I Don't Have the Heart to Cover

Bob Bauer

January 20, 2020 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 2 minutes

Brown Black and Blue Bird Sitting on Brown Tree Twig

January 20, 2020

I don't have the heart to cover the chard poking up out of the snow with my wire tunnels. The birds are voraciously fighting over them as if they are in a life or death situation. Once the snow melts I can cover them because there will be more available food for the birds. The melting snow is keeping standing water in some of my pathways. Very annoying to walk through so I tend to go around..

Then I feel the earth squish down under my feet and know I should stay on the pathways. My tray of six pack planted spring veggies are very happy to get moved inside at night. Day time temps have been cold so they are not growing too quickly. They are dark green but shivering..

January 21, 2020

Now that the snow has melted we come to Gardening in the Mud 101. It's a very simple course and you won't need to take notes. "DON'T". That's it, see you next semester. Do as I say, not as I do because I'm addicted to gardening. Us old folks can go in the garden and sit a spell, but you young'ns should go cut firewood..

It's a good time of year for it because you won't burn down the countryside, and can stack and burn the slash as you go. Adds a little excitement to a dreary task. Any walking in the garden is detrimental to the soil because squeezing out the air can revert it to a clay like texture. We spend an inordinate amount of time creating a friable planting medium so clod hoppers are not welcome in the mud..

January 22, 2020

The rains have returned so how about some Gardening in the Rain 101? The intimate relationship between the microscopic root hairs and the microbe filled soil is far from fully understood. It's a bit esoteric that soil splashed on plant leaves can introduce pathogens to the plant and cause disease. How can this be, you ask. Well, it is what it is, I reply. The plant is a bit more complex than meets the eye..

A little less understood than we like to admit. Exposed soil around the plant should be covered with mulch when it rains. Mulching in the rain doesn't keep you from compacting the ground, so stay on your pathways. It does give your arms and shoulders rest from all that trimming though..

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