Growing Up High

Death's aftertaste

2010-11-11T18:28:00.003-07:00

Looking at my post of October 20th makes me cry. She was such a wonderful dog.
I was out in the yard raking today and continuing my garden clean-up, and sensed a movement out of the corner of my eye. It was Caddy! No, unfortunately, it wasn't. Just a bird flying overhead or the wind lifting a leaf into the air.
Her ashes were mailed to us about a week after her cremation at the Ark Valley Humane Society facility in Buena Vista. Thank god there is such a facility near us here in the hinterlands of the San Luis Valley.
Right now she is placed on a shelf in the kitchen since that was her favorite room in the house. I am still touched by cards that we received from Alpine Vet (Tyler Ratzlaff was the vet who euthanized her), Stephen Myers (a wonderful former co-worker who sent a beautiful card), two children (Sam Clark and Daniel Clark) from the next block who gave a gift of wonderful chocolate and hand-written notes acknowledging the loss of Caddy, and, lastly, the wonderful poem that accompanied Caddy's ashes from the staff at the Ark Valley Humane Society.

Doggie heaven for Caddy the dog

2010-10-20T22:34:00.003-06:00

Caddy was euthanized today after a great life that we got to share with her. Born summer 1995 and adopted by us December 5 of the same year, she went to Green Bay Packerland in the sky at 8:30 am today, October 20, 2010.

Never will there be a better dog.
RIP.

No freeze yet - astounding!

2010-10-04T05:52:00.004-06:00

I'm still harvesting tomatoes and zucchini. We have not even come that close to 32 degrees except one morning when I had plants covered. I depart today for two weeks and I CANNOT imagine that we won't freeze during that time. I canned four pints of my tomatoes a few days ago - that may be nearly a first for my time here in CO (hard to get enough tomatoes to can!).

Did a great hike yesterday up on Cumbres Pass and saw what's likely the peak of colors (photo is not great but I only took a couple).

Have planted about 15 perennials (shrubs & flowers) the past few days; that would normally not be happening but the soil is still pretty warm so I think the plants will do OK. Planted fleabane, nanking cherry, three leaf sumac, Mexican hat coneflower, pineleaf penstemon, lamb's ear, hymenoxys, Rocky Mountain orange daisy, basket 'o' gold, potentilla, blue mist spirea, prince's plume, fernbush, desert 4:00. Probably more that I forgot. Hope they all survive the winter (if we have one!).

Harvest nearly over as is Caddy's long life

2010-09-21T22:19:00.003-06:00

Though we haven't had more than a very light frost, harvest of vegetables seems to be nearing the end. I picked the last green beans two nights ago, the last of the Daikon radishes, some swiss chard, tomatoes, and garlic. I still have lots of winter squashes to pick up, but will wait until after we get a REAL frost, which is not yet in the forecast.
As soon as I get some time, I'm going to plant some late season (lettuce, greens, maybe beets & carrots) crops and then cover them with a small hoop house (metal stays and Agribon row cover material). I want to see how late I can feasibly grow food.
Days have been beautiful, clear, sunny & dry, in the 80's. Sandhills were first heard back in the valley two weeks ago today. A few V's of geese have been spotted too.
Caddy the 16-year-old dog is aging rapidly; her mobility is nearly gone, and we frequently have to pick her up after she falls over during her stumbling sojourns around the yard and house. Smooth carpet-less floors are her nemesis, as is the smallest obstacle. We've talked about euthanasia many times over the past few weeks, but the time does not yet seem to be right or necessary.

Eight raspberries harvested !!!

2010-08-17T22:06:00.006-06:00

Finally I have some raspberries, though only eight! There are a few more that need more days in the sun. Still not sure that raspberries are worth the water; I'll likely never get enough from my own plants to actually make JAM! A few other raspberry canes are in the vegetable garden but are semi-smothered by all the squash vines.
Today I harvested roughly a two-gallon bucket of green and gold beans, then made about 15 pints of "dilly beans" (pickled beans with dill, garlic cloves,& chile flakes for some zing!). Also made a "chocolate zucchini cake" and two more loaves of zucchini bread, which went to the freezer. Then shredded a bunch of zucchini and stuck that in the freezer too.

The squash is starting to overwhelm

2010-08-08T20:58:00.006-06:00

In the past week I've harvested four eight-ball zucchini and a couple costata romanesca. Two of the eight-ball sort of got away from me visually so they're way bigger than eight-balls! The tendrils from all of the winter squash I planted are going nuts and making me reluctant to venture too far into the garden. It's difficult to get to the other end because of all the squash obstacles.

The current crop of spinach is finished, as are the peas. The pole beans are just starting to be pick-able, and I finally found some teeny tomatillos!!! Maybe I'll get some after all this summer. I have lots of tomatoes on the vines, both cherry & others, but all are still green. I used some of my dill, basil, and chives to flavor some homemade salad dressing, and I can still smell the dill on my fingers - love that smell!

The cabbage worms have arrived via their mother the cabbage moth, and are, as usual, voraciously chewing their way through my cabbage plants. They were late this year so may not do as much damage as usual. I've killed about 40 or 50 so far, and have also harvested one head of cabbage that didn't look too heavily chewed on.

I'm going to try some season-extending techniques this fall with row covers and hoops, so I can get some greens (spinach & lettuces) a little later. It'll be an interesting experiment that I hope works. I don't know if I'm quite as ambitious as Eliot Coleman (http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/) to try to grow throughout the winter, but at least will try a few months in the fall & spring. It'd be great if it succeeded as it would mean home-grown salads in November!

Once again this spring I planted some morning glory seeds, and in the image is the resulting lovely flower. They don't like the heat we've gotten this summer, a little more than usual it seems, but appear to getting accustomed to it and are blooming now. Some of the m.glory seeds from two summers ago have germinated also (volunteers), so I have morning glories popping out in lots of places.

Harvesting continues....

2010-07-26T06:42:00.003-06:00

This year has been extremely productive for certain vegetables - spinach, lettuce, squash (eight-ball zucchini & costata romanesca), radishes, swiss chard, onions, peas, and probably more that I'm not remembering. It's great having a salad with more than half of the ingredients "locally" picked! I have some small raspberries that I hope will ripen before the first frost. And lots of tomatoes too, plus tomatillos, which I haven't grown before. There are dozens of little blossoms on the tomatillos, but I see any little tomatillos yet. Since I haven't ever seen one growing, I may be missing it due to lack of familiarity....

My cabbage plants aren't being chewed to pieces yet by cabbage worms, and for a while I was noticing that the cabbage butterflies were nowhere to be found. But they have now found the garden, and I expect to start seeing little dastardly caterpillars any day.

I planted about 8-10 squash plants this year which may have been a mistake because now I have squash tendrils winding everywhere in the garden and blocking the sun from other vegetable plants.

My perennials are doing pretty good, depending on which garden they're in. The front garden is still low in nitrogen and is sort of weeny-looking, but everything else looks good.

Caddy, the 16-year-old dog, slows down by the day. Since her mobility has declined we seldom walk beyond the Veteran's Center, which means I haven't been around Home Lake for a few months. Wildlife observations are in decline as a result. When I was at the Rio Grande SWA last week though, I did see a couple hawks and a cow elk - the latter I have NEVER seen at the SWA. It was great to take my first run after the SWA re-opening on July 15; it always feels like I'm seeing the area for the first time.

Yah, more rain!

2010-07-07T19:22:00.009-06:00

Lengthy absence caused by vacations & spending too much time on computer at work!
My vegetable garden experienced a sudden growth spurt this past weekend, over the 4th of July. Returning from a three-day absence, it was surprising to see how so much growth had occurred over such a short time. Squash tendrils are beginning to snake through the garden, peas are nearly ready to pick, and more & more spinach is ready to harvest. Radishes will soon be ready, as will the greens I planted not long ago. The cabbage worms haven't found my cabbage yet this year which I'm marveling at - by this time they've always been chewing away for some time. Weeds aren't out of the ordinary so far even though we've had a bit of rain.
My raspberry plants in the north part of the backyard are steadily growing taller and will need to be trellised soon.
The milkweeds in the "shrub garden" are expanding their range and may need to be reined in a bit - maybe next year.
Tomatillos are my experiment this year, never having grown them before. The two plants that survived the seedling stage are doing better than my tomato plants.
Our nighttime temperatures this summer so far have seldom gotten out of the 40's, not great for peppers and tomatoes.
Another experiment I'm trying this year is to start batches of spinach & radishes & lettuce later in the growing season to see if I can get a harvest in late autumn, using a small hoop structure to protect them against the cold/frost. It'll be fun to see how that goes!

SLOW-arriving spring

2010-05-28T08:08:00.003-06:00

Everything is about two weeks or more behind previous years' progress - lilacs blooming, peas growing, aspen leafing out, everything! Irrigation system is set up and working on shrub, flower, and vegetable gardens. We had a hard frost (about 26 degrees) last week one night, and I had accidentally left many little seedlings sit outside, so ended up losing several basil, tomatoes, and cabbage plants.]
We've had Dust Bowl-like blowing conditions in the San Luis Valley this spring - days where automobile accidents occurred on the stretch of highway between Monte Vista and Alamosa due to low visibility caused by airborne soil.

Three adolescent fox, not two

2010-05-09T13:00:00.003-06:00

I got to see the teenage fox pups this AM, yippee! Caddy and I went for a walk and, while strolling through the Vet's Center, what did we see but THREE of them! Two of them are in photo, one's a little hard to see. Mom was nowhere in sight - maybe she was taking a break this Mother's Day!
Such a treat.
I transplanted the last of my raspberry plants this morning into their new bed. Feels hot outside. Wind, as usual, is not letting up much.
The pollinators are buzzing around the blooming Golden Currant.

Cool spring continues

2010-05-08T08:32:00.005-06:00

Two fox pups, nearly adult, were seen by B. last night on his walk through the Veteran's Center. It's surprising that this is the first time one of us has seen them this spring; I attribute that to us not doing the customary dog walks due to Caddy's absence at "doggie day care" in Salt Lake City for an extended time.

Spring continues its slow progress. Nearly everything that's still alive after winter is showing signs of growth. Aspens are beginning to leaf out; lilacs have finished leafing out and are now preparing to flower. Pasqueflowers are nearly through blooming. Rabbitbrush is beginning to green up, and chokecherry shrubs are leafing out. Nanking cherry shrubs are beginning to bud out--they're nearly one of my favorite spring shrubs due to the small, white & pink blooms. Raspberry canes are popping out of the ground. Catmint (nepeta) is mounding up & enlarging.
I've started seeds for various tomatoes & peppers, cosmos, marigolds, cabbage, parsley, lavender, Fiesta del Sol sunflower, bergamot, hyssop, and borage.

We're still experiencing windy afternoons, some worse than others.

I haven't compared this spring's temperatures to the past several years, but this spring strikes me as cooler than past ones. We are ahead in precipitation.

Pasqueflower blooming

2010-04-26T21:31:00.008-06:00

My earliest-blooming plant is the Pasqueflower, which usually shows its beautiful purple flowers in mid-April, regardless of temperature or snowfall. The bloom has closed up in this image; another image of the same plant appears below. That one was taken 2nd week of May, last year.

The Golden Currant is about to bloom, and the allium bulbs are getting closer too.

I bought a few more xeric semi-native shrubs to fill out the xeric garden. What I've decided to do this year is take out of the xeric garden any plants that require more than a little water, and replace them with reliable ones like fernbush, apache plume, sage, rabbitbrush (various varieties), Ratibida columnifera, Prince's Plume, sticky geranium, and similar ones. I've given up on Mahonia repens (Oregon Grape) because I sometimes forget to keep it watered over the winter, and this past winter I think I lost all three of my Oregon Grape Plants. The plants I've removed from the xeric garden (fall-blooming asters, some yarrow) are being transplanted in other gardens, and given away.

EARLY spring garden events

2010-04-06T22:49:00.007-06:00

Am finding more and more developments out in the gardens: delphinium and catmint way up out of the ground, allium bulbs sticking about an inch out of the still-cool ground, and as mentioned earlier, the garlic is shooting up. Golden currant bush (Ribes aureum) is looking like it wants to start budding out, and probably will do so since it's usually one of the really early ones.

I began some seeds inside yesterday - several types of peppers, several types of tomatoes, parsley, lavender, and cosmos. I may be starting the latter too early, but couldn't resist. I love it when those seeds start popping their little green shoots up! They're all sitting on their warming mat while I hover over them, waiting, waiting, waiting.....

I ordered some more raspberry plants - everbearing this time, since I've concluded that summer-bearing raspberries just don't work here, at least for me. I'm going to be giving my summer-bearing plants away on our local Freecycle group. I'm finished wasting water on them!

We're due to have a well-below freezing night tonight, then a number of warmish, sunny days are on the menu, yippee!!!!!! It's getting to the seasonal point where my mind is constantly wandering to the garden, whether I'm at work, or lying awake in bed, or elsewhere.

Last evening I turned my first batch of compost in my Earth Machine composter. I must have started the current batch in autumn, because it really didn't look like it had heated up at all. Nothing frozen was uncovered, which was surprising. But this unit does get lots of sun, even this time of year, so I suppose that's why it was totally thawed out. I added two buckets of new compostables that I'd stored over winter, and a bunch of last year's leaves, and will need to remember to stick the thermometer in it. I'm not sure its composition is of the quality that will heat up well; usually I can sort of tell when I'm going to get a good batch or not, and this one didn't ring any bells for me. Will see later.

Ice on Home Lake is nearly gone. Sandhill cranes and Canada geese are still around, feeding in the fields. Wind has been horrendous; visibility yesterday afternoon was akin to what I imagine the 1930's Dust Bowl era to be like; brown and sand-blasted atmosphere, soil & dried Russian thistles flying everywhere.

First garlic shoot

2010-04-01T21:42:00.005-06:00

Returned to the San Luis Valley from a 2+week absence; nearly the only green thing I found coming up was one garlic shoot out in the vegetable garden (see photo). Okay, so there are a few irises also coming up. Not much more. Snow still around in shaded areas. I'm getting antsy to start outdoor stuff. Must calm down.
Sandhill cranes continue in abundance, along with Canada geese. A layer of old-looking ice still rests on the surface of Home Lake. Mountains are getting pounded with snow today & tonight. Should make for good skiing this weekend.

Monte Vista Crane Festival of 2010

2010-03-12T21:57:00.003-07:00

Participants in the MV Crane Festival will have a treat for weather this year - sunny & blue sky, with lots and lots of bird life. Driving back and forth between Monte Vista & Alamosa, I can understand why the San Luis Valley is called a "flyway" - with all of the flocks of cranes and Canada geese passing through, from a distance the clusters look like airplanes coming in to land.

The resident great blue heron was sitting in its usual place yesterday evening, in the water near the 3E bridge that spans the Empire Canal.

Home Lake still has a seemingly thick layer of ice with snow on the surface.

Melting snow, more on the way

2010-03-08T06:19:00.004-07:00

More cranes are making themselves heard, just in time for the Monte Vista Crane Festival this coming weekend! I went to the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge yesterday and was nearly deafened by Canada geese & sandhills. Mating displays among the latter were in full swing.

After being away from the San Luis Valley for a six-day stretch this past week, I returned to find more than 50% of the snow in the yard gone, and the ground saturated with all of the snowmelt. The soil seems to be slowly thawing. Rain overnight last night was a great sound through the open window. A current Winter Storm Warning in the eastern San Juans will mean more skiing & summer irrigation water.

Sandhill cranes are back!

2010-02-18T19:05:00.004-07:00

I heard my first crane of 2010 on February 16, and saw my first ones the following day. They've been cruising for leftover barley in the field west of our house. This is a definite sign of the coming spring. However, I do remember in the past that I've seen them standing out in a field with snow falling about them in fairly low temperatures, so I don't expect balmy temperatures to come any time soon.

Our snow depth is still at 6.5" in the yard, and one icicle extending downward from the roof is longer than I am tall.

I haven't checked to see if my garlic is popping up through the soil yet.

Quiet in the San Luis Valley

2010-02-08T21:00:00.003-07:00

A couple of weeks ago one would have thought spring was on its way. Not the case now; we're blanketed in snow more than 7" deep. Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) of snow in the yard is 1.37". Mountains are getting snow as I type this. Bald eagles have been making more of an appearance in the area. A belted kingfisher has been seen & heard over by the Empire Canal, and the male red-winged blackbirds are making their territorial sounds over in the cattail area in the Rio Grande SWA. Our firewood supply is quickly dwindling, and soon we may have to ration fires. So, yeah, maybe spring really is on its way!

Deer leg

2010-01-23T06:51:00.004-07:00

Went for a snowshoe around the Rio Grande & the state wildlife area; the dog found a tasty treat which she gnawed on the remainder of the night. Even missed her dinner for it.
We got 11" of snow overnight last Thursday; I skipped work to shovel, rake snow off the roof, split firewood, and go snowshoeing.

Owls, heron, deer

2010-01-21T20:42:00.004-07:00

Went for a walk over in the Rio Grande State Wildlife Area the other night. The great horned owls were hooting from nearly every direction - I probably heard four to six individuals. At one point, I was walking on entrance road to the wildlife area, and had a sudden urge to look up. A large great horned owl was sitting up in a tree about 20' off of the ground staring at me. My eyes felt riveted to hers/his. It was such a neat experience!
Then we saw the great blue heron that seems to like hanging out around the Empire Canal. Again, I wonder how it survives the winter.
And on the way home, strolling through the Veteran's Center, the deer were out on the lawn feeding and pooping (Caddy loves to eat the latter).
It has been fairly mild here during the day lately, in the 30s and 40s. Today, however, signaled a change in the weather with steady snow beginning around 11AM or so, and continuing through the evening, at least. Mountains (eastern San Juans) are getting hit hard with two to five feet of snow! Blizzard warning in effect for the mountains, and Highway 160 over Wolf Creek Pass was closed at 6PM today due to poor driving conditions.

Dry, old snow & gardening catalogs

2010-01-10T21:10:00.005-07:00

The snow here needs to be replenished with a new supply. We're getting drier & drier; soon I'll have to go out and water some shrubs and an evergreen or two. Haven't had new snow for about a month or so. Even the mountains around us have been mostly missed by storms.

The 2010 gardening catalogs have been trickling in - High Country Gardens, Burpee, Territorial Seed Company, Fedco, several more. Very soon I want to take an inventory of my vegetable & flower seeds to find out what needs replacing or adding to for the upcoming season.

The kitchen scraps both from home & work are beginning to pile up a little; during the winter I store everything in "Trugs" & five-gallon buckets until the compost heaps outside thaw and allow me to turn their contents over. Of course, in the meantime, the mostly-outside sunroom starts to smell a bit "aromatic", especially on those warmish days that we've had lately (upper 30s).

Twice in the past week we've spotted the lone great blue heron that hangs out around the patches of open water in the Empire Canal nearby. Ice-skaters have been taking advantage of the cold nights we've had to do some skating on Home Lake.

Found: Old, frozen, Canada Goose eggs

2009-12-28T17:58:00.006-07:00

On our morning dog walk today, we passed by a nesting platform at the Rio Grande State Wildlife Area. Likely designed for Canada geese (maybe other birds also), the flat nesting platform is attached to a roughly 6'-high post, and the platform itself is surrounded by a fence-like barricade - maybe to keep the eggs & mother from rolling or falling off to the ground?

As we walked by the platform, Bruce noticed that there were three lone goose eggs sitting on the otherwise-empty platform. Since I'd never had the opportunity to hold a goose egg, I instructed him to gather all three of the eggs so I could pocket them for the walk home, to examine later. We surmised that something had happened to the mother goose during the spring '09 nesting period, thus leaving her eggs bare & unprotected. What was surprising is that the eggs were still completely intact - no cracks or anything. Why had no opportunistic predator come for this protein-filled treasure?

(The photo above shows a brown chicken egg--for scale--along with the three goose eggs.)

Once I returned home, I lightly rapped one of the eggs with a stick of wood, and it cracked open with a sound like gunshot! Since the contents were frozen, the shell was under some pressure. Sadly, in the one egg that I opened, evidence of an interrupted incubation was found by the presence of an incompletely-formed gosling.

These unfortunate eggs and their contents will become organic matter in one of my several compost bins, so their death won't be a total waste.

Quiet Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T07:45:00.004-07:00

The weather is quiet - no new snow, blue sky, sunshine. My temperament is more receptive to a Christmas with gray skies, swirling snowflakes, and cold temperatures. Therefore, we will spend part of Christmas skiing into and staying at a backcountry yurt, where there will likely be swirling snowflakes and cold temperatures, though possibly no gray skies.
The image above is one of a yurt that we stayed a couple of winters ago with several friends. The weather evident in that photo is what I relish!

Flicker at the birdfeeder

2009-12-21T06:30:00.005-07:00

Last weekend a pair of flickers appeared in the backyard - one female and one male. They even attempted to perch on the finch feeder perches, and looked pretty funny while doing so.
Most of the yard is still snow-covered but with temperatures some days in the mid-30s, it won't be for long.
Nights have been in single digits, both above and below 0.
Snow up in the mountains is piling up quickly; we've had a few days of high-quality skiing and snowshoeing already so early in the season.

SNOW & COLD

2009-12-06T18:20:00.005-07:00

Yep, it's that time of year! A supposed blizzard (really! Even the National Weather Service is calling it that) is hitting the San Juan Mountains west of us, and the San Luis Valley is supposed to get about 3-4" of snow by end of tomorrow or so. Wolf Creek is due to get about 50" of snow out of this storm! Hooray for skiing!
All of my water barrels are now empty for the season, bird feeders are full for now, and the birdies have water kept thawed by the new water heater.
We went jogging at the Rio Grande State Wildlife Area yesterday, and saw a lone great blue heron. I bet we'll keep seeing it throughout the winter, which I marvel at. What does it find to eat? All the sandhill cranes appear to be absent now; the very cold temperatures we had this past week (low was -10F) probably drove them away to the Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico.
I've already received two 2010 garden supply/seed catalogs! Even I think that's a bit early.....

Frozen water barrels and everything else

2009-11-21T09:46:00.002-07:00

I've been absent for a while for work, and have returned to water barrels that have thick layer of ice on top. It probably would be a good idea to empty them or I'm going to suffer cracked barrels. Nighttime temperatures for the past week+ have been in the low to mid single-digits, and highs in the 40s. There is still snow left in all shaded areas from the snowfall we had over a week ago. I'm sure the soil is drying out already, and the forecast through Thanksgiving is more continued dry conditions.
The sparrows and a couple chickadees are attacking the suet outside.
A great blue heron has been hanging out over at the Empire Canal, and deer are making a strong showing at the Home Lake Veteran's Center next door. Our front yard has small piles of deer scat; that's their calling card from eating the fallen crab apples from this fall. T'was a great crop of apples.
We alpine skiied at Wolf Creek last Sunday, and conditions were excellent--they couldn't have been any better, remarkable for November 15. Though there were a few covered stumps and rocks, their presence paled next to the amount & quality of the fresh snow, and few people.

New alpaca poop

2009-11-11T17:00:00.007-07:00

Buckets & buckets of alpaca poop to nourish my compost and gardens! I made a trip today to the corral of co-workers who raise alpacas. It had been a while since I'd been there, and there's an addition of a couple more poop-producing critters since my last visit.

A convenient feature of alpacas & llamas is that they concentrate their poop versus scattering it all over the corral, so it's fairly easy to fill up a few wheelbarrow loads in a short time span. The poop was mixed with a little straw (great addition), and I think was also wetted by the animals' urine. That too is a good additive for the compost-heating process.

To mark the acquisition of fresh manure, I turned the contents of my Earth Machine, and added some new manure mixed with old grass clippings and a bunch of leaves. With the addition of water & time, I should see a pretty good jump in temperature in a few days. I also emptied the contents of my tumbler composter since it was mostly finished, sifted it, and then put it on my rearranged raised beds and the tomato bed. Then I added a bunch of alpaca poop, old grass clippings, leaves, and water and spun it a few times.

Alpaca/llama manure is not extremely high in nitrogen; its carbon/nitrogen ratio is between 15/1 to 25/1. Compare that to poultry and rabbit manure which can have a ratio of 4/1; it's extremely high in N and can really heat up a compost pile when mixed with a bunch of carbon, or brown, items. But my experience both in Wisconsin and here is that it's not as easy to acquire quantities of poultry and rabbit manure, as it is that from larger, hooved animals like horses, cows, and llamas/alpacas. Alpaca/llama manure can also be directly mixed in with garden soil with little concern for harming plants; this practice is not recommended for higher N manures.

Vegetable garden rearrangement

2009-11-08T19:44:00.003-07:00

Though growing & harvesting seasons are over, the work is not yet! Yesterday & today were spent doing some moving around of the raised beds I've put in place over the last few summers. The shadow cast by the 6'-high fence is visible in the image, and three out of my four beds were in the shaded part of the garden from October through April or so. Cold & usually frozen soil would be the result; in fact, when I started this moving process yesterday I encountered already-frozen soil. Lots of energy was spent moving huge chunks of frozen dirt out into the sun where they will eventually thaw, hopefully before the next round of low temperatures arrive. What was nice to see in all of these big chunks of dirt were dozens of little worm holes; looks like I have a healthy population of worms working on my soil texture & organic matter.

Surprisingly, my compost containers that are in the shade haven't frozen yet. I also started another batch of compost in my Home Composter unit. I doubt that it'll get hot but maybe it'll warm up a little.

Active life in State Wildlife Area

2009-11-01T19:45:00.004-07:00

Low temperatures overnight made vegetation frosty & white. On a morning walk at the Rio Grande State Wildlife Area, we were fortunate to view abundant birdlife -grebe, ducks, Canada geese, sandhill cranes, probable marsh hawks, and at least one other type of hawk sitting on a fence post.

A beaver family has, over the past couple of months, established a lodge and food stash in the SWA in a place we've not seen one at before. The water near which the lodge sits has already begun to freeze over. The warm weather to come in this week will probably thaw it. Dog sits there for scale.

Sandhills & geese amidst impending storm

2009-10-28T05:36:00.006-06:00

The sandhill cranes and Canada geese have been gathering the past few weeks in the cut barley field west of our house. I like pretending they're gearing up for a mass liftoff in advance of tomorrow & Thursday's coming storm. The storm's initial clouds and darkness are hovering above the mountains in the image.
Lots of sandhill cranes have been circling overhead on a daily basis and can be seen & heard frequently. I'd guess they'd be heading south soon; maybe this storm will push them a little more.

We put bird feeders out two weeks ago and have been attracting the usual feathered critters - gold finches, sparrows, red-headed blackbirds. The squirrels are back too now, since they have food to try to obtain. Mountain chickadees are coming to the suet as well.

Not so fast with the brusselsprouts.....

2009-10-25T20:43:00.003-06:00

I'm still able to squeeze a few more brusselsprouts out of my plants - picked probably about a pound or so today. I think the slight purple hue that some of the little sprouts have is due to the frosty temperatures we've had some nights.

We got a great moisture-filled snowfall & rain storm a few days ago - over 1.25" of moisture sank into the dry-as-bone ground. All of the snow still hasn't melted.

Leaves are now off the trees; they were helped by the wet snow. I've raked up most of them & stored them in my several leaf bins, ready to be used for the next compost session!

One winter or late fall task is to move three of my raised beds in the vegetable garden away from the 6'-high-tall privacy fence that separates my garden from the neighbor to the south. The fence keeps those three raised beds snow covered and full of cold or frozen soil into late April & early May, which is too late when I could be planting seeds/lings in them. Moving them means I'll have to rearrange my drip irrigation tubing that spends the summer out in the garden.

Onions

2009-10-20T21:03:00.004-06:00

Finally harvested all of the remaining onions, carrots, and brusselsprouts. I ended up with about three milk crates (size to the left) full of Walla Walla onions. Some were as big as an infants' head. I learned after the fact that Walla Wallas are not good storage onions, so have given some away, may dry a bunch, and will try to use the rest.
My carrots taste great - just the way carrots should taste. Their appearance may be a bit off-putting (little spurs jutting out, pimples, more) but their flavor is such genuine CARROT.
For next year I'll have to rethink growing brusselsprouts - cabbageworms are such a pain, and it's essential to keep after them continuously to avoid holes and little worms burrowed into the sprouts. They don't seem quite as drawn to cabbages, so maybe I'll just grow a few of those next summer and give b-sprouts a rest for a year.
I ordered a shipment of planting garlic that should be arriving soon; ordered more than last year. This year's garlic turned out very well, just not enough.
I suspect I will change what I plant next year quite a bit. I also need to move all of my raised beds away from the 6'-tall privacy fence that shades them from the south; the soil in those beds stays cold too long, because it's out of the sun into the growing season. Should have thought of that when I set them up......

Harvest & storage of carrots

2009-10-08T22:30:00.005-06:00

Last year I dug a shallow hole out in the dirt sunroom floor in which to store some carrots. It bore no resemblance to a root cellar, though that was what I was striving for. What a joke. This year I'm trying something else. My Organic Gardening Encyclopedia (Rodale Press) recommends storing carrots in bins or boxes, and layering them in peat moss, then covering with straw. So I'm trying that. I haven't harvested all my carrots & onions yet, but the carrots I've dug up so far are going in the bin. Then I'll either store it in the cold spare room inside the house, or keep it out in the garage. As for the onions - since I opted to grow Walla Wallas, and they're not a great storing variety, I've been giving some away. The additional 20-30 I have I'll try to use up, or will chop them up and dehydrate.

I haven't come across the monarch chrysalises yet; I assume they've gone to that stage since the caterpillars disappeared a few weeks ago. Guess they could have been munched by a bird.

I was getting intermittent raspberries through last weekend, but no more.

Signs of autumn

2009-09-21T05:32:00.003-06:00

I heard my first autumn sandhill crane call yesterday. Tonight we're due to have our first hard frost; I had erroneously thought it was last night (Sunday, not Monday), so yesterday harvested tomatoes & beans, and then later in the evening covered as much as I could in hopes of staving off the effects of the cold. But as it's now only 39 degrees (5:30 AM Monday), looks like frost won't occur today anyway.
Leaves are continuing to turn golden yellow, and the squirrels have been going after the crabapples which are covering the lawn.
I purchased two new shrubs recently (Ninebark and Rabbitbrush) at a great price. In preparation for planting the Ninebark, I was digging out more of the turf in the frontyard. For the second time this season I punctured the irrigation line---DANG. Now I have to hold off until I get the right part to fix it. I now consider myself to be an expert in irrigation line repair.
The monarch larva appear to be gone; if I were to look in the vicinity I could probably find their cocoons. Way too late for them to survive when/if they come out.

HUGE ripe raspberry

2009-09-14T22:06:00.006-06:00

I planted everbearing raspberries in a new location last year, and decided they really liked their location, as the canes grew at least three feet over the summer. A couple of the canes are bowed nearly to the ground with the weight of berries. I was out in the vicinity of the patch this evening picking up the ever-present dog poop, and noticed a huge red raspberry, ripe for the taking! This is the biggest one I've gotten off any of my raspberry plants. I don't know if the remaining berries will ripen before frost hits.
High Country Gardens is now offering various fruit plants for sale and claim theirs will produce before frost.

More Monarch caterpillars found

2009-08-29T08:05:00.007-06:00

There are three caterpillars that I've found, and since they're kind of hard to find, more could be found. And they don't stay put - one night they'll be on one milkweed, so I mark that one with a stake so I can easily find the caterpillar later. Then I come back a day or two later and look for the critter, and it's moved to a completely different plant. Don't know why they do that.

The little guy to the right is the smallest; originally it was up on the leaves of a full-grown plant, then the next day when I returned, it was on a very small, juvenile milkweed plant. I don't know if it fell from the higher plant, or if the leaves of the larger, older milkweed were too tough for a new, young caterpillar, so it voluntarily moved.

The caterpillar to the left is one of the two bigger ones. Last night when I went out to look for all three of them, I was only able to find two. They can be difficult to spot since they generally stay on the underside of the leaves. I suspect, too, that a bird would be excited about finding one of these tasty morsels.

Monarch caterpillar is back!

2009-08-24T18:54:00.005-06:00

Last year I didn't have any Monarch caterpillars come to my purposely-planted milkweed patch. T'was very disappointing. But tonight I went out to the milkweed to do the usual inspection of the undersides of the leaves, and what do I see?! A very juvenile caterpillar munching away! It seems pretty late in the summer, and if history runs true in the case o f past butterfly/caterpillar metamorphases(?) I've experienced and been fortunate enough to view here in my garden, this little creature will not make it to the chrysalis & then butterfly stage before cold temperatures set in. I'm going to try to faithfully track its progress & growth as August & September continue.
I wonder why the Monarch butterflies seem to wait until so late in the season to deposit their eggs. Actually, I haven't even seen any Monarch butterflies here in my yard anywhere this season, so I suppose I should be somewhat surprised to see the caterpillar. They are more than welcome, and I wish I could help them extend their seemingly-limited lifespan.
I feel like I offer an oasis in the pesticide-desert when I see these little critters here.

Pollinators are happy!

2009-08-16T20:56:00.005-06:00

I spent a while out in the vegetable garden yesterday - watering, picking cabbage worms, watching all the little insects flitting around, and becoming enamored with the swallowtail butterfly that kept visiting my Mexican sunflower (torch tithonia). I was commenting to someone at work that I had seen so few butterflies this year, I was beginning to think something was wrong (I guess I meant something besides the copious quantities of pesticide that are used in this agricultural region).
But all it takes is some time out in the garden and a pair of open eyes. The pollinators LOVE my torch tithonia - this is an annual plant I grow from seed. Usually I have difficulty growing it from seed, at least here in Colorado. But this year I tried a different technique: I sowed many more seeds in indoors starter pots than I usually do, so had many more surviving seedlings. I even had enough plants to give away a couple. Along with being a great pollinator attractant, the seeds will also attract birds later. It's also a beautiful plant.

I harvested my first brusselsprouts yesterday, along with green beans, one red cabbage, and some cherry tomatoes. I also removed the last of the row covers from my cabbage-family plants; I figured any damage that occurs from cabbage worms I can mostly nip in the bud from there on out. Turns out the moths had gotten under the row covers, since I did have some damage already. Had to go on a killing spree in search of cabbage worms . . .

Frost damage on August 9th ??!!!!

2009-08-10T18:39:00.005-06:00

Holy cow! Got home Sunday evening from a weekend absence; went out into the garden to check up on stuff, and found frost damage on many squash leaves and a row of beans! What a shock & surprise that was! This is a first for my summers in this area - to have to be concerned about frost damage (thus, no output) this soon. Usually I wouldn't think about it a lot until early September.

I think a harbinger of this has been the cool nights we've had much of the summer; very few nights in the 50's, most in the 40's. And not high 40's either - many low 40's.

The photo to the right is of one of my summer squash with the frost-damaged leaves.

Everything else, except the one row of bush beans shown left, looks OK. At this point I don't know how much impact this will have on production. There are still lots of good, intact squash leaves; not sure the same can be said of the row of beans. They had just started producing small beans; this cold bout may slow that process down enough that production of fully grown beans won't happen.
Plus it takes a while for the plants to recover in the morning from such cool nights; that too will slow production.
The low temperature at our house August 9 (yesterday morning) was 36.5, this morning the low was 37.5. I suspect the actual low temperature 150' away (from the outdoor thermometer) in the vegetable garden was a little lower.

Rain, weeds, rain, weeds, rain, weeds

2009-07-31T21:00:00.004-06:00

It looks like the land of Russian thistle here; if there were more weeds I could easily identify I'd list more. Over the past week we've gotten nearly 3/4 inch of rain, which for this high, arid desert seems like a lot. I'm seeing growth in plants that haven't done a thing the past 3-4 years.
All of my yarrow are blooming, rabbitbrush is just beginning to put on beautiful yellow flowers, Russian sage is looking great, as are gaillardias, monarda, Mexican Hat, and more. Jupiter's beard, planted less than five weeks ago, is blooming. My Scarlet Runner pole beans (planted just for the hummingbirds) are climbing rapidly and beginning to flower; nearly endless squash blossoms but I'm not doing a thing with them. By the way, I had my first cheese-stuffed squash blossoms at Rino's Italian Restaurant in Salt Lake City back in late June - was very yummy. I'm pretty sure I don't have the patience to make something like that.
Lettuce, greens, Swiss chard are all being harvested in abundance, kohlrabi in less abundance but still good.
I purchased 35 lbs. of canner tomatoes at a local greenhouse and will be spending quite a few hours making "Firey Salsa". My recipe includes jalapenos, onions, garlic, lime juice, red bell peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, vinegar, & salt. I found this recipe in Parade magazine (Sunday Denver Post insert) a couple of years ago, and it has become my favorite salsa recipe.
Whew, that's all for now.

Thinning in the garden

2009-07-22T21:23:00.004-06:00

I don't necessarily enjoy thinning, but tonight, after being gone for three weeks, thinning was essential - due to lack of time I was only able to thin some of the carrots, beets, and radishes; over the next couple of days I'll have to hit all of the other stuff (greens, lettuce, more carrots, more beets, beans, more other stuff).
When we returned from vacation a couple days ago, Caddy-dog found the sugar snap peas which she was able to grab through the fence that surrounds the vegetable garden. They're now history, as she was able to get inside the garden, underneath my row covers, and totally chew up and de-pea all of the vines. I have no idea how she got under the row covers. Little buttface.
The hummingbirds are thrilled we're back to refill all of the feeders; they're being very territorial and noisy in their own little way. I have little raspberries on some of my canes. The bumblebees are out on the nepeta (catmint) in force.
Ahhh, garden life goes on . . .

Wilds of Idaho

2009-07-08T08:51:00.005-06:00

Away from my gardens for a while; instead spending time in northern Idaho on the Selway & Lochsa rivers, visiting in-laws & friends scattered here & there. Above is a shot of our campsite on the Selway above Mooose Creek, before the big day of rapids. The Selway River is a premier whitewater wilderness river; only one permit per day is handed out during the boating season, and a certain percentage of those are for commercial trips. So to be on a private Selway trip is kind of a big deal unless you happen to know lots of boater people who get lucky. It was a great trip - lots of excitement, beautiful clear water, great weather, people & food.
Caddy the dog is at camp with her maternal "grandparents" for the duration of our vacation. She likely has forgotten we exist.

Amazing what a little rain can do

2009-06-21T18:42:00.009-06:00

My blooming perennials seem unusually vivid and early this year, don't know if it's my imagination or real. The pasque flower (lower left) and basket'of'gold (upper left) had great displays, and the latter is still blooming. We had about an inch of rain over a two-week period in late May/early June which may be the reason. I love going outside and hearing all the little pollinators zipping and buzzing around. I saw a beautiful bumble bee today - searching for an ID site I came across http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=10749, which is a USDA site that advertises a wallet-size bumblebee ID card. Unfortunately, I didn't get a close enough look at the bee to be able to ID it - all I remember is that it was big & yellow, with an orange band in mid-body area.

At the end of last year I realized it was short-sighted NOT to plant some pollinator-attractor plants in the vegetable garden, so I put three Russian sages in a corner; realized this spring that wasn't the best place because they were outside the irrigation system I'd set up. I moved them more into the thick of the vegie plantings and on a drip line, but now they're being slow to grow because of the adjustment I've forced them to go through. Maybe by next growing season they'll do what I have asked them to (bloom & attract bees/flies)!

Litter-picking

2009-06-20T11:14:00.005-06:00

People can be such slobs. I don't know what it is about fishing that brings out the litterers. I took the dog on a walk around our local fishing and wildlife lake this morning - trash (AKA recyclables) galore.

Since we discontinued our garbage pick-up service less than a year ago, I tend to gravitate more to picking up only the recyclables when I go walking, and believe it or not, I still get LOTS of those. Many aluminum cans, and plastic and glass bottles.

One pattern I've noticed during my litter patrols: if I come across ONE beer bottle, the other five that were in the six-pack will be not far away. That then makes me wonder what the drinking pattern is of the people who toss their beer bottles. Do they drink one beer, throw it out, then quickly drink another and toss that one? Or do they drink them all at a more leisurely pace, and then pick one up from the pile on the floor, toss it out, then leisurely pick up another one and toss that one out? The spatial spacing of the beer bottles along the road leads me to believe it's more the latter. If it were the former, the drinkers would have to gulp, and toss, the beer very speedily to match the pattern I see on the landscape.

Ahhh, the deep philosophical thoughts I have on my walks . . .

Wow, time flies during planting season

2009-06-10T22:28:00.004-06:00

Can't believe it's been nearly a month since I've written. We were on vacation and then I spent every waking hour (or so it seemed) outside in the garden. When we returned to town on June 1, the yard and area looked like WI, because RAIN had actually come down during our absence. Granted, not much rain, but for here it was significant - over the course of 10 days about 1" total. So nothing died from lack of precipitation.
WE've already been fortunate enough to harvest greens and spinach, and radishes will probably be ready within a week. I madly planted annuals, herbs, and many more seeds this past weekend - the seeds that went in were more carrots, various green beans, more lettuce & greens, parsnips, sunflowers, more kohlrabi, and don't remember what else.
I'm in Cortez working this week, and indulged in a shopping spree to Four Seasons Greenhouse this evening. Some people shop for clothes, some for expensive cigars, but Marianna goes to greenhouses to spend her money.
I have vowed to stay away from perennial plants that have failed in the past - that list is getting mighty long. Ice Plants are at the top of the list, along with Alpine Poppy, Colorado Gold Gazania, and at least a dozen more. Am getting weary of spending money on plants that last only a season, and then kapoof! they're gone.
Bruce emailed me today that we have a fledgling robin and a parent hanging out in the yard; let's hope Caddy the pooch doesn't find them.

First planting shift

2009-05-17T19:24:00.007-06:00

The past 3-4 weeks have found me planting seeds, and now little transplants, out in the vegetable garden, among many other activities & gardening tasks. This weekend was especially busy - I planted several brusselsprout, cabbage, and broccoli plants that I had grown from seed. Lots of people I know comment that "Yecch, I can't stand brusselsprouts!" Those people have NEVER had garden-grown & fresh brusselsprouts - there's no comparison between what you buy in the store and what you can grow in your garden. But I guess that pretty much goes for all of the produce we grow in our gardens.
Today I also planted four tomato plants and one pepper plant, also grown from seed under lights, and planted as seeds a little earlier than the cole crops mentioned above. I'd have gotten more plants in the ground today but several of the walls'o'water (season extenders) I was putting up around each of these tender plants had leaks, so I had to pull them up, dump the water out into my water barrel, and set them aside. Then start over with a new wall. I'm going to discontinue buying these - too expensive considering their fragility. Now I'll try to repair the holes if I can find them so I can continue to use them. Eventually I suppose I'll have to landfill them......
Last year I grew a couple of my peppers in walls'o'water the entire growing season--they were at least 1/3 again larger than the pepper plants grown without the walls, plus they produced more peppers. I will likely do the same this year with my two pepper plants.
I pulled my irrigation tubing out of its storage area so I can get it ready to hook up to the water supply. No rain in the forecast, and my water barrels are getting lower & lower. Irrigation season will have to start very soon!

Seedlings, blossoms & growth, oh my!

2009-05-07T05:30:00.007-06:00

So much is happening in the garden! Lots of perennials are coming up that I wondered about over the winter - various penstemons, baptisia, agastache, evening primrose, much more. My little trees (serviceberry mostly) are starting to put on little buds. Lilac is about a week or so away from flowering. Cinquefoils putting on little green leaves, as are the fernbush, apache plume, alkali sacaton grasses. What a great time of year.

So far my spinach, sugar snap peas and mixed greens are poking their little heads above the soil. My tomatoes indoors are about 8" high, and all my other indoor transplants are doing great!

The image to the left is my Nanking cherry, which I planted for the birds' benefit, though it is still too small (2' high) to provide much of that. It has the most beautiful pink & white blossoms.

I haven't set up the irrigation system yet so am doing all of my watering by hand, but since the soil is not yet dried out it's not a lengthy task.

I tried to get my cold frame set up last night but the automatic opener device always causes vexing problems so I'm not finished there yet. My cole crops will go there when it's ready to go, so I can make room indoors under the lights for other seedlings.

It's transplant time!

2009-04-28T21:15:00.008-06:00

I planted many brusselsprouts, cabbage, and broccoli seeds, indoors, a couple of weeks ago. I planted them in very small pots, and was planning to transplant them to larger pots once they developed true leaves. Tonight, I judged many of them to be ready to repot, so I filled a bunch of 2x2" plastic pots with moistened potting soil--luckily it's now warm enough outside in the evening to do this somewhat messy job outdoors on my work table--and prepared all the necessary other items, consisting of one chopstick (to make the hole), a plastic fork (to remove the little seedling from its dirt bed), a container with water, and strips cut from a yogurt or cottage cheese container to serve as plant markers/identifiers. The latter is a great way to reuse the many yogurt containers I have on hand.

Not all of the seedlings are large enough yet to transplant, so after this evening's efforts, I have 18 newly-transplanted pots of mostly brusselsprouts with a few red cabbage thrown in. Yet to transplant are more brusselsprouts and then some broccoli seedlings - those are growing more slowly than the other plants. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find space under the lights for everybody.......I hope to be able to move the cool-weather brassicas to my cold frame after a couple of weeks so I can make room for the annual flowers I'm growing from seed also.

The lights setup I have is shown in the image - it works really well. It's a large, four-shelf shelving unit, and the metal slats are perfect for hanging fluorescent lamps on. I have enough lamps (4) for only two of the shelves to be functional for growing. I put two lamps side-by-side so the plants get complete coverage. I could improve the light distribution by using aluminum foil as sort of a curtain over each of the lamps to reflect the light back to the plants, but I haven't gotten it that much together. I have all the lights on timers, and they're on from about 6AM to 10PM, so 16 hours. Believe it or not, plants need the night time hours to do their own thing (they don't really rest, they actually do plant activities, whatever those are); what I've read is that they should be in the dark at night, just like we are!

Excess enthusiasm causes irrigation line holes

2009-04-26T11:06:00.009-06:00

After two weeks of exhausting work-related travel, I eagerly headed outside yesterday to plant some raspberry canes that had arrived by mail a week ago. They were overdue to be planted, that's for sure. I ordinarily use a pulaski-like hand tool (see photo) for my digging work here, because, unlike WI, an ordinary garden hoe would break in less than five minutes with this hard dirt. The difference between the tool in the image & a Pulaski is the pointy end, which replaces the axe portion of the Pulaski.
Irrigation lines are the underground tubing that delivers water to the sprinkler heads scattered throughout the yard. Many homes in this part of the country have automatic irrigation systems due to the need to water to keep turf reasonably green. Annual precipitation in the San Luis Valley is only 7 inches.

Since I've had problems NOT missing irrigation lines before, I thought I'd learned a lesson, and have tried to be careful when using the tool . But the irrigation line that I hit yesterday was a mere 6" below the surface - way too shallow! The puncture holes are visible in the black tubing in the image - there are two of them right next to one another. The ruler is there so that I could figure out what size of connecter to buy to replace the damaged segment of tubing. (Since this has happened three times before in summer of 2007, I'm somewhat familiar with the repair process .....)

So I had to trek into town to visit my favorite True Value hardware store (favorite because of all the connecters I've bought there before....). The parts needed to repair puncture holes are shown - the flash drive is shown for scale. The only additional tool that's necessary is a hacksaw to cut the piece of damaged tubing out. Of course, this means that the hole in the ground needs to be enlarged to accommodate the hacksaw. The process of planting my raspberries, which I could have completed with ease yesterday, will now be extended into a good part of today. *^&$%@!#(%

Snow has mostly melted

2009-04-19T12:12:00.005-06:00

These are my allium bulbs that have come up over the past couple of weeks - two days ago this is what they looked like sitting in the snow from the storm that swept through. 95% of the snow is now gone, and with the temperatures predicted over the next few days we'll have none left in a short time.
My onion bulblets look good - I did cover them w/ some Reemay based on the advice an anonymous poster submitted.
Indoors, my tomatoes and peppers are doing great, and now I'm soon going to be transplanting basil, cabbage, brusselsprouts, and broccoli seedlings.
Some raspberry canes have arrived in the mail, and now I need to prepare the bed for them. I have several varieties that I've planted over the past three years, but I've had little success with them. Where I planted them is an area I did not have a soil test run on, so I don't know if it's the soil quality, too many hours of hot & pounding sun, wrong raspberry variety, or something else.

Onion bulblets planted

2009-04-09T19:37:00.006-06:00

Tonight I planted the first garden plants of the season - about 40 or 50 small garden bulbs of Walla-Walla onions. They went into the newly sifted raised bed that I changed a little bit this year (extended in length and shrank in width, the latter to ease access). The planting instructions recommended each bulb be about 4-5" apart, and rows separated by about 10-12". Until I set up my drip irrigation system, they'll be hand-watered

about an inch a week.

The cool weather we've had the past couple of weeks slowed all growth down - the green shoots that had been coming up all over outside are just sitting in place, probably waiting for warm temperatures again.

Even the indoor seedlings aren't doing a whole lot; every day after work I rush into the plant room to see if anything shows noticeable growth - what I see is mostly NO. Maybe too cool? Seems like in the past there's been a visible spurt of growth not long after they're transplanted into bigger pots.

More patience is needed!

Late March snowstorm

2009-03-29T22:02:00.006-06:00

About 4" of snow fell last Thursday, and it's still melting. The storm was very windy, and drifts piled up in lots of places. My leafed-out Golden Currant shrub (Ribes aureum), fortunately very hardy and apparently unbothered by snow, is sitting in a pile of it (left). So many leafed-out plants have been hit with frost, but so far everything looks OK.
The nice thing about spring snows is that they're usually full of water, so they're a good slow-release water supply for nearby plants. I usually shovel as much as I can on the ground around my perennials & shrubs.
Skiing at Wolf Creek yesterday was great - much new snow that was still fairly light early in the day, but became heavier to ski through as the day passed and temperatures warmed. Crowds of skiiers were non-existent. Maybe the last ski of the season?

Garlic is growing, seedlings are up too

2009-03-24T21:18:00.008-06:00

The garlic I planted last fall is getting bigger & bigger. Since it's in the raised bed on the south side of a white wall, the soil it's planted in really heats up quickly and early. Our nighttime temperatures have ranged from 16 to the upper 20's, and I haven't covered the garlic yet. It seems pretty hardy.
Indoors, the pepper & tomato seeds I planted within the past two weeks are germinating. I don't have true leaves on the seedlings yet, but that should be any day now. They're all under 16-hour-on lights now that I set up in a mostly-unused room.
My compost container contents have mostly thawed now, so I'm starting new batches and renewing the old ones. There is still one big bucket of winter-storage kitchen scraps to deal with as soon as I have space in one of the bins. I hope to have some finished compost within a month or so, and I'll probably add it to the vegetable garden or raspberry area.

Wildlife woke up today!

2009-03-16T19:27:00.003-06:00

Saw the local fox tonight for the first time in months! On my evening dog walk it was warm enough not to wear a jacket or vest, for the first time since last fall. Sooooo warm. Home Lake has lost almost all its ice; remaining are only two big soggy-looking ice sheets out near the middle. Tonight truly felt like spring, though astronomical spring (i.e., the vernal equnox, or March 20) is still a few days away.
Though astronomical spring is yet to come, the onset of meteorological spring has already passed - see definition of the spring season below from the Glossary of Meteorology (underline emphasis mine):

spring—The season of the year composing the transition period from winter to summer; the vernal season, during which the sun is approaching the summer solstice.
In popular usage and for most meteorological purposes, spring is customarily taken to include the months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere, and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere. Except in the Tropics, spring is a season of rising temperatures and decreasing cyclonic activity over continents. In much of the Tropics, neither spring nor fall is recognizable, and in polar regions, both are very short-lived.

ENJOY THE SPRING, "WEATHER" ASTRONOMICAL OR METEOROLOGICAL!

Pepper & tomato seeds now planted

2009-03-15T22:30:00.004-06:00

Today I planted seeds for seven varieties of tomatoes. Don't know how I ever think I'll have room for all the plants I expect to come up. Peppers haven't germinated yet; planted them one week ago. More and more green stuff coming up outside due to warmth. Today I began clearing all of last growing season's old growth out of the vegetable garden; should have done it in the fall I suppose. Still traces of compacted snow/ice in deeply shaded parts of the yard & garden. The compost is slowly thawing, and every couple of days I peel away another layer from the still-frozen core. I still have one compost bin that is likely totally frozen since it's sitting in the shade. The dog poops in the backyard like she never gets a poop walk; we'd be knee-deep in poop if she were only a backyard-dog (i.e., no walks).

Guess it's warm enough in the house for bugs; there's one walking across the monitor as I type.

When I was raking yesterday in a corner of the yard, I found evidence of bird mortality; wonder if one of the hawks was visiting the bird feeder? Bet so; not the first time they've found lunch here! In fact, while on a raptor tour at the Monte Vista Crane Festival yesterday, the tour guide said some bird-watchers feed birds for the express purpose of attracting raptors to the backyard for viewing!

Little green things popping up!

2009-03-08T18:43:00.005-06:00

I'm a little taken aback by all the growth that's taken place on the south side of the house over the past few days. The plant in the image is catmint, which grows as prolifically as kudzu.
The garlic I planted last fall is also coming up, along with dianthus from last year, a volunteer hollyhock, and delphinium. I'm also seeing chives poking through last year's debris.
I started messing with my compost bins today while the temperature was in the upper 40s (but felt much warmer). Compost, however, is still frozen so not much can be done there yet.
Lots of kitchen scraps from our house and my office have piled up over the winter; I'm itchin' to start taking care of it! Plus I have so many leaves that I need to use. I REFUSE to put them out in the garbage.

February Snow Survey

2009-03-01T20:04:00.004-07:00

Last Friday, February 27, was my monthly excursion to the Silver Lakes snow course to measure the snowpack. This will be repeated two more times in 2009. The day was very warm, sunny, and windy. At this site, the snowpack measured out to about 165% of normal, compared to the survey in January at this site which was about 190% of normal. I'd expected a lower number since we have not received much snow since the January reading.

The photo to the left shows me holding--in my left hand--the scale suspended on a telescoping ski pole, and in my right hand is the notebook for recording the measurements we take at ten sites within the course. Snowmobiles & their moronic drivers had driven over our course in several locations, and the resulting compression of the snowpack distorts our readings. We thus had to take several samples at a couple of the sites to get an accurate reading.

Just finished seed order!!!

2009-02-25T21:29:00.004-07:00

Wow, kind of a $ splurge tonight. I decided to go wholly with Johnny's Seeds this year for all my new vegetable & flower seeds. First I went through my seed stockpile armed with a seed viability chart, and got rid of a few packets based on age. Then I have 3 or 4 other packets (parsley, nicotiana [had that since '02 and not once planted it!]) that I'm going to do a germination test on versus automatically reordering. I think I've only done a germination test once before. I'll wet some paper towels, then spread several seeds out on the towels, then roll up the paper towels and put in a plastic bag. The test in our house will be keeping it in a warm place as is recommended. Depending on how many seeds germinate, I'll either use the seeds or toss them in the compost pile. My seed-starting reference book recommends waiting a maximum of three weeks for most seed varieties to germinate.
My purchase tonight includes green beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, peppers, tomatillos, kohlrabi, beets, chard, lettuce mixes, melon (haven't grown these before), cucumbers, sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and joe pye weed (very iffy here).
I went a little crazy with ordering sunflowers - they're such enthusiastic plants, and the birds & bees love them so!
What Fun!

Sandhill cranes & companions out & about

2009-02-23T19:23:00.002-07:00

Sandhill cranes (see image), Canada geese, various ducks, and red-winged blackbirds were in abundance, both visually and vocally, this evening on my dog walk. The ice on Home Lake is beginning to show puddles of water on top. With a high today of 52 degrees (F), it really felt like spring! Pretty difficult not to think of gardening, planting seeds, etc. right now. But ground is way too wet. Will have to settle for looking through the seed catalogs instead. Our yard still has snow cover on about 50% or less of its area. I actually did some pruning yesterday on some crabapples and a mountain ash.

Green Cone composting unit

2009-02-22T20:54:00.018-07:00

In yesterday's post I mentioned a Green Cone composter. I bought my first one (left image) more than 15 years ago when we were living in a rental duplex, because the landlord wasn't enthused about me having a stand-alone, open compost pile out in the common yard. The Green Cone (also known as a Solar Digester) seemed like a perfect solution.

The part of the composter that holds the composting materials is actually underground. The photo to the left shows the laundry basket-like black section - this is the part that is put in the ground, and the green part attaches to it, above ground.

All of the moisture in the materials leaches into the ground through the holey basket, and the effect of the sun hitting the double-walled green part and creating air circulation eventually converts the organic materials into compost. Getting the compost out can be a difficult project, but fortunately it's not necessary to do it very often (less than once a year, depending on volume). Obviously, this unit is more designed to deal with organic materials in an environmentally sound way (i.e., not landfilling them), and has only a minor focus on producing useable compost.

Worms slowly adjust to "remodeled" home

2009-02-21T19:27:00.003-07:00

The worms always seem to take a while to adjust to their new, poop-free digs. Of course, I don't know what I expect them to do---jump up and down in glee, sing my praises for providing them new, clean bedding, what???? How in the heck can I tell if they're adjusting slowly or quickly, they're worms, for gosh sakes! Okay, enough anthropomorphising.
Today was a spectacular day, 41 degrees F, clear, blue sky, sandhill cranes & Canada geese flying all around, more snow melting. The yard is still about half covered with snow, but it is dwindling rapidly.
I inventoried my vegetable seeds today to see what I need to purchase. Many of the packets are fairly old (two to six years) so I need to check my seed-starting book on germination rates for these guys. I also started a list that contained many gardening-related entries, but I guess since the ground is still frozen and we're going to get at least a couple of snow storms, I should calm down a bit. Last fall Bruce happened to come across a Green Cone composter unit that was being sold down the street from us at a garage sale ($7, WHAT A DEAL). I had hoped to get the hole dug for it prior to freeze, but didn't happen, so now I want to get that done this spring. Just one of the many tasks I want to do......

Compost worms' home "redecorated"

2009-02-10T05:29:00.013-07:00

It's the time of year when I separate the compost worms from their castings (poop) and put the little critters in new bedding. For the health and longevity of the worms, this process should happen more than once a year, but I don't seem to get around to it.
The image above shows some baby worms that must have just hatched. This is the first time I've found so many baby worms; this group is a sample of the many I observed.
The other stuff in the image is castings (dark & moist-looking) and uncomposted kitchen scraps.
This periodic process of separating the worms from their poop is fairly tedious, especially because I believe that all of the worms should get a fair shot at life in a new, (briefly) poop-free home. Thus, I painstakingly fork gently through all of the castings, bunch by bunch, to make sure I don't consign any worms to freezing to death out on the porch where I store their castings until spring. This usually takes me a minimum of ten hours; last week I completed the task in two evenings, part of two Sunday afternoons, and one morning. Dedication is essential!

It should be obvious that it'd be difficult to be squeamish and be a worm composter at the same time . . .

Cat on a Tall, Wooden, Post

2009-02-01T21:27:00.006-07:00

Last weekend we were driving to a local x-c ski area for some skiing, and Bruce noticed a cat perched on top of a power line pole. Yes, that little blob on top looking at me is a cat. We stopped and I got out of the car to see if anyone was home at the house, because Iwas concerned that the cat was unable to come back down. It began meowing almost as soon as I got out of the car. Since no one was home, we decided to proceed with our ski trip and then drive by on the way home to check on the little critter.
Luckily on our return trip there was no sign of the cat. Whew.

New snow in the high country

2009-01-29T21:30:00.009-07:00

Along with other activities at my workplace, I also participate in snow surveys. This means that during the last five days of January, February, March, and April, I and several other federal employees fan out across different parts of the mountains surrounding the San Luis Valley to measure snow depth and water content. These surveys take place at specific locations, which--for Colorado--may be viewed at the link below: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/Colorado/colorado.html.

Yesterday was my first day on snow survey for 2009, and two of us traveled by snowmobile up to the Big Meadows manual snow course site, and the Grayback SNOTEL site http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/snotel.pl?sitenum=1058&state=co. Both of these sites are in the eastern San Juan Mountains. At the Grayback site we took measurements of snow depth and water density both at the automated SNOTEL site and at the manual Snow Course located nearby. At the Grayback SNOTEL site, there are currently 49.6" of snow, with a Snow Water Equivalent of 15.4".

The difference between a SNOTEL site and a manual snow course is that at the latter, the snow depth and water content measurements are recorded manually by trained observers, and at the SNOTEL sites, the snow & water information is measured and transmitted automatically. SNOTEL is an acronym which stands for SNOwpack TELemetry.

There are manual snow courses and SNOTEL sites scattered throughout all Western states, and measurements are taken by an assortment of Federal, State, and other employees. The data resulting from all snow surveys, whether manual or automated, are used for water forecasting for agriculture, recreation, flood control, and more.

Icy sheen on all snow surfaces

2009-01-27T21:52:00.006-07:00

It feels like an abnormal January weather-wise here, but I just looked back at my temperature records for the past four years (January '06 through January so far) and it's not that abnormal. I'm aware that a scant three or four years of records means little, but it's still fun comparing year to year. No averages calculated yet - that'll be next.
In January '06 we had mostly 30s and 40s as our daytime temps, and single digits below zero all the way up to 34 degrees for nighttime temperatures.
In January '07 my outdoor wireless thermometer bottomed out once (-21.9, can't believe it bottoms out at that temperature!) and only five nights were above zero. Daytime temperatures ranged from 11 degrees to above 40.
In January '08 temperatures were very similar to last year, with the thermometer bottoming out twice, and daytime temperatures were in exactly the same range as '07.
This year is wienie compared to the past two Januarys. Thermometer has not come close to bottoming out - the lowest has been -11.1. Our daytime temps have not gone below 20. Personally I'd rather have blistering cold than what we have, though this year is still better than having bare ground showing. Still too cold to ride the bike to work, though.
And as today's blog title says - the thawing and re-freezing we've had nearly daily has made all snow-covered surfaces look as shiny as a bald pate.

Too warm for January?

2009-01-25T21:33:00.005-07:00

Though we still have 9.5" of snow in the front yard here in Monte Vista, 39 degrees still feels too warm for January in the San Luis Valley.
Last week we were staying in a yurt outside of Leadville, CO at 12,000 feet, and the temperature did not sink below 20 degrees the entire three days & nights. That is bizarre.
Large puddles are appearing in late afternoon as snow continues to melt and attempts to sink into the frozen ground. Some perennial plants are now showing as the snow depth decreases. The gardening fever is starting to show up more often in my thoughts. Marianna, it is WAY TOO EARLY to think about starting seeds indoors.

Snow, "blazing" sun and blue skies

2009-01-10T10:12:00.010-07:00

Snow in the amount of 4.4 inches fell last evening. This morning it was -11 F and extremely bright once the sun rose. All our bird feeders are busy. It was about time some new snow fell so all the old & dirty stuff could be covered up. There'll be a good supply of water infiltrating the soil & roots of all my planties. As of two days ago, when we had only 8" of snow on the ground, the snow water equivalent (SWE) was 1.46", and the SWE of the 4.4" of snow we got overnight is .3".

The shrubs in the photo foreground are Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa), a wonderful drought-tolerant plant that does great here in the San Luis Valley. I plopped them in the ground probably my first summer here ('05), watered them somewhat consistently the first year, and now I very seldom do anything to or with them. Yet they grow well, and put on beautiful flowers which turn into plume-like seed heads that are sort of pinkish in color. I highly recommend this shrub for xeriscape areas. I bought one more this past summer that's only about 6" high, so it has a lot of growing to do to catch up with the others.

I was over at the nearby Empire Canal last night, and saw a great blue heron standing on the ice, poised over a hole in the ice--I guess it was waiting to spear something for its dinner. I always marvel when I see herons this time of year in the midst of the frozen, white landscape.

Beautiful winter & seed catalogs!

2008-12-26T13:29:00.008-07:00

Blizzard warnings today, mostly in the mountains. Overnight last night it was very windy, and many drifts had appeared by morning. At 7AM it was 31 degrees, now at 1:30 PM it's about 28 degrees.

Bruce split a bunch of wood yesterday so we're now safe from freezing! We have this wood carrier thing that allows easy hauling of split wood. It also makes a handy dog carrier - poor Caddy is at Bruce's mercy!

I went snowshoe running over at the state wildlife area yesterday in the late afternoon - saw several hawks and many tracks in the snow. It was beautiful but cold; returned home with a frosted face.

Had to replenish the black oil sunflower seed and Niger thistle today at the local co-op---holy cow! Not (sort of) cheap like it used to be to buy that stuff for "wild" bird-feeding.

Picked up the mail today - four more seed catalogs arrived. Got one yesterday, and received a couple more several days before Christmas. I'd hate to think how many I'd be getting if I hadn't taken my name off a bunch of mailing lists! But it is making me think of seed-starting........

Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad !!

2008-12-25T13:44:00.005-07:00

Today is a beautiful, snow-covered day in the San Luis Valley. The day began with snow falling until about noon or so, but now at 2PM the sun is mostly out with lots of blue sky. We took a walk in the falling snow and it was lovely. The orb of the sun was trying to break through the snow clouds, and finally succeeded.
The Canada geese are out and about, but the sandhill cranes that have been hanging out near the irrigation canal north of our house have left. The snow must have cleared them out.
Wolf Creek Ski Area's website says they've received 55" of snow in the past 7 days, and are due to receive a bunch more tonight. We head up there tomorrow to verify that snow report.....

White stuff slowly accumulates

2008-12-22T18:20:00.003-07:00

Snow depth in the yard as of this morning is 6.5". The mountains to the west and northwest are getting pounded with 1-2' of new snow, today and tomorrow. Backcountry avalanche hazard is high. The Christmas bird count was being done last Saturday, December 20th. I was taking the pooch for a walk and ran into a friend of mine who was with two other birders looking for birds not far from my house.

While at the Rio Grande State Wildlife Area yesterday, I saw a few hawks and lots of Canada geese, plus lots of animal tracks and a set of x-c ski tracks. An eager beaver is taking care of a cottonwood tree near the river - photo shows recent activity. The Rio Grande is in the background - not frozen like last year.

Snow, especially in the mountains

2008-12-17T20:29:00.002-07:00

I just checked the SNOTEL (SNOwpack TELemetry) website available at http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ for the Grayback site west of Monte Vista. Not as much snow as I'd thought would be up there - on 12/11 there was 9" of snow on the ground at the 11,620' site, on 12/16 there was 21" of snow. Another large storm is due starting tonight and will dump 1-2 feet of additional snow in the mountains, including the eastern San Juans west of Monte Vista. Will definitely help with the agricultural outlook for '09.

5" of NEW SNOW

2008-12-09T20:34:00.006-07:00

FINALLY--last night--we got some real measurable SNOW. I measured 5" on my CoCoRaHS "snowboard" (actually, just a 1' by 1' piece of wood, painted white). The core taken with the plastic cylinder measured .44" of Snow Water Equivalent (SWE), and the amount of snow that fell into the plastic cylinder, & that was melted into liquid, was .29" SWE.

La Veta Pass east of Monte Vista supposedly received 19" of snow, and Wolf Creek Ski Area received about a foot.

My plug for Community Collaborative Rain, Hail andSnow Network, AKA CoCoRahs; see the program's website at http://www.cocorahs.org/. CoCoRaHs is a volunteer network of citizen weather observers from most states in the country. The mission statement of this non-profit organization is at http://www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=mission.

From the website comes this brief description of its primary goal: CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow).

I've been taking measurements for the CoCoRaHS program since December of 2005. Every morning at 7:00 I take a brief moment to check for & measure new precipation, whether rain or snow & infrequently hail, and then report the data at the website. The data posted at the website are used by many different entities, from National Weather Service folks to farmers to recreationists. It's interesting to be involved in this effort, with the added benefit of seeing where else in your county or state, or wherever else in the country, other precipation fell.

Nolan Doesken, who I think is the originator of the project, is always interested in new CoCoRaHs volunteers from all of the participating states. If you're interested in volunteering to be a weather observer (it's nearly painless!), go to http://www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=contactus and sign up. In the meantime, ENJOY THE SNOW (and next spring/summer's water!).

2008-12-05T06:57:00.005-07:00

The high & dry valley is definitely dry right now. Very little precipitation during the past month of November. At our house I recorded three wienie precipitation events, all of them snow but it was snow that didn't stay. The upper Rio Grande basin is at 39% of normal right now. The river not far from our house is as low as I've ever seen it (of course, considering that I've been here for only three and a half years is not saying a lot, I realize....).

A few lingering sandhill cranes are still hanging out in the cut barley field just west of our house. They too know we're having a warm autumn and that there's no need to hurry, at least yet. Though when I went running at the nearby State Wildlife Area one morning last week in 10-degree temperatures I wouldn't have said it was mild.....

The dog knows where it's comfy.

Snow in the forecast (finally)

2008-11-26T21:07:00.005-07:00

Today is the day before Thanksgiving, and we are finally due for some snow, though it is predicted to be only about an inch or so here on the San Luis Valley floor. The eastern San Juan Mountains just to the west of us may receive 8-12 inches by Friday morning (36 hours from now). The past five nights have been single digits, and the birds have been ganging up on the four feeders set out for them. I finally took the time to find the birdbath water heater so now they don't have to deal with the block of ice every morning. Alas, I head out of town for four days, so they'll all be on their own for food until our return.

Splitting firewood can wait until our return, as can continued garden cleaning, leaf-collecting & raking, perennial watering, and more outdoor tasks. The firewood photo is from two or three years ago - yes, we manually split all of it! We pay anywhere from $120 to $130 per cord of wood; my sister told me that where she lives in Cape Cod, MA, a cord of split wood costs about $350! Our winter last year was a bit harder than the two previous winters, and I got tendonitis from too much wood splitting. This year I'm going to try to do better with using the left arm more.

Late-autumn composting

2008-11-24T07:18:00.006-07:00

I'd hoped to have time to turn the contents of my Home Composter once more before severe cold set in. Alas, such was not to be. With temperatures in the single digits the last three nights, and daytime temperatures in the shade in the 40s, I suspect my compost containers that are in the shade have already begun to harden a little. If I had confidence in my wintertime composting ability (i.e., actually make a "hot" compost pile), I'd probably go ahead and turn it and try to heat it up again. But I'm not convinced it's worth the effort.

So with the little remaining space available inside the composter, I'll continue dumping the contents my kitchen containers into it, separated by layers of dried fall leaves. When the bin reaches its limit, I'll consider it full and save any turning activity for the spring. Granted, I'll have some gross soggy stuff to look at come spring, but it won't be the first time! And I love thinking about what that gross soggy stuff will turn into within a couple of months!

Autumn in warmer climes

2008-11-16T21:51:00.007-07:00

We just returned a few hours ago from a trip to the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande; this section of river forms the intenational boundary between US & Mexico, and also between Texas & Mexico. Had the river to ourselves & our small raft for the most part, except for a VERY low-flying Border Patrol helicopter that buzzed us one morning as it zipped downstream, I assume looking for suspicious-appearing people who might have been wanting to cross from one country to the other.

The Rio Grande had experienced SIGNIFICANT flooding starting in September of this year - some images and text are posted at the site below. We didn't encounter extremely high water, but did run into lots of carrizo cane & some tamarisk that had been run over by the river, and was now lying in huge piles on the banks. A lot of the riparian plant life appeared dead at first glance, but that wasn't really the case. The carrizo cane seemed especially immune to the damage it had experienced; in many parts of the corridor over 10 feet of new growth had already been added on to what was left from the flood. I had wondered during the trip if the carrizo cane (Arundo donax) was native or not, and had assumed the former. Having just googled the plant, I found out from the Dept. of Homeland Security website I was way wrong! It apparently was imported to the US from Europe many, many years ago, and has now established itself quite well. Its root system was astounding - strong, fibrous, resilient. No wonder it's invasive.

The photo shows some new green growth sprouting from materials that look dead. But they're not dead!

I couldn't resist cutting down some of the dead canes to bring home with me for gardening stakes; this stuff is just like bamboo, and will make great bean poles and other supports. I don't think it'll be missed.

The flood had caused a few of the potential hiking areas to be completely muddied over - more than once we'd step out of the boat or further up on shore, and start sinking into a quadmire of sucky mud that didn't want to release our feet. We saw only two terrestrial critters during the trip, and I don't know if that's unusual or not. I wondered if quite a few had died or been washed downstream in the rising flood waters. http://www.bigbendgazette.com/blog/_archives/2008/9/22/3896046.html

Prior to the raft trip on the Rio Grande, much time since my last post was spent working on the local campaign of my choice for next President. It is time for New Leadership for our Changing World.

Great horned owl & sandhill cranes

2008-10-30T22:55:00.002-06:00

I took the dog for a walk last night and saw a great horned owl - at the start of last winter I was seeing quite a few of these birds, but this is the first one I have seen so far this fall. I expect to see more as autumn passes on. I love it when they start hanging around, especially when they begin calling to one another. Last winter we had a nest not too far from the house; I hope we have another one this year. The deer near our house are also starting to follow their predictable autumn habits, and they're much more visible now during our dog walks. Sandhill cranes have taken up nearly full-time residency in a mowed barley field next door; I see them every morning on the way to work and in the evening on the way home. If we EVER get a storm they'll probably think about leaving, but the weather has been consistently sunny and warm, unlike last year when it was cold and even snowy by now. Personally I am ready for some inclement weather.
Trick or treat comes tomorrow. The time change on Sunday will be a shock when darkness falls by 5:30 pm or so, but having daylight earlier in the AM will be good for riding the bike to work.

Antics (& death of) a squirrel

2008-10-27T21:25:00.007-06:00

The squirrel has managed to conquer the round PVC tubes hung on the clothesline and the plastic baffle that covers the small birdfeeder. Anybody who has squirrels in their yard will agree that these critters can be hilarious to watch, especially if you are a backyard bird food supplier (AKA bird-feeder). Back in her younger days, Caddy (dog) would do her best to catch them, which she sometimes did (see photo of Caddy with squirrel in her mouth). When we first got Caddy in 1995, I would be mad at her for an extended period whenever she killed an animal. She was such a great predator, even on a leash. While on a 25-foot-long retractable leash she has killed and consumed numerous rabbits of varying ages. Her lust for blood extended to mice, moles, birds, and stray cats that made the life-changing decision to unwittingly enter her yard.

Now in her advanced years of age 13+, she no longer as quickly pursues all the critters she used to, and the yard squirrels seem to know that she's not as dangerous as she was when we first moved here. But they should still be very careful......

First day of fall clean-up

2008-10-27T07:43:00.004-06:00

And the dust is flying! The soil is so dry! No precipitation has fallen for a while. Every day is warm, sunny, and fairly warm (60'sF). I turned the compost in my Earth Machine composter, not quite ready to use. Maybe before the snow flies but I'll likely wait until next spring. Will write more later about more activities this past weekend. What a great day for gardening it was! Oh yeah, harvested my last two acorn squash on Saturday - the last items to come out of the garden.

Spider at the window!

2008-10-18T15:43:00.008-06:00

I've become fascinated by a spider named Cat Face spider (Araneus gemmoides), called that because its abdomen resembles the face of a cat. I'd never seen this spider prior to moving the the San Luis Valley, and we're now hosting our second known Cat Face spider visitor on the outside of the house. The picture to the left is probably a female since it was fairly large - nothing to show its relative size, but its abdomen was probably at least the size of an average marble, or the upper part of my pinky finger. The one shown in the image I found in August 2006, when it was hanging out on the north side of the house in an sheltered area on a fence post. It came running out when I was preparing to work on the fence.

The second Cat Face spider visitor is now visible in the living room window that faces south, and has spun a big web covering much of the window (photo to right). Just this morning it caught a moth (or the moth stumbled into the web more likely) and is now wrapping it in silk. I guess next it'll make a meal of it and then dispose of the dried-up body.

Spiders are such interesting critters, but I always get the creeps when I imagine one of these guys crawling on me!

The URL below has some information on this particular type of spider. http://entomology.wsu.edu/insectoftheweek/CatFaceSpider.html

A "root" cellar

2008-09-29T21:23:00.004-06:00

What a beautiful day today! Sunny and warm, blue sky, new snow up in the mountains. Valley potato harvesting is going strong. Today I harvested more!! cherry tomatoes, swiss chard, and two eight-ball zucchini squash (summer). I can barely believe I'm still getting vegies from the garden; plants should be dead and dry by now, killed by frost.

Since I have too many carrots and onions to consume in the very near future, I decided to try "root cellaring", which is a misnomer at my house since we don't have a cellar. But I needed to do something.....so I dug as deep as I could into the earth in the sunroom on the east side of the house, which still turned out to be only about 8". Then I got a strong cardboard box that formerly held 20 lbs. of peaches, and put it in the hole. I then wrapped each carrot in newsprint-type paper and laid them, stacked in two layers, in the box. On top of the carrots I placed the unwrapped onions. (Later I learned that this is not the proper storage technique for onions, so I'll probably pull them out tomorrow or later this week; they're supposed to hang in bunches in a cool dry space.) I closed up the box, and then topped it off with several sheaves of straw from bales that I had gotten from a co-worker last year. I'm hoping the straw gives the box enough protection from the midday heat that we're still having, and, once it gets cold, from the low temperatures.

Hard freeze? Not yet !

2008-09-25T06:21:00.004-06:00

We've nudged freezing temperatures with 32.1 and 32.3, but I still have productive tomato and pepper plants, and am also still harvesting swiss chard (a little more hardy!). Last night I harvested lots of cherry tomatoes and several peppers, and many LARGE carrots (see photo). The carrots are probably a little too big?? All of the red and white onions were harvested a week or so ago. I think I may be reaching the end of the harvest though, this hard frost-free period has to come to an end soon. In 2005 our first good frost was 9/15, in 2006 it was 9/17, last year it was 9/26.
Many of my perennials are still blooming - New England Aster, coreopsis, yarrow, Russian sage, and others.
We've had a huge number of tiny flying insects cruising around - my tomato vines are covered with them, they go up your nose when you're outside, crawl up shorts, and more. It's unusual and I have no idea why they're so numerous. They do seem to be attracted to water so I've covered my water containers to reduce the attraction.

Upcoming frosty night (maybe)

2008-09-12T20:47:00.009-06:00

Since I've been away the past few days, I spent a bit of time in the vegie garden harvesting and looking things over. Weather report says we're supposed to get down to the low 30's tonight, so I've covered the tomatoes. I decided to skip covering the rest of the stuff, mostly due to laziness and the time of season. Figured I can always go to the Farmer's Market.......

Tonight I harvested oodles of green beans, quite a few cherry tomatoes, two eight-ball zucchini squash, and a couple green peppers.

I rescued two large grasshoppers that had leaped into my water containers but were still alive. Wonder how long they can hang out in the water; I have yet to pull a dead one out.

I have several silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea & canadensis) serving as a windbreak for my vegie garden. They seem sort of prone to some bug infestations, but usually recover over the winter when most or all of the insects die. Well, one of the more recently-planted buffaloberries had suddenly started looking terrible - most leaves drying up & falling off, like it was on its last legs. Looking closely at the shrub tonight, I discovered these alarming looking bugs, along with some aphids, scale (I think), and then quite a few ladybugs. I put some of the scary-looking bugs in a jar to take inside the house to identify - upon looking through Whitney Cranshaw's "Garden Insects of North America", I really quickly found the "scary" bug: it was the larval form of the ladybug!!!! This is soo cool, I don't think I've ever seen this guy before! See picture, or page 545 of Whitney's book. The larvae are described as "active hunters that can crawl rapidly over plants, searching for food." They can consume many prey, reportedly several dozen.

You go, guys!!!! Eat those aphids & scale!!!!

Missing caterpillar and more

2008-09-07T20:46:00.003-06:00

I'm really sorry to say that my monarch larva is gone. I discovered this a few days ago when I went to check on its size and take a picture. Boo-hoo! I wonder if a bird found it? Seems unlikely since the caterpillars hang out on the underside of the milkweed leaves. Dang! Haven't seen any other 'pillars either, which is kind of unusual.

It feels like we're having a somewhat early autumn, at least where temperatures are concerned - had a very light and spotty frost last Wednesday or Thursday AM. Some of my bean plants and a few squash leaves were affected. Leaves are beginning to change colors on some trees, especially on the cottonless cottonwood tree in our front yard. My Russian sages, New England asters, and sedums are abuzz with flies and bees - they must like this time of year when such goodies are abloom. Photo to right is of a blooming Russian sage with a bee hanging on.

Harvest today was a bunch of green and yellow beans, tomatoes, and radishes. Green beans have been put in the freezer, and the tomatoes & radishes will be eaten!

Monarch larva are back!

2008-09-01T20:35:00.009-06:00

This is the time of summer when I start inspecting the milkweed--it's time to begin seeing monarch butterfly caterpillars (larva). My efforts were rewarded - yesterday I found my first larva on the underside of a milkweed leaf! This smallish one is only about 1.5" long, and isn't really chubby yet like it will be in a week or two.

Earlier in the season before the milkweed had even bloomed, I found the coolest insect perched on the unopened flowers. What amazes me about this creature is the exact match between its colors and the colors of the milkweed. What a great camouflage!

Vegetable harvest today: bunch of green & gold beans, cherry & Early Girl tomatoes

Bunches of beans!

2008-08-26T20:55:00.004-06:00

The 2008 bean harvest has begun! This year I'm growing Haricot Verts bush, Gold Beans pole, Fortex pole, and Blue Lake pole. So far the HVerts are the most prolific producers, which I seem to remember is typical. I've pawned some beans off on a neighbor, and will probably eat, can, & freeze the remainder. When we get some sun tomorrow hopefully, I bet I'll come home to a whole new crop ready to pick. Also harvested today: tomatoes, peppers, & two acorn squash (winter squash).

Radish-eating dog

2008-08-20T21:40:00.003-06:00

I have a nearly-constant companion in my vegetable garden; she's 13 years old and her name is Caddy. She's a rescued stray we've had since 1995 (our Christmas present that year!), and her antics cause me much laughter.

I started vegetable gardening in Wisconsin the summer before we got her. I don't remember what prompted us to give her a green bean from the garden, but one of us did, and that was the start of her vegetable-eating lifestyle. Her favorites: carrots, green beans, and potatoes (all raw). She'll also eat radishes (evidenced by the photo, not a setup by the way!!), canteloupe, raspberries, parsnips, tomatoes, zucchini, and probably more that I'm forgetting.

We used to go raspberry picking with her, and she quickly learned to strip the berries off the bushes. Now if I let her, she'll come into the vegetable garden and literally strip green beans off the vines.

More worm stuff

2008-08-17T17:35:00.005-06:00

Have been picking and smashing cabbage worms (normally, I'm not a violent person, but I really don't want to relinquish another harvest to the critters). Obviously, I'm not averse to hand picking!

I have a neighbor on the next street over who also has several plants in the brassica family, and she has NO problems with these guys; I think it's a matter of them not having yet found her plants and focusing totally on mine!

We've had about about 4/10" of rain the past 24 hours so irrigation of the vegetable garden isn't necessary for at least another day or so; the mostly cloudy & coolish conditions are another reason not to water.

I'm including a picture of what I suspect is cabbage worm poop - don't know what else it is. Thought maybe it was eggs but their appearance doesn't jive with what I've read about cabbage worm eggs.

Rampaging cabbage worms

2008-08-14T19:13:00.015-06:00

My house has an attached, enclosed space I call a "sunroom" or a "greenhouse" depending on my mood & the season. It makes a great workspace for working on gardening-type activities; it has a dirt floor, it's airy (sometimes too much so) and bright. On both ends it's enclosed partly in glass, and most of the reminder is separated from the outdoors by window screen material, so it's mostly free of mosquitoes. It gets hotter than Hades in the middle of summer because of the fiberglass roof.

Anyway, last year I lost my entire brusselsprout crop to cabbage worms, so I vowed to do something different this year. At first I was going to put row covers over all the plants to prevent the moths from laying eggs, but then I decided instead to put a bunch of my brusselsprout transplants in the "greenhouse". Well, the plants look beautiful for once because they aren't all riddled with worm holes, but the brusselsprouts themselves are these little teeny things, about pinhead-size. I'm guessing the heat has pretty much prevented them from getting to edible size--one of my books states that "cole vegetables are adapted to cool weather, growing best when temperatures are between 65 and 80 degrees F." Maybe they'll pick up when it begins to cool off more during the day?

The four cabbage plants I ended up planting outside in the garden have hundreds of holes and what I think is also a bunch of cabbage worm poop (see pics). I'm sure the worms are having a heyday burrowing into the cabbage heads.

MORE rain

2008-08-07T19:53:00.007-06:00

This weather is not too common in the San Luis Valley - three consecutive days that are mostly overcast and have measurable precipitation. Feels more like the Midwest.

The rufous hummingbirds are madly flitting all around the front and back yards keeping one another from the feeders and seemingly spending little time actually sipping nectar.

We've resumed supplying niger thistle to the birds and are attracting house finches, gold finches, and lesser gold finches.

Three springs ago I transplanted some milkweed (not sure which species) from a nearby local fishing hole to a vacant area near the firewood pile in our backyard. As I sort of guessed would happen, it has moved beyond its original area and has to be periodically reined in. I planted it to attract monarch butterflies, which actually happened!!! For two consecutive late summer periods, I found several monarch caterpillars on my milkweed. It was so COOL to track their metamorphasis from larva (or caterpillar, see photo) to pupa to newly-emerged butterfly, all within the confines of my little gardens! Unfortunately, the first time I was lucky enough to observe this process, the monarch emerged during a bad weather period of cold & rain, and shortly afterwards it died. I don't know what happened to the monarchs last year, but I always hope for the best.

Wow, it's raining!

2008-08-05T18:52:00.005-06:00

Yep, we're getting precipitation! A nice, steady rain to wet everything down. No watering of the vegetable garden'll be necessary tomorrow morning. (On second thought, since the rain only amounted to .09" .....)

Yesterday's harvest included radishes (big ones!), beet greens, & spinach. I look at some of my plants (tomatoes & squash) and wonder if I'll have any produce before the first frost. Yikes, don't think that yet!