Sunday, 29 March 2020
We had this much rain.
Allan’s project
Allan is working on an enclosure for a small container kitchen garden on the south wall behind the garage, to keep the deer from eating the future veg. At least, I hope there will be veg. I don’t have much faith in seeds, and maybe the seeds know it.
His photos of progress:
The outside trough will be green onions. So far, on the seeds I planted, there is no sign of peas, a faint trace of lettuce in the greenhouse, and a hint of radishes.
My project
Meanwhile, I finished weeding the front garden, east side.
I put the wheelbarrow outside the fence to let people know I was there, but over the course of the day I still found that people came too close. At one point, while weeding the center bed, I had to scramble to get six feet away, leading to a sore leg at the end of the day.
A passing friend and I took the distancing very seriously.
You can just see her head beyond the pieris, ten feet away. She always has the sale of interesting antiques and collectibles two doors to the east on Memorial Day weekend. We discussed the sad likelihood that we (the whole peninsula) won’t be able to have the World’s Longest Garage Sale this May. We are hoping (me for the sake of my annual plant sale) that it can be cooperatively rescheduled, if need be, till another big weekend, probably Labor Day in early September. Perhaps we will get a break from the virus then. Should we all live so long.
I was pleased to get the entire east garden weeded. Because a bucket would get so heavy so fast, I threw the weeds at the wheelbarrow, not always accurately.
My trusty ho-mi is my tool of choice for weeds.
This white flowering tree, below, on the other side of the fence, sends runners and baby trees all through the east side garden. It is a big problem with roots so pernicious that all I can do in some places is just cut back its sprouts. It finds that encouraging.
Under the Ribes speciosum, before…
…a small area that never got weeded last year…
And after…
The wire pieces, which we added to later, are to keep Skooter from bothering the hummingbirds that love that early flowering shrub. One of his many bad habits, the other worst habit being bothering Jazmin.
Along the front fence, before…
And after…
That area was rampant with a stinky pink flowered mint relative whose name I forget.
I installed some of the barrel hoops along the entry walk….
….and got some weeding done of the edges of the middle beds along the path that I contemplate turning to gravel.
I was able to erase one word (“east”) from the stay at home work board. I could erase “canna”, too, as I already potted it up.
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A few favorite recent articles about life in the pandemic
I liked this article on how to spend time.
“ ….zero percent of my time goes to apologizing for the fact that I am lucky, because I spent two weeks doing that and it’s not clear it helped anyone feel better. I am lucky. Many of us are lucky right now. Some of us will not be lucky later, but we won’t know that until after. Rather than apologizing for being lucky, I spend time being grateful. I spend at least 80 percent of my day being grateful, and telling people that I am grateful. It is one thing that helps.”
That helps, because I am grateful for having a garden as refuge during this time, and I am trying not to feel guilty for having that good fortune while others suffer, some from being cooped up in a small space.
From Tales of the Hinterland, an excellent blog from Maine: Why You Should Ignore…Productivity Pressure.
From Native News: Native People Would Never Sacrifice Their Elders for the Good of the Economy.
And my top favourite: This is Not the Apocalypse
“Ever since I was a twitchy, morbid child, I have kept a private tally of the things I thought I might miss most when the world ended, so that I could be sure to enjoy them as much as possible. Hot showers. Pottering around the shops. Bananas—I didn’t anticipate being a survivor in any country where bananas grow. In fact, I didn’t anticipate being a survivor at all…… I was not expecting to be facing this sort of thing in snuggly socks and a dressing gown, thousands of miles from home, trying not to panic and craving a proper cup of tea. This apocalypse is less Danny Boyle and more Douglas Adams.“
It is a brilliant essay and every bit of it spoke to me.
[By the way, the banana freezing experiment has not gone well so far. Putting frozen bananas straight into oatmeal resulted in a texture so repellent that they had to be fished out and out into the compost bin.]
Weeding is a never-ending task which I tackle bit by bit.
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With our stay at home extended till April 30th, I have plenty of time!
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Thanks for the shout-out! Also, thanks for sharing that excellent essay in Wired. Yes, yes! As for frozen bananas…use them in smoothies, bread, and muffins. 😉
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That will likely be the banana solution!
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I said to the s/o “Look, look, Allan has a neat trick to save bananas for our morning cereal!” And we promptly copied it.
Looks like we will be using them for banana bread instead. 😁
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Haven’t tried a slow thaw in the refrigerator yet. Could be smoothies but that uses other valuable ingredients. Wish we’d gotten some fruit juice. Banana bread will work.
Freezing milk worked great, though.
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As you say, there is no rush. Enjoy some leisurely work and make it fill your day. I am an expert in stretching things out.
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I look to you for how to fill the days, Mr T. 🙂
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It seems that many of us who had been neglecting our own gardens are catching up on a bit lately. I could take quite a bit more time off work, and would not mind it if my work was not getting behind.
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We are now not allowed to work till May 4th. Maybe. Although I may rightly claim that some gardens are experiencing spoliation, which means I could do a bit of a tidy.
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We are not allowed to work until the 9th, and may not go back to work until later, but have been able to mow the lawns just to keep them from going bad. They are large athletic fields, so would not be so easy to restore if they get too far gone.
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Lawn mowing seems to be the one thing allowed for sure.
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So, is that something that other gardeners are doing too? I do not really know what is allowed.
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Hereabouts, it seems that people are still doing mowing jobs. Hearsay, as I have not been out! The idea is that a lawn can’t be brought back nicely from weeks without mowing, that short lawns are important for fire and rodent control by the dunes. Etc.
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That was our thinking. Most features can be salvaged from ne3glect, but it would take so much work to restore such big lawns. They are several acres. I would not mind letting a small lawn go bad. I dislike them anyway.
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It’s kind of a guilty treat having all this time to weed.
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Some of the brambles I am pulling make me want to go back to work.
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😀
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Bananas dry well, I believe.
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I had found some delicious dried bananas without sugar at Costco. Then they stopped carrying them. I have been regretting that I gave away my dehydrator. Can’t even remember to whom.
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