Peas Please!

When my husband I bought our house, one of our first tasks upon settling in, was to install a vegetable garden.  We didn't have a lot of space to work with on our acreage.  Most of it is a giant, rocky, slope which was once pasture land - not ideal for maneuvering a tiller.  We settled on a small patch in the existing turf adjacent to our house.  Knowing we were going to be battling our furry deer neighbors, we got to work creating our own 'Fort Knox'.  Tall field fencing was wrapped around concrete anchored posts.  This thing was going nowhere and no one was getting in unless they had opposable thumbs.  It also meant that the size of our garden would pretty much be a finite situation.  It didn't take one growing season for me to realize that this space wasn't going to be big enough for my horticultural desires.  $#@^!!!!!

In an effort to increase our veggie haul without increasing the garden space, we've gradually been integrating the vegetables with the flowers.  First it was the asparagus patch which joined the herbs. This year, I decided to plant a row of snap peas at the back of our front flower bed where we have a bit of chicken wire fencing.

Oddly enough, this is my first foray into the pea realm.  I've never been a pea lover but have always tolerated the snap pea.

I decided to give it a whirl - more spring veggies are always a welcome thing.  I planted seeds in late March and waited patiently for them to make an appearance.  The long, wet, chilly spring made everything move slowly but they eventually got busy growing and we had our first harvest over the Memorial Day holiday.  Baby birds and peas all in one weekend, oh my!  Although temps have been unseasonably high, the peas seem to be handling it like a champ.  This is a cultivar I will try again.  Great for salads, stir fry and many don't even make it inside the house.

Butterfly Bush - Not just for Lepidoptera....

In amongst a butterfly bush in our front flower bed, what I believe to be a song sparrow, has made a home with her mate and sprouted 5 babies!  We've been keeping tabs on this growing family since we discovered the nest accidentally while harvesting sugar snap peas which are behind the shrub.  We took a closer peek while mama was away gathering food and snapped this shot.

The babies hatched sometime between May 29th and May 30th.  Memorial Day Kids.  All 5 seem happy and healthy.  Mama and papa have been so patient with all the activity around the nest.  We can hear them nearby, calling out the distinct 'chip' note as an alarm.  It shouldn't be long before these little ones fly the coop.  It's been fun watching them grow.

Forgiveness from a Spiraea

In early May, I made a colorful discovery in a dumpster that I walk by nearly every day at my place of employment.

I won't tell you where, since, the information that follows is surely admittance of trespassing guilt.  Inside of this particular dumpster were 3 lovely spirea shrubs which were plucked from their homes to make way for construction equipment.  I walked by them several times that day but could do so no more without action.  Having a bleeding horticulturist heart is a tough burden to bear.  We end up doing ridiculous things like diving in dumpsters at 9am on Saturday mornings (with assistance from strong husbands) and hoisting heavy shrubs with gigantic root balls out of harms way and into safe, loving care.

These lovely spiraea were about to burst into flower when they were rushed to safety.  Because of a long string of rainy days weeks, they had to sit, heeled into a pile of hardwood mulch while they waited for their permanent home.  I sheared them back to prevent flowering so the plants could focus on root growth.  To my great surprise, these shrubs were incredibly forgiving.  They showed no signs of stress during their stay in that temporary home and are beginning to flourish in their new location.  New sprouts have sprung forth from lower branches and soon they won't look like they were once 'trash' turned into one woman's treasure!

Take that, gigantic zucchini!!

You are now tasty relish....

Views from the holler.

Patience is a Virtue!

Being a gardener means you must exercise patience. When you plant that Narcissus bulb in the fall, it's daunting to think you must wait through an entire season of cold, rain and snow for it to make its appearance so that you can reap its visual benefits. When you plant that bareroot twig of an oak, you will have to wait an entire generation to see it in its full glory and even then, you won't be around to see it in its old age. Thus is the burden of a gardener. We must be patient and hold hope in the beauty to come or the beauty that is left for others to enjoy after we are long gone. 

The same is true for the asparagus patch we planted in the spring of 2009. I graciously accepted a few crowns from a friend who had run out of space in her garden (another plight of the hopeless gardener!). I had never tried asparagus in any of my previous planting adventures, so I was eager to give it a whirl. I too had run out of space in my 'deer proof' vegetable plot, so, I carved out an area near the herb garden. Following the advice of various books and online resources, I dug a trench and placed the crowns within it, about a foot from each other. I covered them with compost and soil and kept them moist, which, was not a difficult task given the vast amount of rain we had during the growing season. After several weeks of said 'patience', we finally had our first sprouts poking through.  As difficult as it was, we left those sprouts alone to leaf out. Asparagus is a beautiful and rich shade of green when allowed to leaf out. Its branches delicate and soft as a feather. So, although we couldn't eat it, we could still harvest some enjoyment from its form. We staked up the stalks for support so they could continue to send vital nutrients to the roots - a must for building a good patch. Then we waited... 

After another long, cold, snowy winter, we were thrilled to have spring back with us and even more joyful to see what had popped up from the crust of the freshly thawed earth!  

Although many sources say you must wait until the third year to harvest your first stalks, some do suggest this is old news and that year two is fine.  Although, 'Patience is a Virtue', we held to the latter advice and went for it. We harvested a moderate amount of stalks from the original four crowns and we were glad we did! What incredible, fresh taste coming straight from the plant - no cooking necessary, though, it is tasty pan seared with a bit of butter and garlic. We also had enough restraint to let some of the stalks leaf out again. Truth be told, we could have harvested a bit more since the crowns produced stalks for over a month, but the patch will be all the better for it in year three!

It ain't easy bein' green....

If you're living somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic region, you may have noticed mass quantities of moisture falling from the sky..... EVERY DAY since forever ago.  I shall not complain as we have been in a rain deficit for quite some time and well, hello - we live in a temperate rainforest.  I would not however be upset by a little sun peep show - just a little one.  Globe of Fire - are you up there?  Thankfully, the garden plant kids are soaking up the good stuff.  The husband and I have been waking up early with the fur-friends, crawling out of bed and trekking out to the garden in our pajamas to collect the harvest before heading to work.  If you've never tried this, I highly recommend.  Morning harvests are peaceful.  The sunbeams are kinder and gentler (when they exist) and they're almost always accompanied by a Appalachian Mountain morning mist.  Couple that with the chatter of the morning songbirds and the whoosh of the crazed hummers fighting for an open spot at the feeders and you've set yourself up for a great day.  When I walk back inside with our big bin of garden loot and smell the coffee brewing, I feel like I might have just won the lottery or at least a giant salad for dinner.....