The Clean Handed Months are Over

Today was my favorite type of day -- a very sensory day. The chill and musk of the damp fog, the dark smell of the earth, the sweet smell of tender shoots, the tang of gasoline, the use of muscles that haven’t been used in months, bees sounding like bombers in the alder trees and then finally the sun – the sun!

I spent most of the day cursing myself for letting the garden get this atrocious with weeds. The garlic that I planted was being swallowed up alive by a curtain of green intruders. I couldn’t even find my lettuce until I plucked away some of the unwanted friends. After an extensive inner monologue of swearing and excuses I got down to business.

I knelt, I sat, I wallowed, I squatted, I stood and I Hula Hoed. There really is no way to easily weed a 1350 square foot something that looks a bit more like a lawn than a garden. I would have loved to turn it all under with the tractor but I wanted to preserve the garlic, lettuce, leeks, onions, artichokes, garbanzo beans and beets that all currently exist. Luckily, all of these little guys exist on only one side of the garden.



Exposing garlic on the left and hidden garlic in the upper right.



In this picture you can see the freshly weeded garlic on the left and in the upper right corner you can see what it used to look like and what still needs to be weeded.

After I got into it, it wasn’t so bad after all. It was fun to get my hands in the dirt again after all these clean-handed months. It’s mindless work but sometimes that’s when you get the best thinking done. If you can imagine, I was thinking a lot about weeds. I was mostly wondering why it had to be such an ongoing battle. Then I thought, hmm maybe just go with the flow and let the weeds hang out with the vegetables…naw. But I think one thing that really struck me was that if weeds are an example of how resilient nature can be, I mean because I was totally destructive to their habitat, then maybe there is hope for healing. I fight these guys tooth and nail and they always come back. After all, the bees did!



Bees happily buzzing outside of their hive.

 

Here is what all the buzz was about - White Alder pollen.



With a feeling of optimism and as a second attempt at success for my cold weathered vegetables, I put in some more garlic, onions, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, beets, leeks, turnips and poppies just for fun.

 

After about 6 hours of weeding, I was ready to let the rototiller come in for the kill on the barren second half of the garden. Even yet, I still felt quite accomplished.

Rototilled soil on the left and hand pulled weeds on the right.



Parsley that wasn't killed by the heavy frost and...



Beets that are doing well despite a few bug bites.

I hope next weekend brings some more planting opportunities! I got some heirloom tomato seeds as a birthday gift and I so want to plant them indoors.

For now I show restraint!

Daphne

Frankinbees?

I’m surprised to say the least. My dad just called to say that there are tons of bees coming in and out of the hive. They must be doing ok! I don’t have enough experience to know what’s going on. When he lifted the lid last time, there was no movement. The bees were in a ball and appeared to be dead. Maybe they were just protecting the queen from the cold? Whatever the issue, I don’t care as long as they are a-ok.

It’s sunny, I smelled fresh cut grass yesterday, I’m now 30 and the bees are alive. Life is good.

It's time to plant some stuff!

Daphne

Focus and Resolve

I’ve resolved to take my contact lenses out every night. I know, it’s a bit mundane but it’s probably a good idea! They say it takes 21 days to break a habit – my habit being that I like to get ready for bed and leave my contact lenses in thinking that I’ll take them out just before I want to go to sleep. It doesn’t ever happen so this just has to stop. I hate going to bed with my glasses on; undoubtedly I wake up at 4 a.m. with them still on (sideways). This is just one example of my need to try to fit more into one day than what is healthy or possible.

Although I know that taking my lenses out is important (you know, so I don’t go blind!), I’ve tried to come up with something a bit more meaningful that I can incorporate into the contact lens goal – maybe something with sight. Maybe foresight…maybe vision.

I am a rather flighty and spastic person that pretends or appears to be calm and collected to the untrained eye. With this, what I like to call skill, comes a new hobby every month. People that kind of know me call me a Renaissance woman but people that really know me just think that I’m interesting…in a “What on earth are you up to now!” kind of way.

Now that I’m going to be 30 (next week!), I think that I should tone down my new hobbies and hone in on the ones that I’m really passionate about. I need to come up with a vision for the next 30 years.

I’m getting rid of almost everything. Less stuff equals less to polish, less to think about, less to move around. This goes for physical and mental things.

The garden is going to be well planned but have less “stuff”. Heck, maybe I don’t need 75 varieties of tomatoes this year! Let’s make some room for something a bit more interesting like perhaps a flower garden area.

My apartment is not going to be cluttered with crates of seedlings for months on end this year and maybe Charlee will be donating some of her toys to a nearby animal shelter.

I’ve really wanted to buy a keyboard so I can start playing the piano again but as you know I’ve resolved to not start another hobby. So, you can see this is taking some restraint. I’m only mentioning the keyboard because I’m not giving up many of my hobbies. By mentioning it, it’s a way to prove that I’m making changes! I’m only adding one new project for 2011 and that will be Chicken Rearing! : )

My vision is to “focus like a laser” in 2011. But I’m mean focus like one solitary laser, a steady one, like maybe the kind that would perform Lasik surgery.

Do you have a goal for this year? You should!

Dapnne

Fresh Start or a Step Back?

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is off to a positive start and thinking about the garden. Spring prepping waits for no one and I’m getting my seeds in order. In my area January is the month to plant lettuce, leeks, onions, peas, radishes, rhubarb and spinach. I gotta get going on that as soon as the garden isn’t looking more like a shallow lake.


Last weekend I stopped by my parents’ house in the evening to drop off a pitchfork. Unbelievably, my mom asked for one for Christmas. I special ordered one with a short handle for our vertically challenged family so it got here a bit late. When I was there I dodged and jumped some puddles to get next to my bee hive. I was curious to see how they were doing so I put my ear up next to hive body. Nothing. The silence was deafening even though the frogs were peeping away with all of the power in their lungs. I felt a slight panic but hoped that they were just sleeping. Knowing that wasn’t true, I used the excuse as my coping mechanism just as well.


I was concerned but didn’t say anything. This week has finally been sunny so I’ve been hounding my dad to go over to the hive to see if there is any activity during the day. He forgot both Monday and yesterday. I called him last night to tell him that he really needed to check and that it was important. He promised.


Today, my mom called to say that she was ecstatic about the new activity on one of her bird feeders (also from Christmas). The only response I could muster was, “Did dad check on the bees???” She handed the phone over to him and said, “I’ll let you talk to him.” “It’s not good news,” he said lowly.

Within the last two weeks I’ve lost my bees. It wasn’t colony collapse; I know that much. The bees died in a clump inside the hive so I’m guessing they got wet and cold during all of the strange wet weather we’ve been having. I’m sad about it but they say you loose 50% of your hives every winter, and well, I only had one hive so I suppose my odds weren’t too great. I can’t help but think it’s my fault somehow. What did I do wrong? My bees were very healthy and strong. Did the queen die? Did they get wet? They didn’t starve but did they end up getting a virus?

Is it a fresh start or a step back?

I won’t know until we open up the hive completely and at that time, I’ll harvest their legacy. There is still about 30 pounds of honey in the hive and I’ll harvest it if it looks OK.

Daphne