this is how to cut a tree

I thought I was cool when i got to use dad’s chain saw. This morning, i was shown wrong. Rounding the corner on my bike, i ran into this:

A crane. In my neighborhood. What for!?

I slipped by and this slipped out of my mind for the day. Coming back from work, I was reminded when I spotted a second crane, holding up a… man… with a chain saw in hand. Cutting up a tree.

Back to the original crane, i peered around and found the man with chain saw:

Hanging by the crane, standing on a massive limb he was cutting. This is certainly the best way to cut a tree. Way cooler than just my little chain saw on a puny 30 foot cedar. I don’t get logs like this:

slug party

Slug traps come in a four pack of tall boys from McDades. They don’t seem to mind that its just warm Steel Reserve, in fact, they absolutely love it. A small dish of beer attracts the slugs, they climb in and then die of alcohol poisoning. Trails leading to the dish indicate that they set out for the beer that night, not my plants.

Morning after, by the bush beans:

With a few nourishing rainstorms (tragically, devastating in other parts of the state), warm weather and lots of sunshine, most things are coming up nicely. Again, I was late putting things into pots, so my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are probably well behind this season. Some are in pots on the deck to transplant, some are in large pots to stay. A few rows in the side garden have been planted from seed with tomatoes, cayenne peppers, mini bell peppers and eggplants. The mini bell peppers are not really coming up, I wonder if that is because i stereotyped them into the small pots on the deck…

The kale and cabbage are being eaten by ants, as the last things still in the garden besides arugula, going to seed. Two generations of carrots are popping up on the other end of the garden. Garlic planted a few months ago seems to be withering, apparently a sign its ready for harvest soon! I had made two mounds for squash in the street side garden, but apparently the seeds felt the need to migrate down away, maybe washed in the rains, maybe just traveling.

Surprisingly, the blueberry bushes have berries. I guess it is about time, but we only just planted them! The blackberries are springing up, and the muscadines are branching out, looking for their trellis. Still waiting on the cucumbers and such at the top trellis…

catch up

When I got back from my extended spring break, i found the garden on an absolute tear. Everything had shot up while I was gone thanks to the abundance of sunshine and warm air and a bit of rain. This did mean, unfortunately, that many of the winter crops were bolting. Arugula, mustards, turnips, radishes were all bolting, or nearly bolting. Soon to follow were brussels sprouts and lettuce. It was impressive while they were still around. The arugula flowers smell of honey, and I am keeping them around for seeds.

I did not take any pictures during that epoch, nor have I taken any of the current work.

I started a number of plants in pots now, tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers and eggplants. Some will be transplanted when they are of age, others are just to be shifted around as I please. I followed Felders recommendation with that, just get a big pot and put things in it! He says it is easy, so ill go with it. The side garden is almost completely changed: I have added two mounds for squash which are starting to sprout, another little patch of carrots. A few tomato and bell peppers have been transplanted in, while rows of greens were removed (and eaten!) to make room for tomatoes, bell peppers, bush beans, eggplants and cayenne peppers. The back yard peas are steadily climbing, almost reaching the deck now. I have made an okra patch fairly inconveniently located under the clothes line. The muscadine trellis in the front will have to do double duty this summer, supporting brown berry tomatoes, cucumbers, and pole beans and peas.

more as this develops.

this is my plug for hutto’s

A neighbor walking by noticed the fruit trees with their pots carefully wrapped in plastic bags. It could only be the distinguished service from Hutto’s, our local garden center (on Ellis just north of 80) she noticed. The blueberry bushes? Hutto’s. The psychedelic colored chard? Hutto’s. The sugar snap peas planted to grow up onto the back deck? Hutto’s. Everything we needed. Also the shovel, the yard of bedding mix, the ten pound bag of zinc, and the basic slag (only a couple of dollars for more steel industry waste than we know what to do with).

Today was a big day for thinning. And a bit of planting. We managed to put one more blueberry bush in place before E and her big ideas halted further progress until a committee could convene. All of the greens by the road were thinned. Two rows of non-producing things (cabbage and lettuce) were replaced with carrots and radishes. The end of the sidewalk was re-engineered with chard. Sugar snap peas were planted in the back, near a planned okra row, so that they can climb up onto the deck for us to harvest.

In other news, it was pretty happnin’ downtown. A comedy tour was in town at the convention center, which we discovered after getting out of the screening of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal at the art museum. The King Edward had some searchlights nearby, and Thalia Mara may have had a small event as well.