Posted on 04/18/2008 8:31:09 AM PDT by Gabz
Taking an early morning walk this time of year is a singular treat, like Dorothy stepping out of Auntie Em’s house into the color and sound of Oz. The same things that are always there, only instead of Winter‘s drabness, Spring’s full and glorious color. Each walk is accompanied by a symphony of birdsong, a riot of color bursting everywhere. Fallen jasmine blossoms scatter themselves on the ground like the famed yellow brick road, and blooming things pop up everywhere like the fabled Munchkins.
And then, as if the colors and sounds aren’t enough, just to add a little spice, spider webs and silk threads abound. A nice, soothing walk interrupted by a moment of terror as an invisible spider web smacks you across the face. Frenzied panic as you claw at the strands, trying to get them off, as if each strand is composed of skin eating acid. Your heart is pumping, your adrenaline is flowing, because some spider, somewhere, manufactured those invisible strands. It’s not the spider webs themselves we object to—it’s every human’s fear of the monster in the closet. If there’s a spider web, then it stands to reason that somewhere close by, possibly on the very strand stuck to your face, is the spider that spun it.
To top it all off is the humiliating thought that a fellow human is watching you do the spider dance, snickering while they sympathize, glad it‘s not them. Your dogs are laughing themselves silly, watching their human leap and scratch at an invisible assailant. Heads cocked to one side, they seem to be asking the canine equivalent of—“Do you have fleas? You need a bath?” Isn’t it wonderfully amazing how our clothes reflect the changing seasons? My youngest son, even at four years old, was a very opinionated clothes horse. He told me in no uncertain terms what he wanted his Easter outfit to be. Since I was going to be the one making the outfit, we had a little more leniency in choices. He wanted Peter Rabbit grass green pants, and a matching vest and tie, so off to Wal-Mart we went. He was very specific about what he wanted on his vest and tie. If I remember correctly, we found the perfect print, a V.I.P. print by Cranston Print Works. Either someone at Cranston had been listening to a child describe Easter, and April, or they were very much in touch with their inner child.
My son informed me that the fabric for his vest and tie had to have green grass, daffodils, Easter eggs, bunnies, chickies, robins, and other assorted critters and Spring flowers. That’s about the most inclusive summation of Spring I can think of. The colors were matchless, too. Peter Rabbit grass green, sunshine yellow, browns and pinks and blues and whites—all the colors that best describe Spring, printed on a single piece of exactly right fabric. We couldn’t have custom designed a more fitting tribute. Needless to say, my son’s fourth Easter was a great success. Hope your Spring is as happy and colorful and perfect as that one was!
April isn’t just colors—it’s sounds. The earliest spring peepers croaking from every ditch—if frogs are a measure of health, then our area should be winning awards! Some nights you can barely hear yourself think for their welcome racket. Whippoorwills—their distinctive cries are never so loud as right now. The Great Horned owls are sending out their mournful hoo-hoo’s, serenading us late into the night. The sounds of tillers and tractors, and the first strains of lawn mowers add their hum and buzz during the day like a well orchestrated symphony.
Time to get ready for some serious gardening! A few start earlier, and some wait. If your ground is ready and the temperature is right—go for it! The very worst that will happen is another cold snap and you’ll have to start over. If not, then you’ve got an excellent head start!
Many good reports came back on the Crista tomatoes, the ones resistant to Tomato Spotted Wilt. Keep in mind, this is not the wilt that lives in the soil and causes a perfectly healthy plant to look as if it’s had boiling water poured on it just as it starts to bear. TSW is the one that stunts the plant, or kills it outright. There is another variety that some people had success with last year, one called Amelia.
Good reports back also on the straw bale gardening! Many people tried it and seemed very pleased. Less weeding, less disease and insects. Keeping the straw bales watered seemed to be the biggest challenge! Whether you’re doing plants for squash and cukes or starting your own from seed, remember to keep the stems dusted with some kind of pesticide. It will help keep the squash vine borers from getting a toehold.
A few other reminders for this month: Don’t forget to fertilize your lawn and shrubs, but do remember to wait until the end of April or first of May. Done too early, fertilizer can cause the grass to be too tender and green. If we get another cold snap, the tender shoots will be harmed worse. If you’re going to put out warm season grass seed, end of April is a good time to do it. Bermuda and Centipede won’t germinate until the soil temperature is around seventy.
Azaleas don’t need to be fertilized until after they’re done blooming, but other shrubs will benefit from some liquid fertilizer— both regular and acid kind, mixed with some Epsom salts, equal parts of each. Then when you do your lawn, they’ll be ready for the granular fertilizer. The liquid fertilizers and the Epsom salts give them a little bit of a jump start and help to correct the soil ph, especially if the shrubs are close to the foundation of your house.
Get out there and go have some gardening fun!
Straw bale gardening is fairly easy. Make sure you use wheat straw and not pine straw! Also make sure the bales are where you want them! Wet bales are impossible to move! The formula written up in a local magazine that seems to work really well is this—For the first 3 days, jsut soak the bales with water. Days 4-6 add 1/2 cup ammonium nitrate per bale and water in thoroughly. Nitrate of soda is usually availabe in 4 lb bags. You probably won’t be able to find 50# bags of amm. nitrate anymore. It’s what they use to make bombs, so it’s gotten really regulated. The soda helps the bales break down. Calcium nitrate works well too, and the added calcium is great for tomatoes. We only have it in 50’s, but check around. Days 7 and 8, cut the soda back to 1/4 cup per bale. 9 and 10, just water. Day 11 you should be able to plant. Work your hand or a small gardening implement into the straw to make a crack. You can add a handful of good potting soil—not soil from your garden. Plant your plants, and enjoy! We’ve found that you need some 10-10-10 or something, just a light app about 8-10” away from your plants. You can always use miracle gro, and mix a tablespoon of Epsom salt in with it. If you go that route, make sure you do it about once a week.
The straw bales eliminate soil borne diseases. the worst thing is that the wheat grows! You can keep it trimmed with a pair of scissors or grass shears. Usually one tomato per bale, but you can do 2 or 3 peppers. Viny stuff does good but it has to be trellised or it will take over your yard!
The scrunched up paper was the Gam—another small local paper. A gam is a meeting at sea of 2 ships that heave to and exchange news and gossip! I can’t do sudoku—not just mathmatically challenged—completely and totally inept! I can do data entry and basic stuff, but math is not my forte!
Diatomaceous earth is also good for controlling ants. Spread it around the base of your house. It cuts them up the same way.
A friend also used it in her bluebird house to control blowflies and had a much better survival rate for the baby birds. She sprinkled it around in the nest.
Oh. Well, I have good soil for the first time in my life. Grew up with clay at my folks, moved and had it better, but not like this.
Rocks aside (glacial moraine) this is like gardening show soil. Thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I can dig in it even when it’s dry inches down (drains almost too well). And I could about build a stone wall around my property.
Ever used a compost pile?
Compost piles around here become giant fireant mounds! LOL
Thanks for the little tid bit of info on the name of the paper. When I was doing oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico we would tie up our 120ft boats for a few hours at night to transfer equipment and supplies. When the weather permitted we always headed to the other boat's galley to see what the cook had left of the evening meal. Sit and drink coffee.
Never knew what we were doing had a name.
Some of my favorite memories of my childhood are those of my aunts and uncles and cousins and grands all sitting around after a meal, all talking, all of them with a cigarette and a cup of coffee.
People just don’t have time to sit and visit anymore. Sigh
People just don’t have time to sit and visit anymore. Sigh
No, instead we sit inside looking at a screen and type to people we will never meet.
I was thinking the same thing after I posted that! So true!
Yep. But I would never have received the beautiful fig tree I did today!
I’m so pleased you like it! And that it made it! This is kind of like sittng around and talking! A quiet child can sit in a corner and learn alot! I was definitely a quiet child, always had my nose in a book. most adults don’t think a child can read and listen at the same time. :)
OOps! over looked this one!
**problems with insects with several squash **
Try dusting the stems with rotenone if you can find it. some of the pyrethrin or permethrin sprays work as well. Squash vine borers are worse around a full moon. The eggs are laid by a stupid little moth. If you can get the squash up and teh stems thick and tough before the next full moon, they’ll have a better chance. I think the full moon this month is the 20th.
Well that is very nice.
I still miss visiting. I was explaining to my children that in the seventies when I lived upcountry, women and children used to visit for the day. One day cleaning, cooking or canning at one house, one day at your house. The children played together, the women got work done and had a good time and supper was cooked and all the men came to the house of the hosting woman. everyone ate and then went home.
A nice way to live with many hands helping.
My dad is the 8th of 10 kids. We did a lot of visiting, and I have/had aunts and uncles and cousins coming out my ears! I miss that so much! My kids have 3 cousins. I’ve got something like 50. LOL
btw... my Mean Old First Wife came home at 2:00 and ordered me out in the garden to finish the Dahlias. Tough to do in gale force winds but...
Our computer is in the den, in a corner, and my wife is sitting on the couch doing some beading. We are watching the news while the chicken I am cooking simmers in the pan. We are having what I call Maryland fried chicken, rice & pan gravey, string beans and an egg cusard for desert. Aladden and Chashmere have eaten and are waiting to see what they get after we eat ... they always get a taste.
How true, How true...
Oat straw would probably work, too.
You must have a beautiful yard! I love dahlias. Seems like they get spider mites here too much, and voles/ squirrels really like the bulbs.
Good luck with the wind! It blew a gale here last week. Must have been coming straight off an iceberg!
Thanks, I’ll be on the lookout for rotenone.
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