What's This?

A little movie I made about the last 2 days.

Song is from "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

Flower Beds and October Snow

200 Flower bulbs arrived on Friday and with the news of the impending snowstorm on the way, I went out to plant the bulbs Saturday morning.

I took my trusty bulb planter, gloves, and the box of bulbs out to the front fence to figure out how I was going to design this garden. My goal for the front is to have perennial flowers that I would plant this one time and then they would come back every year. This is actually a goal of much of the planting we have done or will be doing - some long term perennials that we can use as a foundation, and then the annual crops that would need to be planted each year. With a mixture of plants for beauty, herbs, medicinal and food.

When I read the packages of each of the types of flowers, I realized that this wasn’t exactly an easy bed to plant. The depths ranged from 3 – 6 inches deep – depending on the bulb. So I took off the landscaping cloth and uncovered the bed, and bag by bag – laid out the bulbs in a pattern based on size and if they should be grouped together, etc.

It took about an hour to lay them out – and then a couple more hours to dig each individually. I wanted to be sure they were carefully and deliberately placed where they would look best. I also tried to visualize the heights of each of the flowers and the times they would be in bloom.

Many of them are early spring bloomers – so they will be the first color of the new season of growth. Some will not bloom until late Spring / early Summer.

The result? The bed doesn’t look any different at all from when I started. But, I know it’s different. We did put a nice fence along the bed to keep Pippin out and define the area for mowing, etc. in the Spring.

With that bed done – I was still looking at 50 blubs in a “Mountain Bells Mix”. I decided – with the size of the bulbs being fairly small, I would make a second bed on the other side of the front walk. This went quicker because I could dig down 3 inches, lay out the bulbs and then cover them with dirt.

(To the left is the Jerusalem Artichoke bed - to the right the Mountain Bell Mix.)

Lastly, I had a bag of 50 Golden Bell Daffodils. I planted 10 of them in the larger bed and decided to plant the rest around the Mums on each side of the front stairs and then along the bushes in front of the house.

I saved 10 to plant in a container next weekend.

So all in all – it’s a very strange feeling to know that 190 flowers are planted and waiting to grow in the Spring.

As I grabbed the shovel, gloves, etc . to bring into the shed, the snow started.

Close call. The snow didn’t stop until we had a foot! In October!

I am so happy to have finished this project and the Jerusalem Artichokes before this snow!!

A list of what I planted:

40 Golden Bell Daffodils

(late Spring to Early Summer)

Breck’s Dutch Treat Collection

10 Giant Crocus

12 Dutch Iris Mix

10 Tulips

20 hyacinth Blue Grape

10 Early Stardrift

8 Giant Daffodils

20 Alpine Rosy Bells

10 King Edward Tulip

50 Mountain Bells Mix

pink, gold, white mix

Simplify

Are there words for this?

I hold images in my mind of people, places, things that inspire me.

Drive me to continue connecting.

This connectedness is everything.

I know this is true - even though I don't understand it fully.

With each thing I throw away or give away.... I find space.

It is the same in the physical world as the mental and the emotional world.

Each thing I let go of opens a space for something special to be revealed.

I am constantly surprised by who and what has meaning.

This world is a beautiful, amazing place to live.

I am starting to see that my experiences are what matters.

Talking about doing something is not the same as doing.

I am seeing how important it is to keep things simple.

Simple doesn't mean easy. Dig a garden bed, plant bulbs.

Simple, direct, participating in the event I am involved in.

Not imagination, not daydreaming.

Earth, shovel, dig, plant.

In removing things physically and changing negative thoughts and ideas...

physically, mentally and emotionally, there is freedom.

And to the surface of my mind come the words, people, ideas,

that rally around me - in my heart - and give it strength.

This is not fortune or luck - it is only acknowledgement of what already is.

Beauty, peace, love, friendship...life.

This prayer of doing extends beyond me or my understanding.

And I am choosing not to miss it.

What a great adventure it is turning out to be!

Jerusalem Artichokes

Not from Jerusalem - Not an artichoke

Jerusalem Artichokes

I ordered a bunch of bulbs from Johnny's Selected Seeds.

From what I have read, these flowers are about 4" across,

look like a small sunflower and smell like chocolate.

They are perfect for an area to screen between houses and

grow up to 10 feet tall - depending on the variety.

Most importantly, they create tubers for roots that are described

as a cross between a water chestnut and a potato.

You can slice them into salad, saute, pickle or leave them in the ground and harvest as needed.

The photos won't be complete until the Spring, but here are the beginning pictures...

After splitting, there were about 18 to plant.

My new favorite shoes/boots!

Pippin wants to help dig!

Bulbs planted...and now we wait....

Green Bean Experiment

The experiment?
To build beds, plant seeds (in August) and see what would happen.
The beds are for vegetables in the Spring. We didn't have any intention of planting this year, but decided on a small experiment in one of the beds of carrots, lettuce, green beans and peas.
The peas did not produce much, and we replanted the seeds we did get into the area around the riverbed today.

The lettuce has been delicious. Not a huge producer either, because of the end of the Summer start. But, the kind - Heirloom Oak Leaf - is going to be a main planting in the Spring.

The green beans, with only a few plants, have done well.













So, our little experiment went well.
We are still waiting to see how the carrots do!

Down by the river

We have been looking at this problem for quite awhile. The rain barrel fills up almost immediately in a storm, and then over flow, plus the rain from the sidewalk and the neighboring yards all flows down into our yard and floods the new blueberry plants.



So we stood in the rain one day and watched where the water flowed.



This space is not used for anything else, and seems to have clay only a few inches down, it looked like a good place to have a river bed.






We marked the river, and placed the logs of our "fallen tree". We wanted it to look and be natural.



We awoke the worms...


"We have worm sign the likes of which even God has never seen."

We dug out a couple of inches to sit the logs into the ground and filled in around them to create our river bank.

After a couple of test runs and adding some rocks, we have the problem solved and the beginning of a beautiful area of the yard. We will be adding more river rock and plants. Keeping this area as a natural area, we hope to attract predators for the garden pests that will show up in Spring when we plant our vegetable and flower gardens.

The ideas we used for creating this area are based on what we have been reading and watching about Permaculture.



The test! Rained like crazy for many hours today...
And we have water directed where we wanted it to go!

Success :)

In the beginning...

The yard was dark....



And the trees were overgrown...



So we took down the trees...




And today we started with this...



And added worms, straw, newspaper and cardboard....



And now the bed will be ready for Spring planting!

Autumn Melody

The moon is rising
over trees the color of fire

wind blown leaves circle
and whisper to me

A song i had forgotten
lifts me off my feet
Autumn melody

I sing the song of Autumn.

I sing the song of Autumn.
I sing the song of Autumn.

~Michele Couture 9/5/10

Autumn Fire

Today is one of those days....windy and cool and leaves falling everywhere. Finally feels like a change is in the air. Coffee pot perks on the wood stove and the fire is burning strong. Not winter strong, but enough to take the chill and damp out of the house and bring comfort into our home.

The coffee is hot and steaming, we are listening to a 78 on our portable phonograph and I can't help but feel like a little kid in this gigantic fort with all of my favorite things. Tonight, we rest and enjoy the hearth, because tomorrow is an early day with work outside to prepare for the Winter.

(The stove is an Elmira Wood View Cook Stove, 1840 Model)


(Birch Phonograph)

Now Playing: Ferrante & Teicher: Caravan