OLG Old Lady Gardener#117 Still early spring here!

Young Hellebores first bloom

Helebore

Talk about old! The last few days I have been either walking a great deal more or working in the garden. Our weather is windy but temperatures mid day are in the low 60’s with mostly sun. So a perfect time to work. The old comes in as each morning I rise and find my hip joints stiff and my back not wanting to move.

A little over a mile walk first thing in the morning begins to loosen things up and I stand a bit taller. My movement is a bit smoother than the early morning Frankenstein walk from when I first got out of bed.

I envy my new neighbors to the north of us. A young couple in their first house. Last year most of their energy went into fixing up the inside and now they are working on the yard. (partly because a second huge branch fell from the Silver Maple leaving them with lots of work but plenty of fire wood). Last Sunday they cleaned up the flower beds, dug out a dead Nine Bark shrub, trimmed back four super large Yew bushes and chain sawed a great deal of the fallen tree limb and cut it into fire wood size pieces.

I would have been out for the count about half way through that amount of work. They were cheery and making more plans. Youth! What a wonderful thing!

I am finding one small task to do each day. You don’t see the dramatic change I noticed with the neighbors gardens but weeds are getting pulled and slowly oh so slowly I am hoping to pull this garden into shape.

The weather has helped a bit in that are night temperatures are still way to cold from me to even start bringing the small annual out of the sunroom.

wild Tulips

There are changes in the garden although hidden from most people who would view the garden right now. The tulips are starting to bloom. One tulip at a time. The daffodils in back have decided to bloom one bed at a time. So the ones along the north side are in bloom. The hill garden and south gardens are full of green leaves and I can see buds but it will be another week or so before they decide to grace us with color.

The wild tulips up front are also full of buds and early this morning they looked like they might bloom today. The forsythia bush had a quiet bloom so we are now hoping the spice bush, which gets more sun, will push more flowers for us to enjoy.

The young trees in the neighborhood are also now in bloom, It makes a glorious evening walk. Spring is just a wonderful time to be out and about. Even if my joints and back don’t like it! I Do! So walking and gardening I will continue to do. Take that old age!

OLG Old Lady Gardener#116 Wait, Wait – oh now hurry!

The garden season is upon us and suddenly I have more than I can possibly get done. I did try to work ahead of the season but there are so many things that just need to wait. We needed to wait for the soil temperature to rise above 50 degrees. We waited for the frost to be gone from the soil. We have needed to wait for the top soil to dry out a bit (even though we have had little snow and not much rain). Then the March winds hit and it made no sense to be raking when the leaves were just blowing all over the place.

But now it is mid April. The weather has settled a bit and it is time. I have completed the clean up of the front flower garden beds just yesterday. I like doing this because I am up close and can see what plants are returning. It is a good time to check for damage or disease on any of the plants. I also have a watch and wait list of plants that are coming up and I not sure that what they are. Are they really something I planted last year? At this early stage I leave them be but make a note to come back and check on them each week.

Squill after clearing for 1 hour

Blue Squill – closed up today due to rain

This also is the time to work on reducing or eliminated the invasive plants like Squill or Bellflower. They are both lovely when blooming but they literally take over the garden if not removed. An example is Squill. There is a patch of it on the Southeast corner flower bed. I started yesterday to remove it. Digging carefully and deeply I spent an hour or so and only managed to remove less than half of the patch. This cute little plant had what felt like thousands of tiny little bulbs. The little bulb are the size of a pin head. It I leave any of them behind they will grow. ( I know there are some left behind – there was no way I could get every tiny plant but I am working on it.) This will be a several years project since I really do not want to use toxic chemicals that would eradicate it more quickly.

The daffodils have begun to bloom and the returning perennials are now showing up. When I look closely there are flower buds on some of the tulip plants as well so we are excited to see more color soon..

While working on the outside clean up and exploration, to find what is growing, inside the flower seedling are growing quickly and need to be watered every other day. I am running a fan in the sunroom since I noticed a few plants were not doing well. There is this thing called damping off. Damping off is a disease of seedlings caused by several different fungi and fungus-like organisms. This disease causes emerging seedlings to collapse, often submerged in a mass of white fungal growth. I don’t see any of the fungal growth but several plants have just fallen over with weak stems. There is a fine line between enough water and to much water for these young seedlings. A fan helps to circulate the air and prevent this issue in most cases. It all feels a bit odd that I have the heat in the floor on and am running a ceiling fan at the same time. But hey, it seems to be helping.

Inside seedlings

I have fallen behind on planting. At this point I had hope to have the summer veggie seeds planted. The warm weather guys like tomatoes, cucumbers and basil plus a few other I plant inside. This keeps them warm until we are past our last frost date in May.

Outside there are cool weather crops that could go in and I have not gotten to it. Those are things like lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas radishes, cilantro, and kale. All of these grow better when it is cool out so I need to hurry with this planting. I am afraid by May it will turn hot and I will have lost my window to get this guys going.

Today is raining, which we need so not complaining just waiting for a good time to plant the cool weather veggies. Maybe this weekend! I will let you know next week!

Inside seedlings on the floor – waiting to go out to the hoop house once it warms a bit more.

OLG Old Lady Gardener #115 Up close and Personal:the green of the garden

Early spring has finally reached us here in Minnesota. Our night time temperatures are staying above freezing most nights. We are actually getting rain and not snow or snow flurries. The sound of rain on the windows and roof is glorious in that we are still in the 3rd or 4th year of a drought. The garden is really beginning to wake up. I no longer need to crawl around the garden beds to see if there are plants there. I can actually see them pushing their way through the mulch or old leaves of last year.

I have cautiously cleaning out some of the garden beds. I have waited for the bugs to emerge. Now I need to really remove the remains of last years growth and old leaves that have blown into the gardens. I started the other day hoping just to remove some dreaded Creeping Charlie but that led to clearing away the leaves from the Lily of the Valley and then I just kept going.

This morning I carefully walked around the yard to see what was happening. The whole area outside the beds there is a scant amount of grass and a lot of mud. So walking is not easy but oh the plants to be found were wonderful. Little spots of green all over the yard. The green comes in so many shades it is fabulous to see. There is the bright yellow greens of the rhubarb leaf and the blue green of sedum or the daffodil leaves. There a true green with red edging around the tulip leaves and then a brownish green on the Hellebores stems. I wanted to take my paints out to see if I could match each of the colors but the wetness of the ground made it hard to sit anywhere. I already had soaked knees from crawling around with my camera. Yes – know I said I did not have to crawl this time but I needed to get up close and personal with some of the tiny guys.

It will be weeks or months before most of these plants have flowers but for now the miracle of green, whatever shade it is, is a wonder to behold. I am confused by those who only look from a distance or who do not look at all. They are missing so much of a world around them. Each plant begins its growth in a different way and with different colors and different timing. Thinking about how they evolved is mind boggling, How do they know it is time to grow? I believe most are waiting for the right set of temperature and lighting before they decide it is time. The red coloring is an early protection from UV rays for many plants, it can protect some from cold, it protects from being eaten, it may signal a stress response in others or it may simply be a coloring for this plant. So much to know and learn! Why would you want to miss it?

Oh dear – I went through my photos thinking I have a couple here to show you. Twenty two photos later I think wow – a bit too much to share so will see if I can narrow that down.

Below is a peek at the greens happening right now in my garden:

Hyssops -green with purple that makes it a grey color

Columbine -green with red tint that will fade as it grows

Wild Ginger – yellow green with hits of purple. This will be grey green in about a month

Penstemon Husker Red – red with a hint of green will later be green with a hit of red and white flowers

Lichen and moss – look closely there are three greens here, the grey of the lichen, and a light yellow green and then a darker green

Virginia Blue Bells – a purple green right now with just a hint of the flowers showing. These will be green with lavender flowers in mid May (the orange you see is red pepper to keep the rabbits from eating the plant.

Daffodils – blue green leaves and a more yellow green for the flower bud

Hellebore – blue green in the leaves but purple to brown in the stems – such a cool color

Peony – this will be green with white flowers in June- what a great red with green lines or spots on it. I know its not really green but I could resist sharing this great color.

Tulip leaves – a hint of blue in the green and edged in red with red tips and we don’t even have the flowers up yet.

What colors are you seeing in your garden? Not the flowers look closer and maybe crawl around a bit. It is a wonderful world when you get up close and personal!

OLG Old Lady Gardener #114 Breathing with Trees and Poetry

I was not going to post today but..

I had just finished a very chilly walk home at dusk. On this walk I needed to stop and focus on the many varieties of tree buds that were coming out on each of the small trees. These tree were just planted a couple years ago when the street was resurfaced. They are baby trees which allows us to see the beauty of each stage of development in the spring.

Our big trees are doing the same thing but it is happening so high up we don’t see and forget about the wonder around us.

Once home I sat down to read and ran across this article by Maragret Renkl – How to Breath with the Trees in the NYT Opinion section.

Not only was she linking me back to nature but she was also reminding me that April is poetry month and our poet Laureate Ada Limon is also asking us to look closely. She is asking us to find the words that will bring us back to the world around us.

(Her new book is out on Thursday – You are Here: Poetry In the Natural World)

We need to stop, look, listen and create poetry or just write words that will keep us in contact with nature.

This month is also Earth Awareness month.

So be aware, look closely and write. Then share! This is a month to re-engage with the world around us and think about how we will help others see the value in saving our planet!

Spend a little time with the trees – what ever size they are?

OLG Old Lady Gardener #113 Blessings and a bit of sorrow

Blessings! It was beautiful day inside. Outside was a bit chilly and cloud until right about now. It is7:15 pm and the skies have clears and the sun has arrive just in time to set.

Our Easter was filled with laughter, loud voices of little children, excitement and a bit of sorrow.

All in all I feel blessed and grateful. In this old age I have family, friends and a home to provide comfort for all who need it.

I have noticed after this last snow there are more birds, more songs in the air. Sometimes it is just the song a tiny bird that can lift you up.

Tonight we walked and I listened for the songs and watched for the buds that are now pushing out along the young trees down the sideways. I needed that to help me refocus from a bit of news.

You know your children no matter how old they are are still your children. When they are hurting you also hurt. So after a lovely day of egg hunts, and way to much chocolate we settle with Little Man’s Mom just to chat.

However that chat was deeper that any of us were thinking. She is struggling, their family is struggling. As she said it will all be ok but for now the road is a bit rocky. There are some personal issue that are being worked on and they will be ok – as she says.

In the mean time I am just glad to be here to listen, the help, to be with Little Man when he/they need us. I am glad to be here for them in any way they need.

Family is a blessing!

On that note I am also grateful to this writing community! Thank you for this last month of writing and sharing. You are all amazing people. Thanks also to the Two Writing Teachers for hosting and supporting this writing platform for so many years!

OLG Old Lady Gardener #112 The Hunt is Ready

Tomorrow is Easter and this funny boy wearing his mom’s glasses is excited and his mother is just as excited. Today she came by to help set up the egg hunt. Complete with messages from the Easter Bunny ( think the spring version of the Elf on the Shelf).

There will be plastic eggs and a basket at his house with a note to encourage him to get dress and brush his teeth so he can come to Grandma and Grandpa’s.

Here there is a message in chalk from the bunny and one I must hang on the door before he comes. The one here tells him in a rhyming poem to hunt for so many red, purple, yellow and blue eggs. There is one egg hidden high that an adult will discover with a note about the frogs from the bog who have also left a bucket of art materials. (note the marker on his stomach and all the drawings on the table.)

I am hoping once we make it through this adventure we will get to sit down to brunch! Not so sure Little Man will eat much but we will try.

Are we finished – oh no – once brunch is over we will connect with the neighbors for the second egg hunt that the kids have set up. It is a bit simpler but they will each have 4 eggs to find and I believe there is an Easter sign that will be delivered to go along with the hunt.

All this craziness will happen inside since the snow is still melting and the back garden is basically mud. It should all be fun, loud and interesting to see how the 2, 4 and 5 year old handle this event. They are new friends. It is the first time the parents will have met each other. We as the old folks have been the go between for the kids.

Here is to Spring! Easter Eggs and children who bring fun into our lives!

Easter eggs created by Judit Varjas, Hungary

OLG Old Lady Gardener #111 Overly Excited

When you are four years old holidays can be exciting – overly exciting! Little Man has been geared up for this next holiday for months. All of us have been keeping it cool but today it all spilled over into craziness. We are families that are not deeply tied to the religious side of Easter, but have celebrated this time as the coming of spring and sharing religious stories from many backgrounds. At four the Christian crucifixion story is not one we are going to spend time on now. That means this is a day of Easter bunnies, flowers, eggs and all things spring.

Today Little Man was spending the day with us. He came in bubbling with plans for the day. There were eggs to dye, we needed to fill plastic eggs with M &M’s for an egg hunt that he and the neighbors 4 year girl plotted out on Wednesday (who knew??) and there were cookies to be made and sprinkles were needed. Whee! So much to do.

Snag number one: came in that we needed to hard boil eggs before we can dye them. Too long! So Little Man and I took a trip to the grocery store for other needed items. We also swung by the coffee shop for apple juice and a chai for me.

While driving we sorted out the plan that we would first mix cookie dough, roll out and cut out the cookies. Then while they were baking we could dye the now hard boiled eggs. Ok, this seemed like a plan.

While mixing the dough with Little Man proclaiming this was the best day even.

We rolled out the cookies, cut out rabbits, tulips and butterflies and into the oven they went.

Suddenly I am there in the kitchen rolling, cutting and checking the oven with no Little Man. He had had enough. He had gone off to the bathroom never to return. I found him in the living with my I-pad trying to remember the code to open it. Yep, I was left to finish the cookies.

Snag two: It was lunch time and I needed a break before egg dying would happen. I was now working my way to the dog house. He was not happy with me. That was not the plan.

We pushed through since I needed to clean up the cookie mess and reset for eggs and sit down.

After struggling through lunch – basically not eating on his half, we dyed eggs. The package of dye was space oriented so we also had a small science experiment with the dyeing. Not sure how this all fits into Easter but we created a fizzing reaction with vinegar as if our eggs were taking off into space.

Snag Three: The eggs were left to dry and I declared it was time for reading and resting. I think I needed it more than he did. Although he had been yawning on and off all morning. He agreed but dragged himself upstairs.

note the space shirt

I promised we would frost cookies and sort eggs for his planned easter egg hunt after the rest. I was hoping he would drift off for a short daytime nap. He had now yelled at me at least three times about a variety of things.

We read the ending of Zita the Spacegirl and he yelled he was not tired and was not going to lay down and stormed down the steps. I found him drawing and coloring furiously. I let him be. We did receive one written note from him that stated he did not Love us – sign Mason. I did ask why and he just growled.

About 20 or 30 minutes later he stated he felt better and what would we do now. We made his eggs into planets with rings around them. We counted out M & M’s to go into the plastic eggs for the egg hunt. We found easter egg grass and made a nest for wooden eggs and fake birds.

He had settled!

Until his mom arrived and the wildness began again. Running in circles around the house, and telling us all what we were to do.

I apologize knowing their evening was not going to be fun. They had one wild, hungry, and tired kid on their hands.

I must say I was glad he was headed home. I love the dear kid but I was ready for a glass of wine, a quiet dinner and a good book.

Sunday should be interesting!

OLG Old Lady Gardener # 110 Book Clubs

Today was book club – a group of about 12 retired teachers gather at my house once a month to talk books. The bulk of us not only taught in the classroom but also worked in the district office for many years in the Curriculum and Instruction department. We were providing support and staff development for teachers through out the district.

Our school district is not in good shape financially or other wise. Public education is struggling in so many ways. There are power house teachers who are struggling with districts that have lost their way.

This conversation could go on for hours and it did in our book group. It is so hard to see an institution that you believed in and support for so many years falter.

We did finally move on to a great discussion of Geraldine Brooks book Horse. We loved her ability to bring history to life through a created story. She was able to step into the lives of slaves as well as present day people. She balanced the emotion of black and whites in several time periods.

For me it was also about horses. It brought out the old childhood desire to own and ride horses. It has been years since I thought about the power and glory of a horse. The strength yet gentleness that this animal can bring to a relationship. This story shows that connection between man and horse in a deep way. It also shares a part of history I did not know much about – the horse racing years in rural southern states during slavery. It also brings to light the horror of slavery and the aftermath that we still deal with today.

Lots to think about and talk about. There is something powerful and yet reassuring to gather with people you have worked with for years. There is a level of understanding and trust in our conversations. Yet we also gently push each other to see and understand what others are seeing or thinking as we choose books for fun and also for learning.

Next up for April is Michelle Norris’ book Our Hidden Conversations. Lots to talk about there. Have you read either of these books?

OLG Old Lady Gardener #109 Review: starting at 2012

I was at a lost for words again today. Life is slow right now. The snow has brought things to a stand still. I am doing things but nothing is pushing new ideas or interesting conversation so I looked back to the beginning. I scrolled and scrolled back to my first few posts. The following paragraphs are where I began this writing. At the time I was teaching, my mother was still with us, there was no grandson and my son was not married. I was relativity youthful. Life was very busy and my post were short. There was so much happening day to day there was always something to write about.

I had forgotten I had started with writing two posts a week. One on Mondays – for It’s Monday! What are you reading? and one for Slice of Life. ( In a search it appears now there are many people who have blogs under the title It’s Monday! What are you reading?. The one I followed seems to be mainly children’s books and what people were using in there classroom.)

Now 12 years later I feel far from that time period. I still read the occasional children’s book – mainly in seeking new books for Little Man. I am no longer reviewing them. I am not sure when that fell away. My reading is more adult focused or seeking new information. Wow, I have become a more non fiction reader. Interesting.

More interesting is to see where I was and what I choose to put words to in those early years of writing. Ok so interesting to me. Below are a short paragraphs I pulled from my first years of writing and a reflection of where I am now. There were more interesting posts but I picked March 1 at the date to pull things from.

March 1, 2012

In her hand was a tiny little brown frog.   ” Where did it come from?” I wondered.    “I was watering the plants in the book room.  The big pots I brought in from my garden and he jumped into my hands.”  The next thing she said is ” I can’t kill him”.  So there we were late on a Wednesday night wondering what to do with a frog on the last day of February.  Did it just hatch?  Had it been living in her plants all school year?  Is this the first sign of spring?

Now: funny how even as a teacher I was seeking signs of spring on the first of March! and yes he lived on in a large fish tank turned into swamp land.

March 1, 2013

While listening to a talk last night on the internet I heard the phrase – “the auspicious wonder that lies at the heart of making.”  What a great thought!

The talk was about gift giving and the making of gifts.  The speaker comes from the creative field and was talking about things that are made but the wonder lies in the space around the making and his thinking, the sharing and the passing of this gift on to others.

Now: I love this statement and glad I found it: the auspicious wonder that lies at the heart of making. It is still important to me – the making of things. I wish I knew who said this this. A bit of internet searching and I think it might be Frank Chimero – who published a book called The Shape of Design 2012). Interesting – I am now seeking a copy if it. (history pushing me forward)

March 1, 2014

As she read the poems she talked about the pictures she saw in her “head” as she was reading. She finally read a poem about a boy eating hot dogs. She asked “what picture does this make in your head? What did you visualize?”  The response from several kids was “What picture?  Can you show us the picture in the book?”

Now: this same conversation was shared between my daughter and I today as we both talked about helping Little Man towards books that are more text and less images. He wants the longer more complexed stories but he wants the pictures. So we are talking about what pictures are in your head?

March 1, 2015

The students go off to write, I get ready for the next math lesson, geography lesson, reading lesson, science lesson and the world spins forward. The story started as a model sits forgotten with all the other stories in my writers journal – that black and white Mead notebook.

Now: Those model stories started years ago are still in the Mead notebook. I moved on to gardens and painting. The writing of children’s stories left behind. Hmm? I wonder about those and if there is some life there that should be looked at again. Who am I as a writer? Am I to far from children to be writing those stories? Is painting more of where or who I am? Interesting to think about! I am not sure!

March 1, 2016

So I am working on remembering that time makes a difference. I am working on writing down little moments as they happen so I can come back to them on those slow days when I think – “WHY did I say I would do this again this year?!”

I am working on holding this excitement of sharing my writing with friends, of pushing myself to write daily, of remember that time does make a difference and we will all be amazed at the end of the month when we say – WE DID IT!

Now: Today was one of those days – WHY did I say I would do this again this year?! I know why. I value this push to write. I value this community of teachers and writers that commit themselves to their students and to developing their own writing skills. Is it hard? yes!

But we have five days and then we say WE DID IT!

I may be an old gardener and a new painter but writing is still important if only to keep this old brain moving forward.

Looking forward to writing for four more days even if I have no idea what I will write about!

OLG Old Lady Gardener #108 Oh no snow!

Weather – yep we are in the first week of spring and here in Minnesota we have had four days of snow. Yesterday was one of those strange snow days where here in the city we had piles of wet and heavy snow but as I headed out for errands in the late afternoon it was pour rain. The world around us was wetter than I have seen for months.

We have been in a drought for about three years. All this wet snow and rain are a welcome relief from the dryness. The ground is thawed which means the snow can melt into the soil and not run off. All the rain was soaking into the ground as well. Finally!!!

Today, Tuesday, we are in another snow storm. At the moment it is completely white out. The wind is blowing and the snow is coming fast and furious from the north. As a gardener I am happy to have all this even if I was hoping for spring.

The tulip leaves are just sticking out from under the snow. ( correction – they are now hidden under the snow). Today’s three or four inches will hide them completely ( Yep)’ Luckily it was cold enough that the Forsythia bushes did not begin their bloom cycles or we would have lost those flowers to this wet heavy stuff.

In general meteorologists will give people an average ratio of 10 to 1, which means one inch of rainfall would equal 10 inches of snow. Given the rain we had yesterday I am glad it was rain and not snow. Ten inches of snow right now would not be fun.

My garage is harboring two small pots of tulips one pink and one orange plus to large pots of daffodils and other spring flowers. Those were the foolish plantings of a gardener who could not wait. A gardener who needed to see some spring color in front of the house.

Well, now our color is white on white. I do occasionally head out to the chilly garage to check on the color growing there along side the car and garden tools. It is an odd place to catch a glimpse of spring but I will take it for now.

I worry a bit about the tiny plants growing in the sunroom. They will need transplanting to bigger pots soon. I had hoped by that time I could set up the hoop house on the deck and move them out into a bigger space. Not sure with this much snow if that will be possible or wise to do. The long range forecast still have night temperatures in the high 20’s /low 30’s which is too cold for these tender plants.

The question of the day is where in my house can I set up another grow station with enough light and warmth? or does this whole operation move to my daughters house and into their solarium. The light would be perfect and we would not need to worry about grow lights but! (There is always a but) This area is not heated. It is very warm on sunny days but nights and cloudy days its temperature can match the outside. They are currently running a small space heater to see if they can stabilize the room.

This is what we get for trying to run a small greenhouse without a greenhouse.

However it does not seem to stop me! I just went out in the blowing snow to find yesterdays mail – a bit wet but there was a gardening magazine and a catalog for purchasing this years bulbs. OK, this years/last years planted bulbs are not out of the ground yet and I have already spotted some wild tulip bulbs I would like from ‘Colorblend’ on line. Now I have a whole catalog of bulbs in my hands. Help!

I think there is an addiction problem here! So do I begin reading or make muffins first and then read?

Such hard problems on a snowy day!

Sorry about all the weather news but thats what you get when talking to a gardener. Or a farmer – my uncles always talked weather and so do I!