StoneFalls Gardens

Today, my mother and I went garden shopping at StoneFalls Gardens. At 184 Stonefalls, Rd., Henniker, NH, it's this rather large, meandering patch of land. They sell manure, annuals, perenials, specifically tomatoes, trees,  and some rather strong smelling ornamental sage. We bought black velvet petunias, English thyme, Astilbes, sage, a pre-mixed hanging plant, purple petunias, and some feathery looking plant without a tag. Well, Mom covered the 58 dollar bill, I went out and visited the Norwegian Dwarf goats, they have tucked back in an indoor/ out door enclosure. They were adorable, only one of the four wanted human company instead of hoping I had food. The little dark goat, fell asleep with his head in my hand. I didn't notice so when I shifted to leave, his head fell out my hand, and he bunked his little nose on the ground. I felt so bad, that I went searching for some fresh grass to give him.

Patience

It takes seven days for me to retrieve, fill out, and return a job application that's only fifteen minutes from my house. It takes three to five days for me convince my parents to drive five minutes to get rabbit food that I buy with my own money. It has taken five months to get 6 hours driving practice, and 6 months to not finish driver's ed. People keep counseling patience, well at this rate I'll be burying my parents before I take my first steps. How patient am I supposed to be?

Welcome, Ms. Bumble bee

Welcome Ms. Bumble bee,
To my humble garden
That I've weeded, mulched,
And set out sixteen kinds of flowers in,
I've made my muscles scream for you,
So buzz around and mind your own business,
so I can do mine, as a result of yours.
Damn it you stung me,
So go take your last moments
In the garden of someone less appreciative of you.

Almond Milk

First of all, I'm lactose intolerant. I'm having difficulty staying lactose free, but I have discovered a delicious way to drink almond milk. A cup of sweetened almond milk has 12 grams of sugar in it, way, way, way too much. So I take a cup of unsweetened almond milk, 1/4 tsp honey (which has 5 grams of sugar), cinnamon to taste, and a tiny sprinkling of chili pepper. Warm the mixture on the stove just enough to mix the honey in well about three minutes. Then I chug it down, with either home-made flat bread and fruit; or from the yard eggs.

I invested 13 dollars in nothing but garden supplies, and plants, into my garden last year. Minus, the water, and rabbit litter I dumped into the soil. Including that I lost money last year because of an immature set of blueberry bushes, and crappy new plot of soil. This year I have sunflower seeds from the rabbit food that Fawn doesn't eat, green bean seeds from the food pantry, cherry tomato seeds as my valentines gift, turnip seeds from the junk draw labeled 2008 all that I didn't have to pay for. I paid for two seed starting greenhouses 5 bucks total, the topsy turvy strawberry planter 3 bucks, the seed starter mix 2 bucks, the garden soil 6 bucks, and finally the strawberries 4 bucks. Let's see if I make back the twenty dollars I invested in food I don't have to buy this year.

Seedlings

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebalou/888745855/

I'm one of those weird people who is either obsessively neat or over the top scatter brained. My seeds are neatly labeled on vibrantly orange sticky notes with the type, date, location bought or collected, and storage process on them. That's my obsessively neat side. I started my seeds inside in a preset gardener's delight humidome with peat pellets. I simply read directions then shoved the seeds to proper depth now my green beans are out growing the round holders and entangling themselves with my tomatoes and I don't know how to fix it because it hailed and sleeted today so that means it's too cold to put them outside. I do have a pot to put them in so they might end up there until it gets warm again. I wanted to use that pot for the cosmos and baby's breathe I planted and actually managed to grow though.

Weeds and worms

I'm celebrating weeds and worms today! I did a previous post on how to improve clay soil into loam. My soil last year was so heavy with clay it didn't grow weeds because without intense help the roots couldn't push through the soil. I spent two weeks turning corn cob which has a lot of little air pockets deep, upto two feet deep into the spaces where my plants would grow. I gathered worms after a storm to put into my garden. I imagined it would take a least two to three years of the intense work, mixing, raking, slowly and carefully irrigating to make my garden a stick plants in the ground, water daily and get vegetables space. This morning I discovered my worms are thriving under the rabbit and guinea pig litter I laid down last fall, and I have a mild weed problem! I'm so happy.