March 19, 2023 Gardening Journal

Last night was another cold night, with a low of 23° F.  But thankfully everything in the garden seemed to have made it through Ok, and after tonight, when I think it's supposed to be around 28° F, the weather is supposed to warm back up and be more "normal," whatever that is anymore.

The wind had died down some by this morning too, so even though it was still blowing a little, Mo and I went out in the field and collected three more cartloads of old spoiled hay.  There's still a lot out there that could be collected, but I don't know if I'll be able to get much more before the grass takes it.

Grass coming up where one of the hay rings sat last winter.

Looking at all of the pretty green grass coming up where one of the hay rings had been I kind of shuddered.  I sure hope the composted manure/hay has gotten hot enough to kill most of those grass and weed seeds.

Around 1 pm, I took the cart back down to the woods to cut some more privet.  I ended up going back down the hill where I've been working.

The privet as it looked when I got down in the woods today.

I had intended to just cut enough sticks from the section between the two downed trees to make a load for my cart, but once I got started cutting, I just couldn't seem to stop!  I ended up going even deeper into the thicket, past that second fallen tree.  

One of two ancient Eastern Red Cedar trees taken out by the severe storm in 2019.

That second tree turned out to be a huge Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) - I estimate that the tree was about 20" in diameter about 5' up from the base.   And just a little further to the north was another huge cedar, possibly even bigger than the first one.  How very sad that that bad storm ended their beautiful lives.

The woods are already turning very green down there because the privet trees are all starting to leaf out.  Apparently it didn't get cold enough to hurt it!

And I know that after all of that green will come the clusters of white flowers...followed by even more berries and even more privet.  I just can't stand the thought of it!

So because it's too late to do a cut stump treatment, and I couldn't stand to think about the trees making more berries, I started cutting the tops out of them.  I think (hope) that by cutting the tops off, they won't make any berries this year.  Now they may sprout up from the stump like crazy but I guess so long as they're not making more berries, I can deal with the sprouts...I hope I can anyway.  The thought even came to my mind as I was cutting that if they do start to sprout up a lot, I could always spray them with some herbicide.  I think that would be an absolute last resort though. I hope Walter and I can get back in there this fall and continue where we left off.

Making progress!  I didn't aim the camera the right way so it's hard to see where I cut tops past the big cedar tree, but it's in the area in the upper left of the picture.

I ended up working down there for over two hours, and finally figured I had better head back to the house before RAF started to worry.

Sticks to be shredded.

I had a pretty good pile of sticks, but it wasn't until I got ready to go back up the hill that I realized I had messed up.  I had thrown all of the sticks in a pile with the big end pointing down hill...that's backwards from how they needed to be!  

I had to pick them all back up and turn them around so I could drag them back up to the top of the hill.  

Note to self:  From now on, remember to pile the sticks with the big end pointing uphill!

And just about the time I finished turning all of the sticks, I looked up to see RAF standing at the edge of the woods.  He said he had been watching some deer watching me!  LOL

He helped me load the sticks into the truck, which was very much appreciated, because I had about double what I normally am able to bring back on the cart.  Although I had brought some hay twine with me this time, that would have been a tough walk back with that many sticks.

Little Joe and I shredded them, and I was able to finish out the walking row on the south side of the garden by the Fava beans, and put down about 5' on the walking row just north of the brassica bed.  I think another load this size will finish that walking row and that will only leave a few bare spots at the east end of the garden that need to be covered.  After that, I'll start on the walking rows on the west end of the garden.

I hope that by this fall, some of the little oak trees I've started will be big enough to set out down there.  Two of them are growing really well!

Southern Red Oak (Quercus falcata) seedlings.  Right now, there's only one that looks really healthy, but I hope the others catch up.

Unknown oak, from an acorn collected at the creek.  It's also in the red oak group (subgenus Erythrobalanus) but I won't know what it is until it's older.

As the sun got low in the sky this afternoon, I made sure to water all of the seedlings that are under the grow lights, and then covered everything outside up for one more night - the last night of the winter of 2022-2023.

Because tomorrow is the first day of spring....

March 18, 2023 Gardening Journal

It looked like a winter wonderland out this morning.  The sun's rays came over the mountain onto a blanket of sparkling white frost so bright it hurt your eyes to look at it. 

It was, as my younger sister said, a "hard freeze" with a low of 25° F.  

I'm thinking now that I probably got in a rush to get stuff planted again this year.  March can be a cruel month for the garden.  

The peas and Fava beans had already been nipped by frost a couple of nights before - nights when I don't think it really even got much below freezing.  Knowing that it was supposed to be much colder last night, I decided I had better try covering a few things to see if I could save them.

Peas covered with various types of plastic containers.

Thankfully the peas hadn't really started grabbing onto the chicken wire yet - if they had, I'm not sure how I would have covered them.  But since they were still small enough to fit under something, I dug through the recycling bags and pulled out all of the coffee containers I could find (yes, we badly need to make a run to the recycling drop-off!).  Between the coffee containers, some milk jug tops and some plastic boxes, I was able to get all of the peas covered.  

I covered the snow peas, rhubarb and Swiss chard with straw.

The strawberries, Fava beans, asparagus and the east cellar bed were all covered with some of the old sheets I used last summer to shade the plants from the sun.  One apple tree and the new cherry tree were starting to leaf out, so I thought they might both need to be covered too.

Young fruit trees, looking like Halloween ghosts!

I couldn't help but think of Charlie Brown's Halloween costume after I got the trees covered.  

The young leaves were really pulled down by the weight of the coverings, and I wondered if I was doing more harm than good by putting so much downward force on them.  I think tonight I'll try covering them with an old feed bag instead.  

I really thought the brassicas under the row cover would be fine.  But when I peeked under this morning I was upset to see that no, they weren't fine at all.

Poor little broccoli plant.

Now to be honest, I'm not sure if that damage happened last night, or it if happened earlier because the plants weren't properly hardened off.  It might even be sunburn instead of frost damage.  But I guess if they don't make it, I still have my "spares" that are still in pots in the house so I can just start over if I have to.

It's supposed to be colder tonight than it was last night, but the wind is supposed to blow all night so there shouldn't be a frost.  I'll still plan on covering things up though, just in case the weatherman gets things wrong.  

Out of all of the plants in the garden, the only ones that really don't seem to care about the cold are the alliums.  The leeks, chives and garlic handled the cold without so much as a "brrrrrr!!!!"

The leeks didn't seem to be bothered by this cold snap.

Does the cold temperature hurt the plants, or is it just the frost?  I need to see what I can find out on that.

I think the carrots I planted at the end of February have finally started to germinate.  I don't know if they could survive the frost or not, so I make a makeshift cover for them using some old fence wire and bubble wrap.  It's kind of like a "mini-greenhouse" I guess.

Bubble wrap frost cover.

I went ahead and planted another small block of carrots and covered them with the board to hold in the moisture.

More carrots planted.

My sister had texted me this morning and I finally saw it and answered, apologizing for taking so long to get back to her.  I said, "I decided I had to try to get some housework done instead of standing and staring wistfully out the window."  

But by this afternoon, I couldn't take it anymore.  I decided to brave the wind and the cold to collect a few more loads of cow  manure and hay.  Compost bay #3 had settled quite a bit, so I topped it up with some of the contents of bay #1.  Wow...I've never seen earthworms in the compost bins like I did today!

The compost in bay #1 wasn't done yet, but it's getting there!  I put the last of it into bay #2, then hauled in four more cartloads of manure/hay to bring that one up to "full" too.  This time, I put in two watering cans of water for every cartload of manure/hay that I added.  I wanted to be sure that the bay had plenty of moisture.  I really need it to heat up to try to kill weed and grass seeds.  I absolute do NOT want to get weeds and grass from my compost started in my garden!

Topping off compost Bay #2.

I'm quickly running out of time to collect manure/hay though.  The meadow buttercups have started to grow in the field, along with the little winter grasses.  Once everything really gets growing, the collecting trips are over for the spring.

I also collected another load of mostly rotted hay and put it on my "Ruth Stout" area.  I think I may end up using a tarp to "solarize" most of that area this summer to kill off the grass and weeds that sprout from the hay.

The work hasn't all been outside though.  When I got groceries yesterday, I bought a small packet of organic rosemary.  I snipped the tops off of each sprig and put them in some water to see if I could get them to put out roots.  

Rosemary cuttings.

If I can get them to live, the only herb I'll be missing will be the parsley:  Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme....

March 14, 2023 Gardening Journal

Using some of the cardboard that I brought back from my mom and dad's house this past weekend, I decided to extend the garden all the way out to the fence loosely following the "No Dig" method practiced by Charles Dowding.  

So I laid out the cardboard, being sure to overlap it so that the sunlight couldn't reach the grass and weeds.  But because I don't feel like I have compost to spare, and also because I only have three potatoes that have "chitted,"  I didn't put out as much compost as Charles Dowding puts on a new no dig bed.  I only spread out a small bit of composted cow manure to put the potatoes in, but I made sure it was about 4" deep in the center of the row.

Three little potatoes planted in some composted cow manure somewhat in Charles Dowding's "No Dig" method.

I next covered the potatoes and all of the cardboard with some of the hay that the cows didn't eat - I have been taking the cart down into the field and scooping up the hay they had pooped in, stomped into the mud and left uneaten.  Some of it had already started to rot in the field from all the rain we've had this spring, and Yikes! Some if it also already has grass sprouting in it!   I'm really going to have to keep on top of that or I'll just have created a new "grass and weed bed" all along the west end of the garden!

A layer of hay over the cardboard.

Both the hay and cardboard will eventually rot down, and hopefully that will create a nice area to plant in later.  This whole project is loosely following the gardening method promoted by Ruth Stout, although I am not aware that she ever put down cardboard under her hay.  But without digging out the Bermuda grass that's growing in that area, I don't think I would have much success without the cardboard.  Might not anyway.  But I think the cardboard at least gives me a fighting chance!

Now this all would have been better done last fall, giving everything a chance to rot some over the winter.  But since I didn't think of it until just recently, I probably won't try to grow much in it this year...maybe just the potatoes and something like a few sunflowers.  But I hope that by next year, it might make a great place to grow peppers or pumpkins or even tomatoes.

When I called RAF over to have a look, he seemed quite displeased with what I had done.  By putting all of this along the west side of the garden, I've cut off one of his only two paths to get into the back yard with his lawnmower!  I tried to make it Ok by telling him that he can still get through by the back steps, but secretly, my plan is that he won't have much to mow back there anyway!

I've already used up all of the cardboard that I brought home this weekend, and in just doing a rough estimate this afternoon, I think I need about 32 more of the old feed boxes just to cover the rest of that area between the fence and the garden!  And that's not counting the walking rows in the existing garden...I want to cover all of the walking rows with cardboard (and eventually wood chips) too.  I'm going to need a lot more cardboard.

The Pawpaw Patch

To my great surprise, this morning when I checked the tracking for my Pawpaw trees, it had been updated.  "Out for Delivery," it said.  Cool.

The mailman dropped off the box around 1 pm and after he left, I went out to get it, excited, but also a bit pessimistic about what condition it would be in.

The pessimist in me always seems to win out.  

Shipping box, crushed open on one end.

The box was crushed open on one end.   As I pulled it the rest of the way open, I discovered that unfortunately the end that was crushed was the end where the tree roots were, and the plastic wrap around the roots had been jarred and pulled loose during their adventure. 

Poor little dried out trees, exhausted from their long road trip.

The little tree roots were pretty dry.

But I went ahead and put them in a bucket of water as the instructions said to and let them soak the rest of the afternoon.

Trees soaking in a bucket of rainwater.

When I got off work, I took the little trees around back and planted them.  I mixed some of the rotten wood from the log pile into the hole, thinking that might help hold moisture for the roots (if they are still alive).  I then gave them a good deep watering.

Planted and caged.

The last thing was to put some protection over them because young Pawpaw trees are very sensitive to UV light and are easily damaged by strong sunlight.

Protected from the sun.

I had a couple of old shirts and I wrapped the arms around the cages - it really looks like the arms of the shirts are lovingly hugging the little trees.  I tied a hay twine around the shirts to hold them onto the cage.

And so there it is - the beginnings of my Pawpaw patch.  Will they make it?  I hope so.  I have to remind myself that plants want to live, and they can take quite a bit of abuse, whether it be from the water roaring through the woods when the creek floods, or USPS crushing the box they're in and sending them all over the place! (I did file a claim with USPS, but I'm not very hopeful that anything will ever come of that either.  There goes my inner pessimist again....)

And to be even more pessimistic, I really don't have much hope of ever getting any fruit off of these trees either.  While that would be nice, I suspect they're both the same "type" of Pawpaw tree (wild type Pawpaws) and from what I've read they probably won't pollinate each other.  (Now honestly, that seems odd to me because how do they ever produce fruit in the wild if they can't pollinate each other?)  

But to be optimistic for a change, even if they never make any fruit, I just think the tees themselves are beautiful, and they are the host plant for the Zebra Swallowtail (Neographium marcellus), which is also beautiful.  That's really one of the main reasons I decided to get them.  I want to do everything I can to provide host plants for as many species of caterpillars as I can.

I have one other Pawpaw tree ordered, and Derek at Food Forest Nursery has thrown in a second one, I think to help make up for the trouble USPS caused on my first order.  He didn't have to do that - it was very kind of him!  I've decided to put the new trees in the east yard, near Zelda Scissorhands' house.  If any of the Pawpaw trees survive, I hope they'll put out some root suckers that I can then try to transplant down into the woods.  I would love to start replacing the worthless privet trees with some high-value native trees.  

But we shall see.  I'm getting my Pawpaw cart ahead of my horse, as they say.

March 12, 2023 Gardening Journal

Spring is trying.

Signs of spring...forsythia, red maple and daffodils.

 But don't be fooled...it's not here yet.

I think the only thing I really need to worry about is the asparagus, but I will probably put an old sheet over the strawberries just in case.

In spite of the forecast for freezing temperatures, I went ahead and set out the brassicas this morning. They looked like they really needed to be set out too.

The broccoli had good roots, and might have even been getting a bit cramped in the little six-pack.

Those plants should all be fine in the cold, and especially since they're under the row cover.  That is assuming that Tangie will leave things alone....

Tangie checking out the row cover.  "What is this?" and "Can I get in there?"

I got a good chuckle out of little Mo.  Apparently the ground was cold, so maybe sitting up on the Hugelkulture bed was warmer?

The rest of the day was spent working on some miscellaneous projects.  I moved four of the small Carolina Buckthorn (Frangula caroliniana) plants out of the six-pack into their own container (repurposed plastic coffee containers!).  I then moved two others into the now empty six-pack cells, so that only leaves 11 more that need to be separated out into their own pot.

Carolina Buckthorn seedlings.

Next, with RAF's help, I finished moving the old railroad tie and the section of electrical pole out of the field to the east garden bed.  My hope is that by putting ends on the bed, I'll be better able to fight the Bermuda grass that inevitably tries to invade the growing space.

East garden bed, now with ends on the north and the south.

And finally, I visited with my mom and dad for a while.  It was nice to just sit and talk and laugh with them since I haven't been over there in a good while.

Before I left their house, I loaded up some of the cardboard feed boxes and a few shipping boxes.  I'll start putting these out next week to make walking rows for the west garden, and to make a place to plant some no-dig potatoes.

March 10, 2023 Gardening Journal

My Pawpaw trees should be happily settling into my yard by now.  

But they aren't.

Instead, the US Postal Service has sent them on a tour of the south.  They left Fayetteville, but instead of going to Little Rock, they went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  From there, I don't know where they've gone.  USPS is keeping that a secret and isn't telling me just how long the tour will last.

I don't think they'll ever make it to my yard.

So today I ordered one more Pawpaw tree and one Spicebush.  After it's been long enough that the package with the first trees can be declared "lost" I'll have to file a claim with the post office to get my money back for the first trees.  What a big mess.  I just hope the second order makes it here.

When I got off work this afternoon, I took Mo down to the woods and we cut some privet sticks to use as stakes to hold my PEX pipe "hoops" for the brassica bed.  

Hoops to hold row cover.

I got some of them put up when we got back, but I think I've put them too close together.  They're only about 18" apart, but I think they will still work just fine if I space them about 3' apart.  That will also use less of my pipe.  (I might need some of that when I get ready to do the bathroom remodel!)

If it's not raining tomorrow morning, I may try to go ahead and get the little plants set out.  They're ready to go...they're actually looking pretty good!

Cabbage, broccoli and kale plants, ready to go out into the garden.

But sadly, still no sign of carrots.  I really thought they'd be sprouted by now since they were a new seed packet I just bought, and they were planted on February 28.  Some sources say they should germinate in 6 to 10 days.  Others say 14 to 21 days! Well, it's been 10 days.... 

March 6, 2023 Gardening Journal

Today was yet another beautiful day, but unfortunately, it is a Monday, so that meant stop playing in the dirt and "get back to the paying job."  

But I did make a point to quit on time today so I could do a few things outside.   First thing was to set the little oak tree seedlings back up on the well house.  I had put them down on the ground yesterday afternoon thinking they might appreciate being in the shade.  And what happened?  Of course something (probably a rabbit) ate the top off of one!  

I decided to dig up the Curly Dock (Rumex crispus) plants that had come up around the concrete pad holding the propane tank.  I relocated them to the "flower bed to hide the ugly stump."  I've seen dock in the fencerows and fields all my life, and always thought it was native to North America.  Turns out that it's not.  But I'll go ahead and grow it in that flowerbed because Huw Richards says it makes a great addition to a weed tea. 

I know from past experience that it does keep putting up new leaves as you cut it back, so that's kind of what I'm hoping to do with it.

I also filled the old rusted out foot tub with sticks, straw, manure and dirt, and the put my groundnut (Apios americana) tubers in the tub.  One tuber was squishy and rotted, but another one had a tiny little sprout on it!  And at least the others just looked like they did last fall.  So that was encouraging.  I hope they'll grow up onto the compost bin and actually bloom this year.  

And the last thing on my list was to try to decide on a home for my two Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) trees.  They've shipped and are supposed to be delivered on Wednesday!

Guess what else is supposed to arrive on Wednesday.... 

Yep...the rain.  Hopefully there will be a break by afternoon so I can get the trees in the ground.  The poor little cherry tree was planted in the mud, and it looks like the Pawpaw trees will be too.  If I want to get some compost or rich dirt to put down in the planting hole, I'm going to need to do that tomorrow afternoon!

I'm not sure why Food Forest Nursery didn't ship the Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) and the Royalty Purple Raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) at the same time they shipped the Pawpaws.  But the order still says it is supposed to ship this week, so I'm going to be checking my order history every day in anticipation of that tracking number!

March 5, 2023 Gardening Journal

Today was another beautiful day - a bit windy, but even so, just a wonderful day to be outside working in the garden!

Although I ran out of little pots yesterday, I did have two big "9-pack" trays that my mom gave me last summer, so I decided to go ahead and put the last of the pepper seedlings in that tray.  Since I only had seven little Poblano peppers, that left room for two of the cherry tomato plants that were in my Charles Dowding CD-60 tray.

Poblano peppers and cherry tomatoes.

After those were potted up, I decided to just go ahead and transplant everything from two of the CD-60 module trays.  The Swiss Chard went in the little raised bed that I built last year in the garden.

Swiss Chard plants.  It's kind of hard to see them because they're so small!

I had to put cages around the little plants because I learned the hard way that rabbits can (and do) easily jump into that raised bed.  I'm not sure a cage made of 2" x 4" welded wire will work, because rabbits can get through those openings.  So if I start to see signs of rabbit damage, I'll replace those cages with something else.

The rest of the plants went in the new raised bed on the east side of the cellar.  So far, I've not seen any indication that rabbits are able to get up into that bed, so I think that might be the best place for me to grow my little spring salad crops from now on.

Today I set out the radishes, even though they didn't yet have their second set of leaves.  I think the variety is "Sparkler," but I'll have to get out my seed packet to make sure of that.

I also set out the onions.  I put them in rows at the far side of the bed because they're something I won't need to mess with until time to harvest.  The variety is Texas Early Grano 502 from migardener.com.  I grew some of these last year (seeds purchased from Eden Brothers, if I remember right), but I got them started way too late, so they didn't make very big bulbs.  I don't consider that a loss though.  I did get a few to use in the kitchen, but the rest of those small bulbs from last year were planted out in the east garden, where I hope they'll bloom and make seeds for me to save!

Raised bed on the east side of the cellar.

For now, everything in that raised bed is just planted in garden soil that I put there when I was digging out the walking row by the raised bed.  I plan to top that off with compost this fall, and probably plant a cover crop of something in there over winter.   But I think that soil is pretty good, so I hope the plants will do Ok there.

With those two things done, I looked around to see what else I might do, and although the temperature of the second compost bay was still around 100° F, I decided to go ahead and turn it in anticipation of the rain later on in the week.  I think this will probably be the last time I turn that one.  It's looking pretty good overall.  There is still some very raw manure in it, and still some hay that hasn't rotted down, but I broke all of those clumps up as I turned it.  I figure once it heats up and cools down from this turn, it should be in pretty good shape and can just be left to cure.

Compost bay #2, turned and ready to get composting again.

And since I have to go back to work tomorrow, and it may rain again this week, I decided that this might be the only chance I would have to check the Spicebush plants down by the creek.  Besides...Mo really, really wanted to go walking! 

It took about 45 minutes to walk down there, and then I couldn't find the Spicebush!  I knew where it was supposed to be, and I finally saw some of its little yellow blooms down in the dirt.  It was laid over, buried under a bunch of debris from when the creek flooded and roared down through the woods!  

I carefully dug all of the dirt and logs and leaves off of it and stood it back up.  I'm pretty sure that plant is a male.  Unfortunately, it looks like the other one - the one I found last fall that's just a bit south of the first one - is also a male.  I'll need to go back to the woods below my sister's house this summer to try to find a female plant and take some cuttings (and hopefully bag up some berries!).

While I was there, I decided to have another look for the Desert False Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa).  Again, I thought I knew right where it was, but when I was searching for it last fall, I couldn't find it anywhere.  

Turns out, it was (surprise, surprise) being smothered by Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) and Saw Greenbrier (Smilax bona-nox).   When I was searching last fall, the honeysuckle was still green, but the vine had lost its leaves over winter and was just now starting to leaf back out.  Now I'm not positive that what I found is the plant I was looking for, but it seems to be where I remembered, and it looked like I thought the plant should look.  I say "should" because I've never seen it except when it had leaves on it.

Desert False Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa), observed on April 22, 2017.

So this is another one I'll follow up on this summer.  I'll try to collect some seeds from it, and also try to root some cuttings.  I'm not sure why I want one...I just do.  There's nothing edible (for humans or livestock) on this plant, but it is the host plant for several species of butterflies.  Plus, it's a nitrogen fixer, so it's good for the soil.  And it just looks cool!

I've seen this plant featured in videos where it was just primarily as a "chop and drop" plant.  One of the things listed in the description is that it can be "weedy" because it multiplies by root suckers.  If I do manage to get one started, I'll need to put some thought into where it can live, because I don't want it to turn into something that causes trouble.

Before Mo and I started back home, I tried to find the Eastern Leatherwood (Dirca palustris).  It should have been easy to spot, because it should be in full bloom by now.  

Eastern Leatherwood (Dirca palustris), observed on March 18, 2020.

I couldn't find it.  I don't know if it has died, or if I was just not looking in the right place.  Or maybe it's just not blooming yet.  I'll have another look later this month.  

Mo and I finally made it back home after about three and a half hours.  I was a bit sore, but still managed to dig up some of the Common Fleabane that is growing in the garden.  But poor Mo...he was just plumb tuckered out.

My overweight worn out little dog.

  

March 4, 2023 Gardening Journal

The weather today might have been just about the most perfect a person could ask for.  I don't know what the high was, but probably around 65° F, with sunshine and a light breeze.  

It's the kind of weather that can play tricks on you, and make you think it's time to start planting things outside.  But I remember last year...my asparagus spears were up about 8" high, and got frozen, not once, but twice in March, and we even had snow on March 17th last year!  I'm not going to be fooled into thinking I could set out things like my Globe Artichoke (which desperately needs to be set out!).

But it was a great day to get some things done outside, and that's just what I did.  I spent a big part of the morning potting up the tomato and pepper seedlings.  

Pepper and tomato seedlings separated into individual pots.

I lost track of how many I potted up, but it was enough that I ran out of pots!

Right now, all of the little pots are lined up on the wellhouse.  I think the low tonight is only going to be in the 50s, so they'll be perfectly fine out there.

Lots of pots

Next thing on the "to-do list" was to get the rest of the peas set out in the garden.  The dirt was a bit wet still, thanks to the almost 2 1/2" of rain we just had (thankfully just rain, and no storms!).  But because it's a no-till garden, I was still able to get them planted (because I didn't have to till!  LOL).

Green peas, with their protective metal spikes.

I uncovered yet another cutworm while I was planting the peas - it was unceremoniously tossed out into the yard with an emphatic "You're not welcome here!" Every little plant has a piece of metal fence wire stuck in the ground beside the stem...scraps of wire I saved from when we were building our new fence.  Hopefully that will protect them from being chewed off.

Once all of the peas were planted and protected from the cutworms, it was time to put up protection against rabbits.  I had previously fastened some scrap chicken wire to the south side of the cattle panel, and today, I took what was left of my original roll of chicken wire and made a "fence" around the north side of the panel.

Rabbit fence, made from chicken wire, rebar, bent t-posts, and hay string.

The wire is about 10" to 12" away from the cattle panel, so I should have plenty of room to reach behind it to pick the peas.  It might look a bit tacky, but a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do to protect her green peas from the rabbits!

I set the little oak seedlings outside with the Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) today too.  I'm so happy with how that little vine is looking!  It's grown a lot and looks to be about 2' long now.  I've told it how pretty it is, but also told it I sure hoped it was the native honeysuckle - that I've not been babying along a sprig of the invasive non-native!  

Oak seedlings and honeysuckle.

One of the three little honeysuckle cuttings that I know are from the native plant has finally decided to start growing too.  I don't know if it has any roots or not, but at least it has put out about 1" of new growth from one node, and the two most terminal buds are starting to green up as well.  

And speaking of buds starting to swell up...two of my three Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) root suckers have new growth from a couple of their lower buds!  Now that makes me very happy!!!!

I also decided to go ahead and uncover the strawberries today.  I might should have done that a week ago before all of the rain.  The plants around the edges of the bed looked pretty good, but it was almost a slimy mess in the center.  

The strawberry bed after the straw was removed.

I guess the clay that's under the Ocean Forest potting soil doesn't drain very well at all, and there was probably a lot of water trapped under the hay.  Those plants did have some pale leaves trying to grow from their crowns though, so maybe they'll make it.  I'll just have to keep an eye on the weather and cover the bed with something if it decides it's going to get really cold again.

After lunch, I decided to go fetch some more privet limbs.  As I suspected, it's now too late to do any more cut stump treatments.  The privet is already putting on new leaves, well ahead of all of the native plants.  That's one of the things that gives it a competitive advantage - it starts photosynthesizing sooner in the spring and keeps going longer in the fall.

Privet, already putting on new leaves.

I cut and stripped a small load of limbs, carted them back to the house, and Little Joe and I shredded them.  Slowly but surely the walking rows are being covered with wood chips.  Take that, ChipDrop! (I think I've renewed by ChipDrop request about eight times now and don't really have much hope that I'll ever get a load delivered.)  

It makes me a bit nervous to be cutting the limbs from the privet now, because I'm not sure what to expect from the plants.  If they react by putting up a bunch of suckers, I'll have made my job next fall much harder.  So this summer will be a learn as you go kind of thing...cut some back to the trunks, cut just limbs from others, and see how they react.

Late this afternoon, I took my big sister some daffodil bulbs for her orchard, and her little Red Mulberry (Morus rubra) tree.  It made it through the winter in a pot in the south window and now has two little buds just starting to turn green.  I had hoped to be able to walk down to the creek below her house to look at the Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and Pawpaw (Asimina triloba), but when I asked her if she thought I could make it across the low water bridge, she sent this picture and said, "I'd say the answer is no."

Water rolling over the low water bridge that crosses the slough.

I'm afraid if I don't walk down to Little Piney Creek in my dad's field tomorrow, I'm going to miss the Spicebush blooms this year.  The rain is supposed to return on Tuesday and continue off and on the rest of the week, so I don't think I'll be crossing the slough below my sister's house any time soon.

I finished up the day by hauling three more cartloads of hay that the cows left in the field - most of what they leave is from where the bale sat on the ground and the hay has started to rot already, or hay that one of them pooped in!  They won't eat that, but I have high hopes that it will be just what I need for my no-dig potatoes.  

Now all I need is some cardboard and some potatoes....