Energies of Creation » Garden Thoughts

Never Underestimate a Mouse

Lexi Sundell — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:58:37 +0000

My family used to have an ongoing award of Blitherer of the Month for whoever committed the most blithering nonsense. Occasionally the competition became so extreme we had to give the award on a weekly basis.

If the competition still existed I would easily have it nailed for this month. When I am tired and confronted with more than I can accomplish, sometimes I choose spontaneous shortcuts. Usually this is ok. But last week I tripped over one particular annoying bucket one too many times and I solved the problem, sort of.

This bucket held some leftover seed starting mix, and a couple of years ago an astonishingly diligent mouse piled a bunch of cilantro seeds on top of the mix. Carefully removing cilantro seeds was low on my priority list and the bucket has been uselessly in the way ever since. I finally got fed up with it.

I dumped the whole thing into the muck tub that holds the recycled potting mix from the poor plants I never got planted last year when I got sick. I figured I already have cilantro self-seeding all over the place so weeding a few more would be no big deal. Then I continued mixing the recycled mix half and half with fresh potting mix as I pot things up this year.

Well. The mouse had apparently also collected a lot of sunflower seeds and peas. It looked like quite a lot of them as I churned it into the rest of the stuff in the tub. As I used the moistened mix the next few days I found sprouting peas, which I have plopped into little pots. Like about two dozen of them so far.

The sunflowers I simply uprooted until the warm days made everything start germinating. Including all the bazillions of grass seeds I had not even seen. I now start each morning by weeding wee sprigs of grass from the most recently potted plants. Otherwise I would end up growing little pots of sod.

This is the most nonsensical thing I have done in a long time. Perplexed at how to deal with the remaining mix that is now a tangle of sprouts, I threw it in the bottom of the big pots I put tomatoes in last night, announcing to them, “Have some salad!” Then I put non-seedy mix on top of that, deep enough it should be the end of the problem.

I wryly informed my husband I should put up a sign where I pot the plants, “Never underestimate human stupidity.” He laughed and said I should put up a sign, “Never underestimate a mouse.”

Why Is That Dog Stealing My Shellfish Fertilizer?

Lexi Sundell — Tue, 29 May 2007 15:47:59 +0000

I ran out to the hoop house this morning to check on the little plant people because it was snowing, making the fully leafed caragana bushes droop. The two electric heaters were running but I had not put the propane double burner into action last night so I was concerned.

A big German shepherd was by the triangle garden and I scolded him into leaving. Then I saw my forty pound bag of shellfish fertilizer lying there with a hole torn in it. The bag had been dragged through the snow about 15 feet from where I had left it.

Evidently the dog thought it was quite a prize. I hauled the bag inside the hoop house to preserve it from further depredations, still wondering why the German shepherd wanted to steal it.

All the plants seemed fine, so I got away with leaving the double burner propane heater off. The hoop house is twenty feet by forty feet and quite drafty, so those two small electric heaters would not prevail against too sharp a temperature drop.

Apparently my lesson for today was not temperature drops, but to beware of German shepherds who covet my fertilizer. Figuring I better get it in the ground, I dug some of it into the row where I intend to plant cucumbers tomorrow.

They will grow up the fencing I nailed in place to prevent Cosmo, the puppy who thinks plants are for tug of war, from going in the big double doors to attack my tomato plants.

Maybe the fencing will protect my fertilizer too? And just where did that German shepherd think he was going with the bag anyway?

Dreams of Poppy Gardens

Lexi Sundell — Sun, 20 May 2007 05:03:56 +0000

I doubt my poppies will equal last year’s display. Oodles of weeds went to seed out there last fall when I was working too hard on the book to tend the gardens. I have not been able to catch up on the weeding this spring, so the gardens will be what they are this year.

Every year I look forward to an explosion of poppies. I do have some rubifragrum poppies with buds, which makes me smile. The Shirley poppies are still way too small to be doing such a thing.

Some irises are blooming for the first time, so I get to discover what color they are. My neighbor had a large box of them she had no time to plant so she gave them to me. No one knows what colors were included, so I guess we will find out this year. These first ones are a deep purple.

I have done a lot this year, but I have so much more I want to do. The weather turned too hot too soon as we have been having temperatures in the eighties, which has been making my newly transplanted tomatoes wilt more than usual. It should be cooler tomorrow, which will help them adjust more easily.

The first task this spring was to clean out the hoop house. Every year when I remove the dead plant debris the hoop house looks like it barfed a giant dead plant hairball.

I then mulched the interior of the hoop house. You can see the plastic wall in the right corner, which is where the 8’ x 16’ insulated and heated section sits in the hoop house. I start all my seedlings in there, particularly the tomatoes.

Once the tomatoes are in hand, I begin dreaming of poppies in earnest. I usually have thousands of Shirley poppies. Last year people were driving here just to see the poppies in bloom, including many complete strangers. I hope to have a good bloom this year, but it will be a bit different.

This last photo shows what I hope to see again this year. As with the other photos you can click on it for a larger image.

Five Crazy Things

Lexi Sundell — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 03:18:07 +0000

While looking for something else, I found Hank’s place with a wonderful meme about Five Crazy Things You Have ACTUALLY Done That Only a Gardening Addict Would Admit. I will attempt to list only five of mine; any true gardening addict knows an accurate list will approach infinity.

1. Long ago as a young first time home owner and budding garden addict, I was offered a free tree from a friend’s woodlot which was to be bulldozed into horse pasture. I think she meant a sapling.

I selected a three tree clump which, after the trunk lid on the Fiat was removed, extended a car length in front of the car. The trip home was slow as I had to ride in the trunk with the root ball and yell instructions. The main one was to slow down so the sail like tree did not take out power lines as we tried to drive under them.

After planting the tree, all the leaves died and dropped. I told the tree that I would make it into toothpicks if it did not leaf out again, which it sensibly did.

2. I once ordered twelve dozen bulbs and promptly injured my trowel hand. When the hand healed, snow had fallen but the ground was not frozen. Like any other perfectly intelligent gardening addict, I shoveled the snow off the flower beds, put my legs in garbage bags, knelt down, and planted the bulbs.

3. I heavily mulched with grass clippings almost every square inch of our two town lots more than once. I have solicited lawn clippings from the cemetery, a resort, and lawn services, which dump them on my property. The chopped up plastic flowers in the clippings from the cemetery are slightly annoying, but harmless. I sometimes mulch by moonlight.

4. To replace a small greenhouse destroyed by wind, I brought home a hoop house nearly as large as our home. I am happy to say I am still married after that.

5. As a professional artist I paint flowers for our gallery. In order to have the few dozen flowers I paint each year, I grow thousands of them. I see nothing illogical about this.

Gardening Advice You Will Not Find Here

Lexi Sundell — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 17:14:22 +0000

My philosophy on advice is pretty simple. I listen to it, if I have the time, and use it, if it seems to apply to my own situation. If not, I try to find something that will work for me.

When I look for advice, who do I find credible? I prefer someone who is successful at doing what interests me and the more successful they are the better.

So, in case you are considering reading any writings in this blog of mine, let me tell you upfront what you will not find here, in case you really are looking for something I either do not do, or do not do well, or would find appalling to even consider doing.

I have no neat manicured lawns drenched in god-knows-what chemicals. Nor do I have neat manicured lawns grown organically. Frankly, the only reason we have any lawn at all is my husband wants it, and is willing to mow it, albeit a trifle intermittently. This semi random mowing constitutes the bulk of our “lawn care” if you want to call it that.

I enjoy finding dandelions and wildflowers in the grass too.

I did heavily mulch some large grass areas when they got infested with my uncaring neighbor’s knapweed, a noxious weed in this area. This stopped the germination of new knapweed. It also wiped out the grass for awhile, but it came back on its own in about three years, without the knapweed.

Most people would prefer their weed problem to my solution, so be forewarned. But the grass is thicker there than it used to be, so it seems all right to me.

You will not find plants in military precision rows, measured to the millimeter between them. I have no desire to strangle my gardens that way, although other people manage to grow highly productive and attractive gardens using that method.

Actually, I lack normal rows altogether, preferring wide swathes which curve and ripple through my yard. I plant these ribbons and geometric shapes of slightly raised soil with masses of flowers and sometimes vegetables, which usually creates a riotous tangle of blooms.

Military types tend to regard my gardens with a mixture of horror and awe. Horror because of the randomized nature of my plantings, and awe because they bloom so prolifically.

When the poppies get going, I have lots of cars stopping or driving by slowly. People I do not know come from miles around to look at the gardens.

I mostly try to cooperate with nature and assist my gardens so they thrive in spite of the challenges of my location and climate. So if you are looking for ways to stomp your garden into submission with toxic chemicals, topiary shaping, or other horrendous deformations of nature, I will not be of much help.

I will not be offering advice on tilling, other than the fact that I think one should avoid it whenever possible. I mulch instead, massively. If you want to know what mulching with grass clippings can do for a short season windy site with poor sandy soil, I do know something about that. My angle worms have been thriving since I quit chopping them up with tillers, and leaving the soil exposed to the drying wind and sun.

I am glad almost all my plants like the mulch. I will confess, however, that rhubarb can be killed even with slight mulching. Whatever one’s philosophy, nature will provide a glaring exception to keep one humble.

Fortunately, whatever one’s philosophy, nature also will try to keep things growing anyway. This is one of the great safety nets of gardening. Sometimes plants thrive in spite of our errors, stupidities, and ineptitude. I am deeply grateful for that fact.