A short time ago, in a garden not that far away…

Episode I: Uprooting

Yes, I am the perfect age to have seen the Star Wars movies as a little kid and for that to have a huge impact. The original three are better. 

Plant-wise though, this is about weeds and invasive plant species, which are two different things. A weed is basically a plant that is growing somewhere that you don’t want it to grow, and it can be anything from native stinging nettle and poison ivy to the random carrot that ma...

It’s warmer and sunnier, the mud is more or less dry, and the grass (and weeds!) are starting to grow. That means I can actually do outside gardening stuff, which is wonderful after winter. We were away for a week in Kentucky, as there’s a 3-Day Event (horseback riding) and an aunt to visit, and they’ve already got blooms on the cherry trees down there. At home, it’s time to weed, plan out the garden layout, dig some of the garden areas, and transplant / plant a few things. The garlic...

This week has been a bit up and down here, and yes, I’ve been remiss and haven’t posted more photos yet. I appear to be jinxed in that respect because I've just tried to upload one photo 5 times with no success. I will try later this weekend!

So: there is a great deal less snow here now, which is nice because it’s warmer, but it’s also incredibly muddy. Mud is fun outside, just not so much inside when tracked in by people and dog and cats and clinging stubbornly to the floor. 

I can a...

I had meant to post this several days ago, but I’d offered to help in someone’s office for about a week, then had to catch up on all the stuff I hadn’t done while I was doing that, then realized I couldn’t find my plant markers from last year… and now it’s March Break! 

We do have large sections of driveway visible, and there are a few spots where we can see actual grass (not green). However, the snow out back is still up to or past my knees, which I know because the kids and I we...

As you can see, there’s some variation in how much money is spent on the packaging. The smallest company is the one that uses the plain yellow envelopes, then there’s another Ontario one that uses just a couple of different envelope images (vegetables, herbs, flowers) and has the pretty box for their pollinator-friendly package;...

Yes, it took longer than I was hoping for this posting of photos. It wasn't just the connection, which, as I live in a valley in the country and our house is ICF so mostly concrete and steel on the outside, is not always great. It was also the memory available on my computer to run iPhoto and a host of other things. So this post is mostly pictures, taken today.

This is the inside of the poultry stall; most of the girls are under or in the nesting boxes, and you can see a few eggs as well. The ...

It’s February, and while that does still mean snow, and slogging through it to carry buckets to the water trough or feed to the barn, and mucking out stalls that are partially frozen while my own hands start freezing, it’s also …. seed catalogue time! Most of them actually arrive through January, but by February they’re all here and I can look through them and compare. 

I really like seed catalogues, and have a growing fondness for the ones with descriptions that go beyond the type, ...