Rain, Rain, and SNOW

Well this week has been rain and more rain. We have had some thunderstorms and now I hear that tonight and possibly tomorrow we might see some snow. Well after our 80 degree days I thought for sure that our chances of snow were gone, but I guess I was wrong.

Well we will see if we actually get to burn the prairie this Friday. With all of this rain it may be just a little too wet.

Here is wishing for slightly warmer weather.

What's Happening

Well yesterday morning we had a long slow drizzle that I am sure was just what the plants needed. I can't wait to see some green life sprouting in my freshly turned soil. Down in the basement broccoli has started to sprout (4 in all). Still no peppers though.

Naomi is going to reseed those pots since the seeds we used are several years old. Also we are still waiting on the corn and the cucumbers, but we planted those just last week.

Happy Easter and I hope everyone had a good Passover and Seder

Stormy Weather

Wow! Yesterday was simply unbelievable weather-wise. Throughout all of Friday the Chicago area was hit with storms that could only be rivaled by a tropical storm. Winds came at us that reached gusts of nearly 60 mph and the skies dumped approximately 4" of rain throughout the course of the day. Two inches were dropped in just one hour during the evening. Some of the plants took quite the beating and the garden was just a bit flooded for awhile. My potato plants took the worst of the storm's attack. A few stalks broke off due to the sheer force of the wind and rain, but most of the damaged plants were blown straight down. They laid there unwilling to stand up too tired I guess from the effort yesterday. I have tied them up in hopes of aiding them during this time.

I am sure that they will survive. Plants are resilient. They are survivors able to withstand all that nature can give them and keep on growing.

This Week in the Garden and a New Recipe

This week I was gone a couple of days on a camping trip with my classroom.  I came back to find out just over two inches of rain has fallen and the plants are in a flourishing stage.  I am going to add more soil to all of my potato bags. The basil is starting to take off.  I can't wait to make the first batch of pesto.  Last night we used some of the spinach and the sage from our garden to make a wonderful sage, butter, spinach pasta dish.  This is a great dish and Naomi and I love to make it around this time of the year when the spinach is fresh.

Pasta with Sage Butter Sauce

Pasta (any Kind)

1 bunch of Spinach

2 dozen large sage leaves, coarsely chopped

1 stick of butter

1/4 cup of pine nuts

Parmesan Cheese

1. Start boiling water for the pasta once at a boil rolling or otherwise put pasta in for specified time.

2. Start boiling another pot of water and place washed spinach in a colander.  Then proceed to steam the spinach.

3.  Toast the pine nuts in a toaster oven or in the oven  at 350 until toasted

4. Melt the stick of butter in a pan and then saute the sage in the butter.

5. Combine the butter sage sauce, the steamed spinach, and the toasted pine nuts over the pasta.  

6. Lastly add the amount of Parmesan that you desire (I always desire quite a bit) and enjoy.

Frost

Well NOAA issued a frost advisory for last night.  As I wake up this morning I notice that the advisory has been canceled.  However last night when I got home at 11:30 pm that was not the case, so I spent a little time moving the plantees inside.  Let that be the last cold night so I can begin putting them into the ground. 

Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Plants

Last nights thunderstorms brought 1.2 inches to our area.  Soaking all of our new plants veggies and natives alike.  The gully between our house and the neighbors is once again filled with water.  The marsh marigolds must be happy.  Also, the rain overflowed our rain barrels who probably met their capacity fairly quickly.  I will have a good deal of water to use for those times when the rains just don't want to fall.  Although it is a small drop compared to the total amount of rain that fell and was then transported by the sewer system to the river.  I feel good to know that this water will make its way back into the ground and help to save us some money on our water bill.  Hmmm...think I am going to have to get one more barrel.

For a good film on how to make rain barrels your self check out this video.  

A Look Back at the Garden

For Chanukah I gave this Jeffersonian Raingauge to Naomi.  It adds a nice splash of something something to the vegetable garden.  However best of all it is quite accurate in measuring the amount of rainfall.  This is after a day and half of rain that we recieve in late April.  As you can see the gauge is reading about 2 inches of rain.  We were destined to get about a half inch more the day after this picture was taken.

Here are our young radishes reaching out for the sun.  They have grown quite large since this picture was taken.  Fairly soon we will be able to begin harvesting some of our radishes.  However, we have already recived some from the CSA which started last week.

A young pea sprout that has made its way through the dirt and looking for more sun and nourishment.  Which I have been dutifully and faithfully providing it.

Well here is the garlic that I planted last fall.  As you can see it has grown quite large.  I had about a week previously removed the excess hay from the top but left the bottom layer to help control weeds and to hold in the moisture. In a few weeks I should be able to harvest the scapes that are already coming up.  

The Links Between Phenology and Gardening

For those of you who do not know phenology is the study of the changing of the seasons.  Many believe it to be the oldest area of science.  For early humans would have needed to know when nature was changing in order to adjust his/her lives accordingly.  With the invention of agriculture early humans became even more dependent upon the study of phenology.  Signs in nature would have let them know when to plant different types of seeds or when to begin to harvest the crops that they had planted so many months before.  

I found this website http://gardening.about.com/od/organicgardenin1/a/Phenology.htm 

which has some good information that the author has collected over the years and the table below details some of she has collected.

Also for more information on the study of phenology see Naomi the Nature Nerd

Naomi knows more than I could adequately or compentently tell you about nature, phenology, native plants, and much more.  So check out her blog from the link above or from my blog roll at the bottom.

Phenology Clues

Plant peas	When forsythia & daffodils blooms
Plant potatoes	When 1st dandelion blooms
	When the shadbush flowers
Plant beets, carrots, cole crops, lettuce and spinach	When lilac is in first leaf
Plant beans, cucs and squash	When lilac is in full bloom
Plant tomatoes	When lily-of-the-valley are in full bloom
Transplant eggplant, melon and peppers	When irises bloom
Plant corn	When apple blossoms start to fall
Seed fall cabbage and broccoli	When catalpas and mockoranges bloom
Seed morning glories	When maple leaves reach full size
Plant cool season flowers (pansies, snapdragons...)	When aspen and chokecherry trees leaf out
Watch for:
Eastern tent caterpillars to hatch	When crab apples start to bloom
Gypsy moths hatch	When the shadbush flowers
Squash vine borer eggs are laid	When chicory flowers
Mexican bean beetle larvae hatch	When foxglove flowers open.
Japanese beetles arrive	When morning glory vines start to climb

The Last Cold Night

Well hopefully last night was the last night that will be well below 50 degrees.  We are approaching the last frost date and with temperatures reaching 70 degrees I am preparing to put the veggies in the ground before too long.  Well I will take the plants outside this morning to give another day of hardening off.  

Another Cold Night

For the past two nights the temperature has dropped below 50 degrees and I have had to bring in the plants to protect them.  Of course after yesterdays Plant Sale at Prairie Crossing I have quite a few more plants to move to the upstairs room.  Naomi and I took several trips up and down the stairs to transport all the flats.  Hope this is the last of the cold spring nights and that we can have some pleasant evenings in the nights ahead.

Raining

Well the garden plants have really started to take off and now with this new rain I expect them to grow just that much more.  BTW every potato bag has sprouts now.  

One Wet Week and a Short Case for Rain Barrels

In the past week we have received approximately 3.5 inches in the Grayslake area.  Rain of course is good, but getting all your rain at once can be a bit ironic for any gardener.  We would all like to have our rain spaced out evenly over the course of the spring and into the summer.  However it never seems to end up like that.  Therefore with all of the rain that we have received over the past week the majority of that water found its way not into the ground but into the sewer system.  

Now how much is exactly 3.5 inches?  Well if you look into our overflowing rivers you would know it is quite a bit.  But lets take just the rain that fell on the roof of my house.  Given one side of the house's roof that has a length of 40 feet and a width of 20 feet.  I can calculate the volume of water that fell over the course of the past week to be 403,200 cubic inches which converts to about 1,750 gallons of water.  This of course is just on my roof and if we consider the other house in the cul de sac well we are looking at well over 10,000 gallons of water falling just on the roofs of the houses.  It is due to this that we put two rain barrels out to collect some of this water.  The rain barrels themselves can only hold approximately 150 gallons of water.  But during the dry portion of the year this water comes in handy and allows us to water the gardens without fear of any drought restrictions and with the knowledge that what we are doing is good for the environment.  Help conserve our precious water resources and get a rain barrel for your home.  The money you save will add up fast and your conscious will feel better as well.

Currently we are thinking about getting another rain barrel to take just a bit more advantage of the rain that keeps falling on our heads.