Monday, March 17, 2014

Obviously I'm drunk on Spring

As you probably know and are super annoyed by, it's Spring here in NorCal and has been since like, November.

Cherry tree's blooming.
ALREADY EVEN THOUGH IT'S ONLY FUCKING MARCH HELLO.

We just barely had a winter, if you can even call that five day period where it rained a normal rain, winter, and, well, the First Day of Spring is now suddenly Thursday, so OK then.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and be all WOE IS ME HOW COME THE WEATHER IS ALL SUNSHINEY AND BEAUTIFUL WHY WON'T IT RAIN AND BE COLD because I know you'll all hate me and leave stupid comments about how it was, like 74 below at your house yesterday (Hi, Sara. Yes. You've had the world's shittiest winter and I 100% feel for you. I also know that you wouldn't leave me a stupid comment, so that's why I'm writing the world's longest side note in parenthesis for you. Hi again.) or some shit and that's just not why I'm here.

I'm here to tell you about the other liquor cabinet I call The Garden.

The other beverage I consume in the garden. AKA - the only one without gin in it. (It's tea.)


Remember Gardenblahblahblah? Yeah, that's this.

Gardenblahblahblah with a side of I'M SO DRUNK ON SPRING RIGHT NOW.

Honestly, there's so much of it that I really don't know where to start, so we'll just start with what I did today.

I feel a bulleted list coming on.

Oop - here is:

  • Seeded 80 or so cucumbers, watermelons, pumpkins and zucchini into pots for the Indie Farms Spring Plant Sale
  • Seeded 100 or so companion plants, culinary herbs and flowers into flats for the Indie Farms Spring Plant Sale
  • Finally got rid of the fucking kale plants that were bolting in the garden while also serving as the condo high rise for every cabbage moth larvae and aphid in the Western Hemisphere
  • Harvested worm castings which really means I stole a bucket's worth of worms' poo. Nice, me.
  • Watered 100+ tomato and pepper seedlings for the five hundredth time
We're needy. WE NEED THINGS. Like, straightening of our tags which I just noticed is crooked in this photo. Yay.


Yesterday was a similar frazzled litany of gardeny things like:

  • Turning the compost in my new compost set up, which is harder than my old just spin the tub method in the Compostumbler, but way faster at making compost and that's what we're after 
  • Sorting seed and materials for today's seeding extravaganza
  • Ignoring the kale because I was doing it today
  • Planning my garden seeding for Wednesday because I apparently can't accomplish shit unless I plan it out way in advance and book time on my own calendar like a fucking lunatic
I've become a total calendar scheduling psychopath, y'all. I now book everything on one of my many Google calendars so that the thing looks like a fucking patchwork quilt of weird activities spread across my days. I think I need a scheduling intervention.

Or an assistant. 

Whatever.

Gardenblahblahblah rules dictate that I focus on the garden, so back to that...

The peas have germinated and tagged their lines just in time for it to be 80 FUCKING DEGREES AROUND HERE. Damnitall.

THE LILACS ARE BLOOMING. Awesome.


Did I tell you that the lilacs are blooming? They are. It's my favorite.
I've kind of gotten into growing herbs because of my extreme nerdiness and this was really exciting for me to see.

Also, I'm growing some peppers.
The kumquats are happening.
The grapes are ON THE JOB.
I grew a boatload of parsnips this winter and we've already eaten them all. Yay.
The winter garden harvest was a goodie.
I harvest a bunch of onions like this about every other day and now I can't imagine not growing onions because of their extreme awesomeness.



Also, as an extension of Gardenblahblahblah, I give you the goings on at work, which I think also counts as gardening. Just bigger. And with fish.


I had to move fish at work to their new big tanks (this is about 10% of the fish, mid-move). Best job.

I grow microgreens now. A lot of them. 

And basil. I grow a lot of basil. It's really happy now that there's more light during the day. It, too, is drunk on Spring.


We just planted hydroponic blueberries under the new high tunnels. Which is something I never thought I'd say.  And is great.

I made painted stakes to mark my different hop varieties because I don't know when to leave well enough alone.

My hydro crops are really happy now that the days are getting longer.

We dug a hole in our new field during class. Then my instructor stood in it. That's all.

We went to a farm on a field trip and they had GOATS. 

Goats that knocked each other down racing to greet us. It was the best day.

Frog butt

I have to pinch the basil tops at least once a week and this is about 1/3 of what comes off. So I eat it.
Enjoyable.

Also, there's stuff going on in the front yard meadow, but I haven't been out there during good light with my good camera to take any pictures that don't look like total bat shit, so we'll wait on that for another day. I'll, like, add it to my calendar or something.

9 comments:

  1. Goats are freaking awesome. Oops - sorry, I forgot I was posting on Finny Knits. Goats are FUCKING awesome. I love goats - like really really love them. It makes me so happy they knocked each other down to get to you. Gotta tell you something funny - my bulldog was running to greet me and my little Pomeranian came running too and knocked into the bulldog and went pinging off of him like a pin ball. It was the funniest fucking thing I saw all weekend. I almost peed my pants laughing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so sad that you don't have the Chihuahua pin ball situation on video. That sounds fucking hilarious. If it were goats doing it, I'd pee for sure.

      Delete
  2. As I sit here looking out my window and seeing snow still on the ground and probably more coming this week, I envy your gardens and all your plantings. I grew up in the midwest where by May we were planting anything we wanted and enjoying our reapings come late Aug and Sept! Here in Montana, where we chose to live(mostly my husband, not me), I miss that period of time where you can grow just about anything you want. We are lucky to get anything into the ground by early June and get it to grow before Sept. So that means you can only grow things with a short growing season. I fucking hate it. I did get hubby to make me some raised beds last year and they did so so for the first year. Had a few radishes, carrots, onions, and lettuce! So if you have any of that extra basil....you can send it to me anytime!! I use fresh basil in almost everything! We love it! And keep these pics coming of all your gardens and plants, they inspire me!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah - a four month growing window is rough. Cold frames? Small greenhouse? THERE ARE WAYS DAMNITALL. Meanwhile, I'll keep posting photos and torturing you.

      Delete
  3. 1. I'm jealous of all of the green and sunshine. I got optimistic when I saw brown grass and pavement last week and Mother Nature punished me with 4 inches of snow and an inch of ice under it. And more coming. Whore.

    2. GOATS. I have a friend on FB who has literally, a whole gaggle of baby goats and some have moms who should on Dr. Phil because they are refusing to care for their babies so friend is bottle feeding them and cuddling them like real babies. Matt still says no. Whore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am going to spank Matt. GET GOATS. Baby ones. That will stand on your kitchen counter and be totally cute pests.

      Delete
  4. GOATS! And my goodness, are you making and freezing pesto like a madwoman? I am glad that spring is being so good to you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not yet on the pesto, but soon. Very soon.

      Delete
  5. I don't know what's more impressive - the home garden photos or the work garden photos. It's all so amazing. I'm totally jealous.

    P.S. Don't get goats. Get sheep instead. They're much cuter, smell MUCH better, and they don't escape out/through/over EVERY fence imaginable. Just saying. ;)

    ReplyDelete

[2013 update: You can't comment as an anonymous person anymore. Too many douchebags were leaving bullshit SPAM comments and my inbox was getting flooded, but if you're here to comment in a real way like a real person, go to it.]

Look at you commenting, that's fun.

So, here's the thing with commenting, unless you have an email address associated with your own profile, your comment will still post, but I won't have an email address with which to reply to you personally.

Sucks, right?

Anyway, to remedy this, I usually come back to my posts and post replies in the comment field with you.

But, if you ever want to email me directly to talk about pumpkins or shoes or what it's like to spend a good part of your day Swiffering - shoot me an email to finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom.

Cheers.