Phenology....what's in bloom

Last year I learned a lot about phenology from the Ohio Master Gardeners. Updates on bloom time were kept by a dedicated group of gardeners. This would then give us cues on what else in happening or about to happen in our garden. Here is the definition of phenology.

phe·nol·o·gy

Pronunciation: \fi-ˈnä-lə-jē\

Function: noun

Etymology: phenomena + -logy

Date: circa 1884
1 : a branch of science dealing with the relations between climate and periodic biological phenomena (as bird migration or plant flowering)
2 : periodic biological phenomena that are correlated with climatic conditions

So it's all the "common sense" things our grandparents knew. They were a little more aware of how nature worked and would use signals from the garden to tell them when/what to plant and what pests would be appearing too. Here's a link to a great article, from Horticulture magazine on the subject. Here are a few out of their list...

• When daffodils begin to bloom, sow peas.
• When oak leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear, sow corn.
• When maple leaves reach full size, sow morning glories.
• When apple trees shed their petals, sow corn.
• When dogwood reaches peak bloom, plant tomatoes and early corn.
• When crocus bloom, prune roses.
  

Love that this common knowledge has actually become a field of research. By the way have you pruned your roses?

Moss and Munk..

So I've been having a hard time figuring out why our cat Munk(half of the Chip Munk wondercat duo) has developed two dark marks on both sides of his nose. I tried to clean him up to no avail. Tonight I caught him rubbing up against the wood in one of our moss planters. He could take it out to play with it. Instead I see him rubbing his face on one corner then the other, of the stick in Paige's moss. I guess the girls cats like moss too!
Here's some moss inspiration I found on etsy today.

Teresa's Plants great stuff....I mean moss.

New approach to recipes...

This is an amazing artist, Mel Robson, that my sister told me about. I love her work. Enjoy!

This is the garden being created at the Notre Dame Preschool. It's a sensory garden, which means this garden will be letting the children, smell, taste, touch and hear the plants. Okay so the sound part of the garden isn't as easy as it sounds, Ha! There will be wind chimes and a small water feature plus a few plants.
These lovely ladies are Christine, the garden's designer, and Denise Gehring, the garden's motivation. Christine's design is very fun with paisley shapes throughout. Sorry no photo but trust me I'll put a completed garden shot up in May.
I asked Kate to take photos she of course had to get the rototiller. It's bigger than ours so must be recorded as part of the day. Me raking, the day involved much digging, weeding, raking, sod replacement, placement of edging.... basic gardening. Fun to be out in the sun, and wind, working with great people.
The girls had a picnic and enjoyed the play ground. The high point of their day was when they were allowed to play in the preschool for a few minutes, there was a ball pit involved. Heaven for little girls. An amazingly beautiful preschool.

This is my floral happiness for the day. I love the internet, so many places to find amazing ideas. I spent today on the usual, laundry, dishes, and then to the gardens. Much tending to do in the greenhouse, moss to water, plants to water and weed, potting up hostas, and sweeping up in bay 7, there was soil everywhere. Off to Soil Science, listened to presentations, did an experiment. Came home to discover that Eileen was coming over. Woohooo! I miss that girl. I created an amazing salad and broiled asparagus. That was my day, crazy but wonderful.

Unbirthday girl....

So do you have a summer birthday? Well, my Sydney and Kate, both celebrate the days of their birth in July. This leads to a grade school problem. No "party" with the class. Hence the celebration of her Unbirthday. I am not organized enough to do a half birthday or anything that requires pinning me down to a specific day sooooo... I let her pick her unbirthday. Sydney wanted to celebrate the day after Spring started. Much to her dismay Monday and Tuesday were already full of birthday happiness. Hence today was her unbirthday. She also wanted to make cup cakes so her friend Beth could eat one. Beth who is allergic to peanuts doesn't get to have a lot of the treats at school. I was amazed that Syd thought the entire process through and cared.
This mom, after Tuesday night Soil Science discovered that I was tired. That meant no to homemade cupcakes with a rainbow of frosting choices. Yes, to store bought happiness. Sydney had a melt down, quite common around here. After I calmed her down and promised future cup cake baking. I realized she was more worried about Beth not getting a cup cake than making them herself. This is the peanut free solution....
How fun!!! Rainbow colored, same price as a sheet cake, cup cakes and NO peanuts. We took it. Plus a few more with rings to share with her garden friends, her dad and sisters. Diplomatically Sydney let Paige choose. Really, who is this girl in my six year old's body?
Finally, I got to play in the AAS gardens today. This is one of two places I worked on the most last summer. The tin man is a kid pleasing favorite. He now has a beautiful carpet of pansies to stand in and a new face under construction for spring. Thanks to Elder Page and Wozniak for helping, Miss Mary for being the cart organizing/cleaning and heading the planting crew. I came back after dropping Syd off for school to finish up after them. Paige and I picked up a lot of sticks... apple trees being pruned tend to create a lot of debris. Then took them to the compost pile.
After arriving home, I became side tracked by my garden outside the back door. I know that I want my lettuces and other early plants up by the house this year. This avoids the whole flood plain situation I have going on in the way back yard. I sketched a couple of things and then went out and created this. No, it's not done. My roses are all moved into place and the chives/onion border is underway. The girls thought this was a fun pattern. My goal is to keep the small fluffy tailed wild life out of the center squares. A small hedge of onions/chives might help. Kind of like surrounding dessert with sardines. I'm excited to give each girl a square to plant their own four choices in. This is a square foot gardeningish idea although true square foot gardens are in raised beds. I'll document progress, but thought I'd share the sketch for future comparisons. This was a good day.

Circus?

These little ones are best friends. Addie and Paige, always hugging and snuggling together to watch TV. We borrowed Addie for today and our adventure to the gardens.

Dress up with the girls and Bella....
Bella eventually ran away, smart dog that one.

When we arrived at the gardens we were excited to have Debbie and Zach come to play with us. We gave them a tour of the greenhouse and explained the basics of how things work at the gardens. That is when Mr. Matt, Staci and Sophia, and Seana arrived. Right in a row like it was planned. Paige and Addie couldn't contain their excitement. This excitement translates into much running up and down and around everyone and everything. I saw Paige hop on a bag of Soil for the first time in months. Which is against every rule she's been given. WHOA!!! Had to reign that one in right quick. We were all off to the other side of the garden to plant Kale and Pansies. Remember, you can't just planting most plants outside until after frost. Now, is the time for pansies and cold weather crops, kale, cabbage, lettuce, peas, radishes, beets, greens, spinach to name a few. So you can see above the hard work being accomplished by all. Seana even got to plant a few pansies.
Paige and Sophia "found" a flower. They uncovered two crocus by running past and knocking the leaves off. This one made it...the other was loved on a little too much by my girl.
Zach is great at gardening. He even got to ride in the go cart. He was feeling pretty cool. That boy and his amazing mom planted a lot of kale and pansies. Stop by the conference center at TBG to see everyone's hard work. Trust me by next week they will look so much fuller. I'll have to document the progress.
Here is the circus....Seana, Addie, Sophia, Paige all on a go cart. Pulled by an Assitance Dog we all love named Rosie. Okay, she wasn't pulling but she was having a great time.
This is the "hill" by the conference center. The bridge, which is very fun for smallish people to run under, was the hit attraction of the day. Between the drain off to the the left in this photo and the rocks under the bridge what more could the girls ask for?
The most hilarious part of the day, to me was the lack of water available. A garden needs to be watered when planted. But we're in northern Ohio and it's still March. Every line has been blown out for winter to prevent freezing. We all know that it will freeze plenty more before May, so no hoses for us. This meant a golf cart to haul water in a garbage can over to the newly settled plants.

Water + Golf Cart + a couple hundred yards of driving + Buckets = HILARITY
Volunteering at the gardens always provides a new story for the day.

Paige came out from under the bridge

after I called for her many, many times.
With this...

That's my girl.

Spring inspiration and commercials the Rapplings love...

This is what I would call inspiration. Love these images. Martha Stewart has an amazingly talented staff, great funding, and fabulous photographers. Really go look for moss today you might be surprised where you can find it.
Here are our picks for best commercial according to the Rapplings. Something's wrong with Scooter. Love my girls and love that they love to laugh.
Kate, Sydney and I love this Old Spice commercial... Kate can repeat it to you verbatim. Ask her to do it, I promise you'll laugh. Watched an interview with the former football player, Isaiah Mustafa on Ellen. He was too funny and to think he got paid for this!

Girls night...

After a blustery day spent at home catching up from not staying home...whose fault is that? Yes, mine but I can play outside in the SOIL (take note that I didn't mention dirt.) ALL DAY! Sydney, Kate, Esther and I went to a Gardening Presentation by Multifaith Grows. While the girls enjoyed the stacks upstairs. Esther, Debbie Jastal, Judy and Gary Buck and I enjoyed an evening of Gardening information presented by Matt Ross of TBG. Esther is Mr. Matt's biggest fan and loves watching "What's Growing in the Garden" segments on channel 13 ABC. Sydney couldn't decide if she wanted to stay and watch the presentation or read upstairs with Kate and Debbie's son Zach. Which means she spent a lot of time running up and down the stairs...which if you're six is also a lot of fun. Her favorite part of the presentation was the RAINBOW GARDEN....she hit my arm and said, "Why didn't we do that?" I guess we'll be doing that.
After a fun night full of information a couple of brave souls accompanied Kate, Sydney, Esther and I to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. Here are the girls HAVING FUN!!! Thanks go out to Leslie p. for keeping Miss Paige she has missed Leslie and Michael who we don't see enough of. Must work on that.
Sydney was smart enough to discover the Double Cone, $2.22 which is cheaper than a one scoop cone at $2.29. Tricky smart that girl.
Kate had a Blizzard, "Mom I can have anything right?" Okay, so I said yes before thinking. Thankfully she didn't want an ice cream cake.
Esther, who is sweet and quirky. She had the BEST time and it makes me happy to see her pleasure in simple things like a gardening lecture and a strawberry sundae.

Mom have you seen it?

This was a phone call so I couldn't figure out what was so important that I should have seen......
Seen what Kate?
"The Eclipse trailer, it comes out 100 days 12 hours and 17 minutes."
Guess what we're doing June 30.

Spring!!!

Happy first day of Spring! This is a sneak peak into the wonderful world of gardening. See those trays they can hold up to 280 seedlings. Meticulous work. These are vegetables that have been started for Toledo Grows Community Gardens. I'm excited to be working with Toledo Grows teaching Jr. Master Gardening Classes this summer. It will be a lot of fun!
We came to the greenhouses to check on Sydney's potatoes. The potatoes, named Kaylyn and Kennedy are the only potatoes to survive from our day off of school planting day. Somebody's pretty proud of herself and her potatoes. There's always a contest going on around here I'm just not always aware of what it is or who's winning. Syd she won this time!We had to stop in and visit with Josue. He was on the list of things to accomplish at the gardens for Miss Syd. He gave the girls each a gardenia flower, they are amazing, beautiful and fragile.
She did not know I was taking this picture. I like my tricky photography skills.
Paige needed two flowers. "One for me and one for Tate"
Then we went on an expedition to the compost piles. Yes, ask my girls where they want to go and they say compost mountains. We found all of this amazing moss, brought it back to the house and created new homes Paige and Sydney's littlest treasures.

Paige's Moss arranged by Paige
Sydney's moss arranged by mom.
John and Kate worked on painting a old bike in our garage to make it new again. Complete with a homemade spray booth to work in. Silver on the rims....sparkly purple on the body more images to come.
The rest of the day I spent working outside. Here is my list of things planted in my garden today...
Flowers
Larkspur Giant Imperial - Olds Seed
Larkspur Old Glory - Olds Seed
Poppy, Z-scape yellow - Ferry-Morse
Poppy Oriental Red - Ferry-Morse
Poppy Oriental Orange Scarlet - Ferry-Morse
Sweet Pea, Mammoth Mix - Burpee
Sweet Pea, Henry Eckford - Burpee
Sweet Pea, Early Flowering, Mixed Colors - Burpee
Edibles
Burpeana Early, Shelling Pea - Burpee
Sugar Snap Pea, Edible Pod - Burpee
Tall Telephone Garden Pea - Baker Creek Heirloom

Plant Science, Weeds and Inspiration

Today I enjoyed another five hours with Becky McCann and the wonderful world of plants. We talked about adaptations that plants make. Here's my favorite one and GASP! I know where you can buy your very own. This is a Lithops plant...or pebble plant... or living stone. If you would like one of your very own visit Mary, at Bensell's Greenhouse on Dorr.
I spent an hour weeding outside...hundreds of this little beauty.... shepherd's purse.
Apparently this is my new weed of the season. Curious how we covered it in our weed identification portion of class today.
Gardening inspiration for the day... the Crack Garden in San Francisco.... see how far $500 can go.
On the other end of the spectrum check out these vertical gardens.
So that's all for today lots and lots of plant knowledge accumulated. Fed the girlies, did the laundry and now for a well deserved rest.

Pruning...

These are a few if the many bulbs we planted last fall. Paige can't believe that they turned into flowers. I couldn't believe the weather today, windy but warm almost 70 degrees. A perfect day for pruning trees. Matt Ross had a tree clinic today at TBG. I didn't have a chance to attend the clinic but I still had the chance to prune Apple trees by the AAS (All American Selections) Garden. Olga will be so happy she didn't have to do them all by herself. This is Ryan a student from the pruning class. We were the afternoon pruning crew, which means Ryan was crazy enough to stay and prune with Paige and I. Paige was happy to be in "her gardens again.
I love the art of gardening. An inexperienced gardener might look at these trees and wonder what we are doing cutting "everything" off. I grew up with my dad who took his responsibilities to tend to his garden seriously. He always talked about how his trees would grow better from having been pruned back hard in the spring which forces the tree to put more energy into better growth this year. Sometimes, I feel that like my fruit trees, my life undergoes some severe spring pruning by the Lord. I always end up a better person for it. Although at the time it may seem a little harsh.
Being back on the north side of the gardens has other benefits for Paige. All of her "other side of the garden" friends were happy to see her. Miss Judy had snack time in her office, loading a plate of goodies for an on the go girl. Paige vetoed the salmon but went for the Strawberries, Key Lime Pie, and Peanut Butter Girl Scout cookies. Toni, Erica and Mr. Joe all had a visit with Paige. Next time we'll have to stop in to the Admin offices but one building at a time.
Judy showed Paige a painting in her office of someone hugging a tree. Paige came right out and hugged her own. "Look mom I'm hugging it!!!"
This is Siegfried. Paige wanted to go say hi to her swan friends. We stopped and walked down the hill a little way for a quick visit. Siegfried came full speed out of the water to protect his territory. Full speed for a swan is hilarious especially when he had a hard time getting over the edge of the lake. He puffed up and did his dance to scare us off. Paige wanted to run up an scare him but since Siegfried might actually be larger than she is I distracted her. I saw two elderly ladies enjoying the Susan and Siegfried show from across the lake. He would get all large and charge at me. I would tell him to back off and making myself look as much of the boss as I could stand my ground and then take a step forward. It was at least five minutes of me telling him that I was the boss, for him to turn around and back off. Really, did he think I would be the first to cave. Apparently he doesn't know me so well.
Cyggy looking more grown up each day. Swimming around looking regal and majestic. Such attitude on a little swan. Prince Cyggy is very appropriate. Thursday night was spent in Soil Science lab and Bowling. I did bowl a 101 for the first and probably last time. Woohooo!