Long Winters strain my Patience

I grew up in harsh winters. Coldsnaps with artic temps. But thaw always showed itself – at least a little in March.

Today – again – my kale, chard, mustard 'Ruby Streaks,' lettuces all lay under 5 inches of snow. Late April! Even the lovage, which had become so lush on a single, warm weekend and the peas, just germinated, have been punished for their enthusiasm. This is the longest winter I believe I have ever lived. At high elevations, spring rains fall as snow. More snow was due in 5-6 days, but today the weatherman seems to indicate that instead we'll have 70 degree temps. Typical.

As early as February, last year, we had 80 degree temps regularly. I missed being able to plant cool spring crops altogether! Its unavoidable; recent history writes a story on your subconscious. But certainly a spike in illness a month ago, gives witness to how natural and widespread our collective expectations were. As hearts sank, and winter coats were prematurely shed on expectations, illness rates soared locally.

I reached for 'Rocky Mountain Garden Survival Guide' a tiny little paperback with invaluable empathy for those dealing with extreme changes in springtime weather written by Susan J. Tweit. Its the only gardening guide I've run across which acknowledges the extreme challenges of finding a low-risk Spring planting date where I live.

Nature's manipulation into confusion. There's nothing like this kind of swing in a season's character to destabilize what you might have expected lies ahead further on into the growing season. Is hail around the corner? After waiting so long to transplant slightly-overmature plants into my beds, this could lie in store for us all.

Letting go. Sitting in the midst of a maelstrom of change and opening your palms to abandon any plans. Living in peace in complete uncertainty. Its a talent; not one I was raised to know. This year I shall be challenged to practice it.

Growing Garlic in the Springtime

  As part of my garden this year, I am growing garlic for the first time. This year, my garden is to be:

a) low maintenance – garlic fits this category. I am also more focused on ensuring that what takes up space this year, be

b) crops, which are no problem at all to eat up! No fishing through cookbooks or scrolling through Pinterest for fresh recipes – just the crops you can't WAIT to eat and those which you eat so much of throughout the year, as long as they store well. Garlic also fits this criteria.

We have used a ton of garlic this year, one of the worst for illness in our home – to be expected after a record mild winter last year. We steep fresh garlic cloves in honey to cure them. The honey preserves the allicin (the chemical responsible for healing properties of garlic) yet, the honey also mellows the pungency of the allicin.

I'll be growing my garlic in a raised bed in full sun, but not in loam or sandy loam, rather clay amended with compost. My soil isn't the most ideal, but we'll simply compensate with more careful watering, and perhaps a bit less fertilizer.

Here's how we'll grow our garlic:

1) I'm using a clove of organic garlic from my local supermarket. Ensuring its not sprayed should help ensure germination (True, organic doesn't mean post-production chemicals inhibiting mold aren't introduced into your produce. I'm hoping garlic is less apt to this practice.). I'll use the larger cloves, as the larger the clove, the larger the bulb it should produce. Finally, when removing the cloves from the bulb, I'll use only those which do not sustain damage to the bottom (the root tend) – or where it attached to the clove. Only these will germinate.

2) Before planting I'll soak the cloves in 1 Tbsp baking soda to 1 gallon of water for 24 hrs, to inhibit mold growth.

3) I'll plant them 2'' deep 8 inches apart, which seems the agree-upon ideal depth and spacing. Experts encourage mulching, but as field mice are such a part of daily gardening life here, I'm not sure yet which mulch to use to discourage their habitation in the mulch.

4) I'll water each week until the warmer temps move in, at which time I'll lay off the watering. This part seems to demand a bit of expertise, though. I understand that the garlic needs the dry and higher temps to develop proper bulbs. Yet, insufficient water, can make the bulbs more susceptible to splitting (Less easy to dig up and less apt to store well for long periods of time.)

5) I'll watch for the curved stalks, or scapes to form. I can use an extra bulb or two, and will take the boost to my harvest that clipping the scapes provides. Besides, who can't love a soup or dip made with fresh garlic scapes??

6) Finally, in late summer, as the first lower leaves brown I'll begin gently digging up my garlic. Leaving them as long as you would an onion (when all stalks turn a bit brown and may fall over) would be too long.

7) To cure them, I'll place them in a warm drafty location out of the elements. That may give me just enough time to choose a new variety – this time from a nursery – and decided whether soft necked or hard necked are better for me and plant them as close to the autumnal equinox as possible. Being incredibly cold hardy, they'll establish a bit over the winter. I'll get a jump on next year's harvest this way!

Growing Early Springtime Lettuces and Greens

Gone are the days of monochromatic iceberg dinner salads only given color by the 1/2 cup of thousand island dressing weighing down like an albatross around its neck. In the produce aisle, neatly packaged salads for quick-fix dinners include attractive & nutritious greens such as baby kales and chards in their mix. These days, only Romaine salads could be served solo with just as much respect as an artfully composed blend of greens.

Following this trend, all the seed companies I respect have put out amazing blends of lettuce seeds -mesclun mixes and the like. They're beautiful! They are often composed by a certain overarching taste objective – mild and colorful, or touches of pungent and bitter...etc. To replicate what the seed company has achieved is not always practical when more than 10 seeds are present in the mix. Bought individually, who can use up 10 different seeds in the course of 3 season or so?

Nevertheless, I am drawn to creating my own blend. I find when I purchase the mix, that the greens germinate at different rates. So, in several days, the element of the blend you wish most to eat as a baby, could be quite mature when your Saladbowl variety is actually ready to be eaten. Secondly, I've grown rather fond of what I like to call 'pretty vegetable gardening'. Last year, my cherry red nasturtiums (the blossoms of which one may add to salad, but I can never bring myself to deprive of my garden-scape), next to gold-stemmed chard & next to 'Sea of Red' lettuce was just too gorgeous! Likewise, the fernlike-texture of 'Mustard- Ruby Streaks' next to gold and burgundy pansies and Red Russian kale. There's nothing like approaching a vegetable garden which bucks the pressure to conform to neat rows of common vegetables, and instead radiates texture and color which one usually only finds in a flower landscape.

So, I am driven to create a bed of greens, which is just as pretty in the garden, as on the plate. I will work to keep my red-stemmed and yellow-stemmed chards, as well as, kales & spinach, baby status - tossing with 'Sea of Red', 'Marvel of 4 Seasons', Buttercrunch, Saladbowl, Lolla Rossa, endive, escarole, mustard 'Ruby Streaks,' & 2 varieties of radicchio*. I have started nasturtiums, borage and pansies, which provide blossoms for salads that entertain. We'll see if I possess the courage to really pluck the blossoms for the vanity of my salad this year!

*I am growing an extra portion of radicchio this year, which I also plan to lightly grill and toss with feta, nuts and a light lemon-viniagrette. (Only grill long enough to make marks on the leaves. The leaves should remain firm!)

The Sweet Fruits of my Labor

I have had the pleasure of feasting on huge, sweet juicy watermelons out of my garden. Two were supermarket size, the third was rather only 6 inches in diameter - but so wonderfully sweet. There are 2 more on their way. I can't wait!

Did my secret lie in the perfect seed selection? Nope. These plants started on a little sponge in a brightly-colored, dixie cup with plastic cover - a Home Depot offering for little gardeners to watch first seeds grow. It was worth every cent of the 99 cents I paid for it.

Outside of saving some of the seed for next year, here's what else I'll be replicating:
1. The plants top 6 niches of dirt was compost made over the last year from my kitchen scraps
2. A little water every day
3. Knowing just when to pick them. I am waiting for the closest tendril to be fully brown (a real test of patience), a nice yellow tone on the bottom and the deepest sound on the interior when thumped.

I also found that while the field mice took on butternut, delicata and muskmelons, they did not touch the watermelons. Just a tiny bit too hard for them. So....watermelon are my sweet melon of choice for next year!

Ideas for too many Cucumbers, Beans and Peppers

Its been a good year for cucumbers, peppers and beans. While I am happy to freeze any string beans which are a bit mature, for soups in mid-winter, I avoid freezing peppers. They seem to get a bit mushy. So, how to use all this fresh stuff so quickly?

Creativity in the kitchen! Here is some food for brainstorming:

Cucumbers:

Stuffed with feta (mixed with cream cheese or greek yogurt) & chopped olives

Thinly sliced with sweetened white vinegar (white granulated sugar, only, please), with or without plenty of fresh dill

Tzatziki

Stuffed with tabbouleh
Atop crispbread with smoked fish

Green beans:

Salad Nicoise

Fried with bacon

In curries and pasta sauces (both cream and tomato based)

Sauteed in butter with just about any nut or even sesame seeds

Three-bean salads without or without grains

Peppers:

Cubed and lightly baked with an equal amount of eggplant cubes (tossed with olive oil and salt)

Fajitas

Roasted pepper dip or pasta sauce

Stuffed with or without meat

with fried sausages and rice, millet or pasta

Mice have Outsmarted the Sticky Traps in my Garden

In my quest to keep the mice out of my melons and tomatoes, I put out the sticky traps before I was able to amass a few dollars to put up a fitting barrier.

The first time I laid out traps, I also sprayed my produce heavily with peppermint essential oil and castille soap -a solution with a water base, well shaken. It was strong enough that the following morning, I could still smell peppermint. No sign of mice.

I laid out sticky traps last night for the second time. There is no scent of peppermint remaining this morning; I guess the solution must be weaker. So this morning, 3 of the 4 traps now are missing their raisin bait in the middle and have droppings in the sticky glue. They dined AND defaecated in what was to capture them.


One of the traps was dragged about 5 feet from the garden, and is filled with dust, bark mulch and debris. I assume there was a struggle to be free of the trap. A successful struggle it was. It was left right at the bottom of the stairs which lead from the house to the backyard, almost as if that pesky mammal meant to say ''See your trap? Its a real bore.''

When I purchased these traps, I KNEW, the stickiness - e.g., the glue - was WAY too shallow. Please, don't waste your money on Tomcat glue traps at Home Depot!

Either I see if they make a sticky trap for rats, which I hope must have more stickiness, or find a competitor which makes a glue better trap. The goal is to keep poison out of the bodies of the predators who want to eat my mice, of course.

Its unpleasant to deal with and blog on this topic. Yet, there are so many gardeners looking for good solutions to this problem, I feel compelled to do so. Mice....yuk!

Mice, Black Widows and Western Black Widows

There had been 2 previously. I couldn't figure out how a raccoon could do it, without leaving some crushed leaves of melon, completely surrounding the tomato bed, in his wake. A squirrel would pull over the tomato cage, not well-grounded, as he tried to dangle to dinner. The tomato was buried too deeply in the center of the plant for a bird to spot it; besides, the damage was more than pecking. It was more than half a tomato! I simply couldn't figure out which rodent was to blame.

Until I held that mostly eaten tomato in my hand and pondered where I had seen these droppings before. When it dawned on me, I dashed to the compost to deposit my disgust. Aaaarrrrgh!

This morning, the mice have taken out the 5^th sweet black krim tomato. There are droppings at the base of the plant to confirm my sinking suspicion. They are fussy. The do not touch the cherry nor the pear tomatoes. They forgo the ripe Roma's. Its only the rich, smoky flavor of the black krim's that pleases their palate.

Well, truth be told, last night they took on a nearly-ripe butternut, too. Sigh.

I have already been pussy-footing around the edge of my bed where the black widow lives.  After the mice damage discovery this morning, I'd had it. Today she happened to be outside her hideout - and she was crushed with a brick. Good and hard.  She was the scapegoat to my mouse frustrations. It's true.

A friend of any arachnid which will eat bad insects in my garden, I put up with fear of her daily, as I dipped into my giant jabba-the-hut  patty pan bush to pick that day's baby squash. It hung over the black widow's lair by mid-season, you see.

Yet, being that she happened to choose an address a mere 2 feet away from the children's sandbox, one could argue my actions were overdue anyway.

Gardening – a healing pursuit has become one of peril. Threats, hazards are lurking everywhere. I will not have it! After 4 days of NPR relaying details of death due to Hanta virus in Yosemite, I can't stomach sharing my paradise with mice.

The internet commiserates with my hate of the rodents who consume the lovely sweet produce I've toiled in this drought to bring to fruition. And here's what I'll be scouring up to begin battle today.

1) Strong poles for the corners of a fence barrier – very fine metal mesh, around my tomato patch. A mouse can squeeze through a space 1/4 inch in diameter- just large enough for his skull! It will not be mouse-proof, but will provide some deterrent. In future years, perhaps a steel mesh 'greenhouse' will be in order. It will have the dual-function of protecting my garden from hail, which is so common where I live. (Not a cheap solution, for sure, but one which has BIG paybacks.)

2) Sticky traps. I can handle crushing or drowning the squirming, little varmints. In previous years, I left this to a stouter soul, but now I have an ax to grind with the little suckers.

3) I'll be planting mint where the tomatoes will be planted next year. And this year, I'll be spraying the plant with peppermint oil.  

Also,
1) I will eliminate their hiding spots in my backyard. The pallet set up against the fence nearby; the old, nearly-fully decomposed, hallowed-out stump, and my sprawling, unexpectedly-large, melon patch need to go. Trellises and plenty of light on bare soil, surrounded with a well-kept buffalo grass lawn, would be much more ideal.

2) And in the same vein, I'll skip mulch in this spot. I just mulched half a tree's worth of bark around the other side of my yard. That may be providing a habitat for them. (Okay, there's more than a small chance of that. Sigh. But beating the drought has been tough! Chalk up one more reason to xeriscape to my region's natural rainfall levels.)
3) I plan to keep the ground extra tidy. My cherry tomato plants like to drop green ones when they're stressed and red ones, when the bushes are bumped. Time to clean up!
4) I'll reconsider what I grow at home versus my community garden plot, where the mice are not so myriad. If I can not afford the mesh greenhouse, the tomatoes will be replaced with turnips, rutabagas and broccoli raab here at home.
5) All tomatoes will be removed at 'first blush' and ripened in a box in the kitchen. No vine-ripened tomatoes for me this year.
5) Remove any damaged and half-eaten tomatoes immediately. The scissors I use for this is boil-sterilized each time I remove a tomato - and in fact, anytime its used in the garden these days!

6) Finally, I'll be adding a layer of dirt to the compost pile each time I add food compost. Even though I skip fats, dairy, fish, meat and bread in the compost; the food scraps will need to be fermented and covered with yard waste or dirt in these every-rodent-for-itself, tough, drought, autumn days.

I am rejecting suggestions, which advise purchasing rubber decoy snakes, a mouser (including an owl), chipmunks, ammonia and mothballs. I am also rejecting any idea, which calls for putting out food and water for them, even it will eventually cause their demise (such as cement mixed with cornmeal). I'm not sure how may friends it may call to the party!

Here's a thorough topical internet post on the topic, which can help you, too, brainstorm around minimizing how many mice find your garden next year. http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=222688

Now...how to make my yard an attractive place for raptors to hang out? I would LOVE to invite them to dinner and enjoy watching them, too.