Minerva and Friends

[BackyardFarm]

Oh and with her first litter (that we knew of) it was January and she just showed up (was dropped off), we brought her inside because it was so cold. She lived in the basement until she had them, her choice as she was fairly tame but not a fan of the noise of humans (we always left the door open), one day after they started to walk and were going EVERYWHERE....She carried the four upstairs leaving the loudest til last, dropped them all off right outside the kitchen door. Looked my mother right in the eye as she dropped the last one and stalked off downstairs for some peace and quiet presumably.

My mom couldn't stop laughing for 20 minutes. I didn't get WHY it was funny until I was an adult and babysat for several large families.

[SamiKihano]

I brought in a little black cat this summer. His momma got hit on the road and the dog got his two brothers.
We call him creepy

[BackyardFarm]

Originally Posted by SamiKihano

We grew a grip of the heavenly blue morning glory in some terra cota pots by the driveway under some weeping birch. I wish I had pictures, it grew over 15 feet and started to wrap it's way into the tree. It looked like the tree was covered in blue flowers by fall

This is what I'm hoping will happen when I plant on the porch railing and over the arch!

Except I have some purple and white ones now too

[BackyardFarm]

Originally Posted by SamiKihano

I brought in a little black cat this summer. His momma got hit on the road and the dog got his two brothers.
We call him creepy

I rescued Jynx from a dog. The dog is from across the alley. Nice dog (to humans anyways), just severely underfed, not given proper shelter/fencing for an in-town animal, and she breaks her collar all the time. (I call in reports about once a month on these people and the way they treat their animals, yes I'm THAT sort of neighbor. But with four families with children less than 5 yrs old on the block, I'm gonna keep calling about escaped dogs. Not to mention fourth of july weekend with the dog whimpering in the hot sun without any water or shade...) ...but fortunately we were both faster than the dog.

He was about 4-5 months old we think. I fished him down out of the tree the dog had chased him up. When I got him down Jynx clung to me, purred, and nuzzled so desperately I had to keep him

Turns out he actually probably belonged to the alley neighbors too. They didn't ask me (or any other neighbors on the block) about him for THREE WEEKS after the dog escaping incident. Clearly they were quite worried about his safety. (As you can see I did not give him back. )

[BackyardFarm]

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today is the day I usually start some peas outside but it's been so rainy the last three days the garden is soaked and the peas would just rot. So instead I'm going to start some inside, move them to my mini cheap Aldi greenhouse to grow, (which barely survived the wind that came with the rain. I put bricks on the bottom now though) and hopefully will plant them out in a couple weeks.

[BackyardFarm]

Alright got my peas started. Moved my peppers and remaining eggplants on top of tv trays to sprout over my baseboard heater. It's 66-70 in the seedling room but they just haven't popped up yet so here's hoping this works.

I'm starting my main crop of tomatoes next week. Between May 5th and 13th is my target plant out now (with protection and prewarmed soil). I'm hoping a month early will be enough to get some decent Brandywines (and other late varieties). It's supposed to be a warmer spring here in the Midwest, here's hoping that it truly will be. My dwarfs I'll start 1-2 weeks later for a mid-May plant out in pots. The ones for family and friends will be 1-2 weeks after that.

(Now to finalize the bloody lists! Literally my notebook is now bloody because of a cat scratch I didn't even notice. My white shirt too. Whoops!)

I'm re-reading Carolyn's and Craig's books tonight because it's still too rainy to do any garden work, and wouldn't you know...more varieties looking tasty. Summer just needs to get here so I can eat a darn tomato already!

[AlittleSalt]

Those are the two tomato books I have.

Morris/Garfield or whatever his name is going to be has just figured out there is food in the old tuna can I feed them in. He had been trying to eat the can.
Now he's all, "Have you been holding out on this solid food thing?"

[SamiKihano]

Originally Posted by BackyardFarm

I rescued Jynx from a dog. The dog is from across the alley. Nice dog (to humans anyways), just severely underfed, not given proper shelter/fencing for an in-town animal, and she breaks her collar all the time. (I call in reports about once a month on these people and the way they treat their animals, yes I'm THAT sort of neighbor. But with four families with children less than 5 yrs old on the block, I'm gonna keep calling about escaped dogs. Not to mention fourth of july weekend with the dog whimpering in the hot sun without any water or shade...) ...but fortunately we were both faster than the dog.

He was about 4-5 months old we think. I fished him down out of the tree the dog had chased him up. When I got him down Jynx clung to me, purred, and nuzzled so desperately I had to keep him

Turns out he actually probably belonged to the alley neighbors too. They didn't ask me (or any other neighbors on the block) about him for THREE WEEKS after the dog escaping incident. Clearly they were quite worried about his safety. (As you can see I did not give him back. )

Funny how even feral kittens will love you forever if you bring them inside and give them a can of food. I'm glad to hear someone's at least paying attention to your little critter, even if it's first owners where losers.

I'll have to upload a picture of badger and creeper. I don't know if it's because he starved for a week or so until we found him, or genetics but he certainly seems like some sort of dwarf. Beside my other cat you can really tell.

[BackyardFarm]

Pictures soon! Quick update for now...

My boss offered as many free wood shavings and sawdust as I want, voila, free mulch for the flower beds! I'm going to use a 1-2 inch layer on top of newspaper as mulch around the plants I already have to kill the weeds everywhere. I've already taken one carload home and there is lots left to get!

AND I'm going to use a 3-4 inch layer as pathways in my garden instead of leaving the grass and doing mulch next year. AND half of the raised beds are officially done (well, minus stakes or trellising) and ready for tomatoes in May!

It's supposed to snow tomorrow and the next day so I don't know how much more outside work will get done this week. Fingers crossed it melts quickly.

[BackyardFarm]

Yesterday I planted four kinds of peas into window boxes and placed them into my shelf greenhouse. Alaska, Green Arrow, Sugar Snap, and Oregon Snow. Next planting will be around April 15th. I put bottles of water on the bottom shelf of the greenhouse and added strings to the bottom to tie to the stakes (that already have strings attached to the top). The wind has yet to shift it now! Yay!
Now I just need to find what I did with my package of Golden Sweet Snow Peas and Carouby de Maussane Snow peas. They are around...somewhere...

Today I planted the last of my onion seeds. (I know I should have really been planting these at least a month ago but I only just got them this week.)
Red Amposta onion, Ringmaster onion, Zebrune Shallot, Belgian Breeder's Winter Mix Leeks, and American Flag Leeks. Next year I want to try more shallots, I just need to find red and grey shallot sets in the fall.

I'm debating whether I should try planting some spring garlic this year. Mostly I want scapes for pesto...

[BackyardFarm]

Worked all weekend. Followed by more working outside. Too busy to take pictures. I will take some tomorrow if the weather is nice!

Direct seeded Russell lupines, alyssum, and moonflowers/morning glories. With the moonflowers/morning glories I'm trying winter sowing, direct seeding, and planting inside to see what works out best for me.

Transplanted some creeping sedum that are hardy to zone 2. They were in some spots I'm changing this year so I divided them and popped them into the new spaces. It was pretty chilly still but they've done fine for two years of being stepped on and accidentally dug up so fingers crossed they continue to do well.

I had purchased some Pardon Me daylilies from the dollar store. They started to sprout so I popped them into the ground with a couple handfuls of straw as mulch to keep them warm.

A friend gave me some red gladiolus bulbs! I popped those in the ground today too. While shopping for cat food I spotted some "Valentine" glad bulbs. It's a mix of reds and pinks. I might have to go back and get them to put in my other flower bed...

I started 2 kinds of broccoli (waltham, romanesco), 3 kinds of kale (red siberian, lacinato, russo-siberian mix from wildgardenseeds), 2 kinds of lettuce (valentine mesclun blend from botanical interests, freedom mix from wildgardenseeds), toy choy bok choy, bloomsdale spinach, and bright lights swiss chard. I would have started even more cold season plants but I ran out of seed trays! My target plant out date for these is the last two weeks in April.

Whew. More tomorrow!