One End To The Other

Perhaps I have lost my mind. It is more probable that it is encoded in my DNA. Who in their right mind would attempt to garden such a large space without staff?

It starts right below the deck and that is where I started this morning chopping and dropping the dried perennials and raking the thick layer of leaves off the top of the Bird's Nest Spruce. I felt like gardening today.



I spent a good three hours chopping dried remnants and raking the paths before I ran out of energy. I didn't have the energy to think about cabin construction to begin with and that is how I ended up in the garden.



The resident gardeners have fussed more than once about some shrubs and other plants not doing well here high on the low spot of a mountain top. From the beginning and more so now I am convinced they were struggling with and being over come by the wild. These two hollies have revived quite nicely since regular maintenance has freed them from the tentacles of the wild things. Half of that is just not letting the dead stuff pile in and on top of things.



It is easier to blame the plants for failure than to admit the gardener is getting older and nature can take over faster than you can trim it into submission. I have chopped and dropped a good two thirds of the ridge top garden now. The front third remains. Somebody at least has staff now.



I have been discovering all the new patches of snowdrops. A dried bean of 'Scarlet Emperor' planted just for the flowers hangs above.



There may be some ulterior motives for my willingness, even enthusiasm, to act as the staff in the wild cultivated garden. I think it makes my parents happy to see their garden more garden like and that makes me happy. And the next garden tour is planned for when this bare brown world will look something like this.



After I ran out of enthusiasm for chopping and raking I went for a stroll and mercy that made me even more weary. The sunny utility meadow still needs to be hand mowed.



It's big too, but maybe half the size of the ridge top garden.



It runs along the hill below and surrounds the roadside vegetable garden. That all needs mowing.



The sunny utility meadow stretches to my door step and keeps going. It's my garden now and my section needs cleaning too.



The garden to be also needs all these piles of rubbish burned up. This warm weather has been red flag no burning days though. That's my excuse anyway. I have no staff. Really I need to get a permit and find a day to do it.



Perhaps I have lost my mind. Who in their right mind would attempt to garden such a large space without staff?

At least spring is still a good month away and there will be time to get things mowed down and tidied up before it all turns lush anew.



I really will be finished with this cabin soon. Yea sure. There is exterior painting to finish. Dry stack stone walls to finish. Furniture to find. Decorating to do. Gravel to spread........ and on and on.

I need a nap.

The Time Approaches

When I will have to work work for a living. It appears my destiny remains as a self employed gardener/horticulturist. Many seeds have been planted during my long construction sabbatical. They have born fruit and continue to multiply. It is mid-February, a little early to be thinking gardening, but this spell of warm weather has the phone already ringing and new clients searching me out. And I have made no effort to find clients at all.

I suppose I should get a little serious about the end of my semi-retirement, tragic underemployment, sabbatical. Now I have a little something to hand out. Maybe I will make a business website? The new card will have to be changed when a new phone gets hooked up, but this was a cheap and easy online deal at Vistaprint.

Ulu pua mana would have been too much. Remember mana. It will be used again.



This spell of warm weather is turning the Spots back into outdoor cats. They are not near as insistent to be let inside. Even after being out all day they like to join me for a stroll through the ridge top garden.



The 10,000 daffodils are starting to wake up in droves.



All the sticks and branches have been picked up. That is an ongoing job in the forest. The chop and drop of the dried remnants of the perennials needs to be done soon while the daffodils are still short and not in the way. Do I feel like goofing off and gardening at home today?



The Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis are popping up all over. I think the combination of self sown plants reaching maturity, division and routine garden maintenance that allows the eye to see the forest floor more clearly accounts for their increasing numbers. This increase is bound to go exponential.

The warm spell is allowing them to fully bloom and some are beginning to fade.



That's ok. I have seen the first needle like spikes of crocus foliage. But I do not trust this warm spell. Winter is bound to return for several more visits. Is there a proper name for this winter warm like the Indian Summer of fall?



The time approaches for many things.

They Want To Look At Everything

I went to pay my money to renew my building permit that had expired last June. It has been a while. I was fussed at. Anything out of the ordinary that doesn't follow procedure on schedule sends these regimented rules people into a tizzy.

"This permit isn't expired. We haven't been there since May of 2009 (wrong). This permit is dead. The governor is making us......"

I'm thinking the governor sure as hell better not be thinking I am going to pay for a whole new permit.

"I need to call Bruce and find out what to do." "Ok, fifty dollars to renew."

"You haven't even had your final environmental inspection. You may have to dig up the septic lines. There needs to be gutters on the roof."

What in the hell are you talking about lady? It can't be legal code requiring me to have rain gutters on the roof. My God you are going to make me turn into a government hating Rebublican.

It seems I forgot the septic man wanted to come back after the finish grading work was done. There was a possibly long period of time between the septic system and the finish grading. I found the form. It's not as scary as she was making it sound. Still I think I need to hide the tire tracks over my drain field from my neighbor's gathering of firewood.

I got the garbage disposal almost installed. I need a cable connector for the electric cord. So I put in the faucets. There wasn't a whole lot of enthusiasm in me today for plumbing and wiring.



"He just needs to see the line from the house to the tank." "You haven't had your final environmental inspection." 'Aack, aack, gutters, gutters, aack."

Fine. That is a very short distance. I didn't cover anything until I was told I could cover it. The form says roof and surface water must be directed away from the system. It doesn't say how. My roof water don't flow towards the system at any point and the surface water drainage is fine.

I do however want to raise the soil level over the main sewer line as it heads to the turdbox. I don't feel it is near deep enough to be safe from freezing. Moving rocks would be more entertaining than wiring and plumbing.

The stepping stone landing at the service entrance was prepped for two more stones and another round of base beneath. Some settling of contents has occurred over the winter. The rubble rock wall, not my best work, is being raised to accommodate more soil. Just think of this bed as a berm with a fancy rock skirting. You can see that without even trying, junk - ahem - yard art finds its way to me.



The turdbox has not been covered and won't be until I get my final environmental inspection. Take that lady! Really it's because the plan is to cover it with landscape fabric and a layer of decorative pea gravel that can be raked Japanese. Zen like lake of the floating turd blossoms. I just haven't gotten around to that little detail yet.



Ohmm. It is my quest to make the inspector men happy.

Grow The Good Life

All the snow had melted in the roadside vegetable garden. I could start collecting bags of wood chips down by the river again to continue with a fresh layer of mulch. The remnants of the wild flower surround could be cut down when the time presented itself. I gazed longingly. The vegetable garden was ready to be made clean, fresh and new again. Another season's bounty lay ahead.

Boy was I surprised and thrilled when I opened the mailbox and a free advance copy of Michele Owens new book "Grow The Good Life" Why a Vegetable Garden Will Make You Happy, Healthy, Wealthy and Wise published by Rodale Books was inside. Michele's writing on vegetable gardening at Garden Rant has always been informative and a pleasure to read. Now there is the book and she was kind enough to think of me and send me one. No autograph though.



I have gotten an absurd amount of pleasure from the roadside vegetable garden in the three years since greatly expanding production and taking over control from the resident gardeners. It was so easy, so productive and so relaxing when my life was in transition to put things kindly.

"Grow The Good Life" would be preaching to the choir for me. Some of the book had already been read. Many of Michele's essays from Garden Rant where in the book. The book however is a fleshed out, added to, enhanced, logical and compelling case for why non-gardeners should pick up a shovel and start growing their own absurd amounts of pleasure. It had put in to words why I was deriving so much pleasure from a simple and orderly patch of vegetables.

Mid February, high on the low spot of a North Carolina mountain top, a month to soon to plant even the earliest crops and I can get out in the fresh air and tentatively warm sun to play in the vegetable garden. Bags of wood chips were collected at the tree trimmers dumping site down by the river on the way home from work to continue the annual process of feeding and building a great soil.



"Other gardeners rave about wood chips." I will just assume Michele is talking about my raving when she discusses a short list of what longtime gardeners do to ensure their success. In three years by piling wood chips on top and letting the earth worms do their thing, my soil has turned from a yellow brown to a nice milk chocolate colored brown. Every year it gets easier to dig a hole or fork up the taters.

Michele's book is not so much a how to, as it is a why to. Basic principles for a successful garden are discussed, but there are no rules and no specific crop information. Beyond the obvious reasons of growing your own good tasting healthy food and the exercise benefits, she delves in to the real science behind why getting your hands in the dirt and growing a vegetable garden is good for you physically and mentally.



The industrial revolution and strong cultural forces separated most people from the land and from nature itself. And most people quite happily never looked back. That has caused some real negative consequences for the human animal species only a nanosecond removed in biological and evolutionary time from its origin.

Dirt is good for you and there are scientific reasons why. Exercise is good for you and there are scientific reasons why. Sunshine and fresh air filled with plant's volatile chemicals are good for you and there are scientific reasons why. Gardening creates a "flow" experience by offering a challenge that doesn't overwhelm your skills. Fully occupied there is no room for worry. You are fully in the present. Happiness can be a result.

I don't have to fret over the hardpan a foot beneath my vegetable garden because I am building a fantastic soil on top. I bet time and biological activity from a diverse micro flora and fauna in a healthy soil will even begin to take care of that. There has been a huge improvement in how deep I can go in just three years.



This is the roadside vegetable garden after all. You can't glue a scenic byway to the side of a steep mountain without a certain amount of major earth moving. I am fortunate that the resident gardeners reclaimed what was a traffic pullout thirty years ago and started gardening this rare sunny spot in the forest. A much slower approach to reclaiming a damaged soil had a good head start.

Grow the Good Life is about pleasure. Michele makes a strong case that vegetable gardening should be easy, fun and rewarding when you do what works for you in your climate and your particular situation. This is not some URBAN HOMESTEADING® manifesto where your survival depends on it, though if the need should arise you will be one step ahead. It is about enhancing your life on multiple levels.

Buy the book. You will love it.



And while I anticipate and wait for the right time to plant this year's bountiful roadside vegetable garden, there are snowdrops to enjoy. A sunny sixty degree day actually had their little petals fully open. They look like bugs. Bugs are good for you and there are scientific reasons why.



And the truth is you can grow the good life even if you only grow ornamentals, but why not be able to enjoy fresh healthy food from your own yard when it is so easy?

The Sink Hole

One test hole. That went smoothly.



Four holes. Doing good.



The sink hole. That was much less traumatic than I anticipated.



And it fits on the first try.



The counter top was then fastened in place with screws. The sink edge was caulked and the clips tightened. It was easier cutting the sink hole than tightening the metal clips that hold the sink in place. The phillips screw heads were being ornery. But it is done and no damage occurred. Now the plumbing can be connected.



While a hole was being cut, glue was drying. I added the same faux molding on the lower cabinet side to match the cabinet door faces.



This was a good place to stop before the next process begins. It is good to leave time to take a stroll and see what the warm sun had been up to.

I see Bluebells.



And the Snowdrops. Plenty Snowdrops.



A sense of momentum becomes more palpable. This will be a spring to remember.

Bloom Drops

If I am lucky the first Bloom Day of a new year will start with a few drops at least showing a bit of petal. The critical element is snow cover. The first few drops could be covered in snow on January's Bloom day.



Day by day and drop by drop, snow cover willing, more drops appear. February's Bloom Day is near guaranteed to have an actual flower willing to sit for a portrait.



The last two fall bulb planting seasons the snowdrops were assisted in relocating over a wider territory. I went looking to see where Bulbarella planted them.



You can see how such diminutive bulbs can get lost in the debris and why even a wild cultivated garden can use a touch of spring cleaning.



Here's some cat's paws for comparison.



Most of the new patches of drops look to have landed in the ever expanding northern boundary of the wild cultivated garden. I guess the term boundary can be taken with a dollop of bulbs.



There are more snowdrops now than my first bulb show in the spring of 2008. Many more. Everyone of these pictures is from a different patch of snow drops. And I missed more than a few I am sure.



This is where it all began, the mother lode of snowdrops.



I was asked if the main patch of drops was looking depleted. Uhm, no. I think division has done them some good.



Day by day the sun creeps back into view. Next Bloom Day the drops will not be so lonely.



For a little more variety you can visit the mother lode of garden blogger's Bloom Day posts from around the blooming planet at a place called May Dreams.

The Set Up

What really constitutes tidy in the wild cultivated garden? You can't really tell in its winter brown phase that the north west tip was gone through this afternoon with some hedge clippers, chopping and dropping the standing dried remnants of wild cultivation. What it amounts to is an annual shearing or mowing of the forest floor.

Just as nature would have it, the remains are left for the denizens of the soil.

It's a beginning. Only another two plus acres to go.



Those dead brown standing sticks annoy my enjoyment of the impending Bulbapaloozathon and the greening of spring to follow. I will say now that this is being done annually there is a lot less to chop and drop than the first time I did this.



The snowdrops are not the only diminutive bulbs that can get lost in all that tall debris. There are thousands if not tens of thousands of the just as small Puschkinia, Scilla, Crocus, Ipheion, Hyacinthoides and Chionodoxa that litter the forest floor like so many leaves in the fall. I want to see them without interference.

The wild cultivated garden is being set up for spring.



I'm gathering my wits for the cutting of the hole for the kitchen sink. Thanks Randy and Lisa for your advice. I see now how cutting close to the back splash is problematic with a jigsaw. My fear is that cutting it from the bottom elsewhere or even semi in place will make getting it back in place without breaking the now two narrow strips that hold the heavy ends together a major challenge. My arms aren't that long.

My new plan is to drill the corner holes, flip it on end, cut the back splash line from the bottom, then set it back in place to cut the other three sides from the top. I got the down stroke blades Lisa.

The tools and a plan for cutting a sink hole are being set up.



It will have to wait another day though. The current warm and sunny weather has the clients thinking spring and calling. I will be getting busy with work kind work soon enough so it is best not to put them off and let it pile up. Besides it's nice to break up my solitary building routine.

Hopefully Misguided Again

It must be some kind of survival strategy. I keep thinking I should be seeing more bulbs and more signs of spring by now. I did this last winter. Looking back to last February's post shows just how wrong I am again.

There is still snow on the ground, less than last year at this time, and the ground is still pretty much frozen. It is still a bit early for major bulb action.



My impatience and the current lack of snow has allowed for an earlier start on the processes of picking up sticks and the chop and drop of old perennials. The Spots have even been spending more time outside of late too. They don't do snow with much enthusiasm.



It's still just me and the snowdrops for now.



Real signs of major bulb activity and the real time to get busy gardening could very well coincide with the completion - inspection wise any way - of the cozy cabin. I am within spitting distance of the finish.

The sink side counter top was set in place on the supporting ledgers today. I need shorter screws to fasten it down. Then I can cut a big hole in it for the sink.



If I can cut nice perfect holes through the walls for vents, I should be able to cut a nice hole through the counter top for the sink. I just have to be careful not to scratch it.



The weather diagnosis is calling for warmth and sun through the week. That means the exterior lights can be installed without my fingers freezing. Lights. Kitchen sink. Inspection. It might encourage some bulb activity too.

The Black Americana collection is coming out of hiding to live in the kitchen. I hung the right side picture on the low side to leave room for something else above. I have very limited wall space. Some art pieces are likely to remain in storage even after I am settled in.



I may be chomping at the bit, but I am not completely misguided. The 10,000 daffodils are beginning to peek through the ground.



It's almost here.