Good-bye 2015

Tom-Cat

2000 - July 31, 2015

Solomon

May 30 2001 - November 13, 2015

Garlic Planting - Finally!

Today I finally got around to planting my garlic. I have been meaning to for the last 6 weeks, but something else always took a priority over that task. Today I finally had the time and the weather cooperated as well. It hit 61 degrees today, so it was a super pleasant day to be working outside under sunny blue skies.

I started by dividing the garlic bulbs that I saved. I always set aside the two largest bulbs of each variety to use as my planting stock for the next season. Here are three of the "Chesnook Red" cloves. They have such pretty pink papery skins. 

Then I divided my "Russian Red" bulbs. One of the bulbs of this variety that I saved as planting stock, the cloves were actually starting to sprout. They knew I was way behind with my planting! Once I finished with the odoriferous job of dividing up the bulbs into individual cloves, it was time to plant.

I started out by building the new raised planting bed. It is just about 20' long. Then I laid out the cloves on top of the bed and adjusted the spacing until I was happy.

I ended up planting 19 "Chesnook Red" cloves.

And I planted 11 "Russian Red" cloves. Before I stuck each clove in the ground, I added a small helping of bone meal to each hole and worked it in. Then I dropped each clove in, pointed end up, and covered them up

As I was laying our the hoops and remay, Solomon joined me to "help". Everyone was enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.

Eventually I got the hoops set in and the remay fastened down. Now it is just a matter of watching and waiting. I think the garlic will still sprout and grow just fine. My only real concern is that planting the cloves this late will affect the final bulb size of next year's crop. But concern for July's harvest can wait. Today I will enjoy getting this task off of my "to-do" list and soaking in the December sunshine.

More Spring Planting in the Kitchen Garden

Today I was able to finish the Spring planting in the kitchen garden that I started last weekend. I began by bringing in more Nature's Best Soil. I filled up one small grow bag and built one 16 X 16 raised bed.

In the raised bed I planted 5 "Red Bull" onions. As you can see in the picture above, these young plants already have a small, deep red section where the bulb will form later in the season. And I can promised you, they really smelled like onions already too! Last year my "Red Bull" onions weighted on average over one pound each.So much potential from such a small plant.

In the grow bag, I planted 12 "Camelot" shallot plants. I have never planted shallots before. These young plants were much smaller than the onions, which is to be expected. Once I got all of the plants settled, I gave everything a good watering in.

I also spent some time planning out the rest of the garden space. Some plants, like the tomatoes, are still a month or more away from joining the garden. But I needed to get a good idea where they would be growing and how much space they would take up. So I got out all of my miscellaneous towers, trellis, and grow bags and marked out the garden.

I have a bean tower, two small potato bags, and a trellis ready and waiting. My potato order from Maine should be here any day.

Recently I purchased two large potato grow bags. I haven't ever tried growing potatoes in grow bags, so this is one of my new adventures this year. If nothing else it should certainly make harvesting much easier.

After I got the garden all marked out, I created a raised bed in the front section. This area will be taken over by Winter Squash in the Summer. But right now there is time to get a quick harvest of radish before the Squash need to get in the ground. So I planted four rows of Radish; (2) of "Red Planet" from Renee's Garden, (1) of "Pink Punch" from Renee's Garden, and (1) of "Plum Purple" from Seed Savers Exchange. The radish should be ready to harvest in approx. 28 days and then this will become a Winter Squash raised bed.

As you can see, I had some "help" with the radish planting. Solomon, a mostly indoor-cat, was fascinated with the whole process.

Once I finished planting the radish seed,  I covered both the radish and the newly planted onions with a remay tunnel. This will allow both the onions and the radish plants to get off to a strong start without having to worry about any bird or chipmunk damage. So here is the completed Spring garden, minus the planted potatoes.

Once the two new grow bags were taken out of the box, the box instantly became a cat trap! First to explore was Solomon.

Then it was Parvati's turn. And when she finally vacated the box, her brother Padma moved in. Gardening - and empty boxes- brings happiness to all walks of life.

Kitchen Garden Clean-up

Today I tackled one of my least favorite tasks of the Fall season; cleaning up the kitchen garden. This task was made a bit easier by today's weather - overcast and a very mild 68 degrees. I had already harvested all of the Winter Squash, Onions,  Morning Glory seed, and Tomatoes. It was now a "simple" matter of picking up all of the spent plant material as well as the assorted cages, towers, and plant markers.

As always, it took me much longer than I had expected! Here's the view once my work was completed.

I assumed that the only vegetable that would remain in the garden would be the two "Tuscano" kale. However, the "Galina" yellow cherry still looks good. The 10-day forecast seems mild, so I thought that I would leave it in and see if I could get one more harvest out of it before the first frost.

I am waiting to harvest any kale until the first frost or two. All my gardening books indicate that the kale will become much sweeter after it is exposed to a period of freezing temperatures.

Like so many plants, Kale is architecturally interesting.

There are still many tresses left on the "Galina" cherry that have yet to mature.

Here's the "compost" pile of assorted plant material. I know that the deer will quickly discover this  vegetation and make quick work of cleaning it up. They love tomato plants.

While I worked alone for much of the afternoon, I did have this sweet little bird supervise me for a while. I was able to get quite close to it and it just calmly remained perched on the garden fencing. On the other end of the "assistance" spectrum were these three slugs. Absolutely no help what so ever!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day dawned with a dramatic Eastern sky.

I am not a morning person by any means but was so thankful to be up to witness this sunrise. What a Christmas morning gift!

First thing we checked the stocking to see what Santa-paws might have delivered. New cat-nip mice for everyone!

Solomon says please leave me alone - I'm busy here!

Padma was in heaven. Nothing like a 20 pound cat in drug-induced joy!

As I set the Christmas table, this female Hairy Woodpecker was having her Christmas lunch at the peanut feeder.

Just after 4 PM we at down to dinner with Family.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Christmas Eve

December 24th was an exact repeat of the 23rd - sunny and very strangely warm outside. On our back patio, where the concrete captures any afternoon heat, the thermometer read 67 degrees!

Parvati was in cat heaven basking in the rare Christmas Eve sunshine.

She flopped back and forth, over and over, as only a contented Kittie can do.

Almost there.......

And we're over! The humans in the household also spent some time soaking in the warmth before our attention turned to the night's festivities. With our thoughts on food, family, and a manager, Mother Nature ended the day with a dramatic sunset.

PEACE ON EARTH



Almost like Summer again

After a nice Labor Day weekend, the clouds and rain started rolling in on Tuesday. Wednesday morning a quick read of the rain-gauge showed 1.1" had fallen. Yikes. This is way too early for this much rain.Today the sun finally returned in full and everyone has been enjoying it. After work Parvati, Tom, and I sat on the bench in the sun.

Being a short-hair, Tom can stand to sleep in the full sun and not get too hot. I told him to remember this day when it's cold and nasty in January. I don't think that he was listening! While he was sleeping on top of the bench..

his tummy and tail were slipping through the slats. Too funny!

The Temperatures Rising!

Just as promised, the temperature the last few days has increased by almost 10 degrees a day. We were just in the 70's 2 days ago. It's a little bit hard on both the people and the plants. Every year, when it starts to get really warm, I am always reminded that the cats know how to stay cool and comfortable better than anyone else.

Cleo picked the bottom, empty shelf of a plant display stand. Cool and private.

Parvati went for her comfortable old carpet sample in the shade.

And it was no surprise to find Tom-Cat sacked out on his favorite bench.

I think it looks like he is smiling as he sleeps! Stay cool as a cat everyone !