Green Globe

I popped some plants into my old ball planter.  The onions were already in, that is they are the only thing that survived from last year so I left them.  This time I am going for les thirsty plants.  I poked in rosemary, lavender, and thyme.  I needed to fill it up with quite a bit of soil. 

Here is one of the lavenders.  It is quite tiny but that makes it better for this, if it survives.  It is still cool and rainy so perhaps it will settle in nicely before it gets warm.

There it is, just poked into the side.  I've got my fingers crossed.  I also poked in some corsican mint.  That I put towards the bottom as that gets less sun an the water flows there.

It's almost spring

And I have started working on the garden.  It's mostly ugly so I don't like taking photos, vain gardener that I am.  So far I have seen honeybees scouting for flowers.  I felt bad that I only had 2 scattered crocuses blooming, which they did not seem to find.  I also saw my 1st ladybug, on of the asian variety, but a ladybug just the same.  I also found 3 praying mantis eggsacks.  I can't remember their technical name but if you click on the mantis label below, you'll find that word as well as mantis uh... reproduction.  My narcissus are sprouting too, including some thalia bulbs I planted which may or may not bloom well after being exhausted like that.

I have great aspirations for my garden but it's going to take a few weeks before it starts to look good again.

Bulb vase

The composition of these photos isn't great but you can see what I am trying to do. This is my best thalia bloom this winter. I really like this vase and though I have had it for 2 years this is the 1st time a bulb I attempted to force in it has graced me with a bloom. This time I get 3! Thalia tend to have multiple blooms but this winter all of mine have had just 2 per bulb. So right now this one is at its peak.

Spring is coming soon. I will have natural blooms soon.

More Bulbs

These paperwhites are almost ready to bloom. A few days ago spring seemed near. Now I am comforted by my bulbs.

I love this hyacinth vase. It has been blooming for about a week, perfuming the air.

At the base of the stalk is another flower and...

another flower stalk. 2nd flower stalks are generally smaller and strangely shaped but they are still a bonus.

Melt

Hardly melt but I am an optimist. This is the result of letting things go.

This 1st picture shows kale, allysum, and calendula that so far have survived the winter. 2 months to go.

Here's another kale.

Here's the catnip cage showing that the catnip survived but catnip is not vulnerable to much except for cats.

And finally one of my favorites, a lovely leek. If this snow really melts I can harvest a few.

Houseplants

It is snowy out. I have changed to a mac instead of PC and everything looks different. I wonder if my old computer was dim. Anyway, this is the green in my life right now.

This goblet has Thalia narcissus. I forced these last year too. I actually forced a lot of them last year. This winter I didn't go as crazy with it.

Here's one of the garden plants, lemongrass, I am wintering indoors. Some are out while others are in the basement in the cold room.

This is a narcissus, unknown variety and a hyacinth. I really like this hyacinth vase. And this bulb has cooperated by rooting nicely. We'll see how well it blooms. I'm always on the look out for hyacinth vases at thrift stores. This one is unusual.

Bad Blogger

I haven't posted in a while.

There really isn't much to see except for lots of snow.

I will try to get back to this when it gets green again.

If I get feedback, it might prod me to post more.

Hello Again!

I seem to be neglecting this. Well here is the most recent image of myself with a 2nd harvest of red cabbage.

Next we have some fennel. I like fennel but at this point am annoyed by how much fennel I have had. Anyway, this fennel plant is impressive.

Here's several small cabbage head regrowth. They look like large brussel sprouts.

This turkey is coated with 5 squares of dark chocolate. It's my trial thanksgiving turkey. I believe the chocolate worked about the way I thought it would. It stayed adhered to the bird well and seemed to keep things moist.

Cabbages, butterfly, ladybug and hops

Cabbages fascinate me endlessly. This is a tiny 2nd growth.

This better illustrates what's going one, though these have not filled out like the picture above

I have not seen many butterflies but this one flitted around a lot. It likes verbena, lantanas and coneflower.

here's a late season ladybug. I seem to have manged to keep them in my garden all during the growing season. I swear flowers have been vital for that.

Beet

I decided to harvest this bull's blood beet today. It's been growing since this spring. I don't know how tough it will be. In the background is my PG hydrangea.

I have let things get out of control. Tomatoes are like that. Yeah, that's my sidewalk. The bright red is my sidewalk crack love lies bleeding amaranth.

The usual suspect is lurking as usual. The other day I saw him devouring a squirrel. Shortly after that he gave me a hungry meow. He's getting fat and must be the most spoiled feral cat ever.

Saw A Mantis this morning

But I didn't take pictures. I feel like I overdid that especially the reproductive aspect but really it could have been worse. I now know that it is possible for mantises to mate more than once because I witnessed it, and by that I mean female mantises.

They were all AWOL for about a week until this morning. I am not sure if it was Rasputina or Sylvia but the mantis is female and green. I sorta think it is Rasputina. I still have not seen any eggs though there should be some soon.

I'm on a scarf kick

No pictures today. I am just enjoying seeing my experiments. I'm not efficient but I am still creating some cool stuff. I sorta like knitting it up then dying it.

So far I've made 3 scarves that border on shawls, all tapered. They seem to work well layered in various ways. When it's daylight I'll take some pictures.

Hop Harvest

Todd here is helping me uncover our mailbox. We made the mistake of harvesting some immature cones but there's plenty more.

Our hops were planted specifically for brewing beer. I am sorta amazed by how many people ask me "What do you use these for?" Goes to show that I have been keeping different company than I used to.

Decades ago I worked on an archeaological project with 2 crews, the limp dicks and the fat lushes. I was a fat lush. But yes, I suppose I might actually consume some simply as tea.

Thought I'd link to this, Harvesting Home Grown Hops, from Ben's Home Brew youtube account. Ben is actually local to Pittsburgh. Todd has gotten brewing and winemaking supplies from his Tarentum store.

I'm back

Sorry it's been so long. I just got lazy. Everything is overgrown. I look at photos and think now what part of this should I discuss? A cat picture makes it easy. Here's Abe on the sidewalk.

The bed next to my porch has numerous textures and colors. I can pick out 8 different plants in this image. Well maybe next year the chasteberry will bloom. Nice leaves though.

This eggplant, ghostbuster is my current star. The rest have dropped off their production. The skin is a bit thicker perhaps but it still has a nice flavor.