Tomatoes, Lupines, and Daisies and Such - March 4, 2023

 

Yesterday's sunrise sure was pretty, if you can overlook the crooked polonia tree and the riot of English ivy that is eating up everything that will be still.  When we moved to this property 40 years ago, I planted the ivy expecting that it would stabilize the gully in our back yard.  Little did I know that ivy, if given the chance, prefers to grow up instead of out.  It has infested all of the trees growing along the edge of the gully.  It's plumb creepy.

Since the weather was so nice yesterday, I spent a little time in the yard, picking up sticks, raking leaves, turning the compost pile.  We need another leaf shredder.  Our fall shredding operation was interrupted by rain - days and days of it - after we'd raked only the back yard.  Leaf shredders do not like wet leaves at all.  (Don't even try it.)  I finally mowed the leaves in the front yard.   And, of course, more leaves fell after the mowing.  There are still tons of them around the edges of the yard and all over the "way back," a part of the yard that we mow but do not really use.  Yesterday I raked more leaves from around the part that we do use and piled them in the big hole I dug 30 years ago intending to make a small fish pond.  (Don't try that, either.)  The fish pond is now full.  No telling what will take up residence in it.

This morning, I raked out the flower bed on the north side of the porch.  It was good to find the cardinal flower alive and well.  There's no sign of any hosta. I don't know if it's just late, or if a vole has eaten it.  Though the ground in that area is black and presumably rich, hardly anything wants to grow there, except creeping vinca and a scrawny hellebore.  

While web surfing a few weeks ago, I saw where someone was using a 3-drawer plastic bin for sprouting seeds.  We had one that I could empty, so I tried it - planted the bottom two bins with broccoli and cabbage.  They are up, and some of them have stretched out some leaves.  This morning I took off the "roof" over the broccoli and pulled the cabbage drawer out in the sun.  I'll have to pay attention; the dirt will dry out fast and the sun might be too much all at once.  I am likely to be working in the office every day for a few weeks, starting later this week, and won't have the time at home to check on them, so I'll have to come up with a more permanent solution by the weekend.

I finally planted something in the "sacred vessel" (the cold frame) in the back yard.  I planted seeds (in 4" pots) for purple tomatoes (those new ones), lupines, and English daisies - just a couple of experimental pots for the flowers.  If they sprout and live long enough, I'm going to try them both in that persnickety spot on the north side of the porch.