Magpie Blogger
Apr. 20th, 2008 06:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
When the sun rises the light doesn't look pink, but everything it touched when it slants low and long like that in the morning turns a golden peach. In the last twenty-four hours the maples have really started leafing out instead of just blooming outside our window. Leaves are darker than blooms, more green and less lime, and the network of branches will soon be obscured and then the sky itself. We haven't lived here long enough for me to know what that will look like.
I am going to fry some bananas and try going back to bed-- seems like the thing to do at 6:30 am on a Sunday, no? I should be playing Johnny Cash. Instead it's Devendra again.
Awhile ago I set out a couple of goals for my life, and I realised the other day I never follow up on those things in writing. Well, this has become a much more honest and open space for me, that's for sure. I've also allowed those walls I developed for awhile there to stay (for the most part) broken open like Angus left them, and so people can get in again-- but not as wholesale free-for-all as before.
I need to get a spathyphyllum or two for the new place. I bet a ming aralia would live there too! That's super-exciting.
For the deck I'm thinking perennial-wise:
Asparagus
Artichoke
Queen Anne or Rainier cherry
Sour cherry
black cherry
Greengage plum
Persimmon - fuyu or jiro, hachiya or tanenashi, rosseyanka
kiwi Anna (arguta) or Blake or Emlwood or maybe Ken's Red
Apricots x2
Fig(s?)
(Pawpaw?)
Peach?
Plum x2 additionally- maybe a japanese and a tiny yellow?
Quince
Amelanchier
I am going to fry some bananas and try going back to bed-- seems like the thing to do at 6:30 am on a Sunday, no? I should be playing Johnny Cash. Instead it's Devendra again.
Awhile ago I set out a couple of goals for my life, and I realised the other day I never follow up on those things in writing. Well, this has become a much more honest and open space for me, that's for sure. I've also allowed those walls I developed for awhile there to stay (for the most part) broken open like Angus left them, and so people can get in again-- but not as wholesale free-for-all as before.
I need to get a spathyphyllum or two for the new place. I bet a ming aralia would live there too! That's super-exciting.
For the deck I'm thinking perennial-wise:
Asparagus
Artichoke
Queen Anne or Rainier cherry
Sour cherry
black cherry
Greengage plum
Persimmon - fuyu or jiro, hachiya or tanenashi, rosseyanka
kiwi Anna (arguta) or Blake or Emlwood or maybe Ken's Red
Apricots x2
Fig(s?)
(Pawpaw?)
Peach?
Plum x2 additionally- maybe a japanese and a tiny yellow?
Quince
Amelanchier
no subject
Date: 2008-04-20 05:13 pm (UTC)I tried last year. I subbed out half the soil with manure and fresh soil, planted my tomatoes, watered them regularly, and nada. I think I got 3 tomatoes. I'd like to try again this year, but I want a little more assurance that they'd do well. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-20 05:47 pm (UTC)*LOTS of sun. If you don't get a minimum of 6 hours of sun per day, and ideally all day sunshine, try growing something else instead (salad greens are as good as tomatoes for knocking really high pricetags off simple food, and they love shade. I plant them in the second or third rank on a sunny deck, shaded by the tomatoes)
*Big pots. Minimum 5 gallons, 10 gallons is better. Drill some half-inch holes in a big rubbermaid tote if you want something easy and plant two or three in it.
*Good soil. Pots don't drain like the ground does-- the surface tension around the small chunk of soil tends to catch the water and hold it in there. You want a very well-draining mix, I really like those big cubes of sunshine #4 (high aggregate) mix (bonus is it's lightweight for pots), though any sunshine mix works okay. Maybe add a little bit of manure to it (say a shovelfull to a five-gallon pot) but because you don't have all the soil biota there you don't want too much -- there's not too much for it to benefit. Plants don't need *that much* food anyhow. Light is the most important thing. Replace all the soil the first year you do this.
*Lots of water from flowering time onwards, especially when fruits are getting bigger. My five-gallon tomatoes on a really sunny south-facing deck over pavement (really hot) took a gallon or two of water every day or two. That's a lot of watering!
*Variety. Choose something that fruits quickly, not a beefsteak (beefsteaks are big sandwich-slicing tomatoes and they don't produce as well here unless we get a super-hot summer). They key to look for here is 'days to maturity' -- you want a small number. Cherry tomatoes are awesome for pots too. I recommend Stupice, Black Plum, Sungold cherry (you can find these three at the vandusen plant sale this coming sunday or at the farmer's market at trout lake) or Early Girl if you just want to go to a hardware store to get your plants.
That's about all it takes. don't put them out until the weather settles down -- I usualy wait till the middle/end of May, or even June 1st.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-20 08:28 pm (UTC)I've got some cherry tomato seeds, and I'm going to sprout them now. And probably buy a couple plants. The 1/2 barrel I have for tomatoes is right at the south east corner of the house, and the only place that gets more sun is along the south side - and I don't have anywhere to plant along that side... although... I do have a spare rubbermaid... :)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-20 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-20 08:37 pm (UTC)I am definitely going to plant lettuces this year. And cucumbers (long english!) and tomatoes. Pumpkin, and maybe squash too. Ooh, and that dark flat leaf kale! Roommate is planning corn, and salad greens.
Carrots and radishes just won't get eaten, but I have what seems like 80 billion seeds. You want them after you move? Also, I have a mostly full thing of carefresh for you. I can also bring that to you after you move.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 09:32 pm (UTC)What naturally grows under Black Walnut?
Redbud (Cercis canadensis), Pawpaw (Asimina triloba), and Spicebush
(Calycanthus occidentalis) grow as understory shrubs under Black Walnut naturally in Central Illinois. Ground level wildflowers are no less abundant under Black Walnuts than in other natural forest communities.
What productive plants can grow under Black Walnut?
(in no particular order)
American Black Currant - Ribes americanum
European Currant - Ribes nigra, Ribes rubrum, Ribes alba
Missouri Gooseberry - Ribes missouriensis
American Elderberry - Sambucus canadensis
Black Raspberry - Rubus ideaus
Siberian Pea Shrub - Caragana arboescens
Mulberries - Morus nigra, Morus alba
Alpine Strawberries - Fragaria vesca
Goldenseal - Hydrastis canadensis
Wild Ginger - Asarum canadense
Pawpaw - Asimina triloba
Redbud - Cercis canadensis - legume
Bamboo - Phyllostachys spp.
"Rose of Sharon" Hibiscus - Hibiscus Syriacus
Lamb's Quarters - Chenopodium alba
Catnip - Nepata cataria
Daylily - Hemerocallis sp
Sunchokes - Helianthus tuberosa
no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 01:37 am (UTC)Also: sunchokes, daylilly, lamb's quarters, pawpaw, mulberries, alpine strawberries, currant and gooseberry: these are some of my favourite plants of all time. Remind me now to worry about walnuts anymore! All I'd need would be to keep my precious tomatoes out of the way.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 03:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 01:36 am (UTC)