Seattle kind of weather

Milwaukee has been experiencing some weather extremes.  The days have been wet and gloomy, more like Seattle than the typical mid-west summer.  The extra rain and high winds tested the skills of the City of Milwaukee Forestry Department.  Late nights and long days went into clearing the streets of downed trees and limbs.  They are a well oiled machine when it comes to storm work.

The wet weather has hampered gardening.  I had worked quickly to get my plants in before the lingering front settled in.  The plants are thriving from getting in the ground before a thorough soaking.  I over-seeded and patched some areas of turf which have sprouted well with minimal attention.  My only regret is I didn't get my shade plants in before it all hit.

Our crew still has a bunch of trees to get in the ground.  Most areas are so wet, that we can't get in to do this.  Other spots need just a couple of days to make this possible.  The trees that are in are happy with the moisture levels keeping them hydrated.  The rain is good in some ways and a hindrance in others.  I guess you can't have it all.

The walk through my misty garden was a treat this morning.  Water drops clung to everything.  There were spider webs across the grass that were beautiful.  There was fur and feathers from a battle that took place yesterday that was not as appealing to see.  Everything was just so quiet and peaceful.  I love a hot cup of coffee on a cool, wet morning.  I think I will take advantage of the saturated mulched areas and get the Weed Dragon busy burning up all those tree seedlings coming up.  Make hay when the sun shines, burn weeds when it doesn't.  Have a great weekend!

Flowers in just before the rain...and other things

My husband finished the flower planter which extends my growing another 24 feet.  Good thing as there is NO way I would have fit every annual flower in the existing beds that I have.  I also tucked them in tighter than I have ever planted by using minimum spacing requirements.  This bed is going to be filled by the Fourth of July.  There is a long list of things that I put in here for cut flowers which I have published here before.  Most everything was prime for transplanting with my later start date on most of them.  I worked continually to finish before my 5 o'clock deadline last night and did it.  There were a few packs left over which are going to be tucked into the other bed of reseeded annuals.  I watered everything in to settle the soil with the hose from my rain barrel nearly emptying both with watering.

It rained last night.  I wasn't expecting it as I hadn't followed the weather.  Most of the night storms rolled in and poured out.  Several times I was aware of a new round coming through.  I awoke at 4 am and decided to get dressed and watch the sun come up.  The rain drops on everything was just beautiful!  I walked through the yard with a cup of hot coffee and was pleased to see that everything was standing up and well settled with all the rain that fell around the new plantings.  The rain gauge red 2.1 inches.  The rain barrels are both full again.

A good drenching means something else to me.  Weeding.  With the ground so moist they pull right out.  I went through the oldest beds and pulled weeds for half an hour.  It is a meditative activity for me.  Most jobs need to be re-framed to remove the unpleasant aspect that makes me want to just scream.  For instance, I really do not enjoy driving around for my job.  This is a big part of my job, going from address to address rechecking violations and work.  I had to re-frame that activity in my mind.  Now I enjoy seeing changes in the neighborhoods, new businesses opening, kids playing in the park, parents walking their babies.  I don't think about the driving, if I do, I fall into the old habit of exhaustion.  I digress.

So much soaking rain also meant that I could break out the Weed Dragon and zap the dandelions and other weeds coming up in the wood mulch.  When it is dry, you start the mulch on fire.  When the mulch is this wet, only the weeds wilt at the hand of the propane flame.

It was also time to bring the dehydrator upstairs for frequent use.  I have found that drying herbs in spring is the best time.  They are fresh and perfect, not beaten or chewed up by the summer elements and bugs.  A quick cleaning and a spin in the salad spinner makes them ready for drying.  It may also be time to salvage the last of the chopped peppers and such that slowly have fallen to the bottom of the freezer.  Time to use them or dry them if there is too much left.  I also found a couple of sad looking jars of apple pie slices (canning is not kind to them but I ran out of freezer space).  I put those in the trays and came up with some delicious apple candy instead.  Bananas are turning fast and I can't use them up in smoothies fast enough.  I dried the last batch and took them to work.  They did not make it through the day. 

I picked up a book at the library on dehydrating that has some different ideas in it.  See if you can get your hands on a copy of Food Drying With an Attitude by Mary T Bell.  It has been good reading so far.  I also picked up Mel Bartholomew's New Square Foot Gardening.  I would highly recommend this book also, especially for beginners.  He has revamped his way of square foot gardening to make it easy and appealing to more people. 

It is time to take a cold beer out to the back yard and read a little bit, nap a little bit.  I am going to use up this Sunday as much as I possibly can.

Burn those weeds with the Weed Dragon Mini!

Last year for Father's Day, I bought my husband the Weed Dragon Mini. Check out the demo at http://www.weeddragon.com/   As you can see, it is fun for the whole family. My daughter is able to weed the garden beds and text her friends at the same time!  Seriously, though, it has been a good tool for cleaning up the yard.  As you can see in this picture, we have a county park on the other side of our fence.  Weed control is not in their budget so it becomes our responsibility if the weeds are not going to over-run our yard as well.  Garlic mustard has made its way to this side of the fence this year.  I went and did battle with the beast myself earlier in the day.

Creeping charlie a.k.a ground ivy is here to stay so we do our best to keep it at bay.  It has a pleasant aroma as it goes up in flames.   It takes a couple times to really knock it back, but my main goal is to keep it out of the flower and vegetable beds.  My husband does battle with it in the turf by hand pulling it for the most part.

Caution is recommended when working around flammable objects like dried leaves and weeds, wooden fences, your house, etc. It really is a great tool for the areas under our chain link fence as that hasn't caught fire once. My daughter was having fun melting last year's garden tags that I hadn't pulled out of the garden.  Keep teenagers away from garden edging as that is not something you want to replace sooner than necessary.  Keep a garden hose handy, just in case, but not too close!  You can also use it with a small propane cylinder making it very easy to maneuver.

When you are all done with the days weeding, just aim your torch at the charcoal grill.  In no time at all, those coals will be hot and the burgers will be cooking.  Bon appetit!