It's Good to be Back

Boy, once someone lights a fire under my butt, everything rights itself. Today was a beautiful day. Almost 70 degrees. I couldn't believe the kids were running around in shirt sleeves and flip flops and I couldn't even get mad about it.

After they built the deck for the pool this summer, I asked them to keep the extra lumber so I could fix some of my garden beds that were falling apart. Well....that never happened. The man came upstairs one day and said, "I'll buy you more lumber." I went downstairs to find this!

It looks better when cleaned up, but the thing is amazing. He needed a work bench in the basement and got frustrated enough with a project that he just threw the boards together to make a table. He laughed and said the years of box building helped him out.

So, I don't think I am going to build any new boxes, but see what I can do with the ones I have. I have a few like this one that are just getting eaten away from the underside.

There's one on the side yard that I'm just going to let go alltogether an another that I could replace, but I think will make it one more season and then I'll fiddle with it. I'm also thinking I may or may not go get a trailer load of compost this year and instead just amend with a bag here and a bag there. When I replace the boxes on the side next year I can go crazy with the loads of compost. This year we may just try to get by.

Today I moved the second square box from the other corner yard over to the main one. We had to take the dirt out of it this winter to burry the electric lines for the pool. The box never did well over there anyway, so this may work out for the better. I decided to plant potatoes in the box to the right, so as I was digging out dirt from there, I put the dirt in the 'new' box. Then, when the potatoes start to grow, I'll put the dirt that was in the box in this one to cover up the potatoes. It's the MASH version of gardening, but hopefully it will work out well.

I'm going to try to do my cherry tomatoes in gigantic pots this year which may or may not work. I'm also going to do the same for peppers. I've never, ever had pepper success. I just don't get enough sun, so I'm hopeful that if I put them in the front yard in pots I'll have success. We'll see.

Proof that the weather has been so fine is the herb garden. The oregano has never died off and the parsley...well...anyone need some? I've got enough to spare.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Are You There, Blog? It's Me.....Ribbit.

Apathy is a powerful beast.

Peer pressure is its nemisis.

Granny emailed me a while back to remind me I haven't blogged in ages and gently nudged me with an electric cattle prod. It has been awhile, hasn't it.

Not much has been going on in the gardening world after the garlic went in during the fall. New Year's came around and I went outside on the deck just to take a gander at the garden and my breath was sucked out of me. Down in the corner were two of the most beautiful heads of broccoli I had ever seen. They made for a lovely dish for the occasion. I had no idea they were out there. That, my friends, was how long it had been since I was down to the garden.

Garden apathy set in so deeply that I didn't even remember to order seeds for this year until last week and I never started my lettuce seeds indoors. I may still do that, but the girl and I attempted to direct sow some today. Those never seem to work out for me, but we'll see. The onions also went in today and the potatoes are chitting on the counter.

Our new problem for this gardening year is going to be those feral cats from last year that the neighbor is continuing to feed and not fix and they are multiplying at the rate of rabbits. We've got one male that keeps coming around, howling at all hours on our front porch and spraying the house indeterminately like the bug man.

It comes around to the back porch and yowles for the kids to come play, which they do. He doesn't hesitate to spray them as well.

They're mine, you flee bitten son of a motherless cockroach. Mine I tell you.

Of course, the children are enamoured. The girl keeps calling him 'Lucky.' They boy is intent on calling him 'Puss-y.' We will not be hypenating the name.

Anyway, said rodent masquerading as a cat and its harem has no shame and they have taken to my boxes as their own, personal litter boxes and Ican see they've been chewing the leaves of my garlic. I firmly believe they're the ones that took down the cabbage and, I thought, all of the broccoli from last fall. This is one of the reasons I am trying to direct sow the lettuce. Anything new, big, and yummy looking will be snatched up by them directly. If they grow there slowly, they may get used to them and not eat them.

Such is the nature of my delusion.

Anyway, I know it's tedious to read a long blog post with no pictures that says nothing in particular except for spew vitriol regarding rogue, unsolicited, insufferable felines, but such it is with a gardener who is lacking the finess of regular blogging etiquette.

It's Saturday. The man and boy are off at another's house and the girl is watching Tangled....again. The laundry is done and the house is clean as long as I fall prey to a Jedi Mind Trick. Therefore, I'm thinking it's time for a nip and a good book.

Until next time...and I promise it won't be months.
Yours Truly,
Ribbit.