more seedy thoughts

Speaking of growing things, I'm almost positive that I've got all my flower and vegetable seeds for Gardens 2023.  My two favorite varieties of pole bean don't seem to be available anywhere, so I'm going to be trying a yellow romano-type pole bean, and will also plant a lot of the filet pole bean seeds that I've saved from years past. Fingers crossed there'll be some success there, as beans are one crop I've had very good luck with almost every year.

sample of Gardening Plans 2023

Doing more gardening with less leaning has become increasingly important, and after pricing lumber to build a couple of new raised beds last Autumn, I ordered two metal raised beds. You've probably seen these advertised, as I think they are becoming increasingly popular: modular, powder-coated, corrugated tubs. Mine are Birdies brand from Australia, and a brief 20% discount for followers of an Australian YouTube gardening channel clinched my decision. I've assembled them and now it's a matter of placement, which is turning out to be tricky. Finding spots with adequate light is always a challenge here, and these tubs are not going to be moveable - at least not without a lot of work - so I need to choose carefully. Also, one totally unforeseen factor is that big metal tubs - even pretty, pale green ones - are very, very noticeable in my comfortably wildish landscape. I think my Occasional Helper used the term "comparatively industrial." I can think of places to put them where they would look quite nice (such as next to the house) but would not have enough light, and I can think of places to put them where they might have enough light but would be almost jarring to the eye. An odd problem! They will probably look more at home once things are growing in and around them, and will likely become cherished components of the gardening scheme here. But at the moment, the decision of where to put them is proving quite a challenge. Could you all just come by, take a look around, and give me your opinions? Thanks very much!

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zinnias

Less than a week ago, with several days of rain predicted,

I headed to the terrace garden to pick a few zinnias.

Since midsummer I've had a few zinnias in a range of sizes, shapes, and colors, in little vases and jam jars around the house. The flowers last for days in water, and sometimes even change color as they begin to - well, I was going to write "fade" but when a flower turns from a coral-rose to purple, it isn't really "fading," is it?

With so much rain predicted in the first week of November, I thought that might be the last handful of zinnias I would be carrying up to the house in 2019. And it was.

Thanks for another grand year, zinnias!

It was just last year, when on a whim I started some zinnias from seed in the tiny greenhouse, that I discovered how generous and joyous these plants are. Many of those tiny seedlings were eaten by insects before I could get them into the garden, but the plants that survived just grew and bloomed and grew and bloomed, right into late Autumn. They were one of my greatest joys in the 2018 gardens.

The bees and other pollinators certainly enjoyed them, too.

All day, every day: bees on the zinnias.

I saved some of the dried flower heads at this time last year, and planted the seeds this Spring. I planted a single row of seeds. That was all.

And all summer, I was greeted with:

The plants grew two to three feet tall, and branched out to form a wide row.

I ran a line of soft rope at knee-height along the the row, to help support them.

Maybe next year I'll make a little picket fence just for the zinnias.

Because I'm saving seed again this year.

Of course.

 ~~~~~

the last morning of 2018

On this morning of the final day of the year,

I'm doing a bit of thinking back and thinking ahead.

While I'm doing all this thinking, what task could be more appropriate

than cleaning the seeds saved from this year's gardens?

Do you have any special plans for this New Year's Eve?

Or, depending on your place in the world, New Year's Day?

~~~~~

changes

I started writing this yesterday, but was too tired to be coherent. Every waking moment of Tuesday was spent shifting goats around to keep two young bucks separated from the does, several of whom came into season yesterday morning.

Rocket at 13 days.

I had contacted my vet to try to get her out to wether both boys last week - which would have been perfect timing - but didn't even hear back. I managed to catch her with my third call, on Monday. I'm reluctantly wondering if it's time to look for another vet. I certainly don't expect someone to drop everything to rush out to my place, but I do need someone who will return my calls. I like my vet, but her practice has grown and this is not the first time I've felt like she just isn't "there" for me anymore; the last time, there was a communication delay for several weeks with the result that vaccines were administered at a time when their efficacy was reduced - which frankly, stuck in my craw. I'm a good client. I am respectful of the time of others. I don't complain about expenses and I pay my bills instantly. My animals matter to me.

[Deep cleansing breath.]

Anyway, the boys' appointment is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

Rocket now.

I'm a little sorry neither of these boys will sire offspring as they are both quite nice in terms of conformation. I even checked with the owners of their dad, in case they might want to have Rocket for his genetic potential - his mother is the daughter of my best doe, and is a good cashmere goat in her own right - but they are fully stocked with bucks. So, wethering it is. Mallow and Rocket will be happy and there won't be a constant risk of unplanned breedings.

In other news, I found my largest baking pan - it still had this watercolor taped to it, as I had used it as a drawing board back in July - 

and have started baking the candy roasters.

I started with the largest squash, which was 11 pounds 8 ounces - I had to cook it in two shifts! I've got several pounds of gorgeous purée in the freezer already. I will try to save some of the squash whole, for cooking in the Winter - it's lovely to cut into a squash and relive summer in that fresh aroma.

One quarter of the 11.5-pound candy roaster

The temperature has dropped below freezing several times at night, but a few nights ago it went down to the 20s F and the gardens really showed it the next morning. I pulled up all the remaining okra plants, and saved some wilted zinnia heads in hopes of seeds. I'm not sure how that works - do you know if the seeds have already matured before all the petals have dropped, or if they haven't developed and won't be viable? - but it's worth a try. I now have cardboard trays of seeds all over the porch - zinnias, bee balm, Suyo Long cucumbers, two varieties of okra, and candy roaster squash. The plan is to get all the seeds dry and into envelopes before I knock the cardboard trays over or the cats start playing in the seeds or Piper swings her tail and sends everything flying.

Piper on our long walk in the woods on Monday.
Plenty of tail-swinging that day!

There are still zinnias in jars on my windowsill, and I will enjoy them as long as possible. And of course, there are dozens of photographs on my laptop. I could keep drawing and painting zinnias for quite a while, I think. Maybe I will.

My eyes are almost closing as I type and I have yet to do my Daily Markmaking, so I'd better get cracking! I hope your week is going well :)

~~~~~

gardening 2018

My plan for the 2018 gardens: start all the vegetables and flowers from seed. Choose with an eye to avoiding cross-pollination, so next year I can plant more saved seeds.

A week ago, I began to fill this bought-on-sale tinkertoy greenhouse with little peat pots and planters full of organic potting mix. And seeds.

Already, a few seeds have germinated!

The last of the vegetable seeds on my list - the pole beans - have finally been ordered. I had hoped to find them from a different source, but the type I want is apparently only available from one supplier, as they were nowhere (else) to be found. So let's hope the poor showing last year was due to the weather, and not the seed.

The only direct planting so far is flowers, from seed saved last year. In just the past few days, goutweed has sprung up and is already engulfing the violets that grow between established clumps of hyssop and other summer-booming perennials in the beds by the goat barns:

I've begun pulling out goutweed in patches - carefully, to protect the violets - and raking in bee balm seeds saved from plants that bloomed deep red last year:

Fingers crossed the bee balm seeds will sprout and the new plants will manage to grow above the next wave of goutweed.

It's still a little bit early to direct-seed vegetables, and the fence needs to be reinstalled on one side of the terrace garden. But my Occasional Helper and I have been working hard on something I've wanted for a long time: a permanent Very Raised Bed with straight sides. And while it is not finished yet, I am going to share a few WIP photographs because it's starting to look like what it's meant to be. And of course I already have plans for what I'll do differently if there's ever a chance to build another.

First day of building, May 3; Supervisor and assistant at hand.

Because of that fence situation mentioned above.

Toward the end of the first day of work: 

(At this point I said to the Occasional Helper, "You know, if I could ever plan a raised bed like a normal person, we'd be done now."
He said, "Yes, but where would be the fun in that?"
I like the way he thinks.)

Second day of work, May 10.
Just to be clear: we are not building stone walls. We are fencing in stone edges and filling the center before the stones can fall down.

End of second day.
Experimenting with mix of stones and poles along one side.
You know how I feel about experimenting.

Please note Moxie graciously providing scale:

Providing scale, plus...
There's Something In There Maybe!

I'm hoping we'll get Very Raised Bed III finished this week, but it may take two more sessions. The work is hard and only one person is doing about 90% of it.

Having the funny little greenhouse is a treat, because instead of fretting about not having the new bed or the terrace garden ready to plant, or when the black flies are too horrible to allow working in the perennial beds, I can just trot out to the greenhouse and plant up a few more peat pots. It's very satisfying.

~~~~~

now you see it

now you don't!

If you happened to see the horrendous comment that was up for a couple of hours recently, my apologies. Very few slip through the net, and in fact, there's been a remarkably low level of ugliness on this blog over the years.

My guests are just The Nicest People!

So this may have been a one-off. If it becomes a recurrent thing, I will have to implement "administrator approval" for comments, as do many of you on your own blogs. We'll see.

~~~

Further seediness:

Attention Tess, Winner of Seeds: I have no way of contacting you directly! Please send me your mailing address and choice of seed - Winter or Summer squash. If I don't hear from you by Saturday, a full week after the drawing, I will assume you have also won a trip to Tahiti - hey, congrats!!! - and are going there instead of planting a garden this year.

Also in Seed world: here's the link to Tipper's giveaway in case you missed it. Ends tomorrow, 7 April.

~~~

Now.

Are we ready for the weekend?

Let's hope for a little less of this:

and a lot more of this:

~~~~~

giveaway

It's been a while since I've done a giveaway here on Comptonia, but something came in the mail today that seems like a perfect Thing To Share.

I've mentioned the Sow True Seed company before. I like this company a lot, both their mission and their catalog, and I'm grateful to Tipper from The Blind Pig and The Acorn blog for sending me their way. Sow True Seed is a big part of the annual adventure in sweat and emotion I call "gardening."

This year, in response to a rather challenging winter which is ongoing, I have already ordered my seeds, including lettuce and candy roaster squash and little short-season melons.

These squash seeds are not actually part of my order, but I have a couple of packets to share. If you think you would like to win a packet of either variety, just leave a comment on this blogpost. Any comment will do, but if you include a gardening tip it will count as a second entry - we all need all the gardening tips we can get, don't we?

Please feel free to share this in any way and with anyone you think might be interested. I don't mind folks just dropping in to Comptonia to enter a giveaway. I'll draw two winners at midnight on March 30th and post the names on March 31st.

Seeds! Just a little something to help turn the page on the month of March.

And...ahem, coughcough...not to make a fuss about it but... you happen to know the person who painted the watercolors for the seed packets.

~~~~~

wordless seedy saturday

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