New Moon / Spring Sprung March 2015

I thought the night sky at dusk was very nice tonight. A sliver of a moon with Venus above it; you can read more about this night's sky, click here and here.  I tried to get pix of it with my little camera. Looking west, after sunset.

Moon, plum blossoms,
this, that,
and the day goes. 

Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1828

2007 Report

Cleaning up around here today and came across a little baggie of plant tags with a note "these plants did good in my garden containers in 2007."  Thought I'd memorialize the list by posting it here!

Tomato – Sweet Million

Chives

Alyssum – Snow Crystals Alyssum – Easter Basket Mix

Bracteantha bracteata – Sundaze Golden Beauty

Dahlia – Dahlietta Margaret Imp. Dahlia – Dahlietta Rachel

Heliotrope – Marino 2000

Lobelia – Riviera Blue Eyes

Petunia – Wave Misty Lilac

Verbena – Quartz Blue

Zinnia – Profusion Orange Zinnia – Swizzle Scarlet & Yellow Zinnia – Magellan Orange Zinnia – Magellan Yellow

New garden art

I got this kinetic piece of garden at the Garden Show last month. Garden and yard are still slumbering waiting for rest of spring time to catch up.

Willow Cats

Springtime arrived in February this year. Warmer than usual and pretty dry. No roaring lion this March - it arrived mellow as a little kitty cat.  The huge old pussy willow in the yard is a blossom with pollen and inviting all the bees around to take some home.






There are pussy willows
Clad in furry goods,
And a robin singing
In the maple woods.
There's a springing crocus,
And a budding larch,
Who'd ever think the Springtime
Came along in March. 

Anonymous

Daffodils Up!

First daffodils showed up this week. Today was the first full opening. It was 60+ today. Hit a record that was established in 1902!

"With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy."  
-  Lope de Vega 

Color leaves the garden....

Messing around in the garden with some final leaves of color. 

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.

Emily Bronte

Skunk!!

This isn't really about the garden, but it is about something that should have stayed out of doors:
skunk.  Heard it rustling around under the house couple nights. Called for removal, but didn't realize it was skunk. Thought it was the possum or raccoon I'd seen in the last two nights. So... trap is under the house and after the skunk is captured it becomes known without saying a word that it's a skunk.

The real problem was in the dispatching and extrication of the cage/trap. During that process the skunk let loose with everything it had. The stench rolled up from the crawlspace like a blossoming unseen but very well known horror. I've never smelled such terrible stench. The guy that was capturing the critter really got blasted and I could hear him coughing, hacking, thumping around during the process.

The whole house ended up smelling really really bad, horrible, like loss of property value would ensue if this wasn't handled immediately. The rest of my day was cancelled to turn attention to eliminating skunk stench. "Odor" is too kind a word to use for what resulted from the skunk's removal.

At the height of stench elimination process, I had all windows and doors open. Nine fans going in various doors and windows, facing outside to draw the bad air out. I went to town and purchased Febreeze spray and plug ins. Plus some containers with odor eliminating properties once opened. Finally, after researching the internet, as per this website and many others that point back to this site, I placed vinegar in small bowls around the first floor where the stench was the worst. 31 bowls - cereal, soup and tupperware; plus my ceramic loaf pans and mixing bowls.  Used 1.5 gallons of vinegar divided up.

Surprisingly, the stench was mostly gone by bedtime.  I closed up the house for nighttime, and surprisingly, the air quality was as good or better by morning. 2nd afternoon, after I came home from work, I opened up the house again. And pretty much the smell is gone inside. Is this simply natural, the fans, Febreeze or vinegar?  I'm voting for the fans and vinegar.