Mary Jo Remembered

No one could ignore the Catchfly that is blooming in the garden.   Certainly the butterflies are attracted to it.  Amy managed to catch this Tiger swallowtail with the camera.  Many Skippers visit the plant, but they are all too fast for us. These days Ed and I try to think back into the previous century and remember  how these plants came to be in our garden.  Back in the 1990's I belonged to an amazing herb group.  It seems to me that the first time I saw Catchfly, it was growing in the garden at Mary Jo's home.  I remember being given some seeds.  I would have planted them at our previous location since we did not yet own our homestead land.  After all these years we are thrilled to still have Catchfly with us today.  Its color demands a larger planting and we will seed a patch down by the road when mature seeds form.  Catchfly color will certainly catch the eye of drivers speeding by since it simply is too bright to be missed.

Somehow the camera does not capture the intensely hot magenta of these flowers that I see.  I could change the color saturation I suppose, but I prefer my photos as they are.  It's more natural!

It was that trip to Mary Jo's garden where I first saw Copra onions.   I can still see them laid out to dry.  The stalks were straight.  The onions were large and round.  I was told that they stored very well.  I had to grow them.  At the beginning we grew the onions from seed.  Now we purchase onion plants from Dixondale Farms.  Weeding the onions brought back distant memories of  Mary Jo. We will see if this year we will have those big round  Copra onions to make Bodacious Braids!

The weed patch behind the onion bed was formerly a planting bed.  We have known for some time that we have more garden than we can  properly cared for.  The current plan is to cut the weeds close to the ground then cover the area with grass clippings.  The change in levels between the lawn and the planting bed will be smoothed so that the next owner will have the option of mowing the entire area.  The soil that we have built here is rich, fine and deep compared with the gravel that deeply covers the field.  I would be interested in seeing the pattern if the area is simply mowed.  The stone paths will support only poor weedy growth while the garden beds will grow grass that will be much taller and much greener than what grows in the fields.  For now we are here and can still reach to the center of the planting.  The onions look great and we are still eating last year's crop.  The weather at dry down will determine whether or not braids can be made.  Stems must be dry and solid for the braids to hold the onions although a double strand of twine helps to hold the weight..

Garlic, Strawberries and Onions

For the first time ever, every garlic clove planted resulted in above ground growth.  Three were slow to emerge but they are all up and growing now.  Rot issues still exist in our harvest but the brown spots are smaller than in years past and fewer in number.  It is hard to believe but these plants will be harvested in less than ninety days from now.  We are opening a new planting bed here this year.  Potatoes will be planted there this year with garlic to follow in the fall.  We believe that new ground is regularly needed to avoid bulb rot issues.  That is another reason while the garden continues to expand while we cannot keep up with what is already here.

Our mail person drove up the hill to deliver a package today.  Our onion plants had arrived.  This bed grew potatoes last year and was covered with plastic bags full of fallen leaves over the winter.  After setting the bags aside, a quick stir with the potato hook had this ground ready to plant.  Welded wire fence establishes a grid that allows for quick placement of accurately spaced planting holes.  We used the same spacing that was used to plant the garlic.  Eight inches between the rows and six inches between plants in the row allows ample room for growth with just enough room for a weeding hand.

This photo is misleading.  Becky planted most of the onions while I set the few that were beyond her reach.  The bed in line with the onion bed contains thirty newly placed strawberry plants.  We ordered new strawberry plants last year from a new supplier.  We have done business with Miller's Nursery for decades but the death of one of the brothers caused the surviving brother to close their business.  The new Sparkle plants got off to a rocky start.  In one spot only five plants of the twelve planted grew.  We were not expecting much from the living but they produced a huge quantity of new plants from runners.  The blossoms will be removed from these plants this year to encourage plant growth and the production of more plants from runners.  We intend to train the runners so that two rows of plants similar to what is found at Hellers, where we pick jam berries, result.  Now to find some mulch straw.

I had harvested a pile of horse apples dropped by our neighbor's horses,  When the pile was moved to make way for the onions, this salamander was living in the warmth under the pile.  We do not know where it will spent this night but at least it escaped an inadvertent shovel injury. As near as I can tell it is a Northern red backed salamander.  He breathes through his skin, needs to stay wet and never actually goes in the water.  We have never seen one like this before!