2 posts tagged “garden”

20080627Salmonberries

When we moved into the house we got, in the bargain, a few rows of various cane fruits;  namely thornless blackberries and raspberries, though we bought it at the very end of the season so we didn't actually see much of the fruit.  So back in the fall I pruned back some canes.  It started blossoming and fruiting in the last few weeks and I discovered some of the big healthy raspberry bushes, were actually salmonberries.  Which are all very well and good in their place (one or two on a hike are okay) , but they are really fierce and thorny not that delicious unless you're a bear and were blocking out the light to the raspberries.  So I have been methodically pulling them out.  The branches with actual salmonberries on them were very easy to identify, but I had to figure out which stems went to which plant and how the leaves were different.  What I found was that raspberries have teardrop shaped leaves and salmonberries have an extra little point on each side of the leaf.  I also cleared out some ferns, lots of salal  -- which apparently makes a very yummy jelly and its leaves make a great tea , but it is an extremely agressive and invasive plant and it is hard to keep it from taking over.  Our blueberries are still green, but are getting plumper by the day, and the huckleberries are starting to make little berries too.  There are even a few strawberry plants around with tiny green berries.  Bring on the ice cream! 

Since May is just about here, I thought I'd send one out in April.  Here things are going fairly well.  No news on any library jobs.  Homeschooling continues to progress.  We're up to Pocahontas and Jamestown and I learned for the first time that Mary Queen of Scots and Bloody Mary are two completely different people, though related.  Bloody Mary was Elizabeth I's older half-sister.  Mary Queen of Scots was a cousin, the daughter of the King of Scotland whom Elizabeth I had killed when there was possible evidence she was after England's throne.  MQOS was the mother of James I, who succeed Elizabeth to the throne.

The weather up here made history last week  --   we got the latest snow in recorded history in the Seattle area at SEATAC on April 18th and 19th.  The benefits are that it extended the tulip season, we got to play in the snow and my procrastination in setting out our veggie garden this year was rewarded.   I planted it this weekend instead and now have to find a way to battle the slugs and save the strawberries and lettuce.  There was a cool blog that mentioned that slugs get a shock when they touch copper, so rings of pennies around plants will keep them at bay.  We certainly have enough old pennies to do the job.  If the rain holds off, I'll have the kids do it this afternoon.

One more garden-y type of thing.  Ever since I watched an ER episode about 14 years ago where Carol Hathaway helps a lady save her worms from freezing I have been really interested in worm composting.  We haven't really had a good set-up for it and I honestly haven't gotten around to it.  It has a bit of the feeling of having a pet and being responsible for another living creature, so while I thought it would be cool and loved the idea of turning waste into good soil quickly, I hadn't done it.  Fast forward to this house, where there really isn't a garbage disposal  - there is one, but its location doesn't work out, and there is a big yard with a little "compost bin."   I've been taking our food scraps and peelings and having the kids dump them in there.  Imagine my delight when I turned the pile today and found my own private colony of happy little worms, composting away!  They are doing a fabulous job, and I don't have to do a thing but keep adding food scraps.  The bin has open sides, so the finished compost spills out the bottom.  I did have to remove an opportunistic raspberry bush or two that had decided the compost pile was their home, but otherwise things are going well.