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Tidewater Grain - "Here on the Outside" (2000 - Rufnation Records)...these boys ROCK! Something like STP, but without the he My Photographs You like photos? I love taking them. Click here, if you wanna see some of my work
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Sunday, Apr. 04, 2004 - 8:01 p.m. I�ve been waking up without the alarm clock for the last couple of weeks. That�s a sure sign that spring is here. It also means daylight savings time. I enjoy the extra hour of non-darkness after I get off of work. I need that, with the gardening season kicking into high gear (more on that later). But I made the mistake of staying up late last night. I didn�t turn the light on the nightstand off until 12 midnight. Which was really 1 am, with the clocks �springing forward� at 2 am. Codeman was at the bowling alley late (moonlight jam again), so I didn�t fall right to sleep. When he walked into the doorway (to remove the dog gate, so I would know he made it home safely), the clock read 1:30 (post-dst). I managed to sleep in until 8:30 until the weight of all the work I needed to do today guilted me awake. After a nice breakfast (Lease had assembled one of her breakfast, all-in-one casseroles last night, so all we had to do this morning was throw it into the oven and cook toast), I threw myself together and headed outside. I had the following on my schedule: 1. Turn up the soil where the livestock (re: big dogs) had killed the grass over the winter months. I added 7 bags of topsoil to the area after breaking the surface up. To this, I scattered a 3-pound bag of HIGH TRAFFIC grass seed, and then covered the fresh planting with loose straw. I watered it in well, and then put the old cheap-o metal border fence around both areas. This MIGHT keep the big boys out long enough for the grass to germinate and get established, but I am not holding my breath. I was only able to sow about half of the area in need of attention. The rest is too close to where the concrete guys will be working, and are also still in complete shade all day. Until they do their work and the sun rises a little high in the Northern sky, there isn�t any reason to bother with the other half. 2. Filled my Wall�o�waters, and placed 4 nice tomato plants inside of them. I have 4 different varieties that I started early for this reason. They are: Siberia (45 days, and supposed to set fruit in cool weather), Bingo bush tomato (59 days), Suncherry (it says 67 days, but I think this was my first ripe cherry last year), and Early Cascade (62 days, and supposedly the variety you buy in the market as �bunch� tomatoes). I�ll let you know how they do. Here is how they appear today:
Not very exciting right now, but things should start growing rapidly in the coming weeks� 3. I also planted transplants of broccoli, Chinese cabbage, and bok choy, along with three florist mum plants that were bought back in February to brighten up the living room. I have had pretty good luck in getting a nice second set of blooms outside with these plants in the past. The dark yellow clump that has rebloomed each of the past three years appears to have died this winter, so I planted these plants around the base of the old plant. If it sends up new growth from below the ground, that would be a nice bonus. 4. I still had one job to complete- it was time to transplant the 4 miniature rose plants I bought for Lease over the last several months. All survived life inside better than I expected (when compared to past experience), and have been in the process of hardening off for the last month or so. Finding spots for them up front wasn�t easy, but I squeezed them in where I could. All of this took me about 3 hours, working more or less non-stop. My old bones are reminding me of the error of this method of garden work as I type this� A couple of photos, and then I am off to watch the Sopranos: The first one shows how I set the 36� tall garden border fence yesterday. It really doesn�t look that crooked when you see it in person:
This is the fading blooms on our apricot tree. With a low of 30� forecasted for tonight, I will be keeping my fingers crossed on the survival of the soon-to-be baby apricots:
One last shot. This very short, early tulip is only about 4� tall, but packs a wallop of orange-red color to the spot where they are growing. I didn�t adjust the saturation on this frame one bit. They really are the bright and colorful:
I guess I really should make better records of what I plant, so I can pass on variety names at times like this. But I don�t. I just plant what looks interesting to me, and let nature take its course. Sometimes, this makes for sloppy, mixed up plantings. I don�t mind. As long as something comes up and grows, I am happy���..
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