Good Fences

  I let  my dog Sol out  yesterday morning, and he chased a squirrel across the backyard. Both of them slid along the crust on top of the  snow to the cedar fence that encloses my back yard.  The snow is two feet deep, but Sol is small, and neither of them broke through the shiny, hard crust.

  As I watched the squirrel scamper over the fence and away, I held my breath.  Would Sol jump the snow shortened fence and take off after the squirrel?  I did not relish running out and calling for him through our coyote filled woods.  Sol is nine years old now, and either because he is weaker or wiser, did not attempt the leap. He slid back across the snow and came into the warm house.  I sat drinking my coffee and thinking about fences.

  I came across a picture recently of a beautiful garden that integrated the flowers and vegetables together seamlessly-- banks of daylilies next to rows of red romaine, etcetera.  What were my thoughts?  Not 'how beautiful' or ' I want to do that', but 'where the heck are the fences?' and 'how do they keep the rabbits away?'.

  That garden must be in the city. When I lived in the city we had pigeons, but no rabbits.  Here in the country we have everything but pigeons.  I love being in the midst of all this wildlife, but the rabbits are hungry, and and they will eat the daylilies sometimes, and the romaine every time they can get to it.

  There are commercial fields of vegetables down the street, and they are not fenced. But they are also  so big that any chewing on the edges by rabbits or woodchucks has little effect on the total output.

  I want to protect every leaf of lettuce in my small garden.  I need fences around most of the vegetables, except the tomatoes, potatoes, and squash, which have distasteful (to the rabbits and woodchucks) fuzzy or thorny leaves.

   For several years I used cheap chicken wire and bamboo stakes, but these didn't last long, and looked lousy. They were also easy for Sol to get over, and he has an appetite for beans and peas.  Last spring I finally measured, planned, and installed a more substantial vegetable garden fence. It is a twenty foot square fence of green painted steel poles and  three foot high green metal fencing around  six raised beds. Then I laid newspaper, cardboard, and straw over the paths. 

  Now I can let myself into this enclosure and work on the garden while the hungry critters stay outside.  Including Sol, who has learned to lie nearby waiting  patiently for any  green beans tossed his way-- and there are always a few that are a bit too tough for my taste, but not for his.

Potato Futures

   Yesterday I checked my seed potatoes to see how they were surviving the winter. To do this I opened the fridge, pulled out the vegetable crisper, and took out a brown paper bag.  I put the bag on the kitchen counter and unrolled the top, then looked in at my 40 or so 'Rose Finn Apple' fingerling and 'Yellow Finn' potatoes.  Except for a couple of shriveled 'Rose Finn' tubers that I removed and threw in the compost,  they all looked plump and healthy. I put them back in their winter home in the crisper.

This is the first year I've saved my own potatoes to plant, though I've grown them for four years.  I was going to save some last year (2009) but  held off because of the chance they'd be infected with late blight.

   It is hard to raise potatoes profitably in my kitchen garden, especially if  have to buy mail order seed pots every year-- the shipping for a pound or two (all I have room for) costs as much or more than the potatoes.  So I hope to continue collecting my own seed potatoes, and this fall start saving seeds as well.

But first I'd like to buy some blue seed potatoes. Blue potatoes are expensive in the market, highly nutritious, and they look really cool! I've come up with a plan to avoid the costly shipping.  Late in February I'll be volunteering as a docent for several hours a a local Flower Show.  Last year I bought my 'Rose Finn Apple' seed potatoes from a booth at the show for less than $5. This year, if my luck is good, that vendor will return, and I'll leave the show with blue potatoes for my kitchen garden.

I swear it will be the last seed potatoes I buy.... maybe.

Winter moths and the benefits of cold

It snowed again today.  Like many gardens across the country, mine is buried deep under several feet of snow.  While I was shoveling my long driveway this morning I made up a mental list of the benefits of a snowy, cold winter for the garden.

There should be plenty of water in my well, as the aquifer under my property will be filled by snowmelt.

Also, I won't lose topsoil in the garden from wind and rain-- the snow will hold it in place.  My strawberries are well insulated by that snow pack, too, and should not be hurt by the deep cold we've also experienced.

And maybe, just maybe, the cold will reduce the population of Winter Moth caterpillars this May.

If you live outside of the East coast of North America from Nova Scotia to Massachusetts you may not know about the Winter Moth.  It is an invasive pest (originating in Europe), similar to the Gypsy Moth in it's potential for defoliation of some tree and shrub species.  The adult moths hatch out in November and December to mate and lay eggs. Because this is after most birds migrate, they have a high survival rate.

In May the tiny green caterpillars crawl into buds and eat from the inside.  if the spring is hot, the leaves open fast and there is a chance of birds eating some of them. If it is cool the leaves are stripped to the ribs.  I had very bad infestation on my blueberries last year, resulting in few berries, though I fertilized and got new leaves at least.

I searched on the web, but found no certain info that a winter to 0 degrees will kill the eggs on tree bark, but I can hope.  There's got to be something positive in this brutal weather.  Excuse me, I've got to go shovel my roof.

Birthday present and dumpster diving

So here's an example of how I garden now. 
My favorite birthday present  this year was a pair of old storm windows  (complete with screens) that my friend Steve saved for me from a house he was renovating. They'll make great cold frames over some cinder blocks or hay bales.  I began asking friends to watch for windows three months ago, and my patience was rewarded last week.  The screens  are a real bonus- I can use them to vent the coldframes and keep insects out!

Last year I drove by a construction site a dozen times eyeing the dumpster full of big pieces of scrap lumber.  One day I saw that the dumpster was full, and I knew it would be emptied soon.  I got up the courage to ask the work crew if I could dumpster dive. They said yes, and I made four raised beds out of the lumber.

I didn't use to be so patient.  I once bought a second pair of Felco pruners because I couldn't find the first pair in the clutter of my garage.  I still lose things in the garage, but I take a break and then search again the next day-- and things usually turn up. 

Nowadays my budget is tight, and that is certainly part of the reason why I'm more patient and frugal. But there's more to it.  My mother is a yard sale shopper, and has been for 50 years. She loves finding beautiful things that others don't value and bringing them home to be loved.  I also enjoy the challenge of recycling and repurposing materials in my garden.

All of this goes back to the change in my attitude towards the garden. I once gardened to create a place of beauty and peace I could retreat to.  Now I feel like I need to do something more assertive than  retreating to the garden.  I need to have some control over my future.  I can at least use my hands and my mind to feed my family, and  be a bit green as well.  Bring on the dumpster diving!

Welcome Visitors!

This blog is not primarily a how-to blog, though sometimes I'll write about my daily discoveries in the garden. It's also not a strictly organic or strictly low impact, or strictly vegetarian blog, though I am mostly all of those. It will sometimes feature recipes, because I love to cook almost as much as I love to garden.
 This blog is about is my garden in a corner of Massachusetts, and how it reflects changes in my life, and my view of what is important.  I used to be a perennial flower gardener who grew a few vegetables every summer, and now I'm a vegetable gardener who occasionally plants a new flower or shrub-- if it will attract benefial insects, or produce an edible berry.