Tuesday, March 28, 2006

the garden revealed


So it wasn't all just a dream There really was a garden under all that snow!

With the warmth of the sun, the snow and ice have been melting fast this week, revealing all of the forgotten memories of last fall and renewing the promise of a new growing season. This time of year requires patience however; the snow never melts as quickly as I'd like it to, and then there's the mud. It will be at least two weeks before the soil is thawed and dry enough to work so I can plant the first greens. I did get a head start on greens, though. I have arugula, corn salad, chives, cilantro, and lettuce seeds planted in flats indoors. The first tiny sprouts of arugula appeared this morning.

A flock of purple finches and juncos arrived at the feeder today; I had not seen these birds since perhaps January. Now I awake to a chorus of Canada geese and sandhill cranes as well as chickadees and evening grosbeaks.

The kids are finally playing outdoors in the warm sun; it's nice to have a quiet break indoors without the TV or video games. I'm still moving a bit slowly, but at the same time enjoying the opportunity to take it easy.

7 comments:

Dan Trabue said...

Yep, 'bout that time.

On an unrelated note, I was just visiting the Whistlepigs website from your link and noticed that it looks like the bass player has some modified extra-thin upright. You know anything about it?

We have multiple guitar players at church (it's part of the sanctification process in our religion), a few banjo hacks, mando hacks and some budding fiddlers. But what we lack for a proper bluegrass ensemble is an upright bass, and one of my buds has been ruminating on acquiring one and I'm sorta keeping my eyes open.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about uprights. You'd think it wouldn't be too hard to get the basic G/C/G/D type of plunking down (I know that it goes much beyond that, but still...) but we're figuring the cost might be pretty huge.

Anyone here have experience or knowledge on the topic?

Unknown said...

Seeing your garden reminds me of a story my mother told me this week. She has a patient who lives in the mountains and the ground on his property it so rocky to plow. he has raised beds like yours and to save space ties any vining plants to poles something they can grow on. what interesting is he does this with watermelons also. To keep the melons on the vines as they row he buys old bras at garage sales and uses them to support the fruit ;). Just try and picture this for a moment.

Dan Trabue said...

So, are those some small variety watermelons or large variety bras?

Endment said...

We have garden boxes the ground is primarily rock so there isn't much option. I am delighting in watching the seeds sprout in the flats here. I am not familiar with corn salad --- What is it?

We have had juncos by the dozens here for weeks but the purple finches arrived this week. The Canada geese are flocking overhead but no sandhills or evening grosbeaks.

Really enjoy reading your post
thanks

Deb said...

Dan- he plays an Eminence portable upright bass by G. Edward Lutherie ( http://gelbass.com ). It sounds just like a full size upright bass; he switched from an electric bass and just loves it. Cost is about 3 grand; I don't know what the full size basses run.

I'm looking into playing music at our church on a more regular basis, although we are a bit more limited for players. Right now we have piano, organ, conga drum, and 12 string guitar. Interesting combo.

dragonfly- the mental picture that conjures up is precious! : )

Deb said...

endment- Corn salad is a cold-hardy salad green. I've never grown it before, but Eliot Coleman highly recommends it for nearly year-round salads.

arcolaura said...

My onions are sprouting! Now I need to get the flat into some light.

And the Whistlepigs are coming to Forget! Gotta get the festival website updated...

But there were geese flying over, and the runoff is only going to run for about a week this year, and the snow is all gone off my garden - I just want to be outside!