The Compost Bin

Well here it is, the middle of June and I don't have a vegetable garden anymore. The day before the hail storm in New Jersey, I had tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, rhubarb, corn and more but now I have nothing but shredded wheat.

It's really amazing how a bad hail storm can destroy a garden. I was so worried about the woodchucks eating my plants that I never considered that I should worry about ice falling from the sky.

Its definitely too late to start over using seeds. I may pick up a few tomato plants at the nursery just so that I can get something from the summer garden. But mostly I'm just going to move on and focus on planning the late summer/fall garden. There's lots of great cool season crops and root veggies that I've been meaning to try.

Well I'll start planning it once I clean up this mess.

Just when I think I've got the yard word under control mother nature decides that there's a lot more to do. Northern New Jersey was pummeled by a freak hailstorm yesterday that not only left several inches of ice on the ground but also shredded all of my plants and trees.

I took these pictures 4 hours after the storm when I got home from work and you can still see the ice in my yard. It was really weird to be outside in June and be able to see your frozen breath and we usually don't have ice on the pool toys.

Looks like I'm going to be pretty busy with the clean up for the next few days. Check out this local news video for more on this crazy weather.

I discovered something that I thought was pretty amazing in my garden this past weekend. It seems that some of my cool season greens have lived through the winter. The plants looked dead as a doornail all winter but once the overnight temps started staying above freezing, they started sprouting again.

The Swiss Chard, the Arugula and the Bok Choy were all buried under snow for a good portion of the winter but I guess that may have helped insulate them from the cold. Either that or they're some sort of super vegetables.

This is great news because these are three of the plants that I picked to put outside in a hoop house before the danger of frost has passed. I guess my seedlings will be fine.

There’s six inches of snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Even though the local woodchuck came out of his hole it, seems New Jersey hasn’t seen the end of winter yet.

That’s fine with me because or the first time in years, my seed starting efforts are actually organized and going pretty well. I love starting my plants from seeds and have been doing it for years. But truthfully it's never been a smooth operation.

The act of putting soil and a seed into the seed starting tray is the easy part. For me, the hard part is getting the shelves, the lights and the trays ready for that act. I’ve mentioned it quick a few times on this blog that my garage is a giant pile of crap. I have tons of tools, ladders, gardening equipment, all of the kids summer toys (bikes, skates, scooters, bubble makers, hoola hoops, etc) overwintering plants (9 musa basjoo and a fig tree) all in a one car garage. During the winter, you really can’t walk in there.

Digging out the shelves and finding everything I need to start seeds is a big hassle that I usually put off until the last minute. And when you don't have a lot of time you focus on the essentials. For me that's mostly tomatoes and peppers.

This year I managed to get started in February. As you can see, it’s March 1st and I’ve already got three trays of seeds started. Yesterday I added some Simpson Lettuce, Swiss Chard, Spinach and Pak Choi to the already started arugula and mesclun.

Since I’m on a roll, I’m actually going to start flowers for once. I’ve always wanted to start my annuals from seed to save some money and this might be my chance. And conveniently sitting in my seed vault are just the seeds that I need.

• Marigold – Boy O Boy Mixed
• Gloriosa Daisy – Double Gold
• Shasta Daisy – Alaska
• Gaillardia – Amber Wheels
• Zinnia – Cut & Come Again Mixed
• Zinnia – Zowie! Yellow Flame Hybrid
• Chinese Lanterns
  

I always wind up buying seeds that I never start and for once I’m happy that I did. So let it snow. I’m doing just fine inside.

Walking around my yard this weekend I noticed a lot of interesting things that led me to an exciting conclusion. The groundhog was wrong!

Besides seeing these daffodils poking through the ground the one thing that really convinced me that Punxsutawney Phil must have his wires crossed was that I saw his cousin WW3 this weekend. WW3, also known as Woodrow Woodchuck the Third, came out of his winter hole in my neighbor’s property and was wandering around our yards.

WW3 is the third generation of woodchuck that has tried to turn my vegetable garden into an all you can eat buffet. Because of this critter and its ancestors, I now maintain a careful watch of the fence perimeter around the garden, always on the lookout for any attempts to burrow underneath.

His grandmother, The Big W, who lived underneath my old tool shed, met an untimely death trying to cross a nearby road. I cheered when I saw the road kill but little peace was enjoyed by my tomatoes. The next generation swiftly dug in and resumed the war right where The Big W left off.

WW2 was a different type of chuck and brought the battle to the high seas. One day while I was at work, I received a call from my wife.

Image via Wikipedia

“There’s a beaver in the pool!” she yelled. I immediately knew she was talking about my nemesis, WW2. “I think it fell in and it can’t find the stairs to get out. It’s already done two laps.”

With victory in my grasp, I instructed her to, “Go get the pool net and hold him under the water. If you can do it, the carrots will write songs of your braveness for many seasons to come.”

“Are you out of your mind? I’m not going outside. Look, he finally figured it out and found the steps. He’s out now. “

“Curses.” I thought to myself. We were so close to ending this conflict and yet so far.

Fast-forward to 2009, almost a decade in and still the Woodrow family continues to give my vegetables nightmares.

And since I know my enemy well, I don’t think he would have come out of his hole unless spring was about to get sprung.

I don't think it's spring yet.

Oh my gosh. How much longer do I have to eat supermarket tomatoes? Is it spring yet?

Oh well, at least in another month I'll have some tomato seedlings growing in my basement.

This past weekend I was excited to see that the buds on my rhododendrons are starting to swell up. That usually means that spring is on it's way but as I'm typing this post, we're in the middle of a winter weather advisory in New York/New Jersey. It seems that after getting an inch or two of snow today, it has decided that ice should fall from the sky for the rest of the night.

Checking back on some old posts, my Rhododendrons don't usually open until April or May. So seeing that bud was really just wishful thinking on my part.

My rhodos will have to wait a few months before they can start blooming and I'm going to have to get the shovel out of the garage tomorrow morning and chip away that ice.

According to my min/max thermometer, it hasn't gone below 42 degress yet here in my northern New Jersey yard. And if the 10-Day forecast is close to being right, it doesn't look like we'll get a real frost until late October. So I'm pleasantly surprised by the really late season harvest that I have been enjoying lately.

This weekend, I plan on frying up a mother load of eggplant. I just checked the garden and there's tons of them just sitting there, waiting to be turned into eggplant parmesan. Not bad for October.

It's odd because the leaves on the trees started changing colors and falling in late August this year, I was sure we were going to get an early frost. Last year, we had 70 degree weather in January and all my bulbs came up early. What do you think, mild winter again or is mother nature just toying with us?

We had an unexpected rain storm this weekend. It was unexpected but very much welcomed.

Any day that I don't have to drag the hoses all over the yard to water everything is a good day.

I think this daylily agreed with me because it opened up the very next day after the storm.

I just heard the weather report and now they say there's a chance of snow here in New Jersey this weekend. My bulbs are starting to open despite a major beating from old man winter after they had already sprouted.

And now they might get covered up by the white stuff yet again.

Even if it doesn't snow, I doubt this crocus will make it past the weekend. My daughter is a notorious flower picker.

It's depressing that spring is here but my yard is still full of snow. It was 60 degrees today and now it's raining tonight so I'm hoping the snow will be gone by the weekend.

It's good to keep the stuff in your compost bin moist but I don't think big wads of snow make for great microbial activity. Today I stuck my hand deep down into the compost pile and there wasn't any heat what so ever and that's just depressing.

After a few days of spring cleanup in my yard, I’ve traded my rake for a snow shovel. Friday’s snow storm has completely hidden my yard under a blanket of ice and snow again.

The poor daffodils must think that’s someone is playing a terrible joke on them. Hey everybody, spring is here even though it’s still January, grow, grow, grow! Whoops, it’s snowing, everybody get dormant now, sleep, sleep, sleep! Okay this time the warm weather is here to stay, grow like the wind! It’s snowing! Back in the ground, dive, dive, dive!

I hope that they don’t give up and eventually something yellow comes out of the ground.

Just a few weeks ago, my pansies were blooming. This morning I woke up to a dusting of snow. January started out with weather in the 60ies and we even hit 70 degrees here in NJ. Tonight it's 22 degrees.

Whether it's El Nino or global warming or something else, the weather really has become unpredictable.

I took this picture of daffodils sprouting just last week. Who could blame them? It's been a very warm winter. In fact it was 70 degrees here in NJ just a few weeks ago. I'm sure the daffodils got tired of sitting around underground waiting for spring. Why not come up?

You fools! It's 19 degrees out right now! What have you done?
:)

So is this crazy weather because of the El Nino weather pattern that we're in or is this our new globally warmed "normal". Maybe it's a little of both.

With all the garden chores (and indoor chores too) that I have to get done, I don't have a lot of time to relax. But every so often it's great to just take some time to lie on the ground and look up at the sky.

That reminds me, I have to bring the kids' toys inside before it rains. :)