Recent Happenings

Hey all! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. I've been trying to whip the house (and garden) back into shape after being sick. Also my nights have been taken up with other things, so the blog suffered. But I'm back.
I finished planting all of the strawberries and mulched them with pine needles. We are now getting a pretty steady crop of lettuce and other greens. Yesterday I broke down a huge stack of cardboard boxes that we had in the garage. I used the cardboard to cover a plot on the right side of the yard. It's very weedy and I'm hoping the cardboard will smother out at least some of the weeds before I have to spread some manure there in March. I planted last year's green bean trellis with some Green Arrow Peas from Seed Saver's. I'm using them as a test to see if Fusarium was really what plagued the beans. If the peas succumb to a similar fate then the answer will be yes, it was fusarium. Unless this strain of pea is fusarium resistant, in which case I'm screwed, but we will have peas. So it works either way. That's pretty lazy gardening right there.
Yesterday I also propagated (or attempted to propagate) seven new lavender plants. I only have one in the yard right now. I took a woody cutting from the existing plant and pulled off seven side shoots. I dipped the shoots in rooting hormone and planted them in little terra cotta pots full of planting mix. They should root in the next four weeks. You're supposed to propagate lavender in the summer, but whatever. I'm hoping that the climate is mild enough to allow for this winter propagation. I'm keeping them on the kitchen windowsill. I would love to have millions of lavender plants. If these take they are destined for the front walkway. It's in pretty sorry shape, some big lavender bushes would go a long way towards sprucing up the place.

Last saturday I bought echinacea seeds at henry's while grocery shopping. That recent bout with the common cold spurred me to consider more herbalist remedies. I'll probably end up planting them along the front pathway as well. Hopefully the next illness will find us prepared with echinacea leaf tea.

The seedlings I started a little while back are doing amazingly well. Almost everything has popped up. Meaning we will have quite a few tomato plants this year, and sunberry bushes and basil.
On Saturday Greg started digging holes for the bramble trellis poles. It is not going well. Greg really hurt his back. We're pretty sure we've hit solid (read: not decomposed) granite. And the holes are only half as deep as they need to be. I don't know what we are going to do.
On a happier note I found clothes pins at Payton's Hardware here in Lakeside. Pretty cheap, I think it was three bucks for a bag of fifty. I fashioned a clothespin holder out of an empty milk gallon by cutting a hole in the side directly under the handle, then severing the handle at the base. The handle slips right onto the line and the pins go in (and out) of the hole. Brilliant!