Archive for April 22, 2009

Grow Your Own – Happy Earth Day!

by John Weckerle

As a sort of celebration of earth day this morning, I took some time to spend with the plants, trees, shrubs, etc. Things are looking excellent!  The Tartarian honeysuckle is about to burst into bloom, and the chokecherries are showing flower buds.  The Nanking cherries are also putting out leaves, and the lilacs have already done so.  All the strawberries – even those not protected from the rabbits – appear to have survived the winter and are flourishing.  The butterfly bushes are looking good, as well.  The “mini-greenhouse” experiment has shown great promise, and it looks as if I’ll be able to start putting vegetables into it within a week.  We’ll start with cool weather vegetables there – kale, chard, lettuce, snow peas, etc.  We’ll need to make another cover for the north bed, so that tomatoes, etc. – already flowering – can get settled in and ready to add zest to my salads and sandwiches.

As part of the celebration, I watered everything – including the approximately two dozen red hot poker “splits” I planted Sunday – with water from the rain harvesting system which, while not entirely full after the winter, still holds a good bit of water.  The red hot pokers are great for the hummingbirds and, as a special Earth Day treat, I saw my first hummingbird of the season this morning, taking a bath in the fountain.

Sometime in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be building the third bed – and going through it step by step here in case any of our readers are interested.  This is a surprisingly easy task, and well worth the effort.  Happy Earth Day!