I planted the fertile crescent nearest the back steps with a variety of lettuce and mild mustard greens this afternoon. First I weeded and broke up the top inch of soil with a garden rake. Then I shoveled a thin layer of compost from the compost bin over that, and half a bag of commercial topsoil over that. (I’m trying to build up this bed.) Then I sprinkled all of these seeds over the area, raked lightly, and watered from the rain barrel.

Lettuce:
Buttercrunch Bibb
Black-seeded Simpson
Red Sails
Rouge De Hiver
Red Oakleaf
Oakleaf

Mustards:
Tatsoi
Red Russian kale
Mizuna
Spring Raab
Scarlet Ohno
and whatever else is in “Morton Mild Mix” by High Mowing Seeds.

I already have Tuscan kale and one lonely Golden Chard so I’m set for greens this winter. There is a lot of broccoli in the garden but it is not heading very well. I harvested just a tiny bit that I put into a squash casserole. I’ll probably plant turnips, carrots, and radishes in the next week or so.

Boy, I sure have gotten lazy with the titles of my posts. Maybe I should just not title them.

I’ve been working hard in the Back Forty, mainly weeding and mulching as much as I can before the hot weather and mosquitoes arrive. Sandy has requested to be in charge of the big tomatoes this year, so I gave him the primo spot and I just added compost and organic fertilizer to that area this morning. I want to get as much done this morning as I can since the rain will move in later.

We’re still having little cold spells, and I think that we’ve been particularly patient about planting the tomatoes this year. I see how slowly even the cold-tolerant plants are growing and that has informed me that the soil isn’t ready yet. Plus I’m following Pat and Brian’s advice. I’ll have to buy my pepper plants this year because my seedling trays were invaded by two slugs when I set them outside during a warm spell, and now it’s too late to start them. Bummer. I love saving seeds.

I’m very tempted to go ahead and plant my field peas and beans, but I think that the reason that I’ve avoided pests in the past with them is that I have planted them later than most people do. I think that I’ll plant my butterbeans next weekend and see what happens, since they have a long growing season before I get any pods. I always have a ton of butterbeans that are not filled out at the first frost and it pains me to see what might have been.

Anyway, most of my day is going to be devoted to making paper on the front porch. It will be a challenge to dry it, but I’ll press the stack until Wednesday when the sun should be back out.

I’ve been slogging through The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Well, I don’t know if the word “slogging” is deserved - let’s say “slogging” through certain philosophical theological parts. But I’m fascinated with the whole historical aspect of the library and the process of copying and illuminating and binding the books. I haven’t seen the movie so I’ll see if I can check it out from our library.

My trip to the Art and Soul retreat in Hampton is in two weeks! I’m looking so much forward to it. I’m not getting much art done at home, although I did a bit of weaving and some studio clean-up yesterday. My woodcut class has pretty much sucked up my artistic energy. I’m going to try to get my color print of the turnip woodcut done on Thursday. Our last class and critique will be right before Art & Soul so my brain will be clear for two days of creativity and new ways to bind books. Then I’ll concentrate on doing smaller woodcuts on my own that I can use in my little books.

I’m taking History of Photography late May to late June for one of my art history requirements. It is writing intensive so I’ll be writing a lot of papers I guess. That is a very slow time for me at work so my eyes won’t be so wiped out from being on the computer when I come home. I think that this will be a fascinating subject.

And in mid-July, ta-da! I booked the Alaskan cruise!

Now, back to the Back Forty for some more weeding and mulching.

We’ve had lots of rain over the past few weeks. In between the periods of rain I’ve transplanted volunteer foxgloves into beds that aren’t as sunny, one beside Miss Peanut and several under the oak tree. I look forward to them blooming this year because they have become one of my favorite flowers.

Also I mulched a new path and lined it with the few logs left over from this winter’s pile.

All the lettuce except for the Red Sails under one of the cages disappeared. Likewise all the chard and some of the broccoli and some of the kale. Obviously I need to protect these seedlings and usually I do. I didn’t do my tunnels or greenhouse this winter because of my physical problems, and I threw out the ripped up dirty Agribon fabric in a cleaning fit and didn’t buy more. Lesson learned.

This weekend should be lovely weather and I’ll try to remember to fertilize and mulch with my compost. And plant carrots, lettuce, golden chard, and parsley. More peas.

My pepper seeds are just now coming up. I was just about to give up.

Pussy willow is budding. Nanking cherry bushes and seckel pear tree too. Garlic chives are up. Rosemary and lemon thyme is taking up too much valuable real estate and will have to be reduced significantly. Daffodils and lenten rose are in bloom. Claytonia never came back.

In the area behind the white nanking cherry, I planted Lincoln peas. I also threw a handful of Dill Bouquet seeds nearby just for fun. In two small separate spots, I planted Sugar Daddy snap peas near the back steps, and Dwarf Grey Sugar snaps near the garlic chives. These sugar snap peas were given to me last year by Stew, but I didn’t have room for them.

I moved the greens seedlings back to the gazebo - I remembered the aphid destruction that happened on the front porch last year just in time. I planted the following in another flat (to go inside when the weather turns cold again):

Tomatoes (all leftover seeds from last year or before):
Roma
Amish Paste
San Marzano
Green Zebra
Cherokee Purple
Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter
Brandywine

Peppers (all saved seeds):
Alma Paprika
Pimento
Hungarian Hot Wax

Eggplants (low expectations, here):
Ping Tung Long
Black Beauty

I did a little digging and weeding with a hoe, and dropped the seed into the planting areas without too much squatting. When I did get down, I definitely felt the consequences. I’m going to figure this thing out - kneeling on my knees will probably work better but the trick is to be mindful of it.

Today I’d like to plant some garlic and more potatoes in the raised beds, and green cotton seeds in containers. The cotton is totally new for me and I’ll have to check the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange catalog to see what to do and expect!

I start this weekend feeling pretty doggone good about the week behind me.

My critique went well, and I have some good ideas now on how to develop the first print further. Right now I’ve moved on to carving one of the window designs from Spannocchia.

Wednesday, we had our second tapestry box class. Two nights were probably not enough. The number of students were reduced by about half, but that was much better because it gave me a chance to get around to everyone and do some weaving myself. We might get up a little tapestry group, so if you’re in the area of the Triad and you’re interested, write me a comment and I’ll email you if we get enough interest. We’ll probably meet on Sunday afternoons, and we’ll bring small portable projects and help each other out with ideas and problem solving. If you have never woven tapestry, I’ll be glad to get you started on a cardboard loom. It’s very easy to learn the basics.

I did a lot of collage this week and it was very satisfying and relaxing.

About a month ago when I first got on Facebook, I searched for Michael Pollan’s name and found that he had a personal page. So I asked him to be my FB friend, and didn’t really expect anything to come from it. This week he confirmed my friendship along with about 100 other people, so Michael is on my list of FB friends! How sweet is that?

The weather is beautiful already this morning so I don’t know why the hell I am still sitting here in front of the computer!

I’ll get out to the gazebo today and start my tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds. The other seedlings have been moved to the front porch to begin hardening off. I did a little weeding yesterday afternoon, but I can see that I’m going to have to become friends with the hoe. I’ve always liked to get right down in the dirt. It’s my Southern white trash genes.

Normally I would just drop some cardboard and newspaper over these weeds, or some black plastic to heat them to death if they’re really tough. But this is ground ivy, which just runs under and over that stuff. I usually like to pull up as much as I can and start from there. It got ahead of me this past fall, and there is a very healthy patch of it around the pear trees. It’s like dealing with the blob.

Oh well, I’m at the bottom of the coffee pot, so it’s time to stop yammering and get on with my day, starting with grocery shopping at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market. Enjoy the weekend!

Ah, I am happy that it is the weekend. I woke up this morning after way too much sleep, blearily wondering what to wear to work today.

This week was a mixed bag for me. I felt a lot better on Tuesday, so I walked a lot and generally behaved like a normal person through Wednesday night, and woke up on Thursday barely able to walk. By Friday, I was fine again. I fell asleep very early last night and slept for 12, count ‘em TWELVE, hours! Sheesh! I made a doctor’s appointment for Monday. And found out that the new doctor who I liked so much has moved to Indiana. I hope that the woman who I will see on Monday was the one that Sandy saw for his gall bladder, because I liked her too.

I started seeds last Sunday, and I have a tray with many baby seedlings coming up now. That is such a kick for me! Here’s the list (tomatoes and peppers will be started soon):

Broccoli de Ciccio
Broccoli mystery mix
Mild mustard mix
Tatsoi
Tuscan (black) kale
Red Sails lettuce
Black seeded Simpson lettuce
Red Oak lettuce
Rough d’Hiver lettuce
Buttercrunch bibb lettuce
Ruby chard
Golden chard
Parsley
Spinach

The only ones that I don’t see any action on is the parsley, spinach, and red oak lettuce. Parsley takes longer to germinate. The old saying is that you must curse the parsley. Spinach, for some reason, is one of those iffy vegetables for me, but the seed is old. Most of this seed is old, for that matter. I didn’t order any new seed this year!

I find myself with no fresh parsley in the garden this winter, a real bummer. Once you get used to popping out the back door whenever you like to snip some for a soup or sauce, you never want to go back to having to buy it. I think that a combination of a colder than usual January and the new bunny got it. This year I’ll freeze some in cubes like I do for basil as a back-up.

Gardening will be difficult this year if I can’t get this hip healed up. This blog may end up being about gardening for the disabled! Maybe if I can avoid squatting…

On the art front, I carved my first woodcut this week. Next week (or maybe this weekend in my studio if I can’t wait) I’ll print my first proofs. It turned out that I didn’t use any of the photos that I posted here - instead it is from a color study painting that I did of a turnip a few years ago. I’m very pleased with it and enjoyed doing it immensely.

At the used bookstore, I bought a wonderful book about art journals by Lynne Perella. Oh, how I love Ed McKay’s. Wednesday night was a particularly good night for the free shelf too. One score was an 1895 book on musical forms that was in excellent shape. My idea is to use it as an altered book, but it will be difficult to make myself cut into it and paint it. Also a good book on weaving baskets from several different Native American traditions, and a couple of novels. I am often surprised at the good stuff I can pick up for free. There are some nights when it’s all old computer books and church stuff and uninteresting old paperbacks, but when you look at it as fodder for collage, a whole world opens up.

Another place that I mine regularly for copyright free images is Ebay. I don’t buy, but I look at the books for sale and save images of interesting illustrations and pages to my hard drive. Sometimes if there are many images of a book’s pages I’ll set up a folder in my “Virtual Library” and save them to that. I did that recently with an old copy of Peter Pan and Wendy, but usually I look at woodcuts, maps, prints, and books from the 16th-19th centuries. I’m learning a lot about the history of bookbinding and illustration from just looking at Ebay!

Rule number one: no BUYING from Ebay. That would be a slippery slope indeed.

I’m back to the phase when I think that I’ll quit blogging and just live my life, but that never lasts long. Right now I’m blogging out of a weird sense of obligation that only bloggers understand, but a few days from now I’ll probably have to restrain myself from doing several posts in a day. I AM trying to balance the blogging addiction, and lately it has been working, partly because I have so many other things capturing my attention.

Such as the Back Forty - I took down the greenhouse yesterday so that hopefully this next predicted soaking rain will benefit the lettuce, beets, and carrots planted in those beds. I transplanted a lot of leek volunteers. I took advantage of the wet earth and dug up a lot of dandelions and thistles, especially in the middle of the path that I’m about to mulch, thanks to the help of Gwen, who brought me some more cardboard.

I’ve been cooking again too. Nothing fancy. It’s only me for dinner these days, but I’ve never minded leftovers too much. Tonight I’m baking a meat loaf and a local pasture-raised ham steak spread with peach preserves from one of our Amish farmers. Also peas and corn from my freezer - I need to make some room in the freezer for my chicken CSA which will begin in a couple of weeks. I’ll eat most of the chicken but I plan to make and freeze stock. I’m going to try to get more serious about producing my own food this year. Not being clinically depressed should help with that goal.

Seedlings inside will go out to harden off in the next few days. They’re looking good - I also have a few cucumbers that I got from Stew that I hope will do well in containers. The only thing that did not germinate at all was the Red Marconi peppers I got from the seed swap at the CFSA conference, so I might have to buy a few sweet pepper plants. I love growing peppers.

Okay, back to the stove then back to weaving.

Okay, things are getting a little dead around there, so let’s liven it up. First of all, near the bottom of the sidebar are some good tunes for you to listen to while you’re reading.

I planted tomato and artichoke seeds this afternoon. The artichokes are “Violetto” from Pinetree from last year. Since I have iffy luck with artichokes I planted more than needed: 8. That’s an organic gardening tip I learned from an organic farmer - plant twice what you need! Ha!

Sometimes that doesn’t work out. But why not if you have a zillion packets of lots of different seeds and a small space?

Here is a list of the tomato seeds I started in the happy room today, two seeds to a hole in the tray:

Amish Paste, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, 2008, 8
Cherokee Purple, Appalachian Seeds, 2008, 6
Green Zebra, saved seeds from la Stewie, 2007, 6
Mortgage Lifter, Estler’s variety, Appalachian Seeds, 2008, 6
Principe Borghese, Appalachian Seeds, 2008, 4
Roma VF, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, 2008, 16
San Marzano, Liberty Garden, 2007, 4
Yellow Pear, Seeds of Change, 2005
Heirloom Mix, Fedco Seeds, 2007, 16

So, as you can see, I will be scrambling to find spots for the tomatoes again this year.

And the second thing to liven you up is this: I’m giving seeds away. If you would like to try out any of the above (sorry, no more artichokes), PLUS these:

Brandywine, Fedco, 2006
Pineapple, Fedco, 2007
Mortgage Lifters, Radiator Charlie’s variety, 2008
Hungarian Hot Wax peppers (I think), saved by me, 2007

Leave a comment on this post up until Thursday, March 13. Tell me what ones you’d like. Don’t be shy. I’ll give them away until Friday or until I run out, and divide them up according to how many people want them. It may just be 5-10 seeds each. We’ll see how it goes. If you leave your correct email in the comment form, I’ll contact you through email for your address.

Whee!

I know that there is little point in dreading the weather, but tomorrow is supposed to be very windy and rainy. I have visions of chasing my greenhouse across the yard in the cold rain. I went out and stomped the stakes down as best I could, and that’s all I can do, I guess.

Lettuce and carrots have germinated in the greenhouse, and I have more volunteer leeks, so it looks like I won’t have to start any inside this year. Since my leeks prematurely went to seed in that freak show of weather last spring, I have leeks EVERYwhere. I like that, so there’s no problem. I can actually tell the difference between a baby leek and a wild onion now, but please don’t ask me to tell you. You just gotta be there.

All the seeds I planted in early February are coming up, but there’s no sign of asparagus shoots. Half of the artichokes have reemerged and I’m quite happy with that. I halfway expected for them all to be dead. The Tuscan kale that I planted last spring is going to seed now. I guess that I should plant some more in the winter garden bed under the tree, since it liked it there.

Inside, my peppers are FINALLY coming up. I didn’t put the heating pad under them like I said that I was going to, at first. I put them in front of a heating vent and figured that would do it. But it didn’t, and the heating pad went under them a week ago. Now most of them are coming up except the Paprika Pimiento and Red Marconi peppers and the Rosa Bianca eggplants. The most vigorous seedlings are the ones I saved from the most delicious pepper I grew last year that I think was a Hungarian wax pepper. Yay! On Sunday, I plan to start tomato seeds, and maybe a few other plants as far as two bags of starting mix will take me.

The Back Forty is ugly on the whole - there are white fabric covered rows and sheets of plastic and the god-awful greenhouse marring the view of the beautiful daffodils, lenten rose, and Nanking cherry bushes coming into bloom. The rhodedendron that was so beautiful last year is three-quarters dead. I trimmed away much of the dead branches and I’m saving some forked branches and twigs for art work.

But soon, soon, it will be lovely again, and I’ll have about a 2-3 month window to enjoy it and get as much work done as possible before the mosquito guerrillas take over until the first frost.

Normally I am chomping at the bit to start my seeds, but this year I’ve got more of a “whatever” attitude. I’ll probably feel differently once they begin to come up. I’m not planning to start many indoors, since I’m going to devote more space to beans, peas, and okra this year. I do want a couple of good slicer tomatoes and Stew gave me some Green Zebra seed she saved. I just ordered Roma and Amish Paste canning tomatoes from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Roma is a nice compact size, but Amish Paste is on the Slow Food Ark, so I decided to do a little of both in big pots again. I really dig the whole concept of the Slow Food Ark. For the slicers, I’m going to go with something new this year: Cherokee Purple. A couple of Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifters, both varieties for a Slow Food tasting challenge. Maybe a few surprise heirloom tomatoes for fun. I always end up with way too many tomato plants and I gave a lot away last year.

But tonight, I’m starting some pepper plants, because I only have half a bag of seed starting mix. These will go into pots too. Peppers always take forever with me. Last year I bought an expensive heat mat, and it helped greatly, but it conked out within a couple of weeks. So this year I’m using an old heating pad. So there. I’ll do just a few of several different kinds including:

Red Marconi - a long sweet pepper from the seed saving table at CFSA conference.
Alma Paprika, from Pinetree - bugs ate them up last year. Will change location and be more diligent with the insecticidal soap if necessary.
Pimiento, from Pinetree - same problem, but planted in two areas and the other area did okay. They were stolen a lot, probably the Critter. Chicken wire?
Hungarian Wax, saved seeds from a Fedco mix last year - I am guessing at the variety name. It was my favorite by far.
Some Like It Hot mix, from Fedco - above mentioned mix, mystery fun!

Okay, I planted those, and had a few more spaces so I planted a few eggplant seeds. All from 2005 or 2004 packets, but last year they came up fine. We’ll call it an experiment in seed fertility. I plant them in pots and try to keep them 2-3 feet above the ground - seems to help with flea beetles.

White Eggplant, from Monticello (the prettiest)
Rosa Bianca (was a dud before, but what the heck)
Early Black Egg (this is the one that produced an eggplant during the month of November, 2006, after a frost!)
Black Beauty (the traditional)
Ping Tung Long (my favorite)

The last four varieties came from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.