Some people adopt animals. I adopt plants.

Some people adopt animals in need. I adopt plants and nurse them back to health. Lowe’s has a section of carts in the back of the garden center full of plants that weren’t watered, have gotten beaten up and are otherwise not saleable. The best part is that are for sale at a DEEP discount. Being a frugal gardener, I am all over those carts! All they need is a little bit of extra attention.

Here are a couple of finds from last week. I had two days of jury duty and I needed something to lift my spirits and clear my energy so I stopped at the garden center on the way home.

Coreopsis

Coreopsis, also known as tickseed, is one of my favorites because it grows so well in my yard and the yellow flowers are so vibrant. Two years ago I had a big beautiful plant that was killed by some people doing work at the house-clearly I am  still seething about that incident-so now I have a replacement. Just cut off the deadstuff, give it a little more TLC and in a couple of weeks I will have a happy perennial that I bought for $2.00.

Geum is new to me but I love the orange flowers. Another perennial, that will keep coming back year after year, for $3.00. 

Bring your smart phone, it comes in handy to identify the plants and to get some basic information like what conditions the plant needs, how big it will get and what it looks like.

Victory is eating what you grow

For me, one of the most gratifying things about gardening is eating what I grow. It's the end of the life cycle of the plant. The cycle starts when I first start planning in the winter and the seeds get planted in trays and placed in the sunniest windows or started outside directly in my raised bed. I wait with anticipation - will the seeds sprout?

Phew, we have a sprout! Major victory.

Lettuce, kale, radishes and arugula.

Now how do I keep this little thing alive for weeks until it can be put outside. We had a rollercoaster spring here in D.C. with wild swings in temperature and then it snowed really late. It is so tempting to put your vegetables in the ground when it's in the 70s in March. Be strong, don't do it!

I much prefer direct sowing seeds because I have more success and I am not turning my house upside down. When I start seeds indoors, I am creating a climate that does not exist in my house and it's kind of a pain. (Is this window sunny enough? Why am I moving these trays all around the house all day, following the winter sun?)

I REALLY wanted to try winter sowing this year, but did not start any trays to put outside because of the really warm winter and spring we had. I was afraid the seeds would sprout really early and not survice or they would sprout and then freeze when the temperature dropped again.

I took some chances with the spring garden knowing that these are tough little plants and can withstand some cooler weather. Yesterday I picked a bunch of lettuce, arugula and kale and two teeny radishes that were all started outside. And today I made scrambled  eggs and added some of these fantastic spicy lettuce greens (Burpee mesclun spicy mix) that I chopped up. Delish! And this week, my lunch salad will feature the kale, lettuce and arugula. The greens stay fresh for many days, too, because they are picked fresh from my backyard.

The great peat debate (in my head anyway)

The other day I was searching for information about how to substitute for peat moss in the new pumpkin patch raised bed I am putting in the yard. I made the soil mix from Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening when I installed my first raised bed five years ago. It has worked well for me as you can see on the progress of the spring crop in the photos, but I have since heard that peat moss is not sustainable so I do not want to use it again.

Clockwise from top left: Lettuce and arugula, kale and tendersweet and nantes carrots in the background, Stuttgarter onions, Cherry Belle radishes, Bloomsdale spinach

Some of the things I had read in my searching – from sources that I felt were reputable – offered so many contradictory answers like (1) justification for using peat moss, (2) explaining that peat and peat moss are different, (3) try using coir, the fiber from the out husk of a coconut, and (4) coir may have salt in it that will kill your plants—are you sensing my frustration? 

Well, the next day, this story appeared in the Washington Post, “Peat Moss: Good For Plants But Bad for the Planet?”, timing is amazing sometimes, right?

What have you used as a peat substitute in your garden? There is no easy answer. So my solution is trying coir and increasing the compost. My other lesson is to take a breath, it will be okay!

Attracting Beneficial Pollinators

Starting Milkweed From Seed

Here’s the progress of the milkweed I started from seed a few weeks ago. I got the seeds at Washington Gardner’s Seed Swap Day on January 28, at Brookside Gardens in Maryland. I put the seeds (the fuzzy white things pictured lower right) in the fridge for four weeks (that’s called stratification, not to be confused with scarification) as instructed. 

Back in early April, reusing a cupcake container from Safeway, I punched a few drainage holes in the bottom, put them in seed-starting mix, found a warm spot in the house and hoped for the best. My friend Jen told me it took milkweed two years to germinate in her yard so I did not have high hopes. But a few weeks later, I had my first sprout! And then many days later, another sprout. I think these seven seedlings have been coming over the past few weeks. They definitely did not all sprout at the same time and I hope to get one or two more before I put them in the ground later in May in a sunny flower bed where I also grow Black-eyed Susan.

The zinnias I plant every year attract butterflies and Goldfinches, too. I look forward to seeing a few more butterflies in my Hyattsville gardens this summer.

Create Habitat for Monarchs in Your Garden

According to the Monarch Joint Venture, Monarch butterflies cannot survive without milkweed; their caterpillars only eat milkweed plants (Asclepias spp.), and monarch butterflies need milkweed to lay their eggs. With shifting land management practices, we have lost much milkweed from the landscape. Planting milkweed is a great way to help other pollinators too, as they provide valuable nectar resources to a diverse suite of bees and butterflies.

Get Ready for National Pollinator Week in June

What can you do for pollinators?
There’s a lot here, just choose one that’s doable to get started this year.

•  Create a pollinator-friendly garden habitat in just a few simple steps.

• Design your garden so that there is a continuous succession of plants flowering from spring through fall. Check for the species or cultivars best suited to your area and gradually replace lawn grass with flower beds.
  
• Plant native to your region using plants that provide nectar for adults plus food for insect larvae, such as milkweed for monarchs.  If you do use non-native plants, choose ones that don't spread easily, since these could become invasive.
  
• Select old-fashioned varieties of flowers whenever possible because breeding has caused some modern blooms to lose their fragrance and/or the nectar/pollen needed to attract and feed pollinators.
  
• Install 'houses' for bats and native bees. For example, use wood blocks with holes or small open patches of mud. As little as 12” across is sufficient for some bees.
  
• Avoid pesticides, even so-called "natural" ones such as Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). If you must use them, use the most selective and least toxic ones and apply them at night when most pollinators aren't active.
  
• Supply water for all wildlife. A dripping faucet or a suspended milk carton with a pinhole in the bottom is sufficient for some insects. Other wildlife need a small container of water.
  
• Provide water for butterflies without letting it become a mosquito breeding area. Refill containers daily or bury a shallow plant saucer to its rim in a sunny area, fill it with coarse pine bark or stones and fill to overflowing with water. 
  
• Share fun facts, such as: a tiny fly (a “midge”) no bigger than a pinhead is responsible for the world's supply of chocolate; or one out of every three mouthfuls of food we eat is delivered to us by pollinators.

More Information

Pollinator Partnership 

2017 Green Matters Symposium, Montgomery County, Maryland

Twelve Native Milkweeds for Monarchs, National Wildlife Federation

"Why planting milkweed won’t halt monarch butterfly decline" (Washington Post, March 18, 2017)

Container Gardens Are Flexible and Easy

Torenia and pentas love the sun.

Container gardens offer a lot of flexibility making it easy to grow herbs, flowers, even vegetables, in a small space. When I lived in a condo in D.C. I grew herbs and flowers on my 5th-floor window sill. Now that I live in a house with a yard, containers will add a lot of variety to my landscape this summer. They can also help use your space as it presents itself-clay soil, wet spots, harsh sun, dense shade, or maybe you rent and you can't dig up the yard.


Work With What You Have
I have what I call micro-climates in my yard and containers allow me to grow successfully in those spaces. Take the back steps as an example. It is about 10 feet wide and has extreme sun and total shade in the same small space. When I plan for those pots each spring, I have to remember they will not grow the same things well. Begonias and parsley grow beautifully in the shady section but would be burnt to a crisp just a few feet away in the sunny section. Pentas and torenia (wishbone plant) love the sun and flower all summer long in the sunny section, but would not flower so nicely in the shade all day.

Clockwise starting with red begonia, creeping jenny, coleus, parsley, mint all do well in shade.

Get Creative
In my quest to expand my knowledge and put it to work, I turn to Pinterest for container gardening #pinsperation. While many of the posts are professionally staged and sometimes include flowers that would never be in bloom at the same time, I like the variety of containers that are featured. I am now scouring my local thrift stores and neighbor's curbs on trash day for quirky containers for the summer. Like an old chair! Whodathunk?

Reclaim Your Space
Containers can also put your space to work. You can stick a container in a neglected corner or decorate some steps or along a fence. Containers also give you more control over the soil, too.

When you really think about it, a raised bed is just a large container. I was not up for breaking up the yard and amending the clay soil in my yard so I installed a 4 foot x 8 foot raised bed vegetable garden 5 years ago.

Caring for Bulbs After They Bloom

In my yard the flowering plants are kind of in limbo. 

Daffodils

• The forsythia has flowered and the leaves are now coming in. 
• The hydrangea has come back after popping back in February when we had a string of very warm days and dying a few weeks later when it snowed and was below freezing for multiple days in a row. I cut off the deadwood above the new green leaves and it looks good again.
• All of the bulbs have passed now. My daffodils bloomed weeks ago thanks to those 70-degree days in February and now all that remains is the drab foliage. The tulips were beautiful this spring, but just a couple of blooms remain. It may be tempting to cut all the leaves and stems, but STOP! The leaves help the bulbs deep down in the dirt rejuvenate themselves. Right now, deadhead the flowers, not letting them so to seed. Don't touch the leaves just yet, though, let them die on their own. When the leaves let go with a gentle tug, then it's time to remove them. It's so tempting to cut them off, I know. They look ugly and seem to take forever to die, but just leave them be. You will be thankful next February and March when they start poking through the dirt again. If you will need to move or split the bulbs in the fall, mark the spots now - I use golf tees - so you can find them easily.

No More Decapitated Tulips

Warsawa (solid red) and World Expression tulips.

Tulips are my favorite flower. Their simple shape and uniformity are what attracts me I think. A few years ago I picked up a bag of 50 bulbs at Home Depot that was a mix of Warsawa (solid red) and World Expression (red and cream). They are starting to fill a new bed that was created under a large tree in the front yard when we put a low retaining wall around it.

Last year the tulips did not very well--I wonder if it was because of the all the rain we had. And the squirrels were decapitating them--grrrr. But things turned around this year and the bed looks beautiful. It just needs more tulips...

It all started with the peas

Last summer I decided to really expand my thinking about what was possible growing vegetables in my climate (USDA zone 7A). I grew up in Rhode Island and my father had a summer garden with tomatoes, beans and cucumbers so that was my frame of reference. I have lived here in Maryland, in a much warmer climate, for more than 20 years now, but breaking out of that "summer garden" mindset has been HARD. This breakthrough has involved a lot of growth for me. I felt like I did have a spring garden because I grew peas. That I didn't even eat! Walking with my friend one morning in January, I actually verbalized this AHA and I laughed at myself. I was growing them year after year because I was eager to get back to my raised bed and see something grow. So I got past the mental block the peas were causing me and started growing other spring vegetables that I actually DO want to eat. It sounds to simple but it took me a long time to get here.

And here I am! I have growing cherry belle radish, bloomsdale spinach, tendersweet and nantes carrots, stuttgarter onions (started March 1) and siberian kale that I direct sowed on March 25. I have parsley and tarragon that never dies year after year and some more kale that I got as seedlings from my same friend.

Cherry Belle Radish

Bloomsdale Spinach

Long Island Improved Brussels Sprouts

Stuttgarter Onions

I have lettuce and arugula planned for the next week or so. And a few hold outs from last fall-one spinach plant, 2 long island improved brussells sprouts and a few carrots. I have a full garden in April. Yay me!

My advice? Just try it and see what happens. We have had very strange weather here with a very warm February, pretty cold March and April is feeling a little warm, too. My timing was based a little on the last frost date from the Old Farmers Almanac and a little by a planting spreadsheet I got from the You Grow Girl blog the Lazy Gardner years ago and a little on my own motivation. Not scientific my any means! That's not how I manage my gardens.

New project, Halfway Wrap

I am starting a new project today that I am really excited about called Halfway Wrap by designer Verra Valimaki. The striping created in this piece intrigued me and I think I found the right yarn to really capture the color variation that the stripes create.

Browsing the shelves in the yarn store yesterday, I found myself drawn to the cool purple-gray-black color palette AGAIN. I resisted and purposefully chose this warm orange and purple "Bad Moon Rising" (left) from Dragonfly Fibers. The complimenting "Amethyst Earring" from Manos is also a warm purple.


I just finished another scarf called Color Affection by Verra.

New year, new yarn

I was in Old Town Alexandria (Va.) this week and stopped at Fibre Space to look at yarn for a couple of new projects. I would like to make a sweater using bulky yarn and I have been eyeing Geodesic, knit using lace-weight, for quite some time. Well I found a gorgeous lace yarn from Dragonfly Fibers called December Baby. How appropriate, I am a December baby! It's a rich, deep blue with very slight variation. This is my first lace-weight project so I am excited to see how it goes. It will take some time to knit, but I am already enjoying watching the color unfold. The selection of bulky was not great, so I will look around online for that.

The Koala sweater I have been working on for TWO YEARS is still lingering. I love Ravelry, but now I can really see how long it takes to finish a project-that's good and bad. Bad for Koala, my jaw dropped when I saw that I started it in Dec. 2008. It was supposed to be a quicky sweater but has not turned out that way. I watched this very helpful seaming video on You Tube (thank you Ilina) and had inspired me to finish seaming the sweater, the part I like the least.

The problem all along has been that I don't feel comfortable sewing the seams, like I am fudging it. This video put me at ease because much of what I have been doing was right! The other problem has been with the fabric curling a lot. In my mind, this is a quicky sweater so blocking before seaming was out of the question. Not anymore. It was an obstacle I just was not seeing so this afternoon I washed and blocked it all and tomorrow I tackle the rest of piecing and seaming.

Preparing for winter

This year I have a new farm for CSA, Bending Bridge Farm in Penn. I am using the newish model of paying upfront for the CSA, like normal. The difference is I get to pick out what I want every week because they are at the Bethesda Central Farm Market every Sunday. I do my shopping and they debit my total from my share. I am so happy with this model because I am not getting stuff I don't want in quantities I could never finish in one or even two weeks. If you are in a CSA, I highly recommend this new model. And my farm has great selection: red and green peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, garlic, wax beans, green beans, Asian egglant, greens, lettuce, watermelon, cantaloupe, and more.

And being at the farm market every week is great because what Audrey and Cameron do not have, like peaches, I can buy from the other farmers. I am spoiled by the peaches (at about $2.50/lb) and would like to freeze some for use later. After trying the popular cooking web sites (for example Epicurious and All Recipies) and finding them completely useless, I found some large university extension services with great resources on freezing fruit and vegetables:
University of Minn. Extension
Colorado State Extension
University of Ga. Cooperative Extension

This will be my project for the week.

Living trust and will? Done.

Every once in a while I do something that reminds me that I am 41. An adult. Who needs to handle her life like an adult when necessary. Today I finalized my living trust and will.

It has been on my to do list literally for years, ever since I bought property. One reason it took me so long is I did not really know how to start to the process*. Arlington Adult Ed can take the credit for pushing me along. I attended a class this summer about getting the will written, knowing that I need to take the first step in attaining that goal. The lawyer who taught that class was very sensible, not scary or threatening, and drove the point home to me that this is something that I need to complete.

It really was not that hard, just time-consuming. Choosing beneficiaries and executor was thought-provoking and kind of difficult. I have two brothers and I did not want to offend the one I did not choose, but in the end I know I made the right choice. And there is nothing that can't be changed if my choices are eating away at me.

So I feel a big sense of satisfaction today.

*I don't think I am alone in not really knowing how or where to begin. For example, as I was leaving the office this afternoon to head over to the lawyer's, I rode the elevator with a colleague. A very smart guy, slightly younger than me, with a wife and children. He revealed that he does not have a will. What? Dude, you have kids!

Thanks DC Blogs

for the mention last week:

http://dcblogs.com/?p=3078

It's the only time I get hits! BTW, I got a email from a knitter who read my post about the guy subletting the apartment from the psychiatrist who requires he be out of the apartment 3 days a week. She is also a psychiatrist and laughed. I thought that was a pretty good coincidence.

Time to start thinking about Christmas gifts, knitters!

Time to start thinking about Christmas gifts, knitters! I found some nice yarn on sale on Elann today, for a new scarf for my father. Thanks to the yardage estimator here and the random stripe generator here, I think I figured out the yardage and some fun stripes.

Yesterday I met-up with the DC Threads meetup for the first time. Very nice women, and a small group which I prefer. We had knitters, crocheters, and a cross-stitcher, so there was good representation. The group meets in the atrium of the American Art Museum, a very public place, and it was funny the people who stopped to chat with us. One woman belonged to a card group that has never played cards, in the 43 years she has been part of the group, so she was impressed with us actually doing what we meet to do. I made some progress on Tudora, but I realize I can't knit and talk at the same time!

Snap out of it

I found some nice buttons on Etsy today; thinking about making another Tudora so I will need another funky button. It was a fast project and I have a whole ball of yarn leftover. It will make a good Christmas gift.

I was off today, another long weekend before the end of the summer. I considered driving to the beach but the total of 6 hours driving made me think twice. I hate living so far from the ocean! It has bugged me for as long as I have lived in D.C.

This summer has been a drain on my psyche for some reason. Have not figured it out yet. I hope the reason for all of the angst and feeling so low will become clear in the coming months. I just can't seem to snap out of it. A breakthrough has to be on the other side of this.

Now that I can cable

Now that I can cable, I feel like I have a whole new world of knitting in front of me. I used to avoid patterns w/cabling, shrinking in fear. Oh no, not cables!

Here's the progress on Tudora. I am psyched about my Berroco Blackstone Tweed yarn in Salt Water. The color is great (and what a great name), I hope it translates on the Web. It's a very blue teal color, w/little flecks.

Sublet with a catch

Had the most fascinating conversation yesterday afternoon with a guy living in D.C. on a temporary assignment at NIH. I met him at the bar of a mediterannean restaurant in my 'hood.

Having the day off, I went to the spa for an afternoon facial and manicure (thanks Groupon). Feeling all relaxed and shiny clean, I decided to stop in for a glass of red wine on my way home. This restaurant has a great selection of South American red wine and I knew I could grab a mezze or two if I was hungry. I love afternoons like this and I don't have them very often.

Shortly after I sat down at the empty bar and started sipping my glass of Argentinian Malbec, in walks a regular. Ann, the bartender greeted Ron by name and uncapped a Yuengling. There was some small talk, he lives in Seattle, going to Hawaii next week for vacation with his wife who is living in Seattle, blah blah. Then Ann brings me up to speed in Ron's living situation and the sitcom they have been planning over the many weeks that Ron has been visiting the bar.

He is subletting a studio apartment in NW from a psychologist. The psych lives in south Florida, but three days a week she comes to D.C. to see patients. On those days, Ron has to put all of his "stuff" away and stay out of the apartment from 8AM to 8PM. Oh the story lines this TV show could have! We were on a roll, I just hope we can remember them all after all the wine and beer.

I love this sort of stuff. And of course he found this apartment on Craigslist. Where else!

Coquille is cooking right along

Here are a few new pictures of Coquille. This is turning out to be an easy pattern to remember, a quick knit. I look forward to wearing this in the fall. The weight of this yarn (Mini Moochi in Violet Rainbow) will be perfect for the fall and winter in Washington, DC.

Coquille already had a do-over

About 6 inches into my new scarf project Coquille I realized I was reading the pattern wrong, missing a few of the short-row gussets. So I pulled it out last night, but it was okay, I had messed up the very beginning, too, so this was my chance to fix it. This pattern is easy to remember, something I really appreciate so I can watch TV and knit without having to stop and look at the pattern.

Here's a picture pre-frog to show how the color of this yarn (Mini Moochi Violet Garden) is striping. I studied a number of pictures on the Internet to get a good idea of how these colors would come together.

I think a single color yarn with a value change would look really nice, too, like dark blue to lighter blue or dark gray to silver.

Help Bethesda (Md.) Central Farm Market Be America’s Favorite Farmers Market!

It’s summertime and that means two things: 1) There are loads of delicious farm fresh produce available at Bethesda (Md.) Central Farm Market farmers market every week; and 2) American Farmland Trust’s America’s Favorite Farmers Markets™ contest has kicked into gear and we need your votes to win!

The process is simple. To vote for our market, all you have to do is:

1.) Go to www.farmland.org/vote

2.) Type in Bethesda Central Farm Market; and,

3.) Click “Vote”

That’s it. That’s all it takes to bring Bethesda Central Farm Market one step closer to being America’s favorite farmers market!

Now American Farmland Trust has introduced leader boards where you can keep track of the Top 5 markets receiving votes in Maryland.

Want to support multiple markets in Maryland, Virginia, or D.C.? Search by state and you can vote for more of your favorites - just remember, you only have one vote to cast per market!

According to American Farmland Trust (AFT), the purpose of this contest is to re-connect local consumers to local farms, with the ultimate goal of keeping our nation’s farm and ranch land productive and healthy! Buying at the farmers market keeps money in the local community and helps farms and ranches remain economically viable. By voting, you’re helping support farms and communities across the nation. As American Farmland Trust says, “No Farms No Food™!”

So don’t forget to vote forBethesda Central Farm Market at www.farmland.org/vote and spread the word!