‘Dig’ The Earth

Last week I noticed as I looked out the window that my tulips are peaking out of the ground as are my daylilies, wormwood and phlox.  It won’t be long and we will have a lush display of many shades of green with different textures and shapes of leaves.  It made me itch to do some gardening.

My “winter” sowing has become a moot project.  Since it is officially spring I’m going to try the same technique but without the benefit of snow cover or so I thought. Last night in an effort to keep my little 3 year old entertained I asked her to help me go through my seed collection and remove seed pods from some dried out sedum flowers.  She thought that was great.  Later I checked the weather report since it had been raining most of the day and it mentioned something about snow on Monday.

Today so far has been a soggy, messy, rain/snow mix.  Not enough to look pretty or stick, just enough to make you feel blah.  My only consolation is that my flowers and plants that are in the ground are getting plenty of water right now.

I’ve picked out the seeds that I want to start indoors today.  Tomatoes, basil, and easter egg plant are among the candidates.  I also have several varieties of peppers that I want to get going before it gets to late.  When you think about 90 days to mature that means I’ll need to have plants ready by the first part of June if I want fruits before the first frost.   Any later than the mid part of June and I’m asking for a very short window to harvest any fruits off my warmer weather plants.  I’ll keep you posted how things go.

There are many products on the market that are made to make remembering to water your plants easier.  Whether it’s a ceramic worm that changes color or a glass globe with a long tube that sticks into the soil and self waters there is one thing you have to do – PAY ATTENTION.  Neither of these products tell you when the plant needs more if you aren’t looking right at them.  I’ve been known to neglect watering my indoor plants to the point of utter dehydration.  My “alarm” is a very observant 3 year old who notices when the plants look “sad”.

The talented people at the Botanicalls Project have found a way to bridge the gap of communication between people and plants.  They have created a sensor which monitors the plant’s moisture levels and sends Tweets to your mobile phone when it needs watered.  It even sends a “Thank You” when you show it love by watering it.  In an effort to show the public how this works they have a tweeting plant set up named Pothos.  As of today it has 3,025 followers and 152 updates and indicates it is in Urgent need of a watering .  How cool is that!?!

This would be a great gift for the avid gardener in your life. (*hint*hint*)

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• Awesome handspun newspaper yarn idea http://www.thebestofdiy.com/ (via @addthis) #
• @mommieswithcent Go to Mommies With Cents to enter for a chance to win a Skyoozmee Burp Cloth http://tinyurl.com/dbv5c6 #
• List of giveaways ending soon http://tinyurl.com/d55878 (via @addthis) #

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Yesterday I joined the 350 Challenge to help fight climate change.  The thank you message I received from Brighter Planet explains why I was inclined to do so even though they had already reached their goal of 350 bloggers.  Check out the Brighter Planet 350 Challenge badge in the far right sidebar of my blog.

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Thanks for joining the 350 Challenge!

By displaying our badge, your blog will help us offset 122,500 lbs of CO2 — that’s like turning off 38,000 light bulbs for a day!  With your support, we’re putting more clean energy on the national energy grid, and together, we can help fight global warming, one blog at a time.

We’ll check out your site today so that we can add you to the list.

Thanks again,
Adam

Adam Rubin
Chief Technology Officer
Brighter Planet

Last weekend and the beginning of this weeks were horrible days of scary weather. We had tornado warnings, continuous rain and massive flooding. Everywhere you looked in NW Ohio there were rivers and creeks overflowing their banks and low lying areas in farmer’s fields that were flooded. Roads were impassible and even sections of area cities were inundated to the extent they had to evacuate.

One sad revelation of this recent flooding is that a close friend of mine discovered all the fish in their pond had died. Apparently the ice cover on the pond got too thick and it was too cold for the fish to survive. When their pond flooded the property they found large bass, catfish, amors and bluegill floating all over their yard. The last time they had such a catastrophic loss of fish was the drought of ’88 that caused a turnover in their pond water. It was the first time I’d heard of such a thing. The water on the surface heats up to such temperatures that somehow it forces the cold water from the depths to rise to the surface and the hot water that sinks cooks the poor fish seeking shelter on the bottom.

You can thus imagine how large some of those fish they lost were since they were from the restocking of the pond 21 years ago. I guess they’ll just have to start anew. My suggestion to them since they were planning on having a larger garden this year is to bury the dead fish underneath since it would give their plants some very rich food. If I recall that is how the American Indians taught the Pilgrims to farm.

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One of the reasons I feel so strongly about involving my little one(s) in the gardening process is because it is such a great learning experience.  They learn how to plant seeds, when and how to prepare the ground, what to look for as far as weeds, what parts of a plant are edible or not, the colors of the flowers,  etc. etc.

DD1 simply loves to play in the herb garden with me.  She knows that the basil, mint, stevia, sage, lavendar and rosemary are edible as opposed to the hostas, petunias and sedum in my flower garden.  Her favorite combination is the mint and stevia because it tastes like gum.

For me it is amazing to watch her marvel at the textures, colors, smells and tastes of the garden.  We also have some apple trees and a good size yard that offers many different creature experiences.  The NatureBag company has created an educational packet to take full advantage of all the different items you find outdoors.

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With several inches of snow on the ground, below freezing temperatures and days that the roads are so icy I won’t venture out even to get the mail – I really miss being outside.  My three year old wants to play in the snow so badly, but when temps are subzero and I have an infant to care for it isn’t wise to go outside.

I tried before I gave birth to rearrange things so that we could do some winter sowing, but it didn’t work out in time.  I was suffering from some pretty serious edema and it took all I had just to get things ready to make room for the baby.  So, I’ve still got messes of items I had to move around and put away.  If only I could get my 8 foot table cleaned off I’d have a place to sow some seeds (we had to clean out some shelves and the stuff ended up on the table).  There are more pressing matters on my mind though – making sure the kiddies are fed and warm, the house is clean (as well as I can do it right now) and that I don’t lose it in the process.

I sure do miss gardening though.  In my quiet times when I’m nursing the baby I think about how I can take her outside with me in the spring and keep the bugs off her.  Sun protection is a no brainer, but I’m still trying to think of a non chemical way to keep the flies and skeeters away from her.  I guess I could drape mosquito netting over her pack n’ play.  By the time I’ll be ready to spend more time outside she’ll be close to crawling age so I’ll have to set up a nice clean play area for her.  My three year old is my little helper.  She loves to play in the dirt and is learning already how to identify the flowers and herbs I plant.  Hopefully this year we can have a productive garden that we can all enjoy.

With below zero temperatures, several inches of snow on the ground and a newborn to take care of that keeps me inside all the time – I am seriously missing playing in the dirt.  Now that my pregnancy is over and my body is feeling more normal than it has in 9 months I want to get back to gardening.  There is a lot of catching up for me to do as far as cleaning and rearranging in the house before I can set up any place to do my winter sowing.  I better do it quick though or before I know it it will be March and time for me to start my seedlings indoors!