Monthly Archives: April 2007

garden sashay

04 . 30 . 07
Peas are nearly 100% germinated! I planted three additional pea seeds this weekend.Beets are around 50% germinated and what a disappointment. The seeds had clumped together so I moved them apart knowing that they don’t do well at all with root disturbance but they are totally fine!Lettuces, Arugula and Radish are thriving.Tomato seedlings coming up strong. STRANGE GARDEN HAPPENINGS:- I have a random onion growing in my lettuce. I didn’t even plant onions.- Several of my tulips have been severed just below the bloom. Not a clean cut and the pathetic, once-beautiful bloom lies languishing on the hot soil. At first I though it was some little punk kid but it is so random and happened in my fenced-in backyard too.- I had finally given up on growing astilbe as it was the most unproductive, sickly looking plant in my plot and I was unable to make them happy. So I pulled a dead plant last fall and angrily threw the dead root ball into the corner of my yard. I was cleaning up that corner yesterday and picked up the root ball to break it up into my compost and the freakin’ astilbe was growing prolifically! Roots exposed to the sky all winter! So I put him back in the ground and now I know what to do next year. It was a beautiful weekend in Missoula. Pushing eighty degrees, blue sky, animals frolicking in the back yard. I started to build a lean-to for garden equipment storage. I hope to finish it by tomorrow and will post pics. Read more on garden sashay…
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changes

04 . 26 . 07
I am not going to art school this fall and I am giving myself permission to mourn that loss. I know I have a lot of great things going, but it doesn’t make it any less difficult to change directions. As my friend Jennifer would say, I have a hitch in my giddyup. My man and I are pregnant and I am excited, sure, but I didn’t pick this. And sometimes when things pick you, it takes a while to absorb. And I fully absorbed it yesterday when I saw the ultrasound and a tiny flashing light that I am told was the heartbeat. It wasn’t an epic moment for me or it was…but not how it I am told is was going to be. It was really neat but not life changing. I felt simultaneous excitement, anxiety, love and loss. So I am committed to not feeling how I am supposed to feel and just letting myself feel how I feel. And I feel a little sad that I can’t move to Chicago. That I won’t ever move there like I was planning: alone, wide-eyed, afraid and pulsing. Now I will move to Chicago after my husband is done with school and with a kid, a dog, two cats and a house full of stuff. It will be beautiful and perfect. Everything is different now. And so here I am in this role of future mama and dealing with all that the universe is dealing me including tons of judgement surrounding my seeming choice to use my uterus instead of my brain. To all you gardeners, runners, artists, moms, professionals: I declare that I choose both. Read more on changes…
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more seeds

04 . 22 . 07
I bought the rest (probably but you never know**) of my seeds for the edible garden: Seeds of Change Nardello Heirloom Sweet Pepper* High Mowing Seeds Scarlet Nantes Carrots High Mowing Seeds California Wonder Sweet Bell Pepper* Botanical Interests Genovese Italian Basil Botanical Interests Purple Petra Basil Seeds of Change Nantes Coreless Carrot *planted indoors today** I think I will have to buy:Tangerine Pimento Sweet Pepper Yellow Pear Cherry Tomato Cosmonaut Volkov Tomato Read more on more seeds…
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dandelions

04 . 21 . 07
I love the way dandelions look in the spring. They are so cute and compact and joyful in a sidewalk crack or the middle of boring lawn. They are pretty admirable too–they can survive in damn near every hardiness zone (kind of like cows), grow in any kind of soil and with any level of moisture, bloom prolifically even when you chop and chop, the seed heads are silvery and whimsical and the stem a beautiful beet red. And talk about survival of the fittest–why I’d wager to say that one dandelion gone to seed creates a dozen others. Dandelions are used for detox, pagan rituals, and immune support of the liver, digestion, joints, skin conditions, and even cancer. Sure I am frustrated when they creep into my edible garden or take over the underground niches so my intentionally planted plants struggle against claustrophobia, but I say we embrace the dandelion (within reason.) Just check out the above photo…this guy was just hanging out in my boulevard. Learn to love the bright yellow as the very first spring bloom and then pull it up by the roots mercilessly before it goes to seed. Because, while adorable, they are invasive. As are many things in my life. Read more on dandelions…
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rainy day, new basement

04 . 19 . 07
It is finally raining today in Missoula. We haven’t had much precipitation and as much as I have adored the sunny, too-hot-too-early weather, it just isn’t right. I hope it dumps for at least a month. The basement remodel is almost finished! My crafty husband did a smashing job. I don’t have the way before pics I wish I had but picture this: grody, crumbling, concrete floor covered in asbestos linoleum, too-low ceilings with spider nests abundant, cheapo, fake wood paneled walls, dark, dark, dark everywhere. We were really committed to minimizing our impact of throwing away and buying new (although that was very necessary in several cases.) We bought doors and jams from our local home resource center, painted our exposed pipe to look like copper (it was raunchy old blackish pipe), cleaned the puhjesus out of the concrete floor and painted it, left beams exposed and bought old wood to frame around doors. Read more on rainy day, new basement…
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