Indiana Justin and the Temple of the Black Soil

The midge nets arrived and they actually work. We opted away from the beekeeper hats and veils based on a conversation with a keeper who said he still gets eaten by midges. The netting probably wasn't fine enough.

The best part of the nets is how inconspicuous they are. I'm fairly certain if I wore this into town on errands no one would notice. And what style! If I had one of these in my single days, I'm sure I would have needed a stick to fend off admirers on the club scene.

Now there is no stopping getting those raised beds completed and other bits of yard work.

Put it to bed

It was a treat eating veggies from our own garden last year, but plowing the plot and trying to fight back the weeds was a losing battle. I made (with Gabe's help) ten raised beds that we can line with weed fabric and sink into the existing ground for tending and growing.

Constructing the beds was the easy part, but getting them placed has been a challenge as the stakes invariably find stone, which need to be removed. The midges have been relentless. I am very serious about obtaining a beekeeper hat and veil to accomplish the gardening. Now that should really get the neighbours talking.

Frogger

It isn't quite the scene from Magnolia, but we do get overrun with frogs each year to the extent that there is no way avoiding running quite a few of them over on the driveway and neighbouring roads. There has been quite a dry spell here over the last two weeks (beautiful actually) and Gabe and I had to add water to the pond today, so we're not sure if the weather will affect this year's plague. There are hundreds of tadpoles in our little pond.

Another "brick" in the wall

So my goal was to learn to build a dry stone wall this year from the remains of the demolished cow shed on our property, and amazingly, this is what it looks like after four days of labour. The steps took about three of the four days, but what a pleasant view out the back of the kitchen window. I'd say we're only about 25% of the way along the back garden, but things should move more swiftly from here. I may even be able to stand upright in a few weeks.

I've attached a before photo which shows how silly I look in my hat. The weather here has been gorgeous ...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Leaf me alone

Found this critter while applying the edging around the skylights. Best leaf imitation I have seen by a moth. I assume he'll be much happier out in the garden.

Apples in stereo

Our apple tree looks like it's from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, but it did bear fruit which made for some tasty mini apple tarts tonight.

Busy little guy

Beag Óg Bramblefoot, our little garden gnome has been busy about the garden lately and was looking for some recognition for helping the lilies bloom out behind the house. Against my advice he has started blogging again. Apparently he even has a Twitter account.

I guess it is true that everyone has a blog these days ...

Kerry? 0-Ate?

Gabe found a potato he says resembles the head of John Kerry? Regardless, I admire the fine camera work he accomplished using the built in camera on the iMac. Great pic.

Timely blooms

I found the timing of this bloom to be perfect, occurring on or around the Summer Solstice. Our first sunflower!

One potato, two potato, three potato, four

All that hard work has paid off and we harvested our first potatoes today. There is nothing quite like eating your own organic vegetables direct from the garden. My Dad said he used to eat the potatoes raw out of the garden on the farm, but I wasn't quick to chomp into any of these manure covered beauties.

Lisa deserves all the credit for planting and caring for the garden. I just managed the initial hard labour.

Spring blooms at Powerscourt

Things we do on grass

It has begun. The last two days signaled the first grass cutting and I playfully joke that the rest of the season is much about me chasing the grass around the garden. Both our mowers need servicing and I felt a bit silly having to rent a mower to accomplish the task.

I heard a strange radio show the other day about several online sites used for instilling states of boredom. One of them was Cheddarvision which allows you to watch mold grow. Apparently at some point a hand may appear to turn the cheese. Shed Cam appears to be down at the time of this post. I've given up on the idea of a Grass Cam, because I wouldn't be the first. (And I wasn't daring enough to post my naked pic.)

Sod Off!

I'm sore as hell this morning after stripping the sod off our demarcated plot for the vegetable garden. It's been a few weeks since I cut the ridge for potatoes and every weekend has been too full to get the rest of the plot turned. However, time is ticking along and it's time to get some things planted.

One word of advice, there are apparently three types of sod strippers, and only one of the three has a drive system to pull the machine along. Be sure you get that one. The documentation suggests moving perpendicular to the grade, but fat chance moving that way easily, so it was better to work down the hill, repeatedly dragging the damned thing back up the hill each time. I should be grateful that this took half a day to cut the sod using the machine as opposed to an infinitely longer amount of time with a spade.

This will all be forgotten when we are munching on fresh, organic veggies in the Fall. Lisa ordered seeds from the Irish Seed Saver Association, so we are planting heritage seeds with all their added genetic benefits.