What I’ve Been Up To

Still no camera here. We’ve been shopping but it’s a hard choice. The poor little camera has to wear so many hats. I want it to document our life, satiate my amateur photographer dabbling and provide the husband with a decent camera to photograph the timber frame homes he designs. I think we’re down to a couple models and will have our minds made up by the end of the week. Here’s a little run down on what else I’ve been up to:

• Clearing and planting our herb and vegetable garden. All I can say is never, ever plant garlic chives!!! Regular chives - fine. Garlic chives - NO way. They are beyond invasive and difficult to eradicate.
• Making a color wheel with frosting as suggested on Pepper Paints. Seth’s a little too young for literally mixing the colors as he didn’t quite understand how to get it to mix up. But boy, oh boy did he like watching to see what color emerged. Great tool for teaching color mixing!
• Flower printing on a t-shirt for Eleanor. I can’t wait to show you my results here. Way fun. Seth even voluntarily walked away from the tv to watch me pound away on a flowers with a hammer. He couldn’t be persuaded to take a whack himself. Maybe if I found a smaller hammer for him? You can see the sort of thing I’m talking about on Spring Thinking (with flowers) or Painted Fish Studio (with ferns!!). I’m dying to make a shirt for myself now but I’m making myself wait until I’ve washed Eleanor’s a couple times to see how well it sets.
• Still knitting away on my Functional Felt Swap piece. Only a couple days to go. Well actually I can’t really say “knitting away” as it’s more like a few minutes here and a few minutes there. I’m starting to worry that I may not be able to mail it out right on time. I’ll be close though.
• Lastly, I signed up for the Toadstool Swap. Not sure what my thinking was here. I don’t really need a toadstool softie. But it IS cute and I since I’m trying to re-jump start my sewing skills I thought it might be fun. Theoretically I wasn’t going to buy any new materials for it but I’ve gotta say I’m being lured by the Japanese fabric selection at the new and improved Crafty Planet. (Really it’s just an excuse to see their new digs.)

Gardening

What a weekend! Saturday was filled with taxes and knitting but Sunday, oh Sunday! The sun finally came out!!! It was very exciting and we spent a good chunk of time in the yard. For some reason I had a hard time getting myself out of the house, but once I did I couldn’t go back inside. My sis got me going clearing out some of the garden beds. All of the south side of the house, herb garden and much of the patio edging was cleared before dinner was on the table. After last years debris was cleared away it was exciting to see new green shoots poking through!

I did come to the conclusion that I will need to look into how to split a rhubarb plant. Assuming that’s even possible. Ours it a bit on the mammoth side and as the little leaves poking out of the ground already cover several square feet I know I need to do something this year. Any suggestions Dad?

Sis arrived with a lovely new hat for Eleanor knit by Grandma June. I never get tired of her knitted surprises. Each one is cherished.

The hardest part of the day has been deciding what macro shot to upload into the 30 day challenge flickr group. We’re suppose to do one a day. But on beautiful days like today I take so many that narrowing it down to just one seems impossible. So I decided to make a macro challenge set where I could put my favorite macros and then only one (or two) of those will I link to the actual group. Somehow that satisfies me.

Ahhhhh, Spring!

Regardless of the fact that it snowed this morning, it finally feels like spring. I saw my first Robin of the season last week, spent the weekend without a jacket on and now have a huge vase of pussy willow stems at work and at home.

These were trimmed from my pussy willow shrub which thrives in my rain garden. It’s a native to North America and apparently loves moisture as I never seem to trim enough each year. It just keeps growing and growing. I have another pile to arrange a vase for my sister and a huge pile of discards in the backyard. In case your wondering what ever happened to my March Gardening Task List, well, I’m still plugging away at it. I may have been a little over ambitious last month. Maybe I’ll get it done this month. And the rest of those bee hives? I’m happy to report a big fat check mark there:

Snow Soup II

Just as I thought, all the snow was gone by the time I got off work. For that matter, it was gone by lunch. Not a spec of white fluffy snow, just the old black frozen solid snow. Pooh! Oh well, at least I took a few photos to remember it by.

Hornets!!!!

After reading my March Gardening Task List my lovely sis reminded me that I really needed to take care of the bee and hornet nests around my yard before it warms up. Specifically the one pictured above in the beautiful little clay bird house my parents gave me. Since it’s still below freezing around here and we got more snow over the weekend this seemed the logical garden chore to work on. While I didn’t get to all of the nests tucked into the eves of my house I did get to this one. A nest that tormented us all of last summer. It’s possibly my fault due to the sunny location I hung it in. Once we realized the nest was there, it was too late. I didn’t want to spray it with poison for fear of possible effects on future families of birds that may inhabit the cozy little den. And I sure as heck wasn’t going to volunteer to move the thing. So it sat there sending out little workers to torment my dog, who would try to eat them, and make me worry about my son getting stung. I’m happy to say it really wasn’t that hard to remove and now my son has a great show and tell piece to take to preschool.

Thinking of Spring - March Gardening Task List

Since it’s now March I’m officially allowed to start thinking of spring. I try to hold off so as not to spoil winter and though there’s still snow on the ground my garden planning can now commence. Here I give you my March Gardening Task List. As the snow gives way and the sun warms the earth this is what I’ll be up to:

• Gradually clearing perennial beds once dry enough
• Although my gardens tend to be native or functional in nature I can’t resist planting a few pansies as soon as the ground is workable
• Survey outdoor furniture, fencing and stone work for winter damage or displacement
• Fix and clean birdhouses and feeders
• Plan this years herb garden

If you’ve got a garden, be it lawn, perennial bed or simply a pot on the window sill, play along. What’s on the top of your March task list?

My orchid

I got an orchid! It’s an Oncidium Twinkle and I love it. It is rather unexpected for an orchid. There are tons of tiny reddish pink flowers and is now in my office window. It’s lost a few flowers since arriving at it’s new home. I’m hoping it’s just a mild reaction to the move.

The presentation by Jason Fischer from Orchids Limited at the Longfellow Garden Club last week was very enlightening. He went over the basics, showed beautiful photographs and told intriguing stories. I am now under the impression I can care for an orchid. Only time will tell. If it’s still alive in a year I’ll allow myself to buy another one, maybe a ladies slipper type.

Ice

Golden Icicle by paul+photos=moody

Fortunately we’re starting to wind down the icy season but I’ve still been thinking a lot about how best to deal with ice removal.

The most common way to do this is with salt, aka sodium chloride. It does an effective job and is readily available. However, it has many downsides:

• It dries out the soil and interferes with plants ability to take up water, thereby, making the area only desirable to invasive weeds.
• Ingestion by children is also a risk. Although I’d like to think my 3 yr old son wouldn’t eat any, I’ve seen him take a big mouthful of snow right by the street. We then had a good talk about yellow snow but I think the concept of salt may be too complex at this age.
• Another huge downside is salts effects on animals. If a dog gets salt stuck between the pads of their paws it can actually burn. I remember my German Shepard limping and even laying down when the irritation would become too much.
• For those of us who live near water, such as the Mississippi, the salt is washed to the sewers in the spring which in essence poisons the river as it is not filtered before dumping into the waterway.
• Salt can also damage your walkways by aiding to the cycle of freeze and thaw.

I won’t even get my thoughts on road salt but we should think twice before adding our own imprint to these issues.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my own solution to this problem and thought I would share my findings with you. The first thing I suggest is trying to keep your walkways clear of snow. This allows what moisture is there to dry during the warmer hours of the day. I know it’s tempting this time of year to let the snow sit as it will melt soon but you risk pooling melt water that freezes by morning. I need to work on this more as I can be quite lazy at times. If keeping the walkway clear doesn’t do the trick, here are a couple more options:

• Course sand – it doesn’t melt the ice but it does provide traction and has a minimal impact on the surrounding area.
• Use a salt free agent, such as calcium magnesium acetate or Safe Paw, and chip away with an ice breaker (looks like a flattened hoe/also used as a lawn edger). Don’t go overboard, simply use the compound to loosen the ice and make your work easier. Too much of a good thing…

Now I just need to get that leak in my gutter over the front porch steps fixed!

 

Winter Inspiration

Here’s a little more to inspire your garden plan to include structural highlights in the winter. I just learned how to use fd flickr toys. Way fun! Click here to see links back to the original photographers. I still have a lot to learn about flickr toys as I’m pretty sure there’s a way to make mosaics where you can click on the individual photographs to locate the photographer’s flickr photostream. Anyone know?

Orchids

Ghost orchid photo by NC Orchid

Orchids have always fascinated me. They’re exotic, beautiful, complex and the flowers last longer than most other house plants. I’ve grown up with a lot of exposure to gardening and house plants. My parents even owned a plant store called The Potted Jungle. Great name, eh? However, orchids were never part of this, at least that I can remember. I’ve always pictured orchids as delicate and assumed they took a lot of work. I have no idea to what degree, if any, this is true.

Orchid named for Jason Fischer

So in a recent email I received, I was excited to hear that Jason Makoto Fischer from Orchids Limited will be doing a free presentation to the Longfellow Garden Club on February 13th at 7pm. Apparently Jason has been working with orchids since he was 5! Lucky man. He will also have orchids for sale. (I assume this is how they got him to do the free presentation.) I have no idea how much they will cost but do know that you should bring something to protect the plant from the cold if you think you might purchase one. The Longfellow Garden Club welcomes any interested parties regardless of where they live. The group will be meeting at the Epworth Church on the corner of 32nd and 37th Ave S in Minneapolis. I plan on attending this talk. Anyone interested in joining me?