Bogieblog

Gardening Goes Apace

Last Sunday, I repotted all the tomato and pepper seedlings into pots that will be their homes for the next month. The weather was cold and misty, so I did the deed in the kitchen instead of on the deck, where I would normally do so. I managed to keep the mess down to a minimum somehow.

Meanwhile, WS put up the collapsible greenhouse so I would have a place to stash the newly filled pots. I got the pots installed in their new environs but didn't set up the space heater as it was supposed to be in the low 50's for the night. When I went to work the next morning, the thermometer read 42. Great, so I double streesed teh plants by transplanting them, then letting them get really cold.

When I got home from work, the first order of business was to set up the space heater. The plants had recovered from the cold morning okay, but I didn't think they would thrive thru the many more mornings of cold to come. It has been in the 30's, and now 20's every morning since then - in addition to being extremely windy the last 4 days. We have had the woodstove going in the evenings to keep the house warm.

We did get 2.5" of rain between Sunday and Monday, then another .5" on Thursday night, but that is not nearly enough. WS spread manure on the garden area yesterday, then rototilled it in, and there is no moisture in the ground - even after 3" of rain in the last week. Unfortunately all the weather systems are staying south because of the Jet STream - which is also why we are staying cold with the Canadian air. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to water for a week before planting the garden Memorial Day Weekend .

Rain, Rain, Come to Play

Heard on the news yesterday that in 47 days, we have had lless than .5" of rain. Normally we would have a bit over 5". Add that to the non-snowy winter and we are just a bit low on the moisture content of the soil.

At work the other day, there was a bit of excitement as a passing train threw some sparks and set the brush on fire. The fire department responded and all was put out before it hit any of the business buildings on either side of the tracks. The fire was to the side, and in between our two buildings (which has two parking lots and a break of trees/grass between), almost to the edge of the parking lot. The first picture is taken from my building, looking toward the corner of the other building.

The last picture is taken from the tree/grass section between the buildings and toward the second building that we occupy. The fine firefighters of Nashua put it out in short order.

We are finally supposed to get some decent rain. Starting Saturday late afternoon, we should get a bit of rain, but then on Monday, we will probably get walloped. They are forecasting a Nor'easter, which may dump as much as 5" of rain in some spots. Hopefully the top soil gets a decent soaking from the first rains before the monsoon hits. If we can get the soil used to soaking up water, it will be able to handle a lot more than if the top layer is bone dry; then it will just shed the water and massive flooding will occur.

At least the phlox will finally have a reason to bloom - right now only a few plants have bothered when usually I have a whole carpet of phlox blooms in front of the fence. Some of the daffodils are blooming, but even they don't seem too enthusiastic. Maybe the next 3-4 days will change all that.

And it Begins

Last Sunday I started seeds for the vegetable garden. I started 12 different varieties of tomatoes and 12 varieties of peppers. Of the peppers, 4 kinds were sweet bells, 4 of mild to medium hot peppers, and 4 of hot type peppers. I didn't start any extremely hot peppers such as habenaros, seranos or Thai hots. I may start some later, but may not.

As of this morning, most of the tomatoes had popped out of the soil. The peppers, of course, will take another 5-12 days to show themselves.

One Lone Bouquet

On the last day of March (yesterday, for those that are calender impaired), I got to get out and rake up some leaves after the snow stopped. Even with the extremely warm weather a couple of weeks ago, nothing is jumping the gun bloom-wise. The only blooms in all of the gardens is this set of crocus - ones the chipmunks repositioned to the walkway below the fence years ago.

Being an extremely dry winter, and not getting any spring rains so far, I don't expect much to bloom at all. The creeping phlox may - but it will be sporadic unless we get a good does of moisture. NH is already under a red flag warning - extreme fire danger.

All springs can't be a major bloom fest, but we haven't had good springs for blooms in the last couple of years.

Repotted

Last Sunday I repotted indoor plants. They desperately needed care since most have been in the same pots for years. The first thing to work on were two aloe plants. I didn't think to take pictures before repotting the first, but the results were 4 plants potted into one container containing four seperate pots:

The second aloe was photographed before dividing up into 4 seperate containers:

Then it was on to repotting the rosemary and citrus tree. Originally, I was going to just change out the soil to the citrus tree, but when I got it out of the pot and saw the roots, I had to take a quick trip to Agway for a bigger pot:

 

The old pot was a 12" diameter, the new pot 14". The citrus tree can no longer fit in the bay window, so it is now on a rolling platform in the back room for now.

The rosemary seemed to be fairly happy in its pot, but figured it would be good to give it the bigger pot that the tree had come out of.

So, although it didn't need it, I then divided up a Plantain Lily - both pots worth came out of the white pot.

That is pretty much what I did to keep myself out of trouble last weekend, while managing to enjoy the weather.

Short Takes For March

After a record warm day, I put out the hummingbird feeder. While watching the news, they had a picture of a ruby-throated hummingbird at a feederin NH, so I decided that I better put mine out. I have never put it out this early; usually toward the end of April.

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Spent the day repotting house plants. Will have pictures next week.

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Had 3 evenings last week that we didn't start the woodstove. Also, didn't start it until evening last night, and may not start it tonight.

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Attended the town meeting yesterday from 9 AM until 2:30 PM. We approved a new ambulance, and the submitted town budget (after adding 1k for maintenence for the police cruiser to cover issues that arose a couple of weeks ago). The selectmen did a great job keeping the budget fairly flat, so we didn't find much to complain about. We did have a long debate on a couple of items added by petition; one of which passed, and one that didn't. All in all, a typical town meeting for Deering.

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It will be really nice this coming week, temperature wise. Unfortunately it is so muddy that there is no sense in us getting the bikes out of storage. Just have to wait it out for a while more.

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WS did bring BILs bike down from the storage unit out back. He thought the tire was flat the mud bogged it down so much. But, everything was fine, so he spent the afternoon washing it and starting cleaning up the rims. Once it is all cleaned up, we will be putting it up for sale.

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The laptop has suddenly (as of this typing) started having trouble with the space bar. So will close out this post, shut down and see if I can clean it out.

Hope everyone had as nice a weekend as we did!

Giftage

Tuesday I recieved a care package from Cop Car. She sent us all kinds of goodies such as pickled beets (we broke open a jar for dinner that night), spicy beets (sounds yummy), and cranberry preserves of different natures. I should have taken a picture of the box stuffed with all the goodies - it was like Christmas in September!

Also inside the box was a bag containing these:

 
These were marked with a ribbon that said "Orchid", so I am assuming that is a color that I have coveted. I had to get them in the ground, and wanted a a place right up front and Ihave an area that is overcrowded with iris that I needed to divide anyway, so this is the place I chose.

This is how it looked after I gave them breathing room.

 
Can hardly wait for them to do their thing in another year or two.

Firethorn

The firethorn has done exceptionally well this year. I don't remember any previous years where there have been so many berries. Even though most of the bush is hidden when coming down the road, you can see the tips of the shrubs way back in back (and really, the eye is drawn more to the crab apple that is covered in web worms).

 
From the downhill side of the road, you get a better look.

 
The best view is right up close though.

 
If the birds don't eat all the berries, it will look spectacular when it snows.

Double Take

I was out gardening yesterday and as I was walking by the cotoneaster by the gate, I saw a snake "sunning" (it was very cloudy) itself on the branches.

 
After the initial glance, I did a double take because soemthing caught my eye, this snake had 3 heads. Not really, there were three snakes however.

 
I moved off and did some more chores, then came back later and they hadn't moved much.

 
Nature is so cool to watch!

Random Short Takes

Saw a red Volkswagen Cabriolet at the store last Sunday. It was a nice enough day that the top was down, which is why it caught my eye. Then it caught my funny bone when I noticed the license plate; REDONE. Re-done? Well it looked to be a little older, but not so old that someone should be proud of restoring it. Then it hit me, red one, as in the commercial, as in if WS had been with me someone would have gotten punched.

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Friday when I got home I had to go out and pick all the tomatoes that were tinging pink and any peppers that were larger than 1" diameter. Frost two nights in a row. Our fall is coming in too fast. Mornings have been in the 50's and 60's, with the rare 48 showing up here and there. Suddenly we are down in the low 30's. I need it to be more gradual please!

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Prince's wounds are healing nicely. For most of the last 10 days, I have had to remove any scabs, as the wounds needed to heal from the inside out. The recommended way is to soak with warm compress then wipe off the scab. Sounds great, but really you end up scrubbing a bit. I found an easier, less painful way; dab a bit of olive oil on the scab and let sit for 5 minutes. Do the warm compress. Scab pretty much slides right off. Here is a picture taken just moments ago:

 
The picture of Missy was taken Friday night - not the picture I was going for - she moved just before I snapped it.

Both dogs were at the vet yesterday for their yearly appointment. The vet was pleased with Prince's progress and agreed with me that there was no reason that the dogs would have to stay in next week. Both dogs are healthy (pending any issues with their blood tests), so they are good for another 5,000 miles.

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Was at the doctor's the other day for stomach pains. I suffered for 1-1/2 days before going in (the first day I figured bad gas, the second day I had a half day meeting I couldn't miss). I really expected an Alien or three to pop out at any second, the pain was so bad. It involved everywhere form the indent between the ribs to the lower abdomen - and my back got into the act too. Finally got out of the meeting, called the doc, and went in for an examination which turned into me going in for X-Rays. Had a severe stomach lining inflammation (AKA gastritis, but that doesn't sound as cool, and also just sounds like I had gas, and the online resources usually make it sound like it is just indigestion - which is a mild form of gastritis).

Don't know what caused it, but was glad that OTC medicines (at much higher than the recommended dosages on the label - per doctor's instruction) took care of the problem. My insurance doesn't cover drugs until I hit the deductible ($5k), so $18 worth of OTC was fine by me. Sure, I have an HSA that I contribute to to help cover the stuff until I hit the deductible, but I figure I'm going to need it to pay for the X-Rays. Hey, and don't rag on my insurance, it was my choice to get the cheap, high deductible insurance as I so rarely see a doctor that paying for stuff myself is cheaper in the long run.

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And those are the random short takes for the week. Have a great week and enjoy the fall coolness; the colors won't be far behind.