This week in the 'couve

Here we are in the middle of May 2011 and the weather says "April" loud and clear. Lilacs are blooming, thunder storms are predicted and it is the coldest spring on record with only 5 or 6 days above 50 degrees F.

We are so lucky and blessed to have a greenhouse. It is full of 12 kinds of tomatoes, seedlings including scarlet runner beans, popcorn, anahiem peppers, banana peppers and bell peppers, watermelon, pumpkin, blueberries and a variety of pollinator attracting flowers.

The grape vine, filbert and apple trees are breaking bud.

Chives, raspberries and strawberries are blooming. Blueberries are setting on fruit. Lettuce, spinach, onions, scallots and garlic are growing well.

We intend to set out the bean starts this weekend so soil prep is under way. Will add coffee grounds, rabbit manure and compost after picking out at least one bucket of river rock. Sigh. Lots of rock for lots of projects.

Check out my book review at http://www.examiner.com/organic-gardening-in-vancouver/seeds-of-change-the-living-treasure-review

What are you doing in your garden this week?

The new TwoRivers Music Podcast will be available later today at http://tworiversmusicpodcast.blogspot.com/    Drop by and listen!

All images are by Eric Donaldson Tworivers. You can view his work at http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/eric-tworivers.html

Welcome spring!

Happy Spring Equinox! The days are appreciably longer. The nights a bit warmer. Crocus, forsythia and daffodils are in bloom.

Last week was the beginning of daylight saving time and we "sprang forward". A freak windstorm toppled our small green house prompting the setting out of lettuce starts.

This week scallots, red onions and spinach were planted. The lettuce is so promising. Soon we will have the first baby greens in our salads.

Our urban orchard of mini trees will begin this week when the Carmine Jewel dwarf cherry tree arrives.  As we are renters our orchard of mini-dwarf trees will be planted in large pots located toward the north part of the front yard. Soon the cherry will be joined by two mini-dwarf apple trees, a Beni-Shogun Fuji and Greensleeves. We choose them because of compatible bloom time, height and flavor. We also have four blueberry plants, a stand of raspberries and will have a new strawberry bed.

Another passion of ours is Slow Food. We eat seasonally - mostly from our garden and are great fans of our canning jars and two crock pots (different sizes) which are in use at least once a week and of sourdough bread. We began making all our baked goods with spelt flour and sourdough last September. The results have been good with pancakes, waffles, bread, crackers and chocolate cake. This week we began working with a slow process sourdough. Takes patience and a bit of planning allowing the bread to rise over a period of 36 hours or more. This first try we lasted the 36 hours resulting in a dense, tasty, very sour loaf with very good crumb. The next batch I will try to wait 48 hours but it is so tempting! Spread with cheese, sweet butter or our homemade peach jam the small slices are a treat.  http://nourishedmagazine.com.au/blog/articles/slow-ferment-sourdough-bread

Today, planting chives, nasturtiums and marigold seeds around the blueberries. These flowering herbs take care of bad bugs and invite pollinators into our garden/orchard. The same plants will go into the pots with the fruit trees.

Happy spring! The world is renewed and so are we.

Spring weather

We had a "mini" tornado leaping through our neighborhood yesterday.You could see where it touched down- pockets of destruction and where nothing happened. Unfortunately one of the touch downs happened in my garden. Our small green house, weighted down with about 70 lbs of pots, plants and a bag of steer manure was yanked around and dumped on its face. Lost the flat of lettuce seedlings but other plants appear to be salvageable. This has given us a heads up on placement of the bigger green house. It's going to be anchored to the back fence!

Two crockpots on the counter this morning. One with homegrown, home canned spaghetti sauce and one with homemade baked beans. It's going to smell really good in here by evening. Have to mix up some sour dough bread, write and article and get busy. Reflexology clients this morning and music (me) and photography students (Eric) this afternoon.

Feels Like Spring

It's a lovely 55 degrees this afternoon. Made Maxie (dog) come outside and help pull weeds. I pulled and he helped. :)
Two days ago I sprinkled an entire package of white sage seeds into a recycled milk carton filled with potting mix. Why so early? Because the pkg said takes 2-6 weeks to germinate and the slow growing plants aren't ready for the great outdoors for up to 6 months! Well, surprise! Some of the seeds have little, teeny sprouts!
Lots of geese honking over and crows arguing in the trees today.