Green is the Word

Green grass, green plants, greenhouses, green is the word of the day.  Of course I have to admit there are a few white flakes out there floating around but this is only April in Montana.  It always amazes me, when the spring snows melt, the grass is suddenly green. 

I have been working in my greenhouse this week since it is again pretty cold outside.  Bob helped me make a couple of raised beds and fill them.  This is the third summer for my greenhouse and I am still trying to make it work.  It is on a very wet piece of land barely  above water level.  Last summer I did not need to water until late summer.  The water came up from the bottom and kept everything wet, actually too wet, thus the raised beds.  I am using Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening method.  The dirt in my beds are 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 compost.  The compost is a mixture of five different kinds of compost.  I am hoping to keep the plant roots a little dryer but I am also hoping to utilize the ground water for easy watering.  Time will tell.  I use my greenhouse for beans, zuchinni, peppers, cukes, tomatoes, basil, cilantro, and year around lettuce.  

I have planted lettuce and onions so far but I have tomatoes blooming in the sunroom.  They will go into the greenhouse in about another month.  They are in bottomless pots and will also go into the ground to use the ground water.  We are still eating last year's crop in soups and sauces so I know this method works for tomatoes.   

Ice is gone, fishing is on!

Bob and I made our maiden voyage on the lake today for 2012.  The ice has been off for about two weeks so it was time to go fishing. It was a beautiful evening.  I don't know how I got this shot.  I could not see a thing.  I love all the circles.

The mountains were a brilliant white from a recent snow.

I loved all the colors on the edge.  The leaves have not appeared yet but the branches of the willows were a beautiful orange and bright yellow and the rose bushes, a deep red. 

     At first the water was a little choppy so we decided to troll instead of cast.  After trolling up the lake on the east side we proceeded to cross the lake seeking the elusive pike on the other side. Pike are scary fish with big teeth, but yum they are sooo good to eat.  Halfway across the lake Bob got a bite and started reeling in.  The fish came off but followed the bait all the way to the boat.  It was a pike!  We were excited now.  We then began going down the west side of the lake staying close to the weed beds.  Suddenly Bob's line jerked and he had another fish on.  He set the hook and began to pull it in.  It thrashed and ran and fought for his life.  Bob yelled, "Get the net and make sure you net him tail first."  (I later found out that head first would of course hit the line and would not bag a fish.)

   "I'm not getting my hand anywhere near that fish with those huge sharp teeth,"  I told Bob.  Nonetheless I netted the fish and brought him in.  It was not a pike but a big 6-7 pound rainbow trout.  He was the biggest trout I had ever seen, I'm used to the 2-3 pound trout.  Bob held him up so I could take some pictures and all of a sudden it jumped from Bob's hands and landed in my lap.  I started laughing so hard and I couldn't stop.  Bob grabbed him and threw him back in the lake to live a little longer giving someone else a chance to catch a big fish. 

There were a bunch of coots hanging in a pond by the lake.  I doubt they are grouped by bunches, I should ask my sister at thecottageonthecorner.blogspot.com.  Man can she take pictures.  Check out her blog.  Anyway I liked the texture of this pic.  I know, unfocused but kinda cool.

Gotter Done

Well the sweet pea fence is done and up.  After nailing the twigs to the poles I found a nice one with limber branches to weave among the twigs.  I like it and can't wait until it is covered with sweet peas. 

I just read where roosters are the latest popular garden ornament.  A friend received these for Christmas and did not like them and shoved them my way.  I of course said, "Sure I'll take them."  I think they are pretty cute in my garden. 

The ruby-crowned kinglet is back.  I heard it for the first time yesterday.  It tells me I have "Chubby, chubby chubby cheeks."  The mallard duck couple are back too.  I frightened them from the pond when I went to the garden Easter Sunday.  Every time I see them I think of the time my daughter and her friend stole two duck eggs and tried to hatch them under their pillows.  Of course it didn't work and they felt pretty bad.  They didn't tell anyone until they were grown and the secret came out.  I love hearing and seeing all the birds return in the spring. They bring a big smile to my face.

Spring has sprung!

I bet you thought spring was never going to come to this blog.  Actually spring has arrived and I have been so busy playing outside that I forgot I even had a computer.  Well today is cold, blustery, and snowy so I'm back inside.  My garden is mostly clear of snow with a few small patches left here and there but way too muddy to walk on.  I have cleaned the flower beds on both sides of the path and found a few crocuses but they were too cold to fully open today. 

I have also started making a sweet pea trellis.  Before last year I had a stick fence but it has become a chain link fence and I miss the wall of wood. I am therefore making a small stick fence for the sweet peas to separate the new raspberry patch from the rest of the garden.    

This was the old stick fence.  I used to hang all kinds of things on it.  The red buoy is from Salem, Mass.



 



  Covering most of our land is the mountain alder.  

It is constantly dying and growing anew. Using the dead alder I collected two long posts and many smaller sticks for the fence.  I have nailed the sticks to the posts.  That is as far as I have gotten; it is just too cold outside today. I will show you the final results in a later post.