We all knew it had to happen eventually, the gray dismal rain and cold that was haunting us for far too long had to make way for it's bigger and better sibling, summer. The arrival of all the mosquitoes, black flies, heat and humidity has been a a kick in the pants for our garden. We have peas, spinach, lettuce, beets, string beans and 2 spindly under performing thus far, tomato plants.
The peas with their new fence installed have exploded. I don't mean, wow all of them are sprouting and starting to grow leaves, I mean they have grown 4+ inches in a week. Ya. Some are slowing down but some are eating their wheaties and gunning for 8 inches of growth in a mere 2 weeks. Maybe all they needed was a little sunshine.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Climb away peas
For those of you that don't hang your hat and lay your heads down at night where we do, we've had 2 weeks of grey cold rainy days and cool nights. While it's perfectly normal in Iceland and we do love Iceland, this is not ideal gardening weather in these parts. Well, we have work to do on precious garden, so 48 degrees and rain be damned we're gardening. Yesterday we spread some of our own home grown compost in one of the vegetable garden beds and all the flower beds. The Amazing and Wonderful Wife planted more seeds in the vegetable garden while I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. It felt good getting outside and getting dirt under our fingernails.
Despite our abysmal stretch of weather the garden is looking good. We have some spinach and lettuce popping up, and our peas are starting to find their groove. Last year we planted peas from a seed packet that was 2-3 years old and weren't quite sure if they would germinate, let alone produce any vegetables. We were so 'eh, they're old, they won't grow' about them we didn't put up a fence to support them. Well, after a few weeks they started to grow and we figured it was just a fluke, they weren't going to do much, they wouldn't produce anything we could use. By the end of the summer we had eaten more peas then we ever have and gave away bagfuls of them. Without a fence to support them, they grew up, and then fell down and grew across the ground towards the fence that protects the garden, crawled up that and then fell down, and grew up the fence again. They did exceptionally well without a proper fence to support them and we were still up to our eyeballs in them. Well we love peas and honestly, we're greedy. We want MORE. We want a juggernaut pea crop that will blow away our prior record.
The peas we planted this year have just become tall enough to topple over if they don't have anything to hold onto so today was fence day.
I bought some 6 foot tall wooden stakes and hammered them into the ground at the outer edge of the raised garden bed, at the end of each row of peas. Then I marked a line on each stake, every 4 inches. Once they were all marked I took some string and tied one end to one steak and tied the other end to the other steak, repeat until you're done.
Once they were all tied up I took the peas and stood them up against the string so they can start to climb up instead of out. Here's a little before and after action:
Oh and the compost. Oh the compost aka black gold. We have a compost bucket in our kitchen and we drop all our fruit and vegetable scraps, left over coffee and coffee grounds and egg shells in it. All of that plus all our yard clippings end up in the bin, left to slowly decompose into rich jet black worm PACKED vitamins-for-our plants awesomeness. We dug into our compost bin yesterday for the first time this year and were absolutely giddy to see each shovel full teaming with worms. Our neighbors were probably a bit worried and confused to hear us loudly exclaim across the yard "Look at the all WORMS! Hi worms! This is great!" Hey, they're excellent for our garden, which means they're excellent for us.
Despite our abysmal stretch of weather the garden is looking good. We have some spinach and lettuce popping up, and our peas are starting to find their groove. Last year we planted peas from a seed packet that was 2-3 years old and weren't quite sure if they would germinate, let alone produce any vegetables. We were so 'eh, they're old, they won't grow' about them we didn't put up a fence to support them. Well, after a few weeks they started to grow and we figured it was just a fluke, they weren't going to do much, they wouldn't produce anything we could use. By the end of the summer we had eaten more peas then we ever have and gave away bagfuls of them. Without a fence to support them, they grew up, and then fell down and grew across the ground towards the fence that protects the garden, crawled up that and then fell down, and grew up the fence again. They did exceptionally well without a proper fence to support them and we were still up to our eyeballs in them. Well we love peas and honestly, we're greedy. We want MORE. We want a juggernaut pea crop that will blow away our prior record.
The peas we planted this year have just become tall enough to topple over if they don't have anything to hold onto so today was fence day.
I bought some 6 foot tall wooden stakes and hammered them into the ground at the outer edge of the raised garden bed, at the end of each row of peas. Then I marked a line on each stake, every 4 inches. Once they were all marked I took some string and tied one end to one steak and tied the other end to the other steak, repeat until you're done.
Once they were all tied up I took the peas and stood them up against the string so they can start to climb up instead of out. Here's a little before and after action:
Oh and the compost. Oh the compost aka black gold. We have a compost bucket in our kitchen and we drop all our fruit and vegetable scraps, left over coffee and coffee grounds and egg shells in it. All of that plus all our yard clippings end up in the bin, left to slowly decompose into rich jet black worm PACKED vitamins-for-our plants awesomeness. We dug into our compost bin yesterday for the first time this year and were absolutely giddy to see each shovel full teaming with worms. Our neighbors were probably a bit worried and confused to hear us loudly exclaim across the yard "Look at the all WORMS! Hi worms! This is great!" Hey, they're excellent for our garden, which means they're excellent for us.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
To the Promised Land!
The Wonderful and Amazing Wife and I have recently returned from our 2nd international excursion in 6 months. While there are no more trips planned yet, we're digging our mini-streak of jet setting. This time we paid a visit to the promise land, the land of beer and Oktoberfest, the land of schnitzel: Germany. This was my third trip and the Wonderful and Amazing Wife's first trip over. Here's a little taste of what we crammed in during the 8 days we were in country.
We stayed in Göllheim, a very old very European looking town, neat place. This is just a house around the corner from where we stayed.
This is a church that was right across the street from where we stayed, parts of the church were built in 900 A.D.
This is a little vineyard we stopped at on our first day there. Beautiful countryside, rolling lush green hills, heavily speckled with wind turbines (we heart renewable energy!) awash in sunshine (except for that day)
and grapevines.
Falkenstein, it's a castle built in 1135.
The Amazing and Wonderful Wife and I chillin' in what we believe was a chimney in the ol' castle.
Remnants of one of the walls of Falkenstein.
Porta Nigra (the black gate) built by the Romans over a thousand years ago, in the town of Trier, which is the oldest town in Germany.
This is an old tower in the town of Donnersberg, I don't remember how old it is. I'm guessing it's been around longer than anything around here. The stone steps inside were worn down in the center from people walking on them. Or from shoddy construction. We mustered up our mustard and pushed through our fear of heights to go the top.
View from the top of the tower.
Standing in the castle looking down on our minions.
The Spanish are coming!
A very old roman coffin that's hanging out in the center of Göllheim.
We're in Germany!!!
We stayed in Göllheim, a very old very European looking town, neat place. This is just a house around the corner from where we stayed.
This is a church that was right across the street from where we stayed, parts of the church were built in 900 A.D.
This is a little vineyard we stopped at on our first day there. Beautiful countryside, rolling lush green hills, heavily speckled with wind turbines (we heart renewable energy!) awash in sunshine (except for that day)
and grapevines.
Falkenstein, it's a castle built in 1135.
The Amazing and Wonderful Wife and I chillin' in what we believe was a chimney in the ol' castle.
Remnants of one of the walls of Falkenstein.
Porta Nigra (the black gate) built by the Romans over a thousand years ago, in the town of Trier, which is the oldest town in Germany.
This is an old tower in the town of Donnersberg, I don't remember how old it is. I'm guessing it's been around longer than anything around here. The stone steps inside were worn down in the center from people walking on them. Or from shoddy construction. We mustered up our mustard and pushed through our fear of heights to go the top.
View from the top of the tower.
Standing in the castle looking down on our minions.
The Spanish are coming!
A very old roman coffin that's hanging out in the center of Göllheim.
We're in Germany!!!
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