stereoman's Blog

O! that there were more hours in the day! My work -- my "real" job -- has been taking its toll of late, coupled with planning for an upcoming event of great importance. Three weeks from tomorrow, our friends, families, and faith community will come together to witness me and my Beloved exchange our marriage vows. We're trying to keep it simple, mind you, but even "simple" seems insufferably complicated.

I keep on a steady keel by taking one thing at a time, and not taking it personally when it all gets to be too much for my darling Lynnora and she gets all disturbed over the details. We can work it out. There's plenty that's gone wrong so far that we've managed to work through, so why not face the future with confidence?

My main complaint right now is lack of time for gardening. In addition to the wedding plans, my business has been keeping me busy far too many hours. And worse than that, I've run out of mulch! In the midst of everything else that's going on, I have to find someone willing to loan me their pickup truck, and then get on down to the mulch factory for a fill up.

How can I garden without mulch??!!

After a light frost a coupe of mornings ago, it appears that our weather is ready to settle, with balmy temperatures forecast through the second week of the month. I am happy to report that our resident hillbilly's tried and true method for preventing frost damage has been tried and proven once again. I was out in the garden at quarter to six, Beloved protesting in her sleep, hosing down my tender plants, certain that anyone who saw me would think me a fool, especially with all the rain we've had lately. But everyone in the neighborhood already knows I'm a bit eccentric -- why should they be surprised to see me watering my plants in the dark?

Later in the day, the sun high in the sky, the still air warmed to the fifties. My potatoes were all just as perky and robust as they were the day before. My tiny baby beans, just this week beginning to pop to the surface, all pointed their baby leaves like happy little arms. Not a drooper among them! My zucchini, recklessly planted far too early, was unscathed. My Beloved, who doesn't often engage in gardening endeavors, did me a "favor" and planted several caladiums over the weekend, in a particularly cool and shady spot. They too, were undamaged by the frost, thanks to the Bill Mitchell Frost Insurance Spray Program.

So the garden is making progress on its own despite my lack of time and lack of mulch. I even had the delight of my first harvest the other day -- four ounces of radishes and a handful of swiss chard!

There's my little chard babies, all shiny and colorful . . . photo taken before I harvested that mighty handful!

Plump red radishes are bulging through the mulch, and my first legion of carrots have developed their first feathers.

The front bed is right next to the sidewalk, and chock full of perennial bulbs, annual flowers, and . . . potatoes! In the background, you can see the boundary between my yard and my neighbor's, where I've cleared out the boxwood hedge and planted my (our!) first three blueberries bushes, one barely visible at the left.