Category Archives: Weather

This is the lounge where Kate lay

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Yesterday was warm and so dry that by the time you finished hanging
clothes at one end of a clothes line, you could start taking them down
at the other end. I know, because I hung out the first laundry on the
line that Steve had put up that morning.

Today, we get this:

Chaise longue in snow

which has inspired this:

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Spring? You’ve got to be kidding!

Snow chairs

What is all this nonesense about spring? I spend a few minutes looking around at other blogs, and I’m about ready to sell my house (as if anyone could do that these days!) and move south.

Mr. McGregor’s Daughter has a post titled “It Really Is Spring;” Always Growing has one called “Happy for Warm Days;” Benjamin of The Deep Middle announces that the "Sandhill Cranes Are Here," The Giraffe Head Tree has a "New Look for Spring." and the Heirloom Gardener is blithely (rashly, if she could see my scowl) writing about "The First Tree to Flower in the Garden," the witchhazel. Even though Gotta Garden has a post titled "Snow Flowers," the snow gets short shrift and the flowers are many and lovely.

Now if you visit my garden, I'd be happy to offer you a seat, but I don't know if you'd want to accept the offer, and there sure wouldn't be any flowers to admire, as the photograph above demonstrates.

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Hail Damage: Potato double reprise

Several days ago I left you hanging, or tried to, but perhaps a more aggressive approach would have worked better, viz:

    So now I knew that, thank goodness, I didn’t need to dig up my damaged potatoes. Or did I? (scary music)

To recap:  My last post contained the research results I’d found after a hail storm devastated my potatoes in July. According to several experts who’d conducted several studies, potatoes damaged earlier in the season recovered more completely, and had better yields, than those that were damaged later. This was a major relief to me, as it meant I could leave my potatoes, all of them fairly young, in the ground, and they’d continue to grow, albeit slowly.

Dee of Red Dirt Ramblings had suggested, quite reasonably, that I might want to get those potatoes out of the ground forthwith, but since this research indicated otherwise, I proceeded to a gleeful celebration, declaring that she was “wrong, wrong, wrong.” Now, that’s the sort of categorical declaration that in any tragedy would be recognized as hubris, and like pride, it goes before a fall.

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Bare-Naked Potato Stems: advice needed–

Here’s my potato patch, the morning after the hail storm:

Potatoes_alley_after_hail_3

You’ll have to take my word for it that two days ago it looked quite bright and bushy-tailed in a potato-patchy sort of way. Looking at that patch last week, one could believe that some potatoes, even in this age of slippery values,  retained a strong sense of purpose in their potato-hood. Proud to be potatoes, they seemed enthusiastic about this business of producing little potatoes.

But now look at it.

Anyone got any idea what to do with a potato patch that looks like this? They were just about to flower. I’ve mulched the bed heavily to protect any potatoes from heat (once the ice melts, that is.) (Maybe a course of lecures on the work-ethic of potatoes? I’ll ask Bush for his post-Katrina action plan; that should help.)

There were plenty of small pine bits about for mulching, so that part was easy. I thought I’d wait and see if there’s any sign of life from these stems. I’m inclined to leave the plants that sprout new leaves and yank any that just keel over and give up the ghost, to keep them from rotting in the ground. There are potatoes; I checked.

Does anyone have any actual information or experience that bears on this denuded potato-stem situation? Relevant moral or work-ethic lectures also welcome.

Post-garden post: Lettuce, anyone?

I’m going to open a restaurant.

 

Lettuce

 

Customer: So—what are you serving for lunch today?
Me: Well, we have shredded lettuce, torn lettuce, lettuce julienne, and mangled lettuce.
Customer: And the soup?
Me: Lettuce puree.
Customer: Hmm.
Me: And make up your mind quick, because it’s all going to start rotting in about five minutes!

I expect an enthusiastic, upscale clientel.