Tuesday, October 23, 2012

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Nearing the end of October already!  Fall is here.  And brought with it the rains. But .. there are still sunny breaks now and then.   And the weather reports show that Thursday is to be a sunny day .. so guess I’ll be going outside to plant.

Yes, plant.  For I have again succumbed to the plant sales and purchased yet more and more perennials!   Some magnificent plants and way cheaper than wholesale!     And I need to get them dug into the ground before the frosts arrive .. so I think I have a few weeks yet.  Is that procrastination?  I think so.

Our yard is starting to look like a little park, but not the kind with clipped grass.    Instead, the kind that you wander around, seeing a mixture of plant types all growing well together.  Both the taller screening plants and the mid to low-level bushes and ground covers.  A relaxing, comfortable place to be.

I’m starting the Ecological Landscaping course in 2 weeks and I just know that I’ll be learning how to properly space plants and also what to plant where.   So I might be moving a lot of these plants around next spring.  Or not.  Depends.  That gives me leeway for more procrastination, eh?

Right now I’m in blissful ignorance of all that future learning.  I do, however, look at the plant labels to see if they have preferences for sun or shade, so that is good.

I refilled the bird feeders and happy to see the Juncos’ returning.   Or maybe they’ve been here all summer and I’ve just missed them.   I make sure that I buy good bird seed suet for them.  I just can’t bring myself to use the Miracle Grow Scott brand, as they had put poison in their bird seed a few years ago (so that vermin wouldn’t eat the seed).  I was so upset, that I called the company and when I checked the coding of the packages that I had, I found out that this batch was fine.  However, this has clouded my vision of their product and so I now use other brands.

We consumers trust a lot, don’t we?   Is that trust misguided?  Shouldn’t we check the products that we buy to ensure that there is nothing harmful in them?  GMO‘s (they are voting in California, Proposition 37, to create a law that requires that GMO’s be listed on food labels:

http://action.ewg.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action

But there is good news on that link also, about Johnson & Johnson (their  many products are listed) will  remove dangerous chemicals like formaldehyde-releasers and triclosan. Johnson & Johnson is the first major personal care products manufacturer to take such an important action in favor of its customers’ safety.

Now .. isn’t that good news!!

Things are slowly changing for the better, it only takes the Power of One and then progress happens.

But enough about that .. I just started out chatting about my garden and procrastination and whew .. I went off on another path!

So during the past few days, I’m walking through my garden ..looking at the recent plant purchases, playing around with where to dig them in for the winter.  I can always move them, right.   Now that I’m armed with the amazing EM (effective microorganisms) I feel that I have magic for the plants.  And I do.  I’ve mixed up a batch of 16 litres (8 – 2 litre plastic milk containers).  Started 3 days ago .. and have them all covered with a towel and sitting on my plant propagating sheet, which I plug-in for an hour or so a day.  I think this batch will be ready in a few weeks.    It mixes up quicker in the warm summer.

I  noticed that the sweet peas have grown to be quite tall, nearly 7 feet!  And producing a great quantity of seed pods, which I’m collecting when they are ready.  I’ve already planted some for the spring …my gardening neighbour gave me lots to plant in the fall.  So I’m looking forward to a veritable of forest of flowers in the spring.

I’ve procrastinated about planting, about gathering, about many things this year.  But the most obvious sign of this habit was noticed by me yesterday.  When I looked at the container of garlic seeds and little garlic buds (from the hardnecks) that I’d placed “just for now” in a container outside.

With all the recent rains, the seeds have started to sprout!!!  Now, I can’t just leave them there …you know that I have to plant them!  I know that these seeds will take years to produce cloves, so here goes, I’ll be putting them into those lovely styrofoam rooting flats and let them grow till next spring.   Then I’ll decide if I’ll actually plant them up in beds or pots or whatever.  sigh.

Well, that’s enough rambling for now .. time to get going with this day.

🙂