Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Increasing Signs of Life


The pepper plants are blasted by the late frost, but there may be overwintering life left -- the stems aren't blackened. I'll wait a few more weeks and clip back some of the worst-hit areas. Hopefully the best peppers will get a jump-start on the season and then be joined by newly-planted ones. Turns out I do want many more peppers than I had last year.




It's time to get into the hives. Pollen coming in means there must be brood. I noticed too many ants and I'd like to split these hives early enough to avoid a May that is all about swarms. If it doesn't work? Well, I'm not completely committed to this hobby any longer.



Easy to see their reptile links. Eggs are beginning to trickle in, and I do mean trickle. We may have to Have Words soon.



The Anna apple is always first to break bud.


Allowing parseley to go to seed turns out to be the easiest way to guarantee loads of fresh parseley, although not succession planting necessarily.


Last year's gone to seed area -- actually, I think I took seed heads and hit the ground here. Sort of a mythical kind of sowing: "Strike the ground with the magic seed head. . ."

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Beginning Again

The wagon which is blogging is easy to fall from.

When my inner life becomes more complicated, some things go away faster. Things such as gardening, knitting, baking. . . they're just gone.

Fortunately, not all of the garden knows this.


I finally clipped off the second, brought-to-you-by-global-warming frond growth,which is the juicy-looking green stubble, only to find this spring's crop coming up. If I harvest responsibly, we should get about eight spears of edible size before needing to let the crowns grow and replenish.

Since I have finally found a modicum of knitting mojo (two presents done, a new sweater 20% finished), and spent some time spinning last week, and got a few seeds put out under bird cover, there's hope for the garden yet.

And if there's hope for the garden, can the gardener be far behind?