Spring Cleaning in the garden

[Opsa]

It is the last day of January 2012, but I think I need to get outside today and tomorrow and start to prep the yard for spring. We have a couple of mild days in a row and it'll give me a good excuse to get the lead out and do some work.

We've had a mild January, and the daffodil fronds are up all ready. I'm afraid that if I wait too long they'll be in danger of opening bud, which will make them too fragile to work around.

This is a good time to prune branches, around here (mid east U.S.). The plants are dormant and won't mind the cuts so much, and the insects are not swarming and are less likely to take advantage of open spots in the bark.

I can clearly see some branches that are crossed and rubbing against one another. I'll chose the branch that's less attractive to the general shape of the tree and cut it above the collar, where it joins the trunk.

I have some roses that need pruning too. In general, you can prune regular rose canes way down to about a foot or so off the ground, choosing a site just above an outward-facing branch bud. That should encourage the branches to grow outward rather than inward and across one another.

I have some major wild berry canes to deal with, too. They are so deeply rooted in my bulb beds that all I've been able to do for the past few years is just cut them to the ground. This does not discourage them, however. It just makes them have to start again from the bottom. One of these days maybe I'll get my courage up and completely dig up those beds and get the roots out. Will I be fed up enough to find the energy this year?

[stellinacadente]

Hey Opsa,

what are planning to plant tomorrow for Imbolic??

[Opsa]

Looks like I was kind of doing Imbolc, doesn't it, even though I do not consider myself Wiccan, but more American Medicine Wheel oriented. Still, I do celebrate groundhog's day as a time to make way for spring, which is pretty much what Ibolc is all about.

I did get outside the past two days and cleared the old weed vines out of the hedges, and the canes from the bulb beds. The weather was wonderful, and the sunshine did me a world of good. There were lots of honeybees on the Mahonias, and I found crocus greens poking up from the earth.

I have some seeds I harvested from plants last fall which I plan on starting on the windowsill in about a month. I'm waiting for one of my favorite small farm seed catalogues to some in the mail.

What are you doing today?

[stellinacadente]

I have been not well for a week now... but I planted apple seeds from the apples we cut on Samhain, some lemon seeds and Italian chilly peppers seeds from the plants I have harvested from last fall.

[Opsa]

So sorry to hear you've not been well. I hope you're on the mend, now.

Are you starting these seeds on the windowsill? I love the idea of starting lemon trees!

Yesterday I visited a friend who has a great little farm garden on her property. She has chickens, a couple of turkeys, two goats, two cows, three sheep, a dog, a cat, and rabbits as well. All nice, friendly animals (though she thinks the turkeys have bed tempers!) but her garden was so nice, even in winter. She has maybe eight raised beds with herbs and winter veg right now, and all around it was a deer fence with a trellis gate covered with old morning glory vines. She was thinking of starting the morning glory seeds.

She seems like one of those people who could easily be Wiccan, even though she wears a cross. She has some Native American blood, and we've broached the subject of the Medicine Wheel, but I don't know her too well, yet, to talk that much about it.

Back to subject- she also has a beautiful little greenhouse, maybe 12 by 15 feet. I'm green with envy over her fabulous greenhouse! Oh, the lemon trees you could start in there!

[stellinacadente]

I start my Imbolic seeds in little trays and cover them with palstic wrap for green house effect.

Little note: I have come to a point were I consider the various religions just names classifications... they all lead into one another and to the same truths...

it's the interpretation of men that distorts that truth... IMHO

that is to say... I do not consider myself wiccan or new pagan or Celtic... just because all of those definitions put a limit as to what I can do if I want to stay in that "container"

I do what feels right for me...

the Wheel of the year feels right because it is attuned to the Earth cycles...
the naming of the wheel have long been lost in Italy (due to obvious influence and persecution), the Celtic tradition is what has the most accurate reports...

end of little note

[Opsa]

I thoroughly *RUMBLE* with the contents of that little note!
TADDINESS!!!   

I gotta get out and clear some old dried perennial tops from the beds, sometime soon.

[Aggie]

 

I have a garden that I get to start cleaning out in three weeks!

It's still very early here, there's a long time until planting season, although I would like to put hoop-houses over several of the beds to be able to plant early.  I may try solarizing the soil with a plastic cover as well, mostly to pre-heat the soil.

I wonder if mulching with (natural lump or wildcrafted) charcoal and mixing it into the first couple of inches of soil would help? I couldn't do it for a large area, but maybe in one bed for starting tender herbs and chili peppers.

[Opsa]

I am so happy for you, Aggie, now that you've got some real earth to tend again.

This guy seems to have some opinions about charcoal soil amendments.

If you're growing herbs, they might appreciate sand amendments even more, depending on how your soil drains all ready. You many have to observe it for a bit to see what it's like. Many herbs are from the Mediterranean area and prefer a soil that dries out between waterings. Chili peppers may be different, though.

[Aggie]

Ashes and charcoal are quite a different matter.  I would likely grind and use the same type of charcoal I'd use in my smoker, or perhaps go scrape up some from a forest fire or slash pile.  Charcoal's the black stuff, mostly carbon and virtually inert.  Ashes as discussed in the article are the white stuff that's leftover from a burn, and are mostly metal salts. He's right about ashes.

There's a lot of talk about soil amendments using biochar, which is closer to what I'm thinking; I did see one mention of simply putting a fine layer of soot on top of the soil, which raised the soil temperature (compared to untreated soils) by 4^o C as measured by thermometers 4 inches under the soil surface.  That's pretty good in terms of getting a jump on germination, I think.  I don't like the idea of soot and would use hardwood lump charcoal (not briquettes, which might have additives) instead of the soot, and just pound the stuff into powder by hand.  Basically, the idea is to colour the soil black to adsorb more heat from the sun. With a fine powder, I wouldn't need to turn it into the soil.  Charcoal's porous and gives the soil microbes a place to colonize and hang out, so it can boost the rate of decomposition of organic amendments to release nutrients faster.


Hmmm.... on a related note, I need to carve me a mochi usu:  

[stellinacadente]

I happy to announce that my Italian Chilly peppers seeds have germinated!!!!

Holding my breath for my lemon and apple seeds...

My orchid is starting a new flower branch (amazing!!!)

and for the first time in my life, my Xmas poinsetta is not only still alive, but new leaves have appeared all over it

I feel so blessed

[Opsa]

You are!

I found some little closed petals on a tiny yellow crocus in my yard today. Can spring be far behind?

I'm waiting on some of my fave seed catalogs to come, but haven't seen them yet. I love poring over the pages and descriptions and dreaming of seedlings!

[stellinacadente]

I am so so excited about my seeds this year!

I ordered some from a canadian seller.... they have Dittany plants!!! OMG!

I am thinking of building an indoor herb bed in the middle of my Manhattan living room...

what do you think???

[Aggie]

Some herbs do fine indoors, some do not get enough light.  If you've got south and/or east exposure, it's worth a try.

Holy basil (tulsi) worked well as a houseplant for me; I had a few other herbs but most of them didn't grow very well. Perennials don't like to live indoors over the winter, but might do fine for the spring and summer.

Then again, you might be able to experiment and focus on herbs that do like it indoors (I think bay can be grown as a houseplant).

Which dittany did you get? I'm not familiar with the plant, but there are a few things that go by that name.

[Opsa]

You could also use a buncha grow lights, but your neighbors might think you're growing sumpin illegal.

Never heard of dittany! I'm going to go look it up now.

I used to get a lot of catalogues at this time of year, but they've really dropped off with the bad economy and high postage rates. Foo.

[stellinacadente]

there is the Dittany I was telling you guys about

http://www.richters.com/Web_store/web_store.cgi?searchterm=dittany&search_catalogue_button=Go

Discordes reports that ancient Greeks regarded this herb as the most amazing in wound healing... it was said to be able to expel the arrows from the wounds and heal them...

[Aggie]

It's basically sacred oregano? Cooool...  If you made spaghetti with that and tulsi (holy basil), you'd have some seriously holy pasta.

_{side note: Who designed those fsm smilies in the first place? I seem to remember at least modifying some of them.}

[pieces o nine]

I don't know who designed the originals, but Tigger worked up additionals with face palms and such. 
And then . . . someone  _{(coff -- oi dussint loike ter say who -- coff)}  . . . "hacksidently" "lost" sevral ov 'em, tryin ter rearrange 'em, loike . . .

[Aggie]

They're apparently appearing on other forums, that's where I snagged that blaggard from.

[Opsa]

I love sacred plants!

The other day I sent for free catalogues from

High Mowing Organic Seeds Found them online and they looked pretty nice.

and

Redwood City Seed Company A very tiny company I have ordered from before.

[Aggie]

My housemate and I smudged the garden and yard today, using some forest-cured homegrown N. rustica, local wild-harvested sagebrush, and some garden sage from the new garden.

She's a similar level of  to me, so neither thinks that the other one is particularly weird. 

[Opsa]

 

Huzzah! I Twinkie you and raise you one Twinkie. May the plant people smile for you.