Tempted by the Mailman

Aaacck!!  What is my mailman trying to do to me???

Three times now he has delivered dirt-y magazines to my house and the images I'm seeing have me climbing the walls!

Oh get your mind out of the gutter!  I said "dirt-y" -

like the stuff you grow plants in - not dirty like something else! 

That's right.  For some reason, I've been besieged with seed catalogs. 

Just look at the color in this layout of the Jung Seed catalog:



This picture of squash is upside down, but I, too, flipped when I saw them in the Baker Creek book.



Why am I stuck eating the white tasteless faux-matos of winter instead of these beauties?



I hate eggplant.  And this kid was really getting on my nerves.  She's on every other page playing with potatoes, cavorting with carrots, and munching on melons.  Why does she get to have the fun and not me??

Look at her eyes.  It's like she's mocking me, the little twerp.

All these lovely images nd I can't do a darn thing with them.  It's only February in Wisconsin.  Too early to even start seeds indoors.

To add insult to injury, we've had unseasonably warm weather here and next to no snow.  It's totally messing up my internal clock.  I've had the feeling for days like I should be throwing windows open for fresh air and spring cleaning. 

But we've got a good three months of winter before I can do any of that. 

And I've got wedding to worry about which means I won't be able to get hardcore in the garden even if I wsanted to. 

So, to satisfy my cravings for dirt, I did my traditional mid-winter project of starting my indoor compost bin. 

Take one garbage can with a lid and holes drilled in the bottom.  Set it inside a drain pan.  Add one layer of shredded paper, a dozens of these guys

and a layer of this

and tape on a note for unsuspecting houseguests....

 And after filling it with my produce scraps and eggshells for the next three months, I'll have a nice big bucket full of compost.   Which, of course, I will use to grow my own pretties....like this

Isn't that the most gorgeous cabbage you've ever seen?  Curses on you Mr. Mailman for bringing those catalogs in February!!!

Wednesday Walk

Would you like to go for a walk in my garden?

Here's a view of my side yard which I intended to be a serenity garden.  (Odd because the brick house next door belongs to my VERY LOUD Puerto Rican neighbors.  Good people.  JUST REALLLLLY LOUD). 

The serenity garden isn't very serene.  Not because of my neighbors - but because it's overgrown with weeds.

It's downright embarassing.  But in my defense, we had nearly two weeks of intense heat and humidity and I just couldn't get outside. 

My poor cherub is being swallowed by a volunteer trumpet vine.  I better dig it up or it'll be taller than my house in no time!

My pricker weed thistle plant is starting to brown up.  If you let those hard, crusty pricker weeds grow, they get about 5-6 feet tall and get lovely thistle purple flowers on them.  I always get one in this patch and, since it's on the side of the yard, I let it grow.  The flowers attract yellow finches.

Unfortunately, I didn't see a single finch this season.  But the bees love it as you can see here.  My yard was FULL of bees tonight which is so encouraging considering the colony collapse issues out there.

(Mr. Bee is atop the flower mooning me and my camera in case you can't spot him).

My rose of Sharon are doing wonderfully, bursting with lovely lavendar color.  They're the first thing I see when I pull my car in back - a very lovely "welcome home".

And there's BIG things happening in the yard.  Check out the size of thes squash leaves!!  My foot is next to one to give you some perspective.  Yes, I wear old lady gardening shoes.

And my hibiscus have popped.  They are the size of saucers - or, my hand.  They're happy faces smile at me as I round the corner to head to my car for work each morning. 

And that's our walk today!

Still No Spring

Well, spring still hasn't come to Wisconsin. 

In my Magical Garden, Veronica here is looking over dirt and mud as if to say, "For the love of God, grow!!"

Gabriella has simply given in to despair and collapsed in grief.

But there's some hope that Spring is on the way.  Some tulips poking out:

Some crocus emerging amid the snow:

The irises my friend The Gardener gave me last year look like they were a successful transplant.  They're out by the curbside so, hopefully, my sloppy neighbors don't squash them:

And finally, I left these nurserty pots of sorrel on the side, too lazy tired at the end of the season to dig a hole and throw them in anywhere.  Sorrel is a perennial and it looks like one of the two survived.  Hopefully they'll last enough so I can plant them for real:

Since spring clearly doesn't want to come to Wisconsin, I continue to try and cure my cabin fever indoors.  This past weekend, I tried a new pattern, Simplicity 2615.

I've been in search of a blouse with either kimono or raglan sleeves because I am sick of setting in sleeves.  I also wanted one that had no buttons down the front, since my bustiness makes positioning buttons a real chore.

I'm not sure I completely love it becuase the tie, combined with the gathered fabric might, I worry, create a maternity top effect over my potbelly.

But the fabric I used is a bit stiff.  I'm going to try it again with a more drapey fabric and see how the effect is.  I really like the pattern since it was incredibly easy to work with.

Curing Cabin Fever: Compst Bin

Well, I'm still stick of winter.  After another 1/2 inch of snow yesterday, I am really missing my garden. 

The Sunday paper today featured a recipe for soup with root vegetables.  I am SICK of soup.  I am SICK of stews.  And I am SICK of root vegetables.  Root veggies are what you eat in the dead of winter when there's no vegetation in sight. 

I am SICK of not seeing any vegetation.

So, to help cure my cabin fever, I started my compost bin.  I usually start one about this time every year.  Right in my kitchen. 

I just take a regular houshold garbage can.  Make sure to use one with a lid.  Things happen inside a compost bin that you won't want to see when you walk past it.

Flip it upside down and drill several small - and I mean small - holes.  The holes allow the air to circulate.   I also put a disposable tray underneath (just 'cuz I don't have anything prettier) since compost sometimes makes juice. 

On the bottom you spread a layer of shredded newspaper and a little bit of dirt or potting soil. 

Then you go visit Joe at the bait shop and buy a package of these:

Worms!  I keep my compost bin inside, so I use red wigglers.  They are tiny - whch is why you need to drill very small drain holes.  I came home my first year doing this to find the worms tried to make a run for it.  They failed.  But sweeping them up was kind of ick. 

SIDENOTE:  Which meant I had to go back to see Joe and explain that the worms made a run for it.  Now, Joe already thinks I'm weird because the first time I walked in I was eating ice cream and wearing my business suit.  In a bait shop.  He probably thought I lost my way to the mall or something.  When I told him I was composting, he looked at me like I was even weirder.  Only hippies compost.  Not girls in business suits, you see. 

So having to go back and explain about the runawayt worms to Joe and have him harumph under his breath that I should have drilled smaller holes was kind of annoying. 

Anyways, red wigglers work better for compost but they cost more.  The timid soul that can't stomach the idea of compost inside and who would rather keep their bin outside can use regular earth (fishing) worms because they can tolerate cold. 

Plop them on top of the dirt/paper and shut the lid.  They'll burrow down to the bottom.  After that, you can start tossing your plant-based scraps into the bin.  Coffee grounds are also an excellent addition.

Some rules to remember: 

NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS - That means no oils, no meat, no bones or skins.  Eggshells (but not eggs themselves) are the only exception. 

NO GARBAGE - Compost is plant matter that is broken down so the remaining nutrients can fertilize your garden.  Garbage does not break down like plant based materials do.  Would you bury cans and bottles all over your garden?  No?  Then don't toss them in the compost.

I also don't put in FUNGUS material.  It probably has to do with the biology of mushrooms or something but I threw in some old 'shrooms one year and had fruit flies for ages. 

So, as you add your plant matter, the worms will break it down and turn it into lovely fertilizer like this:

Yup.  You will see fuzz.  You will see mold.  You will see rot.  And you might think, "why on earth would anyone want this in the same room that they cook and eat in?"

Well, I assure you, you will not SMELL anything.  The picture above is from two weeks of composting and I have yet to smell an odor.  As long as your worms are alive, they do their thing which keeps the smell down just about nothing.  Periodically spreading another layer of shredded newspaper or a thin layer of potting soil also keeps odor down.  I find that dumping my coffee grounds in on a daily basis does wonders. 

You might smell a slight grassy smell.  I LOVE that smell. It reminds me of the scent of being outside with my hands in the dirt.  It's the same smell I get when I twist a squash off the vine, or snap a pea off the bush, or rip a weed out of the ground.

In other words, it smells like LIFE happening.  Right there in your kitchen.  By the time spring comes around, I will have a full bin of this stuff ready to pour into my garden for the first spring planting. Can't come soon enough!