Rufus has been panting more, which I take for being too warm. So I gave him a haircut and a bath.
He KNOWS what's about to happen. Even though he really doesn't like the face and paw parts, he jumps onto the table anyway. I use mix of scissors and clippers depending on how sensitive an area is and how evenly I want it cut. Then he gets a good bath, which he likes a lot.
After. There's that handsome boy!
Not as nice a cut as a professional groomer, but a lot less stress for him and for me.
I can't believe how big these lilacs grew. Of course, they are at least fifteen years old. They survived a big move from the Vancouver house the the Battleground house, about six years ago. That set them back but they are doing better now.
Today I completed the drip irrigation installation for the new container planter. Since there are ten nearly round, 25 gallon containers, I made round loops from 1/4 inch tubing which had four emitters. The ones for the potatoes had 7 emitters, because they will need to soak more deeply.
Edit: Here is what the drip irrigation system looks like for the container planter.
Here are the figs on the "Brunswick" fig tree. It looks promising.
This tree likes to make a lot of promising looking baby figs, then most if not all of them fall off before they ripen. However, when they do ripen, they are the biggest, sweetest fig that grow.
Edit: Most of the other fig trees are at a similar stage now.
With so much rain and not-bone-chilling weather (not warm, just cool and perfect for potato plants), the potato plants are growing like gangbusters.
The first rows, sprouted grocery spuds, needed to have their trenches filled in. I'm behind on that due to back problems, but getting better. I tried to be ergonomic, not put my back into it, and fill in the major parts where the plants were largest. Those were planted Feb 13. I think. So this is three months of growing, but the first part of that quite cold.
The ones I bought as official seed potatoes in March, and planted March 12, are growing equally well. I had dug trenches about a foot deep, piling the soil between the rows. Now I'm filling those embankments back into the trenches around the potato plants. Between my physical limitations and the rains, weeds grew like weeds (LOL). Most of those get sort of incidentally removed as I relocate the soil back into the trenches around the potato plants. It's not "Martha Stewart" classy, but then I'm more Betty Crocker than Martha Stewart, anyway. Or Fred Flintstone, who is much younger than me.
Then I fed these plants with some soluble tomato fertilizer. I prefer organic but we cant always be perfect about these things. Potatoes are heavy feeders when young, and we want them to grow strong and produce generously.
Meanwhile, almost all of the other potato starts are emerging from the ground. The most recent rows, from mid April, show new plants here and there.
Here are the first red potatoes (sprouted grocery spuds) that I planted in the big container planter on April 6. So in less than a month, we have robust, healthy looking plants. I had mixed organic tomato fertilizer with the soil, per label instructions. They are not ready to fill in soil around the plants yet. Soon.
Here are some photos of the meditation garden, also called the deer park garden because deer cone through here. zit's sort of the blue season there, mostly Camassia and a few Hiacinthoides.
About a dozen big Camassia clumps.
Several clumps of Hyacinthoides
2 clumps of Crocosmia "Lucifer"
Several divisions of Horseradish.
4 divisions of rhubarb.
A half dozen large rosemary plants, but I think only 2 or 3 are surviving.
About a dozen sage plants.
About a dozen lavender bushes
Three Itoh peonies
Three clumps of Leucojum (large snowdrops).
About 5 daylilies (Transplanted two today).
Several divisions of lamb's ears.
A big helleborus.
A dozen sedums.
About a dozen forsythias that I started, closer to the fence, eventually for more privacy.
I'm sure I've forgotten some things.
Of new perennial starts from seeds, I've planted several six packs of Rudbeckias, two six packs of Coreopsis, a six pack of Gallardia, A six pack of Ratibida, six packs of common milkweed, tropical milkweed, four O'Clocks, echinacea, carnations, and some statice (I think the statice will be annual, maybe the carnations too). I'm sure I've forgotten some things there too.
This summer I'd like to dig up some batches of spring bulbs that are abandoned around the yard, and plant those too.
I still have some room for summer annuals, which will be zinnias, lots of marigolds, cosmos, cleome. I out up the beginning of a privacy trellis for Morning Glories, which I already planted and growing, and sweetpeas which are already growing.
The common themes for everything, are drought tolerance, not appetizing to deer, adapted to this climate, and something to attract lots of bees and other pollinators. I already know the established plants that I moved fit those criteria, because they are from this yard and grow happily here already. if deer do eat something, I wont mind and I wont add to my efforts to protect it. As for watering, I might do some minimally to get things established, but all of the established plants already proved themselves during the past dry seasons anyway.
Like statice, I've never grown carnations before. (Actually I might have but I don't remember and it wasn't here). After losing the first batch, I didn't know if it was the timing, the pitting soil, or the cool weather. So I planted a few more six packs of seeds. I think the ones that did the best were the ones I planted in the larger silicone six-packs, but all did OK.
On April 8, I planted the first batch in one of the large containers in the container planter I built. I kept the others indoors at night, outdoors during the day, until recently. Here is how the first ones look today.
The irrigation lines should be hooked up in a week or two. I think these are growing pretty nicely. Last week I planted the second batch in another container, but outside the deer fence as a test. Plus I didn't know where else to put it. I also planted a couple in the ground in the meditation garden. Today, I planted the rest of them in the ground there too.
I hope the early planting will give some nice flowers. I read somewhere that deer wont eat them. I don't know if the need a lot of water. I think they might be fairly dry tolerant. It's fun trying these plants that I haven't grown before.
The statice plants that I set out in the large container bed on April 8, are looking pretty good. Not growing by leaps and bounds, but they are growing and looking sturdy. The red color had at first is more green-ish now. The tubing is for irrigation lines I will install soon.
These are interesting plants. I bet that taproot will give them good drought tolerance. It's a good thing I didn't wait longer to plant them. I planted four in a large container, and three in the ground in the meditation garden.
Last fall I dug up the dahlia tubers, pruned off the tops, let them dry out, and stored in boxes of peat moss over the winter, in the unheated, attached garage. I gave the boxes of peat moss a little water during the winter but not much. Maybe once or twice.
Today I got them out. The actually look pretty good, and are starting to sprout.
I used a pruning saw to split a couple of them in half. It's hard to have any finesse about it, because the tubers are all packed in there together.
I bought a "vintage" Sunbeam Mixmaster cookbook. Actually two of them. This one was from the late 1950s, and is between my mom's oldest and newest mixers in age.
That cookbook doesn't have as many recipes, but I feel certain many of them were what my mom used. There was a biscuit recipe, so I made some. Before making them, I couldn't really remember her making them. But then, as I made them, seeing them coming together in the mixer, feeling the texture of the biscuit dough, smelling the aroma of dough and the baked biscuits, it all came rushing back to me. This was a very nice thing to feel again.
I also made a batch of ginger snaps. Before I took this photo, about 2/3 of the biscuits were eaten.
I made a mistake and used the wrong flour (bread flour) for these - accidental. So the might not have been as light as they could have been. Plus, I added 1/2 teaspoon of butter extract to the dough. I think she would have used plain shortening. The brand she used was "Fluffo" (How do I remember that, LOL).
Another difference is that old shortenings contained trans hydrogenated vegetable oils, which probably contributed to her incredibly high cholesterol levels, her early heart disease and then dementia, so had a role in why I lost her so soon. So it's good we don't have the trans hydrogenated shortening any more, but that might change the texture and flavor a bit.
Those biscuits were very good anyway, and a lot better than corporate factory biscuits in cans.
This is the other Sunbeam Mixmaster cookbook. That mixer is exactly the last one my mom had. It has a lot more recipes, but a quite a lot them are meat based. I don't eat meat, but the others look good.
I remember that exact cookie press too. I think there will be what are now called "Spritz" cookies one of these days too LOL. Funny, the ones on the cover don't look as appetizing as they ate in person. Maybe it's the old photography and inks, and fading.
Edit - Yes it was Fluffo. Internet sourced vintage ad -
I want to say I even remember the can, but I think it was way before my time. Maybe they didn't change the label much over the years?
It's been uniformly warm for a week or two, and the soil temperature is running in the 50s and 60s. I want to give the squash seeds a couple of extra weeks, so I'm planting them indoors for now, to set outside late in the month or in early June.
This year, I think I won't plant Pink Banana squash, despite the sentimental value, or Illinois Squash. Both grow so large, it's difficult to use one in one butchering, which means extra work and too much freezer space. I think smaller size squashes are more convenient, depending on size, and might keep as well or better. I still have some Red Kuri and Costata Romanesca that look good, which seems kind of remarkable. I read somewhere that Burgess Buttercup can keep nearly a year, if in a cool space.
So, I decided to add two varieties known for excellent flavor and long keeping properties, that are moderate size. They are open pollinated, so I can save seeds. Those are "Uncle Dave's Dakota Dessert Squash", a family-developed Buttercup-like squash from N. Dakota, and Burgess Buttercup, an heirloom variety also from N. Dakota. Burgess Buttercup was developed for the short season of N. Dakota, as a substitute crop for Sweet Potatoes. A neighbor also gave me seeds for a small size Butternut x Buttercup variety, called Honeynut, which I will also try.
I took a break from gardening to work on this batik quilt. I've been having some back issues and the sewing is a bit easier on my back.
I opted for parallel lines for this one. I think when it's done and washed, the shrinking batting and fabric will make a nice crinkly texture that I like.
This is a bit bigger than I can comfortably do on my sewing machine. If I push myself, I can do one row of blocks in a sitting, so possibly three more sessions will do it. Then trim and sew the binding, which is already cut and prepared.
I used scraps to practice sew a star shaped quilt block. The patter is from "Today's Quilter" magazine and the quilt designer is Lynn Goldsworthy in UK. Each block will be a different star shaped pattern, with some different fabrics harvested from thrift store or estate sale men's shirts. The designer's pattern uses new quilting cottons, in mixed colors. Mine will be more blues and greys, like the nine-patch quilt I made.
This practice block helps me see how the pieces will fit together. I need to fine tune matching up the pieces. Part of that is, I didn't starch to stiffen and didn't have an iron with me. Starch and ironing help a lot with precision. Still, before making a practice block, I could not picture how the points would work out, and now I can.
Now I need to starch and iron the fabric that will be in the actual quilt, and start cutting them out. It's a challenge converting from the magazine instructions, which start with virgin fabric, to what I'm doing with fabric sourced from shirts, but I'm starting to figure it out.
I cleared out the winter crop of snap peas, mixed in some steer manure compost, and planted the tomatoes for fresh eating.
The peas were an experiment. They were no where near blooming yet. I don't have room to let them continue, plus grow the tomatoes, so I fed the pea vines to the chickens, who ate them voraciously.
Arranging the tomato plants.
Then I planted them, each with about 1/4 cup "Grow More" organic plant food for tomatoes and vegetables, and arranged brown paper mulch. The paper is held down by the raised bed capstones, and by rebar I found in the shed.
This needed two days. I had rudbeckia seedlings temporarily planted in the bed, so I transplanted them to their final destinations to make room. I want this bed devoted entirely to tomatoes this year.
There are two remaining dwarf tomato plants. I need to figure out a place for them.
I realized I can write the variety names on the paper mulch. For the moment, I just stuck the labels on the nearest capstones.
These are the sweetpeas that I set out about March 25. They don't look great but it is still early.
These are seedlings outside that still need to be planted. Among them are oregano, thyme, four o'clocks, coreopsis, the last of the carnations. I have some planting to do LOL. There is oregano and cilantro in the ground here, too.
These were sprouted grocery red potatoes that I planted April 6. So now is 23 days later, about three weeks.
Three of the six have emerged so far.
