread making, hopefully I will get to tackle my in-process sewing, a winter nightgown, before it's time to stop thinking "flannel" and begin thinking cotton or linen. Up here in the Northlands, though, that will be a few months, for sure. I know some cold-blooded friends who leave their flannel sheets on year round, though, but I am not privy to what they wear once under cover. Probably a good thing, eh?

no bulbs showing yet

fowl yard today

But the chickens are waiting and I want to check out the (badly overgrown) flowering bulb bed, so I better get at it.

And as an afterthought, just because the Internet could use another cat photo, I think this is our Smoke, bathing in a box by my desk yesterday. There is, indeed, an entire cat there.

Hands in the (Sorta) Earth to Stay Sane

We keep hearing and reading that "playing in the dirt/mud" is good for the soul and the psyche, but with little mud here yet and most of the garden still under a good layer of snow turned to almost ice, the only way it is going to happen is with

pseudo-earth. In this case, a soggy wet tub of ProMix and a soil blocker, which I used the otherday to seed my tomatoes for the year. 

It may look like a heck of a lot of seeds but with saved packets from years past, I only ended up with 84 or so seeded blocks. My recycled shortening containers comfortably hold two rows of 7 tiny soil blocks each. That works out well for the many varieties. I can write the variety names on each side of the container on duct tape and hopefully keep them sorted out. Some of the rows of 7 contained the last few seeds of two different varieties. 

Separating the little blocks from the array of 20 that the blockmaking tool generates requires a bit of finesse. With a gentle touch, on can pick up one block at a time, but I found that sliding a row of them into place, and then only putting two, at most, in by hand had the best results.

Long ago in my struggle to successfully grow my own starts, damping off fungus was my main adversary. But then I discovered the trick of covering the seeds with playground sand instead of potting mix and have not had a single issue since. I guess the sand will not support the fungus, which is fine with me!

Tomatoes should be up next week, but the next day or so will be devoted to making the larger 2" blocks to pot up the jungle of broccoli and cauliflower that are growing like crazy on the grow rack.

And if you want to be notified of future blog posts and the blogger link does not work, email me at starwalkr(at)gmail.com and I will update you. No spam... I do not sell anything.

Trees Awaken, Warm the Earth

We act like the longer daylight and sun rising higher in the sky collaborate to bring us spring but I think not. I think they only wake the trees. Like many of us who can, the trees pull their energy inside, tucked down deep in the earth's constant temperature zone and, eventually tucked in by a fluffy white blanket -- as I am 'neath my warm down quilt -- they slumber.

But now and the sun rises earlier and earlier, they begin to awaken. Does their internal temperature rise as they awaken, as ours often does? I think so. I think their blood, circulating with more vigor and warmth in their roots, as they begin to stir -- imperceptibly perhaps, as these standing ones are not known for visible movement -- is what begins to warm the land.

Is this not why, in an expanse of standing snow in my orchard or across the back field where only wild-planted trees and bushes live, around each tree, each bush is a circle of open earth?

Love spring? Thank a tree.