So Long Ago: Tulips in Bloom
It seems like so long ago that the tulips were blooming. I guess soon enough they’ll be back up again, how exciting!
Every year in the fall I say, “I’m not buying any bulbs next year to plant”. But then I’m taken by the photos in the catalogues & on the boxes in the store and I end up buying more than I can plant. Then each spring when they’re in bloom I think, oh I guess it was worth the $75 and the hours of work.
I’m really fond of Negrita, Queen of the Night and Shirley Tulips and anything in the cream through purple range, but I have a few other kinds as well including some Mickey Mouse tulips they’re one of the few red flowers I have in the gardens.
I do have trouble with the deer eating my tulips. The ones close to the house usually are left alone, but the ones on my front hillside are fair game to them. By looks of my lack of blooms out front they must be super tasty treats! I suppose I should just plant a few extra for them.
I also have trouble with the chipmunks. The first year we moved in here I planed 400 crocus bulbs and I only had one bloom the following spring because the chipmunks dug up every single bulb. I now coat the bulbs with garlic powder and that seems to keep the chipmunks away.
Here in Ohio tulips don’t always come back each year. Those big yellow and red ones often do and my Mickey Mouse ones do, but most of the other ones die off after a couple years.
Anyone else have a favorite tulip? Or a great tip to keep the deer from munching on them?
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Winter Storm Warning
Mr Chiots and I love hearing those words on the weather channel. There’s nothing we love more than inches and inches of snow piling up outside (probably because we both work from home). It started snowing Thursday morning here in Ohio and it just stopped last night. We have about 9-10 inches of snow and a coating of ice on top of that.
It was kind of bittersweet to go out though, usually Lucy is out there with us running around. She absolutely loves playing in the snow! One of her favorite things is when you throw snowballs at her. She jumps up and catches them in her mouth. It’s hard to catch a photo of, she’s just so quick. This is the best we could do last year.
We went out sans chiots today, she’s confined to the office for at least the next 8 weeks for healing. Mr Chiots spent the better part of the morning shoveling the driveway, he always enjoys the workout.
I made sure all the bird feeders were full and then we came back in for a cup of tea.
Anyone else enjoying all this snow? I know Harley, Brooklyn’s puppy is really enjoying it!
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Mulching the Strawberry Patch
This spring we put in two 4×10 foot raised beds filled with 3 different kinds of strawberries. We planted early, mid, and late bearing plants, that way we have strawberries for a longer period of time. Since this was our first summer with plants, we didn’t get any strawberries. I faithfully picked off the blooms when I saw them, hoping for a great crop this year.
Strawberries like acidic soil, so when we built the raised beds we added extra peat moss to the soil mix. I tested the ph and it was perfect for strawberries. I’ve read several placed that strawberries should be mulched in the winter to protect the crowns (especially here in Ohio where we have fairly cold winters). I was planning on using straw, but then I decided the pine needles would work better.
They have less of a tendency to attract slugs and they are acidic so they will help maintain a proper ph in the strawberry bed. Since we don’t have any pine trees on our property, we loaded a few tubs into the car and headed down to the walking path in our neighborhood. It’s under canopy of huge white pine trees, so there were plenty of pine needles for us to rake up, and the best part is that they’re FREE!
We spent a 15 minutes raking up a few bins full of mulch and then headed home. We had to make 2 trips but we were able to get enough mulch for our 2 strawberry beds and our 6 blueberry bushes (which also like acidic soil).
The mulch not only helps protect the plants and improves the soil, but it makes the beds look much nicer as well. In the spring we’ll scrape off most of the mulch and it will go in the compost pile to finish decomposing.
Do any of you have any other great ideas for free mulch?
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Taking a Day Off
I’m taking the day off today. Too tired to write with all that’s been going on around here, see yesterday’s post for details.
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Poor Poor Lucy
Poor poor Lucy is out of commission for a while if the vet diagnosed her condition properly. It all started on Monday when we all went down to the family hunting cabin for a hike.
It was such a beautiful day, sunny and warm, we really enjoyed hiking through the woods. Lucy absolutely loves it there. It’s like heaven for a dog, tons of smells, rocks, leaves, acres and acres to explore.
Lucy was running across the field and suddenly yelped in pain and then started hopping along not using one of her back legs. We put her in the car and headed home, figuring she’d stepped on something or pulled a muscle. After giving her an aspirin and a vitamin C tablet that night we figured she’d be a little better in the morning. The following morning she was still limping around and not putting any weight on her back left leg. We figured something was wrong so we called and made an appointment with the vet for the following morning. Yesterday morning we were up bright and early to take Lucy to the vet. Lucy isn’t like most animals, she LOVES going to her vet, Stacy is one of her favorite people (the people at the vets are super fond of Lucy as well). Whenever I call they say, “Oh, you’re Lucy’s mom, we love Lucy.”
Lucy was diagnosed with a torn ACL, so I guess she’s not going pro. She’s on an anti-inflamatory and her mobility is restricted to see if she heals up. We’re trying a few homeopathic treatments: Tendon Rescue Gel, vitamin C & E and some Astragulus extract. Hopefully those work. She’s going to be on bed rest for a few weeks and then on restricted movement for a couple months. Poor poor Lucy can’t chase the UPS man. Hopefully she’s back up and running when spring comes, it’s her favorite time of year.
