Weekend Warrior

207 herb starts.

That's how many baby plants I was able to transplant over the weekend after converting the porch to a makeshift gardening shed. :P

And now the porch has been taken over by baby plants.

The next step? Let these little guys get some size on them, and then it's time for them to be transplanted into the herb garden! 

Yay for slug-eaten Johnny Jump-Ups... 

Until next time!
SG

Celtic Ball

Last Saturday, my sister and I were able to attend the Celtic Ball!

If you want a detailed write-up of our costumes you can see mine and hers. 

'A lady does not place her weapon on the table.'

There was even a bagpiper! (and he played the Star Wars theme) 

Until next time!

SG

Of Edibles and Finals

After finishing the finals for the term, I got to bring home all these lovelies from my propagation class. Apples, figs, kiwis, herbs, and grapes, oh my! 

And this doesn't even include all the microgreens that I got to bring home as well! 

So I scoured the greenhouse on campus looking for my plants, loaded them up into the backseat of my sedan (yay for rubber floor mats!), and headed home. The skies were blue, the trees are all in bloom, the grass is green again, and the wild mustard covers the hillsides with a blanket of yellow. The classical radio station was playing lively string quartets all the way home (nothing else was on the radio). It was a good way to derazzle from studying for finals. Now onward to spring break and getting these guys into the garden!

Until next time!

SG

Orchard Installation

A BIG box came to the front door filled with fruit trees. Then Dad and Oma headed out to the 'plant mobil' on Saturday morning to pick up even more trees! 'Tis time to put in the orchard. 

But let me back up here for a moment. For years, we (meaning Dad) have been pondering about what to put in the south 3/4 acre field. He staked that part of the property as his. There will be no touching or planning his territory (but I didn't see any flags). Should we do a vineyard? We don't need that much wine. Orchard? But some homemade wine would be nice. ;) How 'bout we do BOTH! Well, with months of planning and pouring over catalogs (those wonderful distractions that start coming in the darkest days of winter making you wish it were warm again even though you can't stand the heat), Dad came up with a grand plan and a step-by-step process to get to the final destination. Since it is such an undertaking, we're taking this project on in pieces, so on Saturday, the crew got almost 50 trees planted. I say 'the crew' because I was sitting in a class. On a sunny day. On a Saturday. (but it's an herb class, so I'm not complaining ^_^) 

So into the ground went the apples, pears, peaches, and... pawpaws! 

 

My what a wonderful spring we're having this winter! 

Mom donning her latest farmer t-shirt from the farm conference last weekend. 

And of course Susie wanted to help, but she just likes to be underfoot. So little miss had to stay on the goat side of the fence. 

Until next time! 

SG

How to Propagate Lavender

For one of my projects this term, I have to do a report (and oral presentation) about propagating an edible plant. Lavender counts, right?

So I gathered the necessary supplies for rooting cuttings.

-Rooting hormone of your choice (please read the label to make sure that it is strong enough for what you're trying to root!). They come in powders and liquid. If you use liquid, you're going to have to dilute it out. Again, please read the directions on the bottle. 

- Peat Moss. You can go with peat or coir. The store didn't have any coir though. We'll save the discussion about the no-so-environmental-savvy-ness of peat for another time. For getting cuttings to root, you need something that retains a lot of water.  

Which brings me to the next point. You don't want gigantic pots to start your cuttings in. It will take a ton of water to keep the media moist enough for your baby clones to survive. Use a pot that has plugs just big enough for your cuttings. 

Then you fill you pot with the growing media of choice, and wet the stuff down. You want it wet enough that it clumps, but not so much that water oozes from it when you give it a squeeze.

 

Following the directions on the bottle of glorified auxin (rooting hormone), I diluted it out to the appropriate strength. If you just dip the cutting straight into the bottle you will a)introduce pathogens into the community bottle and b)you just made an herbicide and will now grow your plant to death.

 For my project, I ended up with waaaay more rooting hormone than I needed... You don't need much. Just enough to dip the tips of your cuttings in. 

Next, grab your cuttings. Mine happen to be lavender (Sarah to be precise). You don't need much. Just enough to have about 3 nodes to dip in the rooting hormone and then a few leaves to remind you that they're still there. You don't want many leaves because they will lose water. Not enough water = dead plant.  

So, take your cutting, and strip the leaves to expose the nodes (the spots where the leaves are growing). These zones are where the plant will grow roots from. By removing the leaves, you're telling the plant to grow roots instead.  

To get a better look at the nodes. There are 4 shown here. 

Now dip the exposed nodes into the rooting hormone. If you have a powder, you will have a small cup of water and a small cup of the powder. First dip the cutting into the water, then the powder (it helps the powder to stick). But with my liquid, the cutting just goes for a quick dip.  

And into the prepared pot it goes! Mine is just a re-used veggie pack from last year that was cleaned out to make sure that no pathogens get to the cuttings. 

And voila! You have lavender (or thyme, or rosemary, or or or or or...) cuttings. Keep the babies damp and in place with cooler air and warmer ground. Then your little hopefuls will grow roots. 

No project is complete without a cat hanging around. ;)  

Until next time!

SG

Happy Cat

The sun came out after many days of pouring rain. 

The cat approves.

January Color

Once upon a winter dreary, while it mizzled, bleak and bleary.

There bloomed a witch hazel in full glory.

...

And that's as far as I got. :P I can only manage a parody for so long before it breaks. 

:cough:

Anyways...

While everything else in the garden is still sleeping, the witch hazel comes out and surprises (not really - it's supposed to bloom in winter) you with its burst of color in the dull drab world of January. 

Until next time!

SG

Where the Cat Napped

There is an old farm cat that lived in the outdoors,

Even though he can't see very well through one eye,

he enjoys every minute of it, 

or so I have been told.

But one day he was found with a gouge in his chin,

Gross and disgusting as it could be.

So into he went into the cat carrier,

To the vet's to see what we could see. 

An overnight stay, two drainage tubes, and a few stitches later,

The old farm cat came home with medicines and instructions to stay in the house.

The old farm cat didn't mind since he loved to nap inside where it was warm. 

And he intended to take a very long nap. 

Upon waking from his ridiculously long nap in the craft room closet,

He ventured throughout the house because it was time for his meal

Little realizing that he was to eat inside.

He truly did not mind. 

The next day, he napped in Sarah's room 

Since it was the quietest of them all. 

Granted, it could be cold, 

But snuggling next to the laptop solved that. 

After getting shooed off the desk in lieu of homework, 

the old farm cat found a new spot:

A perch above the bed

Where he could supervise everything. 

After finding how hard and cold his perch could be,

He found a new location to lay his head.

With all the junk removed,

The comfortable blue throne would certainly do. 

When things got too chilly in the north-facing bedroom,

he wandered into the warmest spot in the house.

A sunbeam hitting the carpet

became the perfect place to be. 

But there was a cozier spot than the throne in blue or the solar radiance - 

the rumpled up sheets right after the human was removed.

Plush and soft and not-pilled-flannel

became the old farm cat's most favorite spot of all. 

Alack, alas. This heaven could not last forever.

After staying indoors for two weeks, 

the orange fur began to pile up

and sneezing abounded throughout the house.

The stitches removed and the medications gone,

it was time to the old farm cat to resume his post in the garage.

His nieces welcomed back their elderly relative

And into the upturned cardboard box with the old comforter did he go.

Until  next time!

SG

Winter Garden

A long over due post. ;)

Before things got 'colder' in the fall, we were able to get the raised beds into the garden and plant the few herbs that we had. The herbs were then tucked into their beds and now wait for spring to arrive with its warmer temperatures (or now... since we're having a warmer winter).

The 2'x2' beds are actually concrete forms from when we built the deck. All I did was put on a couple layers of paint and a stenciled flourish. To prevent gophers, moles, and voles (oh my!), I stapled a vinyl coated wire mesh to the bottom of the boxes. Now my herbs are safe(r) from root nibbling. Let's hope the mesh holds ;)

As for the longer bed in the middle... it's a crate that was used to transport one of my grandma's clocks across the country. Yeah, they built a crate to haul the clock. It felt like a waste to toss it, so I painted it the same color as the concrete forms, put a chicken wire mesh along the sides and then a weed block behind that. Underneath is the same vinyl coated mesh to keep the burrowing rodents at bay. 

I feel like such a Portlander for not throwing things away and repurposing them. :P

For the stepping stones, I spray painted some pavers a light cream. Once dried, I used a doily as a stencil to paint over. I :love: how they turned out. 

As for the pathway, we just laid down some empty paper feed bags and put bark dust on top. Here's to minimal weeding!

Until next time!

SG

Project Assistants

...Or rather not.

For my class, I needed to assemble a collection of weed samples and correctly identify them. In order to get good pictures, I headed outside since my camera likes light. The only problem with working outside is that you are suddenly in cat territory - especially if you work on the porch. They seem to gravitate there. 

The fat cat thought that it would behoove her to roll around in my samples. 

The half-blind one was content enough to just watch me work. Rather... sleep while I work. This cat has the right idea about life. :P 

But at least they stayed out of my 'working zone.'

The huntress couldn't stay away from my cheap studio set-up. She even had the nerve to get comfortable right smack-dab on top of my samples.

'Dis plant - I like it.'   

Strangely enough, there weren't any samples of cat mint. 

Until next time!

SG