Plant Some Beans and Lighten Up

Today I plant the bush beans. I'll plant some in my raised bed and start some inside for the places I'll need to protect them from the slugs. Yesterday I harvested almost all the radishes and so I have space now. I've been eating radishes and kale almost every supper now in an attempt to lighten up my diet. "Lighten up" is my key phrase for the month. I've got to get rid of this tendency to plunge into anxiety as I get more and more tired from my busy season. Only about 28 more days to go before things really lighten up. The weather has also been my nemesis this spring. I do appreciate all the rain but the cold temperatures are getting on my tits.

Yesterday I harvested and culled bamboo in C's yard and we had a nice glass of iced bancha twig tea under the lilac tree chez-nous. My friend dropped off some wild garlic in a pot and also a few stalks to try. It is pungeant and fresh. I think this used to grow on the prairie. I have a sweet memory of a sunny day on a hillside with that same pungent smell coming from a plant with delicate white flowers.

I have been ironing fabric to prep it for my installation. I have to bite the bullet and start cutting now. It's that vulnerable stage between conception and realization. I hate this bit. This is where I wish I had a proper studio with a large clean cutting table, an industrial sewing machine and an assistant!

We've been enjoying the Ataulfo mangoes in smoothies with cardamon, yogurt and rosewater. P should be home soon. We sure miss him and he has been incommunicado as usual. All these new ways to communicate and not one word. Strewth.

Seeds, Spies, and Spooky Blooms

I have been watching more of watching M15 series, loving the art director's palate because it complements the greys and taupes of London so well with the black iron railings. There's nice accent shades of pale blue greens which look good in that city, also a bit of light muted coral which works well--and what a good-looking cast.

Peter made a lovely lamb stew for supper. I baked chocolate chip cookies with hemp hearts--a modification of David Lebowitz's Chocolate chip cookie recipe which is my current favorite. These can go in the lunch box because they don't contain nuts.

I've been breaking tasks down into seasonal components and winter is a time for sorting and labeling seeds, garden research and goal setting. I've decided I want the garden closest to the house to be strawberries, culinary herbs, edible flower and tea garden. I am also going to grow a few climbing beans at the very back because they grow so well there. It's time to pull up my strawberry garden because the plants are getting old. I'll put bush beans and clover in there to remediate the soil.

I've got to do more research on shade plants for other areas of the garden. In the raised bed I'm going to put lemon cukes on a trellis, and grow salad greens, zucchini, marigolds, beets, squash, sunflowers and arugula. I'm going to plant holly hocks on the west side near the fence and to be try something absolutely different I'm going to order a mix of seeds for "black" flowers. I think they will be a nice contract next to the brightly colored fleurs. I won't plant them all in one spot, just a little bit of a gothic touch here and there. It will be interesting to see if the bees like them.

Organizing Seed Packets

I've been feeling like I've had a bit of a sluggish start to 2011. I need to get my mojo back. One thing that I'm excited about is preparing for some workshops I'll be giving on creating garden journals and collecting garden memories. After a quick look on the web I discovered a great idea at Shelley Inspired that is incredibly simple: organize your seed packets by putting them in photo album sleeves. Brilliant. For smaller packets you can use the plastic sleeves that game card collectors use. I now have a small album bulging with seed packets.

Hey, I won another contest: two tickets to the Push Festival. Yay!

Lovecraft, Baby

So there's a running joke in our house about my creating a World of Lovecraft because the boys are addicted to Warcraft. (Insert rolling eyes here.) I've been meaning to create some seed storage vessels, and I saw an idea in Sartha Mewart Magazine that I had to try. First, ya got to eat a lot of cheese. Goat brie to be exact. Done that. Next you glue a circle of paper over the top of the box and ribbons around the edges. Note that I've been using CD sleeves to store seeds, but they tend to leak if you don't tape them at the top. I like the windows, though. They are also great for storing ends of embroidery thread.

Share the love. Make lovecrafts, not war. What kind of seed vessels are you creating this year?