a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Category: How Things Grow

  • A Perfect Fall Day

    september blue

    Skies don’t get bluer than this. Today was a perfect day to pick grapes. Six years ago I planted 15 grape vines, varieties of grapes that ripen this far north. Lynden Blue, Venus, and Canadice from the lovely folks at Cloud Mountain Farm Center & Nursery. Six years later the vines are heavy with fruit. For years we should have a bounty of grapes to enjoy each fall.

    basket of grapes
    grape bunch

    I’m happy. The chickens are ecstatic. All the grape bunches on the vine show how generous nature is. A grape vine doesn’t need to make thousands of seeds to reproduce, but it does.


    grapes in the kitchen
    milo plant

    During the summer, a few grains of milo fell out of the chicken scratch and sprouted at the corner of a garage door. When they first sprouted I thought they were corn. But they become something quite different. A few seeds have turned into thousands. This may be worth growing.

    milo grain head
    ducks feeding on grass

  • Newer, Bigger, Better

    new duck pond

    Pond upgrade. It was time to upgrade the tank I had for the garden ducks. The 4.5 foot water tank I had for them was too small. I realized this after moving some of the ducks to our pond. Ducks love swimming, paddling, bobbing about on water.

    Hauling back an eight foot tank on the truck was harrowing. I strapped it down securely. Still, I was terrified a gust of wind would send it flying and hitting vehicles behind me. I pictured myself spending years in prison for reckless endangerment. Possibly even manslaughter for the deaths the flying tank caused when it smashed into a windshield behind me. But I made it home in one piece.

    It took half a day to empty the old tank, roll it out, dig a hole for the new tank, get it in place, add the ramps up to it, and fill it up.

    ducks in new pond

    But all the effort was worth it. You wouldn’t think going from 4.5 feet across to 8 feet across would make a difference, but area wise, the tank is three times the space as the old one.

    Immediately, I noticed that the ducks swim differently in the larger tank. They are far more relaxed. They love the ramps and spend a lot of time on them preening their feathers after a good swim. The pond upgrade turned out better than I imagined.

    columbine
    bug bites

    I’m sure whatever bug made these carvings in a rhododendron leave had no intention of creating a piece of art. But it did. It looks like a pair of dancing feet cut out of the side of leaf, or some new script. Given enough caterpillars and leaves, I suppose somehow, somewhere, caterpillars have carved out a lovely poem on the leaves of some tree.

    rhododendron flower buds
    rhododendron flowers

  • Apple Blossoms and Magical Shoots

    apple blossoms

    Apple blossoms are so beautiful. It’s a good thing all the fruit trees don’t bloom at the same time. There would be too much beauty to take in all at once.

    apple blossoms
    apple blossoms
    chickens gone wild

    The chickens are having a riotous time with the new spring vegetation. For them, the grass can’t be too tall, the bushes too thick, or the bugs too many.

    chickens gone wild
    chickens gone wild
    hen in the grass
    rooster in the bushes
    duck nest

    The clever thing about a duck is that each day she adds more feathers to her nest to hide it and keep the eggs warm when she leaves to eat and gossip.

    fava bean flowers

    Few people imagine these gorgeous flowers when they are eating fava beans. It is just as well as the flowers would end up in vases and there would be no fava beans to be had.

    sweet potato shoots

    And what are these phantasmagorical shoots? They look magical. The next time you bite into a sweet potato, remember that this is how they start, as bewitching shoots.

  • Where is Kaku 隠?


    We only saw four of the ducks this morning on our way out this morning. I searched through the garden but there was no sign of Kaku 隠.


    But this afternoon she showed up with the others, so I followed where she went and discovered where she’d made her nest, and why I couldn’t find any duck eggs recently. She’s been hiding them in the middle of some tall grass.


    You can barely see her through the tall grass. The next mystery to solve is finding out how many eggs she is sitting on. The next time I see her off the nest, and I can probably lure her away with some treats, I can check.

    A duck on a nest is not a duck you want to mess with. A chicken on a nest, well, she may peck at you and draw blood, but a duck on a nest, if you treasure your life, you’ll keep your social distance from her.


    Weeding yesterday showed me how sorrel grows. You can see how it sends its roots out and every so often sends up a new plant. Sorrel is one of those vegetables you can plant one season and have it for life.


  • Dog or Bear?

    dog or bear?

    Takuma 拓真 is enjoying spring from the window. Is he a dog or is he a bear?

    Spring comes slowly in the Pacific Northwest. The alders began to show hints of green weeks ago. Their leaves are just starting to unfurl. With spring inching along, the changes from one day to the next barely perceptible, spring is a relaxed meditation.

    ducks in the garden
    first magnolia
    fresh garlic

    Fresh garlic is a wonder of early spring. If you don’t pull all your garlic out in the fall, you’ll get clumps of garlic which are great eaten fresh before they form bulbs.

    fruiting cherry blossoms
    hen on nest
    lovage

    The lovage is back up, something I celebrate each year. For a short time, it’s a treat to cook with.

    yellow tulips
    tulip and takuma the dog

    This morning, after a string of sunny days, we had a gentle morning shower. Just a light sprinkle to freshen things up and leave the air sweet.

    tulip in the morning