Dragons and Chopsticks

First Things first-
 My seeds for my winter garden never sprouted. They were a bit old. Oh, well.

Next Things next-

I have been sewing a lot.
Because I have been buying too much fabric. (is there really such a thing?)

I'm getting ready for NO PANTS APRIL! Adding a few items- filling a few gaps (I need some solid color basics)

I decided to name my fashion style.

I am going with "Femsical"
Feminine and Whimsical.
 Today:

I am a DRAGON!
Wearing my Dragon Scale top. It is soft, drapey, feminine- and a DRAGON!
My long, flowy, feminine style skirt-- is the Rubble on the floor of the Dragon Cave!

and my earrings are DRAGONflies! It's like wearing a pun!

DO I match? eh-maybe not. I'm going for "casually coordinates"

Can I make a fun story based on my outfit? You Bet!

(can't see it well, my one of my favorite bracelets. A gift from my husband. Tiny black pearls with a bronze bead)

Yes, that is a chopstick in my hair.
Yes, it has a cat painted on it.
Yes, the cat has a surfboard.
It is a SURFING CAT CHOPSTICK!

My Winter Garden Pt2 - spinach and chicken wire

Today I planted the first half of the spinach seeds. Both the spinach and the carrot winter garden boxes are covered in chicken wire basically to keep the cats from digging my seeds.

Speaking of my cat, Persephone, she enjoy being outside with me while I was planting seeds. She was running to and fro like she was possessed by demons.

And thanks to the Rain the past few days with still warm temperatures my backyard is filled with mushrooms! Dark ones and white ones. But the dark ones photographed better in the morning sun.

And, speaking of mushrooms, my husband and I went on a hike yesterday for our wedding anniversary. And there lots of fun fungi to photograph.

That last picture is a fun guy, not a fungi.

My Winter Garden pt.1

I'm getting ready to start my winter garden! I think I like winter gardening better than summer gardening. Because I hate being hot and sweaty in the heat in the middle of the summer. Yuck. And I hate pulling weeds. Yuck x 2

I have had a few people ask about my winter garden boxes so I thought I might as well blog about them.

The book I use as my reference is called the Winter Harvest Handbook. It is by Eliot Coleman. He has a farmers market/Garden and Maine. For those who Garden, I think main is zone 4. I live in Ohio which is zone 6. I figure if he can get things to grow up there in Maine in the winter, I should be able to get things to grow here in Ohio in the winter!

Up there, they grow a diverse selection of produce in the winter that does not require a lot of electricity and heat, therefore not a lot of money to run. He has a lot more acreage, obviously, and therefore has room to have really awesome mobile cold houses and a super nifty setup of rotating covered garden boxes. I have found that best just to stick with two or three garden boxes and I only grow spinach, carrots, and maybe radishes & beets.

Kale.

Kale is pretty good for a winter garden box. But honestly no one of my house eats it. Except for that one time when we had a pet iguana. The Iguana loved kale!

This year we moved the garden boxes from the left side of the back porch over to the right side of the back porch, next to the  TARDIS. This is because my husband plans on extending the porch on the left side sometime this fall, winter, spring.

Monday we dug the dirt out of the garden boxes and move the garden boxes, then hold the dirt. Today I purchased some goodies to add to the dirt.

The first thing to note here is that I have one purple and one lime colored gardening glove. I used to have a pair that was purple and a pair that was lime. Thankfully I lost the proper glove of each so that I still have a pair.

( adding gardening gloves to my Christmas / birthday list)

I purchased sand and Perlite. Because carrots like loamy soil.  Which I guess just is a fancy word for "has good drainage". 

Loam

Does it rhyme with foam? Because although I have seen it written many times in many places, I do not think I've actually heard it said aloud. I guess it might rhyme with the word doom. 

I also got a small bag of worm castings to add a bit of fertilizer.

Sprinkled a little bit of each into the garden boxes.

* note: garden boxes probably are not required. I just find them to be a little bit easier. I have done carrots and radishes without garden boxes. But with tramping through the snow and lifting off the cover, I just find the garden boxes to work better.

I put on my purple gardening glove and then I grabbed my hand held dirt mixer thingy. Then I put on my lime green color to gardening glove. And then I mixed all of the good nutritional goodies into last year's dirt.

After they were all mixed thoroughly, I made three rows and a smaller box and planted the carrot seeds! 

They won't need to be covered with the hoops and plastic until November. So I have some time to make their hooped covers.

... stay tuned for the planting of... Something else later this week

Easy Gardening

I usualy don't on Sundays, but I had to today. Go in to work, that is. I work 20 hours a week at a local Healthfood store.

I did my nails all fancy today. (I have kinda bad nails, so I keep them covered to help keep them from splitting and ripping)


My spinach box has been open, as the temperature has been 40-55 the past few days. I planted carrots Dec 26 and left that area exposed to the milder temperatures. My smart phone informed me the temperature was dropping to 27 overnight. (I had to ask it first; it may be smart, but doesn't volunteer information)

So, I did quick, easy gardening today. I paid my 18 year old to cut and place covers for the carrots and put the covers on the salad box.

CARROTS (Nelson) :  I had small hoops in place already, my son added gardeners quilt and garden plastic sheeting.

  TWO BOXES with stepping stones off the side of the porch have spinach and Purple kale.    SALAD BOX: by the back door. It has lettuce and beets. I think. I forget. It all looks the same right now to me.

  

YES, I did!

Yes, I did pick spinach from my winter garden today!! Fresh picked spinach for BLTs!

Yes, I did plant carrots seeds in my back yard today on December 26 in Ohio! I hope my Winter Harvest book is right! The author plants carrots the last week of December at his commercial farm in Maine!
He then covers them in plastic. I will do that on Moday. We actually are in a warm pocket this weekend. It has been  in the high 40s to 50s the last two days.

The variety recommended for December planting is Nelson Carrots.

I received more year round gardening books! I got Winter Harvest (by Eliot Coleman) last week. Yesterday I got Four Season Harvest (by Eliot Coleman). Also a little handbook on cold frames.

Combine these with the book of herb growing from my brother earlier this year and I should have a wonderfully productive and yummy garden soon!

Mid December

Sunday Dec 21. 36 degrees F.

We have just returned from visiting family for a week. I check my winter garden boxes. Yay! The plants are still alive! 2 of my boxes are not doing much. But the Spinach Box seems to be thriving!

My son gave me a book. The Winter Harvest Handbook, by Eliot Coleman. I started my winter garden in November, without utilizing winter garden information. I now know my mistakes with the kale and lettuce box. (Should have started them the nd of August). The Gardner who writes this book plants carrots the end of December. So I prepared a small trial carrot bed today.

 I dug up an area of garden just off the porch (so I won't have to walk far to check it during these cold months). 

Then I filled a wheel barrow with peat moss, dead leaves, and some dirt from the bottom of my compost pile.

 (yes, I am standing in the compost pile. the top layer of compost is frozen solid)

 I mix the moss, leaves, and compost; then add it in the bottom of the dug out area. Cover with the dirt I just dug, smooth and mark with stones.)

 According the Winter Harvest book, they prepare their soil 3 weeks in advance with green manure (which has no animal feces. it is just oats plants and pea plants). They turn this under the existing soil about a foot, replace the top soil, let rest a few weeks, then plant their seeds. I do not have green manure or 3 weeks. 

hopefully, the moss. leaves. compost mixture will do this time. I covered the prepared soil with tarp. not sure it will do anything, but it seemed like a good idea. Planned Planting Date is Dec 31.