Raised Bedlam
After days (and days and days, and floods and floods) of rain, the clouds broke and we had a beautiful last 3 or so days of our April vacation. We were able to get out in the yard some (emphasis on some) and actually start building our raised beds. S.'s dad and mom came over to help build. I admit I was off in the netherlands of the yard, raking out gardens long-ago abandoned by previous owners of our home. But--I think the results will be great. They look weird now, but just wait--pretty soon they'll be surrounded by luxurious rough-sawn lumber painted the same green as all our trim and have a mahogany ledge. Mmm, mmmm...
There's finally signs of Spring around our yard as well. With the sunshine came leaves of tulips and daffodils busting up out of the ground--still no blooms, but we're close, and at least it's green!
The Unhopeful Garden
We are unhopeful gardeners right now. Massive rains have saturated our back yard and made it pretty much impossible for us to get out there and start building and digging up our gardens. With the three inches of snow-coating we got Sunday, who knows if our peas will survive. AND...our pepper plants are most definitley NOT sprouting. A very discouraging beginning. I know that the sun will come out some day, and the wet ground will dry up, and something will beging growing and sprouting and then I'll forget all the woe my non-existant garden has caused me this spring.
Impending Doo-Doo Weather
Looks like we've got a couple of inches coming our way over the next 24 hours or so, so S. and I are trying to figure out how to salvage our pea plants. We're thinking overturning a bucket or wheelbarrow on top of where we planted, so that way they at least won't get buried in snow. I'm sure we'll think of something stellarly creative, in the same vein of our pepper plant warming tray. Yup. Can't believe it's April 11th and I have to be worrying about this!! Ahhh! Way to throw first-time gardener for a loop!
The peas have landed!
Our nicely-sprouted peas are in the ground. Now if only the snow holds off until, oh, I don't know--next winter!!! I know they can tolerate a light frost, so I'm hoping if it does snow, it stays above around 30 degrees. Otherwise we can kiss our potential pea crop good-bye. Both S. and I have already acknowledged that this is kind of our throwaway year. We're figuring out how to do things properly and finding out what works and doesn't work in our soil. Hopefully we'll get some harvest out of it successfully. I think our pepper plants are unhappy with us. As you can see from the picture below, they're kind of rigged up in a ridiculous manner. BUT..we're hoping they are getting good, warm vibes and like the sunny spot we've stuck them in. We're already on the lookout for a warming tray from e-Bay for next growing season. Live, grow, and learn, right?!
Look, Look--I Sprouted!
Exciting times over here. Our pea seeds have officially SPROUTED! Now if it will only stop being 20 degrees out at night, we can plant those suckers.
I just want to point out that I am the most novice of novice gardeners. My partner S.'s family always had gardens growing up, and mine stuck some occasional tomato and cucumber plants in the backyard, but neither of us were very "hands on." Why would we be--we lived in a 5th floor walk-up in NYC for the past 5 years! So now that we're in the country with our own yard, we're excited to start digging around and plotting and planting. We did do tomatos last summer when we first moved--they didn't turn red until like--well, ever, really! So we haven't had a great start. I say this only because when I show you the next picture, especially if you're an experienced gardener, you're probably going to laugh your ass off.
Yes, that is where we're sprouting our pepper seeds. On a tray, over a HOT WATER BOTTLE, with a Pyrex baking dish on top to keep in moisture. Classy, no??
Boy will our gardening be a blast!
Peeping Green
I'm spotting tulips and daisies all over the yard now. We planted probably close to 200 or so bulbs in the fall. They're even popping out of the snow behind the stone wall!!! Mother nature is one amazing lady, is she not?
S.'s dad informed us last night that we needed to get our peas into the ground NOW! Only problem--it's supposed to be in the low 30's and possibly SNOW over the next couple of days. So not happening. Hope there's enough times for our peas to pod and our peppers to sprout (we're starting them from seeds, indoors). Our green thumbs are more like..yellow..turning green...so our gardening is sure to have some unexpected outcomes!
If you can't rake, vacuum!
S. has really been getting on my back about not posting on the house blog, but honestly, it's been a long winter with not much going on! So, now that Spring is making it possible to get back out into our yard, I'll finally have some amusing and interesting tid-bits to share.
Like this one, of S. vacuuming our lawn this weekend:
Allow me to explain. Our driveway is gravel, since it cost a lot to pave it. We cheaped out and had someone we know come and spread it with his Bobcat and compact it. It works, really it does, and it doesn't look half-bad either. Then came winter....our nice old neighbor - let's call him Bill - snowblowed our driveway for us all winter but wasn't so careful. As a result, most of our top layer of gravel was flung all over his and our yard (and house!). As you can see, trying to rake back gravel all the way to the edge from behind the stone wall would be hard, so we stole the idea of just sucking it up with a shopvac from our other neighbor. Hey, it worked! I can't imagine what we looked like from the street, though.
Needless to say, nearly 4 hours of backbreaking raking and vacumming later, we have most of our driveway (and an assortment of dead grass and pinecones) back on the actual driveway. Yay for yardwork!
