We finally have some warm and drier weather today! It’s already 14C/57F, and we’re expected to have a high of 16C/60F.
I think I counted 27 yard cats this morning, but they were running around so much, I can’t be sure. What was funny to see, as I was trying to count, was a skunk suddenly come running around from behind the storage house, just like one of the cats, going for the kibble house! Not the little one I’ve been seeing, but a big on. My guess, a pregnant mama. I scared her off with the hose, because I wanted to make sure the cats got the food first. I know she’ll show up later.
I was happy to see Broccoli – she even let me pet her! We’ve started to do more frequent, smaller feedings, so that there’s something there when she is able to leave her kittens in her secret place and come eat. I was even able to get a glance under her and, from what I can see, she has 2 active nips. I think the largest litter she’s ever had has been 3 kittens. Hopefully, that will be the norm this year, and not litters of 5, 6 or even 8, like last year! At least most of them turned out to be male, though we did manage to get some female kittens indoors. There’s just one I can’t get at that I think it female. The other females are mamas from last year.
We really, really need to catch these mamas!! They are not cooperating at all. *sigh*
Oh, I just got some updates on the Wolfman this morning. He eye is healed up well, and there are potential adoptees coming to see him.
Much to my shock, Wolfman has taken to hissing, flattening his ears, and hiding, any time strangers come be. He also only lets their youngest daughter pick him up – he used to love being picked up! – and always hisses at the Cat Lady’s mother, who helps care for the cats. The poor guy must be so stressed out from, first, suddenly being taken to a new place, then going to the vet so often, then having to get his eye treated regularly. Poor baby. It’ll take time, but that just makes it harder to adopt him out. Especially when people coming over don’t even get to see him, because he’s hiding!
All in good time, I guess.
But I digress!
My morning rounds now includes checking the various growing things. There is still nothing showing up with the peas and spinach. Not the carrots, either, but carrots do take much longer. I’m surprised about the peas and spinach, though, even with the cooler weather we’ve been having. Hopefully, the seeds have survived and things will start sprouting as we get warmer days again. These need cooler weather to germinated, though, so… we’ll see!
We have more snow crocuses blooming, including our first – and so far, only – purple one. We have a few more yellow ones showing up. Mostly, we’re seeing the white ones, as well as the white with a hint of purple.
The grape hyacinths won’t be blooming for a while, but we are starting to see their distinctive clusters of leaves showing up all over the area they are planted in. My daughter’s tulip patch is also looking pretty good. I’m really looking forward to seeing what those “new” tulips that came up next to the saffron crocus turn out to be. I’m about 95% sure they are the Bull’s Eye tulips, but there was another variety planted there, too.
Oh! I’m remembering wrong!
It’s a good thing I’m journaling all this, here on the blog. I just looked up what I wrote about it, back in the fall of 2020. Only Bull’s Eye tulips were planted there.
We got them as a newly available tulip from Veseys, but they carried the variety for just the one year, I think. I suspect a lot of people did not have success with them. If I do a search, I can find other places that carry them, though, and they are listed as being zone 3 hardy. Well, we’ll see! It’ll be awesome if, after all this time, they actually show up! The idea that the bulbs would survive all this time, without any growth emerging, would be pretty amazing. Actually, I think some did show up that first spring, but the deer decimated the tulip patch, so for any tulips to show up after that is pretty amazing. It’s a bit of an eyesore to have the wire fencing around it, but there isn’t much choice!
More and more garlic is starting to come up, too! I’m quite happy to see them, after thinking most may not have survived the winter.
I’m not so happy to see how much crab grass is growing in the tiny raised bed, though. We pulled as many rhizomes as we could find at planting time, but it’s pretty much impossible to get it all. They’ll come back from the tiniest pieces.
I’m quite looking forward to having scapes to harvest!
After the garlic bulbs are harvested, which should be in late June or early July, this little raised bed is going to get refreshed and amended with the granulated sulfur and peat. We’ll be able to do that with the long bed against the retaining wall, too, as well as the short section of the wattle weave bed, as those will not have anything else planted with the garlic. The bigger rectangular bed in the old kitchen garden has garlic growing all down the middle, so there is room to plant other things on either side. I do hope to be able to amend the sides before we plant anything with the garlic.
Things are looking dry enough that we should be able to finally plant potatoes in the bed that’s been solarizing. The plastic is still there, but I don’t know how much solarizing actually happened, considering the rainy and overcast days we’ve had, since it was laid down. With the bed made narrower, though, it’s actually got more soil than the brick edging can contain. Since we don’t have the materials to raise the bed higher, yet, plus I want to work peat and sulfur into it first, it looks like I’ll have to actually remove soil from the bed. Which is okay. The excess can be used to top up the chimney block planters nearby.
So that’s my goal for today. Get that bed amended and planted with potatoes. I might actually be able to get both types of potatoes in there. We do still have Red Thumb and Purple Peruvians from last year that we could plant. They were so small, though, we didn’t really use them often. The fingerlings are also odd shapes, so getting them clean in preparation for cooking was not worth the bother. That’s why we still have some left! However, if we can increase the acidity in the soil enough, they might actually go much better. It might be worth trying, somewhere.
First things first, though. Gotta get the ones we bought, into the ground!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 