End of March

This is it - the last day of March. Thank god. I'm hoping April turns out to be as "not like March" as possible.

It's 37 degrees Farenheit and raining - it was sleeting earlier, so we're making progress at least. I took Kiholo for a walk at the park, and about a half hour in she just turned and went back to the car. I'm not sure she's ever done that before, but she had had enough, apparently.

Here's a picture of the garden from today - I've played with the contrast & saturation a bit because everything is so washed out looking around here these days. The garden itself (within the fenced area) is a little small - I think it's about 144 square feet. You can see one raised planter near a chair and a birdfeeder - that's mainly for flowers, and was here when we moved in. There is another raised planter in front of the garden "proper" (the area enclosed by the falling down fence) - I've already planted half of that raised bed with lettuce & arugula. Last year I had beets & carrots in there & they did very well.


The wood pile in the background isn't mine - I wish it were, or, rather, I wish I had a need for a wood pile, but I don't. THE house will have a woodstove. We spent about $2000 on oil this winter, and I'd like to avoid that in the future.

I don't know if you can make it out, but in the middle of the garden "proper" there is a black tarp looking thing. Under that is a pile of leaves & compostable stuff. The black tarp is actually leftover landscape fabric, which lets water and air through, and absorbs the heat nicely. I know it wont fully decompose within the next few weeks, but some of it might, and I'll move the rest before I put the rest of the garden in.

The green stuff you can see in the garden is a mix of garlic & chive coming up, as well as winter rye that I planted last fall as a cover crop. That seems to have more or less worked - the areas with the winter rye thawed first, and there are already all sort of bugs crawling around in the soil in that area. The garden is also not as soggy as it has been in years past, but our thaw seems to have come early this year.

There is a similar situation going on to the left of the garden (as in the picture - just on the edge). I wish I had thought to put the landscape fabric on last fall. It's really pretty warm under both of these piles, so all might not be lost. We'll be putting a raised bed in on top of this pile later this spring, parallel to the garden fence.

We'll also be putting a raised bed in front of the garden, to the left of the gate. Larger than it's "twin" to the right of the gate.

Our neighbor has 2 goats, and we'll be getting their manure in a few weeks, and adding it throughout the summer as it becomes available. This should help the soil out a bit.

In the bottom right corner, you can just make out some snow. We still have a bit of snow in the shady part of our yard. Maybe it'll all melt this week.

Re-localization

So last fall, hubby & I joined a local "relocalization" group. Unfortunately, our tiny little anti-social town didn't have a group of interested people that we knew of, so we joined the neighboring town's group. From which I have learned a ridiculous amount of information regarding gardening & food production.

And you know what? I no longer have serious long bouts of escapism fantasies. I'm actually happy to be living HERE. To the point where we are considering buying land to build THE house for ever and ever after. Passive solar at the very least. As housing prices drop, shouldn't land prices too?

At any rate, it has just occurred to me that as I have gained interest in re-localizing, I have been feeling more and more guilty about my ridiculous commute. And so after this week, I will largely be done with the whole 45-mile each way commute. This is also a bid to cut myself off from the steady feed of toxic chemicals absorbed through my skin & respiratory system despite the best of OSHA intentions. Accidents happen. Daily. Thankfully the stuff I dealt with wasn't THAT toxic. But Still. Not worth the risk.

Had myself a little cancer scare this month. I'm not fully through investigating it, but so far all the radiology tests are looking very good and benign. Hooray! (Understatement). I still hope to talk my doctor into an MRI, just to be as safe as possible before I go and fully move on. For those of you not familiar, learn to spot the signs of IBC. Seriously.

This is after joining in the Super Tuesday fun of the worst tornado outbreak in 20 years while visiting TN for my grandmothers funeral. Proof: we were near beginning of the red line labelled "3-Muhlenburg" - after the wake we spent some quality time huddled under all the bed linens in the bathtub of our hotel room. This was about 1.5 hours after the wake, and about 12 hours before the funeral of my grandmother, at which we were pall bearers. It was a little overwhelming. There's nothing like watching the news in a hotel room as the weather guy is rolling of city and town names in a panic, and you have no idea where those places are in relation to you until you hear the tornado sirens going off outside.

So recent events have caused a drastic change in how I look at life & what I consider important, and when you combine that with the effort to re-localize, it looks like I'll be staying home for a while. I'll miss the social interaction, but I'll find some other outlet, I'm sure.

SPRING

Spring is here. Know how I know? I'm awake & functioning.

I found garlic & chives growing in the garden. The daffodils & crocus are coming up. My yard is half thawed... I can actually go outside to putter. I've stopped wearing long underwear all the time. The ice cream stand opens on Saturday.

Before I forget, I wanted to tell you about a website that helps you opt out of catalogs. It seems pretty neat. I'm sick of all the catalogs we get, and I feel like they are taking over the house because I feel guilty recycling them. They pile up, and pile up. I never buy anything from them. So I've opted out. Less waste. Less guilt.

Back to spring: I'm redesigning the garden this year. More raised beds, and I'm doing away with the current garden configuration of rows. I will now have a keyhole like path to access the garden, which is far more efficient use of space. I'll post pictures when I'm done. Gotta get stuff to grow first, otherwise it'll require way too much imagination on your part.

We're also doing more raised beds this year. I've bought more seeds than I curently have space for. I'd love to simply plow up portions of the lawn, but then I'd have to keep the dogs out. So raised beds it is. Easier to cover, easier to fence off, easier on the back. I've become curious about SPIN farming this year, even though I'm definately not in an urban environment. I'm on a "small" rural plot (one-acre being relatively small where I am). SPIN = Small Plot INtensive farming. I'm not sure I really buy into the whole 'for-profit' thing, but I am interested in maximizing the productivity of my garden. The problem I have with SPIN farming is that it sounds, at least at first glance, somewhat like a pyramid scheme. You "have" to buy the SPIN guides, and they aren't cheap (and they are selling the PDFs - not even actual paper).

So me, being the cheap bastard that I am, I'm just going to wing it and see what happens. I have the whole internet at my fingertips!