Sweet Peas

One year not too long ago, we had sweet peas in the front yard garden that looked like this.

They were started from seed indoors and planted out as seedlings. In the years following, I direct-seeded them, and hardly any even bloomed.

This year I want them to be spilling over the fence again, so I'm going back to the space and labor-intensive method and starting them from seed. Here they are after soaking and scarifying with a nail clipper, in their soil blocks before being covered with the top layer of soil.

I'm trying these for the first time, soil block makers for seedlings. The idea is that there are no plastic pots to buy /save/sterilize, more room for seedlings in each flat, and stronger seedlings that survive transplanting. I'm excited about using the micro blocks when it's time to plant basil and other plants that need heat to germinate. Heat mat real estate is so precious, and this should quadruple how many seedlings I can start on heat. The roots air prune, which means they reach the end of their blocks and stop growing, rather than circling around the pots. You can see how that would help with transplant shock. Eliot Coleman popularized this European method in the states. I'm diligent about saving and re-using the little black plastic seedling pots, but they eventually crack and give out, and this year mine all seem to be falling apart at the same time. So it's a great time to try something different.

I bought two sizes of block makers. The 3/4" mini blocks, and the larger 2" blocks that the minis can be potted up into once the seedlings are growing.

You fill and compact the block molds with soil, press down the plunger, and end up with perfect square blocks of soil ready for planting. There are different-sized dowel pin inserts that can be customized to make a hole just the right size for your seed. There is a special recipe for the soil block mix, because regular seedling mix won't hold together in the blocks. I think the micro might be too small for seeds as big as sweet peas, but I'm planting so many seeds that it's important to save space, so I'm giving it a try. I did one batch in the 2" blocks as a test, to see if those grow faster than the ones that start small and are potted up. Maybe one day I'll invest in root trainers, like Matt Matus in his Growing With Plants blog. His blog is so beautiful and well-written, and such an inspiration. Here's to a glorious fence-full of sweet peas again, if everything goes well.

DeLaney Farm Brunch

Farm-to-Table brunch this morning at DeLaney Farm in Aurora. They made breakfast burritos with produce from their own fields. It's an historic farm started by Irish immigrants, who deeded their land to the city as open space and a place to grow food. A lot of labor, paid and volunteer, goes into growing food on this farm, donating it, and delivering it to CSA members.

This is how you would make salsa if you had a whole field full of heirloom tomatoes. It was amazing.

We got there really early and staked out a table. When they started serving breakfast, we put our coffee and orange juice cups and a jacket & bag at each seat to hold our place. We came back from getting burritos to find people sitting at our table, our drinks gone, and our stuff swept into the dirt next to the table. I tried not to let that ruin my morning, but it was hard. I didn't feel like taking pictures for awhile, so I don't have any of the breakfast.

My high school friend T, the most talented gardener I know, came with us. Everything is more fun with him. He brought an elegant carpet to sit on and his iPad and speakers with music, and we set it up in the dirt and had a great time anyway.

After brunch, we walked out into the fields and saw their bee houses.


I got so many good ideas, from signs to smart ways to stake tomatoes. They do rows of fencing with tomatoes tied to each side, and also a single stake or rebar for each plant, with the main stem tied to it with plastic ties, and the rest pruned away.

Aurora peppers, which turn purple-black when ripe, and are supposed to be insanely hot.

T had just been telling us about Indigo Rose tomatoes, which he tasted for the first time at his community garden. He was blown away by how sweet and smoky they are. And then we saw them in the field. They are truly purple.

Once we got past the table-stealers, everyone was so friendly and happy to be there.

Onions and greens.

 . . . and pumpkins!

9th Birthday Party

It has been a long summer without my camera. Since my computer was out of commission for awhile too, there weren't any blog posts. The camera was expensive to fix, so I waited until I really needed it, for R's 9th birthday party. I'm so happy to have it back. It felt like one of my arms was missing.

We had her party at our neighborhood pool.


Suddenly the sky opened up, with rain and hail.




E caught a hailstone.


I captioned some of these pictures to send to family, but I forgot to save a version without captions.

That was a nice birthday memory--a rainbow just for R.

She wanted a wolf cake, with Oreo frosting. It was so much fun to make. She gets to keep the little wolf figurines and play with them. I bought the edible cupcake toppers on eBay.


Then the girls came back to our house for a slumber party. They are picking out books from the shelves D built for me, to hold my Dad's history scholar's library. R has commandeered some of the lower shelves for her own books.

Eleven girls in the basement!

Charlie wanted so badly to go downstairs. But he has a history of jumping on sleeping heads and licking faces.

Poor Charlie!

He got a lot of love in the morning.

The next morning, they opened presents and D made chocolate chip pancakes, the birthday girl's request.

D built this rope swing for R in the backyard. It swings you right into the bushes, and for some reason, every kid who comes over thinks that is just the most hysterically funny and entertaining thing.

It was fun to have a house full of girls for one night. You forget how little fourth graders are, until they are all swarming around you in the kitchen in their pj's, telling you exactly how much butter and salt they want on their own bag of popcorn. 

Old Friends

Old friends are the best friends. I am so lucky to have three of my best high school friends living close. Earlier this month, M and T came over for our second annual seed-trading lunch. I forgot to take pictures of the grownups, but these are M's kids. R was just getting over the flu and a really high fever--she looks a little the worse for wear.And then the next weekend, our high school friend S visited from New Mexico, and we got together at our house with T and our other high school friend J, this time for dinner.

R practiced her cursive on the place cards. A lot of embarrassing old stories were unearthed and repeated.

Lucky to be friends with these three for twenty-plus years.

Charlie had a lovely evening, he thought everyone came to see him.

Holiday Weekend Trail Walk

Overcast Sunday afternoon walk, through the messy muddy melting snow.

excerpt from "Year's End"

Now winter downs the dying of the year,   

And night is all a settlement of snow;

From the soft street the rooms of houses show   

A gathered light, a shapen atmosphere,   

Like frozen-over lakes whose ice is thin   

And still allows some stirring down within. 

                                         - Richard Wilbur